Disrupting School Discipline Disparities (DSDD)

Richard O. Welsh & Clarke County School District
2017 - Present

Research-Practice Partnership

Since 2017…

District leaders in Clarke County School District (CCSD) have partnered with Dr. Richard Welsh to produce and use research on school discipline policy and practice to reduce discipline disparities. This partnership is entering a new phase and pivoting from understanding disproportionalities in students’ disciplinary outcomes to transformation of these inequities through collaboration and research.

Since 2024

DSDD has embarked on the co-design of in-school suspension (ISS) with the generous support of the W. T. Grant Foundation. The co-design process starts with a co-design team at each middle school comprising the principal, assistant principals, ISS personnel and behavior specialists. The co-design teams will individually and collaboratively meet with Dr. Welsh and district leaders to analyze data and brainstorm ways to improve the processes and structures of ISS.

Looking forward

We are also turning the lens on ourselves in this project. There is an explicit focus on learning more about the ways that race and power shape the activities, dynamics and outcomes of an equity-centered RPP, like DSDD. While we are engaged in fostering the use of research evidence, we are also conducting research on research use. Through iterative cycles of co-design, the overarching goal is to learn more about the functioning of equity-centered RPPs and how research is used to disrupt inequality in K-12 education and improve youth outcomes.

Equity-Centered, Research-Practice Partnerships:

Fostering and Studying Disruptive Decisions

We are beginning to view the use of research evidence in equity-centered RPPs as fostering disruptive decisions. Disruptive decisions are equity-grounded, research-based decisions that are intended to improve youth outcomes, especially for traditionally marginalized populations and reduce inequality in youth outcomes. We position disruptive decisions as a key component of the theory of action of equity-centered RPPs. We reason that disruptive decisions connect research use and decision-making and are an important ingredient of proximal outcomes of partnership activities and instructive to achieving distal outcomes (namely the reduction in disparities in youth outcomes). Disruptive decisions embody the shift from using research to understand equity phenomena and leveraging research to transform inequities. 

We are still mapping the contours of conceptualization for disruptive decisions and how we are able to track the trajectory of these decisions as well as assess their impact. 

The work is guided by the following questions:

  • What is the role of race and power in the partnership dynamics of an equity-centered RPP?

  • How do these dynamics play out in partnership activities?

  • How do these partnership activities influence research use by a range of district decision makers (school board members, district leaders, school leaders)?