Exclusionary Discipline: Racial Disparities in How Educators Evaluate and Sanction Misbehavior

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Background and Motivation. School suspension and expulsion predict school dropout, juvenile detention, adult incarceration, and recidivism. Male students and non-white students face more exclusionary discipline: by grade 12, 20% of Black boys are suspended out-of-school, compared to 12% of Black girls, 9% of Hispanic boys, 6% of White boys, and 2% of White girls. There is reason to believe that disparities between Black and Latino students compared to Whites are even larger when considering dark skinned Black and Latino students.

Neither a higher incidence of misbehavior among students of color, their sorting into more punitive schools, nor their lower responsiveness to non-exclusionary sanctions, like tutoring and counseling, fully accounts for this gap. Scholars have proposed teacher bias as a possible explanation: teachers might sanction students of color—especially dark-skinned students of color—more readily and more severely for the same behaviors. This hypothesis has received little empirical attention.

Research Plan. This project investigates educator bias in both evaluations of and reactions to misbehavior using a video vignette experiment that involves different students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds and skin colors (light versus dark) committing identical infractions. Teachers are not generally in charge of making final sanctioning decisions; this is typically within the purview of the principal or vice/assistant principals. Importantly, however, teachers serve as important front-line actors who often witness behavior infractions on the ground and initiate referrals to the principal after completing referral forms that document the incident and recommendations for appropriate sanctions. In many schools, teachers are consulting in making disciplinary decisions because they often have the most involved relationships and knowledge with students. Therefore, this study draws on a diverse national sample of teachers view randomly assigned, videotaped infractions, then rate the behavior and report their likely reaction. Responses are analyzed by the characteristics of the students and the teachers. Finally, the proposed experiment also tests an intervention for reducing bias.

Impact. This project sheds light on: (a) whether teacher bias helps explain disciplinary disparities; (b) the mechanisms that lead to harsher sanctioning of some students (i.e., biased perceptions of the same behaviors vs. the recommendation of harsher punishments); and (c) the factors magnifying bias, like student--teacher race and gender pairings, skin color, or school disciplinary policies, and (d) the contexts most conducive to a promising new discipline intervention that involves promoting an empathetic mindset. Results will help guide teacher training and school disciplinary policy.

Author

• Jayanti Owens, Princeton University