The School Discipline Dilemma: A Comprehensive Review of Disparities and Alternative Approaches

Authors: Richard O. Welsh and Shafiqua Little

Summary: Student race is one of the most significant predictors of suspension, after accounting for SES. However, school-level variables like demographic composition, teacher expectations, principal perspectives, and average achievement are the strongest predictors of exclusionary disciplinary prevalence and disparities. The most popular alternatives to exclusionary discipline, such as PBIS and RP, lower the prevalence of exclusion, but do not disrupt disparities. This may be becase these programs target student behavior, despite it not being the main factor in disparities.

Want to Address School Discipline Disparities? Don’t Ignore Racial and Cultural Differences in the Classroom

Authors: Richard O. Welsh and Shafiqua Little

Summary: The evidence suggests that discipline disparities may be explained more by the behavior of adults—teachers and principals in schools—than by student misbehavior. This is because subjectivity is central in discipline disparities...The vast majority of disciplinary infractions for which students receive an office discipline referral, suspension, or expulsion rely on the subjective judgments of adults." Programs targeting teachers have narrowed discipline disparities.

School Discipline: Issues of Equity and Effectiveness (Lecture and Conversation)

Lecturer: Russell J. Skiba

Summary: Suspension does not act a deterrent to future misbehavior and instead predicts adverse outcomes for suspended students and their school communities. Future policy and programmatic reforms need greater attention to race.

Watch the lecture’s 5-minute recap

Caste and control in schools: A systematic review of the pathways, rates and correlates of exclusion due to school discipline (Journal article, literature review)

Authors: Richard O. Welsh and Shafiqua Little

Summary: Suspension is the most common path through which students are excluded from the learning environment. While exclusionary discipline is strongly linked to negative educational and long-term outcomes ranging from lower achievement on standardized tests to higher odds of involvement with the criminal justice system, there is little empirical evidence on the mechanisms through which exclusion impacts these outcomes.

Law and Order in School and Society: How Discipline and Policing Policies Harm Students of Color, and What We Can Do About It

Authors: Janelle T. Scott, Michele S. Moses, Kara Finnigan, Tina Trujillo, and Darrell Jackson

Summary: Developments in school discipline policy -- especially the incorporation of policing strategies -- mirror changes in the social context of schooling. Disrupting disparities calls for integrating community and school resources, such as around housing and transportation or community-based policing and school-based restorative practices.