Determinants of School Discipline: Examination of Institutional Level Factors Impacting Exclusionary Sanctions

Abstract

This research strives to enrich criminological and educational literature by providing a better understanding of relationships among school performance and achievement, attendance, and demographic information based upon the number of exclusionary disciplinary actions within public high schools. Using data on 409 traditional high schools from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, this quantitative study uses path analysis to examine the relationships between school factors, including demographics and achievement measures, and exclusionary discipline. The findings indicated a direct relationship between a schools’ drop-out rate, AP courses, and standardized test scores and the schools’ total number of exclusionary disciplinary actions. In addition, socioeconomic status and attendance rates indirectly impacted exclusionary disciplinary actions. The study also determined a correlation between the number of minority students within a school and the total number of disciplinary actions. These findings have a number of implications for school systems that hope to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline.