Authoritative School Climate as a Protective Factor Against Student Aggression: Linkages to School Suspension and the Racial Discipline Gap

• In Event: Advancing Equitable Access to Supportive School Discipline and Education: Challenging the School to Prison Pipeline

Abstract

According to authoritative school climate theory, a school characterized by high levels of disciplinary structure and student support will have lower levels of student aggression, including aggressive behavior directed toward peers and teachers. This presentation will review a series of study findings using measures of school climate and student aggression obtained from surveys completed by a statewide sample of 39,364 students attending 423 Virginia middle schools. Multilevel modeling at student and school levels will demonstrate how a positive school climate is associated with lower levels of student aggression and bullying, after controlling for student and school demographic variables. Additional analyses will show the relation between school climate, student aggression, and school suspension rates, with particular attention to racial disparities in suspension rates. Virginia schools tend to suspend Black students at twice the rate as White students, but there are large differences between schools in both overall suspension rates and the racial gap in suspension rates. Although school discipline problems can be a starting point for a school-to-prison pipeline, well-structured and supportive schools can be an important protective factor in promoting positive student behavior and reducing the use of school suspension.

Authors

• Dewey Cornell, University of Virginia

• Francis Huang, University of Missouri - Columbia