Levers for Ending Racial Disparities in Discipline

Colorado Disproportionate Discipline Task Force Meeting

Tuesday January 24^th, 2024

Dr. Kathryn E. Wiley

Assistant Professor, Howard University�

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In the last 10 years, numerous states have reduced exclusionary discipline rates.

• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Illinois
• North Carolina
• Tennessee

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But, racial disparities persist.

Despite dramatic reductions in suspension and expulsion rates...

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“few if any states have been able to reduce persistent disparities in disciplinary removals for certain populations, particularly youth of color and students with disabilities”

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Source: Council of State Governments (2017). Link

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States face four main issues:

1. Ongoing disparities for students of color and students with disabilities.
2. Reforms often occur in isolation from other areas of schooling.
3. Increasing conflict in schools.
4. Loss of political will to sustain reforms.

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Today’s Presentation

• Sharing 5 “change levers.”
• Recommendations for each.
• Informed by the research.

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5 Levers for Change: Inside Schools and Beyond

1. School leadership
2. Closing instructional gaps
3. Data collection
4. Accountability systems
5. State laws

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School Leaders (Principals, APs, Deans)

• One of the most influential factors in school discipline outcomes
• 75% “major influence” on everyday discipline decisions
• Influences multiple areas of school
• Discipline approach, professional development, curriculum, personnel decisions
• Importance of increasing school leadership of color.
• Overlooked but high-impact lever for reducing racial disparities.
• Need to improve accountability to racial disparity goals and laws.

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Recommendation #1: Develop state-level strategies that ensure principal accountability to equity goals and compliance with civil rights laws.

Recommendation #2: Build collaboration across state departments and professional associations to support principals across the state to end racial disparities.

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Support Those Who Support School Leaders: Principal Supervisors

• Involved in everyday problem-solving and guidance
• Coaching and mentoring
• Focus on disparities may differ by supervisor.
• An untapped lever for reducing racial disparities.
• Need to improve accountability to racial disparity goals and laws.

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Recommendation #3: Develop state-level strategies that ensure principal supervisor accountability to equity goals and compliance with civil rights laws.

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Recommendation #4: Develop state-level strategies that partner with and support principal supervisors (and related departments, professional associations, etc.) to end racial disparities in a coordinated effort with school-level leadership teams.

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Close Racial Instructional Opportunity Gaps

• Reducing discipline disparities is not just about discipline, nor is it just about social emotional and mental health.
• Academics and discipline are two sides of the same coin.
• Rigorous, engaging, relevant curriculum reduces off-task behavior.
• Race and cultural-conscious instructional PD.
• Equitable distribution of teachers by experience.

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Recommendation #5. Support districts in identifying and closing instructional opportunity gaps (e.g., de-tracking initiatives, expanded AP, IB, and Gifted & Talented) and building capacity among personnel.

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School, District, and State Data Collection

Recommendation #6: Ensure that districts have a consistent way of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and using data by sub-groups and ensure fidelity of both collection and use.

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Recommendation #7: Data categories to include: student-level race, gender, ELL status, disability status (and type), disciplinary action, infraction/offense type, days of lost instruction/length of suspension, FRL status, foster-youth status, non-exclusionary alternatives used (e.g., RJ - levels)

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School, District, and State Data Collection

Recommendation #8: Discipline data collection should be organized to include data on instructional opportunities for students who are disciplined.

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E.g., Linking student-level demographic and discipline data with course placements, teacher assignment, teacher years of experience, and school leader data.

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School, District, and State Data Collection

Recommendation #9: Educate the public and build political will by publishing annual state reports on school discipline, inclusive of state and district-level data, supported by a state communications and dissemination strategy.

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Recommendation #10: Build networks and political will by identifying and convening districts who have succeeded in reducing racial disparities to share challenges and promising approaches.

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Monitoring and Accountability Systems

• Different suspension rates and disparity cut scores.
• Lenient states consider 5-10% OSS acceptable and include suspension count exceptions.
• Some recommend 6% = “high-suspending”
• Some use 0-3% overall and subgroups
• Some differ by elementary, secondary, district
• Declines, persistent disparities
• Hard to tell overall impact, many changes are recent

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Recommendation #11: Goal of 0-2% overall suspension rate and for subgroups (including ISS and OSS) using multiple measures to account for variation in metrics.

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California OSS District Cut Scores 2022

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Source: Link

California High Schools OSS Cut Scores 2022

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California Elementary OSS Cut Scores 2022

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State Accountability Systems

• Some states are using discipline data as part of accountability systems.
• One problem is that these systems can “unflag” districts that have reduced disparities but where rates are still too high.
• Important to give credit for reducing suspension rates overall and for subgroups but recognize that declines in still high-suspending districts and schools suspensions should remain flagged for improvement.

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State Accountability Systems

Recommendation 12: Give credit to high-suspending districts in decline if they meet two additional criteria: (1) The decline represents a 3-year downward trend (2) The highest suspended subgroup(s) over the threshold experienced a decline that also satisfies the first criteria (a 3-year downward trend).

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Recommendation 13: Ensure that districts identified for racial discipline disparities have funding and resources specifically to address racial disparities.

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State Laws

Recommendation #14: End suspension for subjective categories including but not limited to: willful disobedience, habitually disruptive, and repeated interference.

Recommendation #15: Require use, evidence of, and fidelity to non-exclusionary interventions.

Recommendation #16: Reduce maximum suspension length.

Recommendation #17: Permit linking of demographic, instructional, and discipline data.

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A Multipronged Approach

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Sources

1. The Council of State Governments Justice Center, Realizing the Full Vision of School Discipline Reform: A Framework for Statewide Change (New York: The Council of State Governments Justice Center, 2017). https://csgjusticecenter.org/publications/realizing-the-full-vision-of-school-discipline-reform-a-framework-for-statewide-change/
2. Curran, F. C. (2020). A Matter of Measurement: How Different Ways of Measuring Racial Gaps in School Discipline Can Yield Drastically Different Conclusions About Racial Disparities in Discipline. Educational Researcher, 49(5), 382–387. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20923348
3. Gregory, a., Skiba, R. J., & Noguera, P. a. (2010). The Achievement Gap and the Discipline Gap: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Educational Researcher, 39(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09357621
4. Losen & Martinez (2020). Is California doing enough to close the school discipline gap?The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at The Civil Rights Project. Proyecto Derechos Civiles. https://www.schooldisciplinedata.org/ccrr/docs/Final_CA_Report_06_29_2020-revised-for-post.pdf
5. Leung-Gagné, M., McCombs, J., Scott, C., & Losen, D. J. (2022). Pushed out: Trends and disparities in out-of-school suspension. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/235.277

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Thank you

Kathryn.wiley@howard.edu

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