Discipline Disproportionality among Hispanic and American Indian Students: Expanding the Discourse in U.S. Research

Carolyn A Brown,Caterina Di Tillio

doi:10.5539/jel.v2n4p47

Abstract

While disproportionality in discipline referrals and discipline action has been fairly well established amongAfrican American students in the United States, especially males in urban school districts, little research haslooked at disproportionality among American Indian and Latino students. This paper uses a large dataset fromthe State of Arizona, with rich data on American Indian and Latino students, to explore if and how these studentsare being disproportionately referred for discipline and if and how these students are being punished moreharshly for lesser violations than their peers. Results indicate that disproportionality in discipline referrals and inviolation to action relationship for American Indians is on par with those of African Americans. Latino studentswere shown to be nearly proportional to their population.

Highlights

School suspensions have nearly tripled since 1970 (Robers, Zhang, Truman, & Snyder, 2012)
We found that for all four categories—office discipline referral (ODR), in-school suspension (ISS), OSS and EXP—American Indian students’ rates of referral were similar to those for African Americans
When American Indians were compared to the Latino students for risk, we found that American Indian students are 2.17 more likely to be referred for ODR and 1.24 times more likely to be EXP

Summary

Introduction

School suspensions have nearly tripled since 1970 (Robers, Zhang, Truman, & Snyder, 2012). Suspensions and expulsions, referred to in this paper as removals, have increasingly become a standard punishment for offenses involving weapons, drugs, threats, bullying, harassment, property offenses and, in some cases, possession of items or substances that look like guns or drugs. Research has consistently shown that suspensions have a negative effect on students’ school success (Skiba & Peterson, 2000). Research has shown a disproportionality in the use of removal as punishment among African American students— males and students with disabilities (Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002; Townsend, 2000)—than White students. African American students are more likely to receive removal as a consequence for low level discipline offenses such as “disruptive behavior” than their White peers (Skiba et al, 2002). While the “discipline gap” has been fairly well established between African American and White students, relatively little research has been conducted on disproportionality for Latino and American Indian students (Morrison & D'Incau, 1997)

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