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ERIC Number: EJ1157347
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Sep
Pages: 3
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0164-775X
EISSN: N/A
Using Data to Address Racial Disproportionality in Discipline Practices
Rollenhagen, Jennifer; Goodman, Steve; Barnes, Aaron C.
Communique, v46 n1 p10, 12-13 Sep 2017
Decades of research show that exclusionary discipline practices (e.g., office discipline referrals, suspensions) are disproportionately applied for specific racial groups. Losen and Skiba (2010) found that African American students are three times more likely to be suspended as their White peers. Although the problem of disciplinary inequity is well known, less is known about moving educators from awareness of the problem to concrete steps to address it. A promising approach for achieving equity in school discipline practices involves using discipline data to focus on both prevention and intervention (McIntosh, Girvan, Horner, & Smolkowski, 2014). To address the issue of racial disparity in discipline, school teams can first identify if discipline disproportionality exists, and then better understand the various characteristics of the problem. Yet school teams often struggle to use data effectively (Newton et al., 2014). However, we have found success in providing teams with a formalized process for examining their discipline data and developing plans to reduce disparities. The following case study illustrates one school's process in using a data driven approach to examine discipline practices. At various points in this article, we will focus on how a school psychologist from the state-level project provided the principal and school leadership team technical assistance as they navigated through their discipline data to address disproportionate disciplinary practices, and throughout the article, address
National Association of School Psychologists. 4340 East West Highway Suite 402, Bethesda, MD 20814. Tel: 301-657-0270; Fax: 301-657-0275; e-mail: publications@naspweb.org; Web site: http://www.nasponline.org/publications/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A