Troublemakers? The Role of Frequent Teacher Referrers in Expanding Racial Disciplinary Disproportionalities

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

Abstract

This study provides the first systematic documentation of teachers’ use of office discipline referrals (ODRs). We identify teachers with frequent referral behavior, or the top 5% referrers based on the number of ODRs they make in a given year and evaluate their contributions to disciplinary disparities. We find that “top referrers” effectively double the racial gaps in ODRs for Black-White and Hispanic-White comparisons. These gaps are mainly driven by higher numbers of ODRs issued for Black and Hispanic students for more subjective reasons like defiance, also partially converting to racial gaps in suspensions. Both the level and racial compositions of the school sites “top referrers” serve, and their personal traits seem to explain some of their frequent referring behavior.

Authors

• Jing Liu, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily K. Penner, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Wenjing Gao, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author