Race, Threat, and Punitive School Discipline: A Multilevel Analysis

• In Event: Race, Punishment, and Student Outcomes and Experiences

Abstract

Despite well-documented decreases in school misbehavior and delinquency nationwide, the criminalization of school discipline has become a pervasive characteristic of American education. Behaviors that formerly warranted informal school sanctions are now typically accompanied by formal disciplinary responses such as out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. A vast amount of prior research has shown that harsh school disciplinary practices are not distributed equitably, and Black and Hispanic students experience exclusionary forms of punishment more often than White students. Recently, scholars have begun analyzing racial disparities in school discipline at the school level, theorizing that greater proportions of Black and Hispanic students may represent a criminal or cultural threat to teachers and administrators. However, prior research has yet to evaluate the dynamic effects of both individual-level race/ethnicity and school-level racial/ethnic composition on punitive forms of discipline. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the current study provides one of the first multilevel examinations of whether (1) student race, (2) school racial composition, and (3) the interaction of the two influence students’ likelihoods of being suspended or expelled.

Authors

• Peter S. Lehmann, Florida State University

• Sonja E. Siennick, Florida State University