Office Disciplinary Referrals in an Urban Elementary School

Abstract

Office disciplinary referrals can be a useful index for assessing students’ discipline problems as well as designing and evaluating school discipline practices. In this paper, we examined disciplinary referral data compiled from an urban elementary school (majority African American) in a midwestern city over a 2-year period. Evident issues included the patterns of disciplinary referrals, the types of infractions and the administrative actions taken in response to the reported offenses, the characteristics of referred students relative to gender and ethnicity, and the effects of exclusionary discipline practices in the form of suspensions. Data for students who remained in the school for 2 years were also examined to further determine the possible impact of staff factors, in addition to students’ behaviors, on the disciplinary referrals. We discuss the potential impact of disciplinary referrals as applied in this school and the special implications for African American males.