Research: Black students disciplined more often in K-12 schools

In a new research paper published in the peer-reviewed journal American Educational Research Association Open, Sean Darling-Hammond, a UC Berkeley assistant professor, and Eric Ho, a statistician at the U.S. Department of Education, examined many types of punishment in K-12 schools, across student subpopulations, measures of disparity, and comparison groups, finding that Black students are experiencing scholastic punishment far more often than their peers.

DespiteSean Darling-Hammond, co-author of the report, is an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences at UC Berkeley who specializes in the impact of K-12 practices on student mental health and equity. mounting evidence that exclusionary discipline practices—such as in-school or out-of-school suspensions or expulsions—not only fail to deter misbehavior but may have a variety of harmful impacts, many schools and districts still rely on these practices. On top of these harms, Darling-Hammond and Ho found widespread racial disparities in the application of this type of discipline.

The research found that relative to white students, Black students were:

• 3.6 times more likely to have been suspended out of school, and 2.5 times more likely to have been suspended in school
• 3.4 times more likely to have been expelled
• 2.4 times more likely to have been referred to law enforcement
• 2.9 times more likely to have experienced a school-based arrest
• 2.3 times more likely to have been corporally punished

More effective approaches that reduce inequity

The report concludes by highlighting research-based approaches and practices that have shown evidence of reducing racial disparities in school discipline, including:

• Teacher training in “empathic instruction,” a form of intervention based in research from professors Jason Anthony Okonofua and Michael Ruiz 
• Developing more teacher workforce diversity: “[Black students’] assignment to schools with greater proportions of Black teachers leads to declines in the likelihood of being suspended” 
• Implementing school- and district-wide alternatives to exclusionary discipline, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
• Restorative practices, which include community-building activities as well as activities designed to help students developed contrition, empathy, and intrinsic motivation to avoid misbehavior

Read the full report: No Matter How You Slice It, Black Students Are Punished More: The Persistence and Pervasiveness of Discipline Disparities.