Exclusionary School Discipline Research Articles

Cultural‐competence considerations for contemporary school‐based threat assessment

AbstractThreat‐assessment procedures are advanced for their utility in reducing racial disparities in punitive and exclusionary school discipline outcomes. Generally unexamined, however, is bias in who gets referred for school‐based threat assessment and under what circumstances. Cultural‐competence considerations hold promise for addressing sources of bias in the evaluation of threats made in the school setting. Using a quantitative approach, this systematic literature review examines the degree to which contemporary cultural‐competence considerations are embedded in 24 school‐based threat‐assessment articles published between 2007 and 2017. Results indicate generally poor coverage of considerations for cultural competence both within and across threat‐assessment articles. An analysis of change in cultural‐competence considerations by year of publication suggests that more recently published threat‐assessment literature has generally not integrated concurrent advancements in concepts of cultural competence. Preliminary guidance for incorporating contemporary cultural‐competence considerations into school‐based threat‐assessment procedures are provided.

It’s All about the Relationships”: Educators’ Rationales and Strategies for Building Connections with Students to Prevent Exclusionary School Discipline Outcomes

It’s All about the Relationships”: Educators’ Rationales and Strategies for Building Connections with Students to Prevent Exclusionary School Discipline Outcomes

Culturally Responsive School Discipline: Implementing Learning Lab at a High School for Systemic Transformation

Youth from racially minoritized communities disproportionately receive exclusionary school discipline more severely and frequently. The racialization of school discipline has been linked to long-term deleterious impacts on students’ academic and life outcomes. In this article, we present a formative intervention, Learning Lab that addressed racial disparities in school discipline at a public high school. Learning Lab successfully united local stakeholders, specifically those who had been historically excluded from the school’s decision-making activities. Learning Lab members engaged in historical and empirical root cause analyses, mapped out their existing discipline system, and designed a culturally responsive schoolwide behavioral support model in response to diverse experiences, resources, practices, needs, and goals of local stakeholders. Analysis drew on the theory of expansive learning to examine how the Learning Lab process worked through expansive learning actions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

An exploration of the relationships between student racial background and the school sub-contexts of office discipline referrals: a critical race theory analysis

A growing body of research indicates that exclusionary school discipline practices disproportionately impact students of color. Some scholars have theorized that racial disparities likely vary across school sub-contexts, as implicit bias in perceptions of student behavior may be more influential in locations where students and adults have weaker relationships (e.g. bathrooms and hallways, compared to the classroom). Guided by Critical Race Theory, this study used administrative data from a large urban school district (n = 20,166 discipline incidents, 9,170 students, and 185 schools) to consider the relationship between student race and the locations where youth are disciplined. Results indicate that Black, Latino/a, and Multiracial youth were no more likely than White students to have a discipline incident take place outside the classroom. These findings suggest attention is needed to the role of systemic bias and colorblind policies and practices in discipline disparities.

Vulnerable Decision Points for Disproportionate Office Discipline Referrals: Comparisons of Discipline for African American and White Elementary School Students

Racial disparities in rates of exclusionary school discipline are well documented and seemingly intractable. However, emerging theories on implicit bias show promise in identifying effective interventions. In this study, we used school discipline data from 1,666 elementary schools and 483,686 office discipline referrals to identify specific situations in which disproportionality was more likely. Results were largely consistent with our theoretical model, indicating increased racial and gender disproportionality for subjectively defined behaviors, in classrooms, and for incidents classified as more severe. The time of day also substantially affected disproportionality. These findings can be used to pinpoint specific student-teacher interactions for intervention.

School Suspensions and Adverse Experiences in Adulthood

The “school-to-prison pipeline” and the negative effects of suspensions, expulsions and school arrests have received increasing national attention recently. Researchers have documented some of the potential harms of these exclusionary school discipline practices for students, including academic difficulties, increased misconduct, and future justice system contact. However, these investigations have been somewhat limited in scope, as they tend to focus only on students’ academic outcomes and juvenile justice system involvement. In this paper we seek to expand upon prior studies by considering how school suspensions may affect youth in peripheral and long-lasting ways. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health, we analyze whether being suspended from school relates to the likelihood of students experiencing a number of adverse events and outcomes when they are adults. We find that being suspended increases the likelihood that a student will experience criminal victimization, criminal involvement, and incarceration years later, as adults.

Vulnerable Decision Points for Disproportionate Office Discipline Referrals: Comparisons of Discipline for African American and White Elementary School Students

Racial disparities in rates of exclusionary school discipline are well documented and seemingly intractable. However, emerging theories on implicit bias show promise in identifying effective interventions. In this study, we used school discipline data from 1,666 elementary schools and 483,686 office discipline referrals to identify specific situations in which disproportionality was more likely. Results were largely consistent with our theoretical model, indicating increased racial and gender disproportionality for subjectively-defined behaviors, in classrooms, and for incidents classified as more severe. The time of day also significantly impacted disproportionality. These findings can be used to pinpoint specific student-teacher interactions for intervention.

How Do Staff Perceive Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports? Implications for Teams in Planning and Implementing Schools

Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) offers an alternative to reactive and exclusionary school discipline practices. However, the shift to SWPBS requires substantial change in the practices of staff, and many leadership teams struggle to rally staff support for implementation. With a more thorough understanding of staff perceptions, level of understanding, and support for SWPBS, teams may be better positioned to assist staff in the change process. To achieve an understanding of staff perceptions and how they may differ in schools on the basis of level of implementation, the authors directly assessed staff perceptions in seven planning schools and seven implementing schools. Significant differences were found between planning and implementing schools in knowledge of SWPBS, as well as perceptions of behavior and discipline.

The persistent effect of race and the promise of alternatives to suspension in school discipline outcomes

Demographic and student discipline data were used to examine the influence of multi-level risk and protective factors on exclusionary school discipline outcomes. Participants included all youth (n=87,997) in grades K to 12 who were enrolled in Denver Public Schools (n=183) in 2011–2012. The dataset included measures of risk and protective factors for exclusionary school discipline outcomes such as race, family poverty, special education status, emotional disability, participation in gifted and talented programs, homelessness, office referral reasons over the course of one school year, participation in in-school suspension, a behavior contract, or restorative approaches, and school composition. Multilevel logistic regression modeling was used to estimate students' likelihood of receiving one or more office disciplinary referrals, suspensions, expulsions, and/or law enforcement referrals. Findings indicate that student racial background and school racial composition are enduring risks across key decision points of the school discipline process. Conversely, participation in restorative interventions and in-school suspensions protects students from out-of-school suspensions. This study suggests that ongoing attention to issues of racial inequity in school discipline outcomes is warranted, and that restorative practices have potential as an inclusive strategy to improve school discipline outcomes without excluding students from the classroom.

Prior problem behavior accounts for the racial gap in school suspensions

PurposeA large body of empirical research finds a significant racial gap in the use of exclusionary school discipline with black students punished at rates disproportionate to whites. Furthermore, no variable or set of variables have yet to account for this discrepancy, inviting speculation that this association is caused by racial bias or racial antipathy. We investigate this link and the possibility that differential behavior may play a role. MethodsUsing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), the largest sample of school-aged children in the United States, we first replicate the results of prior studies. We then estimate a second model controlling for prior problem behavior. ResultsReplicating prior studies, we first show a clear racial gap between black and white students in suspensions. However, in subsequent analyses the racial gap in suspensions was completely accounted for by a measure of the prior problem behavior of the student – a finding never before reported in the literature. ConclusionsThese findings highlight the importance of early problem behaviors and suggest that the use of suspensions by teachers and administrators may not have been as racially biased as some scholars have argued.

Linking early ADHD to adolescent and early adult outcomes among African Americans

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to propose a mediational model for the mechanisms through which a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder between the ages of 10 and 12 predicts positive and negative early adult outcomes for African Americans. MethodsThe study sample (n=211) was drawn from the Des Moines, Iowa subsample of the Family and Community Health Study. Participants were first assessed between the ages of 10 and 12, again between the ages of 12 and 18, and finally at 18 to 23. ResultsFindings indicate that a diagnosis of ADHD before age 13 indirectly predicted subsequent exclusionary school discipline and juvenile arrest in adolescence, and both arrests and educational attainment in young adulthood. ConclusionsThese findings offer support for the School to Prison Pipeline model, showing that for some African American children, a childhood diagnosis of ADHD can lead to negative school experiences that result in harsh school-based discipline, which in turn open the door to justice system involvement spanning several developmental stages.

Reaching a Critical Juncture for Our Kids: The Need to Reassess School‐Justice Practices

Perceived increases in school disruption and violence led to an increased reliance on punitive and exclusionary approaches to school discipline in America's schools in the 1980s and 1990s. Evaluation of these policies has shown little evidence that reliance on suspension and expulsion has led to improvements in school safety and student behavior. Indeed, removal from educational opportunity associated with exclusionary school discipline places students at increased risk of a variety of negative outcomes, including academic disengagement, school dropout, and contact with the juvenile justice system. These risks are even more likely to befall students of color, especially African American students, as they are disproportionately exposed to exclusionary approaches. In recent years, a preventive approach to discipline, stressing instruction and relationship rather than punishment, has begun to provide a clear alternative to zero tolerance.Keypoints Although zero tolerance was thought to be a promising disciplinary approach, extensive study has found that it does not contribute to preventing school violence or improving school behavior. Students of color, especially Black students, are overrepresented in out‐of‐school suspension and expulsion, and this is not due to poverty or higher rates of misbehavior among African American students. Removing students from school through suspension and expulsion seems to place students at risk for a host of negative long‐term outcomes, including decreased school engagement, negative academic outcomes, dropout, and increased risk for juvenile justice involvement. There are effective alternatives to suspension and expulsion that can keep schools safe without threatening students' opportunity to learn.

How Teachers Use Power in the Classroom to Avoid or Support Exclusionary School Discipline Practices

This study explored the relation between classroom interactions and exclusionary school discipline practices within and across four classrooms in a disciplinary alternative school. Critical social practice theory and critical microethnographic methodology supported the examination, interpretation, and analysis of interactive power to illuminate ways of transforming exclusionary school discipline practices. Data showed that exclusionary school discipline practices are mediated through power relations with insights into and implications for transforming exclusionary school discipline practices found in teachers’ discipline goals, ideology, and views of culture.

Office Discipline and Student Behavior: Does Race Matter?

Previous research has consistently found a relationship between student race and discipline. For example, African Americans are more likely than whites to be sent to the office or suspended. However, much of this work is limited by a lack of student behavior and school‐level variables. This study examined the effect of student race on office referrals in 45 elementary schools while controlling for ratings of student behavior and using a fixed effects model to remove school‐level influences. The results indicate that African American students are significantly more likely to be referred to the office than other racial groups. Neither student behavior nor school‐level factors are sufficient to explain this relationship; however, these factors do dampen the effect of race on discipline, suggesting that previous work has reported inflated coefficients. Given the historical association between exclusionary school discipline and later negative life outcomes, this issue warrants increased attention. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.