ATLANTA — In order to end persistent racial disparities in school suspension rates, educational leaders must make a conscious effort to root out racial bias from their disciplinary procedures and pursue more non-suspension alternatives.
Those were among the key points made during “Schoolhouse Discipline” — a two-day conference held in Atlanta over the weekend and sponsored by the Southern Education Foundation.
Though Black and Latino students, particularly those with various learning-related disabilities, are routinely suspended at disproportionately higher rates — for instance, the rates were 24.3 and 12 percent for Black and Latino students, respectively, at the secondary level, versus 7.1 percent for White students — one scholar noted that some schools have been able to buck the trend.
“The main point is there are alternatives that do work, that are effective and actually have reduced the number of kids being suspended, some of which cost money and some that don’t,” said Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA.
To bolster his point, he cited examples of school districts that were noted for having both the largest number of high-suspending “hotspot” schools — or those that suspended 25 percent or more of any subgroup — as well as the highest number of relatively “low-suspending schools,” where 10 percent or less of each subgroup had been suspended.
Several districts — namely those in Los Angeles, Clark County in Nevada, Chicago, Houston and Jefferson County in Kentucky — found themselves in both categories, according to Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools, a report that Losen co-authored with Tia Elena Martinez, a fellow researcher at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
“These two lists exemplify the wide range of suspension rates and demonstrate that both types of schools can be found within one district,” the report states. “This suggests that successful alternative approaches are already in place in many districts.”
