Redirecting the School-to-Prison Pipeline to the STEM Pipeline: A Cross-Pipeline Analysis of Suspension and Math

• In Event: 35.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.078-8 - Using National Data Sets to Examine High School Practices, Outcomes, and Equity

Abstract

Using student and school-level variables from a nationally-representative longitudinal study of high school students, this article uses hierarchical linear modeling to test the relationship between exclusionary discipline sanctions and math over time. Findings demonstrate that the relationship is bidirectional. When measuring cross-pipeline impacts, suspensions decreased the odds of advanced math course-taking—even when accounting for prior math performance; conversely, low early math performance increased the odds of dropping out—even when accounting for prior suspensions. Nevertheless, in each case within-pipeline impacts remained strong. Thus, while decreasing suspensions can increase math attainment, they cannot erase the impact of low early math performance; similarly, while increasing early math performance can decrease drop-out cases, they cannot erase the impact of prior suspensions.

Authors

• Jason F Jabbari, Washington University in St. Louis

• Odis Johnson, Washington University in St. Louis