Teacher Quality and School Discipline Disproportionality

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine
  In Roundtable Session: The Racial Consequences of Law and Policy: (In)Equitable Student Discipline (Table 3)

Abstract

Racial disparities in school discipline and a lack of teacher diversity represent two pressing issues in educational equity. Teacher diversity can be among the most important aspects of a high-quality teacher workforce. We explore how both teacher experience and diversity are associated with school-level student discipline outcomes, and we evaluate how they vary by schools’ contextual factors. We find that while teacher diversity and experience both predict reductions in disciplinary incidents and consequences, only changes in the share of Black teachers a school employs are associated with reductions in the Black-White racial school discipline gap. We position our findings in the Diversity Intelligence and People as Technology frameworks and discuss implications for policy and educational human resources practices.

Authors

• Shuyang Wang, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Jerome Graham, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Monica Lee Flamini, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Salih Cevik, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author