Fake News in School Discipline: How Educators' Self-Reporting of Exclusionary Practices Distort Actual Events

• In Event: School Discipline to Prison to Reentry: (Up)Setting the Pipeline

Abstract

The USDOE Office of Civil Rights collects self-reported school data to track exclusionary discipline practices, which have negative impacts that disproportionately affect Black and Brown students. However, self-reported data may not reflect what is happening in schools. In this paper, we synthesize qualitative data from five previous studies in order to examine discrepancies between quantitative self-reports and educators’ qualitative descriptions of uses of exclusionary discipline. The public infers that a decrease in reported instances of exclusion reflects a true reduction. Misperceptions could lead to a reduced emphasis on addressing persistent problems, particularly in an era of “post-truth” justifications for reduced federal oversight. Effective data collection and reporting at the state and local levels could inform professional development efforts and interventions.

Authors

• Brianna L. Kennedy, University of Glasgow

• Amy S Murphy, University of Georgia

• Natalie Hagler, University of Florida