Disparities in Rates of Lunch Detention

• In Event: Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Examining School Policies Through the Lens of Underrepresented Student Populations

Abstract

Working from theories on implicit bias, the school discipline procedure, lunch detention, is examined to determine the extent to which it exacerbates the disproportionality of negative school outcomes for traditionally disadvantaged populations. Data on the number of and reasons for lunch detentions at a middle school in the southeast were gathered for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. The study regards lunch detention because of that policy’s subjectivity, commonness, and public nature. The data are analyzed to determine the significance of race/ethnicity, gender, and SES on lunch detention rates, and the rates for subjective reasons, such as talking. Additionally, the effect on lunch detention rates of a set of directives by school administration before the 2014-2015 school year is discussed.

Authors

• Paul Fram, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Kelly Lynn Lynn Mulvey, University of South Carolina

• Matthew J. Irvin, University of South Carolina