Race Is Not Neutral: A National Investigation of African American and Latino Disproportionality in School Discipline (original) (raw)

Discipline practices in schools affect the social quality of each educational environment, and the ability of children to achieve the academic and social gains essential for success in a 21st century society. We review the documented patterns of office discipline referrals in 364 elementary and middle schools during the 2005-2006 academic year. Data were reported by school personnel through daily or weekly uploading of office discipline referrals using the Web-based School-wide Information System. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses indicate that students from African American families are 2.19 (elementary) to 3.78 (middle) times as likely to be referred to the office for problem behavior as their White peers. In addition, the results indicate that students from African American and Latino families are more likely than their White peers to receive expulsion or out of school suspension as consequences for the same or similar problem behavior. These results extend and are consistent with a long history of similar findings, and argue for direct efforts in policy, practice, and research to address ubiquitous racial and ethnic disparities in school discipline. The Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 set the nation on a path toward equalizing educational opportunity for all children. The right not to be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, or national origin was explicitly guaranteed by This research was supported in part by U.S. Department of Education Grant H326S980003. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the policy of the Department of Education, and no official endorsement by the Department should be inferred.