“We are stuck in punitive sands as racial disparities in students’ disciplinary outcomes remain persistent. We need a better plan.”
Richard O. Welsh, Founding Director
The School Discipline Crisis
The School Discipline Lab is the premier hub for practitioners, researchers and educational stakeholders working to disrupt racial inequality in exclusionary discipline. We produce original scholarship, publish the views of experts, and aggregate news and research on school discipline from across the U.S.
OUR WHY: SCRUTINIZING STRUCTURES, NOT STUDENTS
By leveraging research evidence, we hope to improve youth outcomes for historically-marginalized students by transforming inequities in school discipline.
Deeper blues illustrate states with higher disparities for in-school suspension for Black students over white students.
In every region of the United States and across every disciplinary metric from office discipline referrals to suspensions to explosions, there is racial disparity. Black students are subjected to exclusionary discipline at rates over and above their peers. In 2015-2016 , when all students lost 11 million days of instruction from suspension, Black students lost nearly 5 times the number of days as white students. SDL is focused on better understanding the systemic drivers of such disparities and disseminating research to shape the way district and school leaders think about and approach the persistent inequities in school discipline.
All Eyes on Discipline
A one-stop shop for understanding the discipline disparity problem and potential solutions
Guest-authored essays and research insights written in accessible language
From Scholarship to Practice
Featured Publication
Richard O. Welsh, Luis A Rodriguez, and Blaise B. Joseph
School Effectiveness and School Improvement
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Research Series