School-Level Variation in Disciplinary Practices: A Look at National Trends in Zero-Tolerance Policies

• In Event: 434 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Policy, Practice, and Youth Well-being

Abstract

Overwhelming evidence shows that schools are changing the way they process and manage delinquent behavior; additional evidence shows these processes increasingly mimic the racial and socio-economic disparities found in the criminal justice system. Given these changes and concerns, it is essential to understand potential variation in these responses to student behavior through the use of surveillance and behavior management. School approaches to discipline also provide a unique lens from which to examine organizational patterns of behavior sociologically. In addition to explicit zero-tolerance policies, schools may respond to questions regarding their ability to provide safe and educational environments by creating processes and procedures that help manage and supervise organizational actors (i.e., staff and students). Zero-tolerance policies and physical building changes that allow for increased surveillance are examples of school-level attempts to regain or maintain legitimacy and moral authority—something likely lost in conjunction with increasing deviant behavior. Understanding the relationship between student behavior and school responses, and the influence of these responses on school climate, may identify ways to support schools with more consistent and developmentally appropriate responses. Using the most recent waves of the nationally representative School Survey on Crime and Safety Survey we examine the relationship between student behavior, school characteristics and school implementation of zero-tolerance policies such as exclusionary discipline and surveillance measures. We identify a few specific relationships between student discipline and later use of zero-tolerance behavior management at the school level.

Authors

• E. Christine Baker-Smith, New York University

• Jessica Lipschultz, New York University