Black Girls Matter: Discretionary Discipline of African American Female Middle School Students in Texas

• In Event: 66.058 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 66.058-18 - Black Girls Matter: Critical Literacies and Active Engagement in Schools

Abstract

African American female students are often the victims of systemic racist, sexist and classist policies at the school and district levels which may result in their disproportionate representation in disciplinary actions (Wun, 2014). Nationwide disciplinary trends of African American girls are alarming but particularly worrisome are the trends in the Southern States; 50% of all African students suspended from public schools are suspended from K-12 schools located in 13 Southern States of which African American girls are grossly disproportionately represented in disciplinary action (Smith and Harper, 2015). The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the discipline trends in the assignment of exclusionary disciplinary consequences of middle school African American female students during the 2014-15 school year in Texas.

Author

• Kriss Yvonne Kemp-Graham, Texas A&M University - Commerce