Inequality Unexplained: An Experimental Test of Racial Discrimination in School Discipline Decision-Making

• In Event: 3141 - Racialized School Discipline and Carceral Education

Abstract

Research consistently shows a high level of racial disparity in public school discipline whereby white students receive fewer and less severe disciplinary actions than their black classmates, even for the same offense (Losen and Gillespie 2012; Fabelo et al. 2011; Fenning and Rose 2007). This study employs a survey experiment to test whether this disparity is driven by differential treatment of white and black students in discipline decision-making processes. U.S. public school educators were presented with hypothetical student misbehavior vignettes and asked their disciplinary recommendations. I control for student behavior while varying student race and gender to determine whether educators recommend differential discipline across student race and gender categories. Multivariate analyses of the responses fail to provide evidence for differential treatment. I argue that these findings likely diverge from previous research due to two primary factors: 1) social desirability bias, given the prevalence colorblind racial ideology in today's society, and 2) a lack of correspondence between decisions made in response to hypothetical vignettes and those made in the emotionally charged context of actual school discipline incidents (Pager and Quillian 2005; Lewis and Diamond 2015). The study thus raises questions about the utility of survey vignette methodology to test for racial discrimination in school discipline processes.

Author

• Sarah McGill Brown, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill