Abstract:There is much discussion in the United States about exclusionary discipline (suspensions and expulsions) in schools. According to a 2014 report from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Black students represent 15% of students, but 44% of students suspended more than once and 36% of expelled students. This analysis uses seven years of individual infraction-level data from public schools in Arkansas. We find that marginalized students are more likely to receive exclusionary discipline, even after controlling for the nature and number of disciplinary referrals, but that most of the differences occur across rather than within schools. Across the state, black students are about 2.4 times as likely to receive exclusionary discipline (conditional on reported infractions and other student characteristics) whereas within school, this same conditional disparity is not statistically significant. Within schools, the disproportionalities in exclusionary discipline are driven primarily by non-race factors such as free-and reduced-price lunch (FRL) eligibility and special education status. We find, not surprisingly, that schools with larger proportions of non-White students tend to give out longer punishments, regardless of school income levels, measured by FRL rates. Combined, these results appear to indicate multiple tiers of disadvantage: race drives most of the disparities across schools, whereas within schools, FRL or special education status may matter more. Keywords: discipline policy; school discipline; exclusionary discipline; race; disproportionalities Uso desigual del castigo de exclusión: Evidencias sobre las desigualdades en castigo escolar de un estado de los EE.UU. Resumen: Hay mucha discusión en los Estados Unidos sobre el castigo de exclusión (suspensiones y expulsiones) en las escuelas. De acuerdo con un informe de 2014 de la Oficina de Derechos Civiles del Departamento de Educación de los Estados Unidos, los estudiantes negros representan el 15% de los alumnos, pero el 44% de los estudiantes suspendidos más de una vez y el 36% de los estudiantes expulsados. Este análisis utiliza siete años de datos individuales de nivel de infracción de escuelas públicas en Arkansas. Hemos comprobado que los estudiantes marginados tienen más probabilidades de recibir un castigo de exclusión, incluso después de controlar la forma de ser y el número de referencias disciplinarias, pero que la mayoría de las diferencias se producen a través de las escuelas. En todo el estado, los alumnos negros tienen cerca de 2,4 veces más posibilidades de ser propensos a recibir castigo de exclusión (condicional en infracciones relatadas y otras características del alumno), mientras que dentro de la escuela, esta misma disparidad condicional no es significativamente significativa . En las escuelas, las desproporcionalidades en el castigo de exclusión son impulsadas principalmente por factores no raciales, tales como elegibilidad para almuerzo gratis y precio reducido (FRL) y status de educación especial. Hemos ...

While numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between exclusionary discipline and negative student outcomes, this relationship is likely confounded by other factors related to the underlying misbehavior or risk of disciplinary referral. Using 10 years of student-level demographic, achievement, and disciplinary data from all K–12 public schools in Arkansas, we find that exclusionary consequences are related to worse academic outcomes (e.g., test scores and grade retention) than less exclusionary consequences, controlling for type of behavioral infraction. However, despite controlling for a robust set of covariates, sensitivity checks demonstrate that the estimated relationships between consequences and academic outcomes may still be driven by selection bias into consequence type. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

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According to a 2014 report from the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, black students represent only 15% of students across the nation, but 35% of students suspended once are black, 44% of students suspended more than once are black, and 36% of expelled students are black. These disparate disciplinary aggregate outcomes, while troubling, do not provide as much information as policymakers need. In this study, we exploit three years of student-level discipline data from Arkansas to assess the extent to which black students or other minority students were more likely to receive certain types of punishments, even for the same infraction. In previous studies utilizing the same dataset, we find that, consistent with the recent reports on this topic, black students were punished more frequently; furthermore, we find that black students received slightly longer punishments than their white peers in the same school. The current study utilizes multinomial logit to assess the extent to which student demographics predict consequence type, even after controlling for infraction-level information and district characteristics. Black students, males, and low-income students (eligible for free-and reduced-lunch) were more likely to receive certain types of exclusionary consequences such as out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and referrals to Alternative Learning Environments relative to in-school-suspension.

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It is well documented that Black students are more likely to receive expulsions and suspensions than their White peers. These disparities are troubling, but researchers and policy makers need more information to fully understand the issue. We use 3 years (2010-2011 through 2012-2013) of state-wide student- and discipline incident-level data to assess whether non-White students are receiving harsher disciplinary consequences than their White peers for similar infractions and with similar behavioral history. We find that Black students received more severe (longer) punishments than their White peers for the same types of infractions, but that these disproportionalities are primarily across rather than within schools.

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