Disciplining Differently? Exploring States Beating the School Discipline Odds in the United States

• In Event: Policy Influences on School Discipline Disparities

Abstract

School discipline is a salient issue in education policy as disciplinary practices grounded in exclusion impact Black children at a disproportionate rate linger. There remains a need for an anti-deficit and positive outlier-based approach to understanding how schools disrupt and mitigate inequality in Black students’ disciplinary experiences. In this mixed methods study, we explore “inclusive disciplinary states” or states that beat the school discipline odds by examining state-level policies and practices of inclusive disciplinary states and analyzing the political landscapes of these states that allow such school discipline reforms.

Authors

• De'Ja Wood, Vanderbilt University

• Kathryn James McGraw, Vanderbilt University

• Richard O. Welsh, Vanderbilt University