New Potential Leverage Points for Mitigating Within-School Discipline Disparities

• In Event: School Discipline. Hard Truths: Continuing the Conversation About the Disproportionate Impact of Discipline Practices

Abstract

Differences in rates of suspension between Black and White students are a primary area of concern for equity researchers and practitioners. Most descriptive work on patterns of discipline disparities looks across schools and districts, but we shed light on patterns of discipline disparities within schools and years. Using four years of rich student-level data in a large urban school district, we examine whether higher discipline rates are associated with higher discipline disparities within schools, both across and within years. We confirm this association within elementary and high school. Further, immediately following major U.S. school holidays of summer, winter, and spring breaks, overall discipline rates and Black-White disparities are low, and they increase predictably during the first four weeks after returning

Authors

• Carrie Townley Flores, Stanford University

• Jaymes Pyne, Stanford University