Are Discipline Practices Pushing Students Out to Transfer? A Longitudinal Study in Five Midwest Counties

• In Event: Racialized Consequences of Discipline, Surveillance, Violence, and Out-of-School Environment

Abstract

Researchers have examined discipline practices as factors that work to push unwanted students to “dropout”. However, limited research examines how discipline practices may push students to transfer as a step in the process of pushing students out of the school system altogether. Using nine years of publicly available student and school level state data across five counties we examined both the impact of high school punishment on within-school year transfers through random effect panel regression models and the ways in which this impact operates over time through survival models. Results demonstrate punishment significantly increased the odds of transferring during the following school year (64%, in-school suspension; 77% out-of-school). Results also demonstrate disparities across student groups and regions.

Authors

• Margaret K. Powers, Washington University in St. Louis

• Jason F. Jabbari, Washington University in St. Louis

• Yung Chun, Washington University in St. Louis

• Takeshi Terada, New Mexico Public Education Department

• Somalis Chy, Washington University in St. Louis