This interpretive case study focuses on a school grappling with discipline disparities among students of color in a majority white suburban school setting. The purpose of this study is to examine the underlying beliefs and interpretations of teachers in writing discipline referrals and assigning disciplinary consequences. The guiding research…

Disciplinary action towards racially minoritized students compared to their White peers is disproportionate and these actions often result from teachers' lived experiences, socialized perceptions, or a homogenous teaching workforce consisting of predominantly White middle-class women with limited social interactions with minoritized communities.…

Maryland law allows districts to apply exclusionary approaches to unexcused absences. Exclusionary practices can include removing students from the classroom and preventing students from getting credit for completed work. This report examines how long-standing policies and practices of the truancy system--the application of the unexcused absence…

This study uses an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach to examine principals'responses to their schools' disproportionate discipline data in five schools located in the ruralsoutheastern United States. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed for principals' insight intotheir school discipline data. Results indicated that Black students…

We documented (1) the use of strategies, beyond suspensions and expulsions, that exclude young students from learning opportunities and (2) how teacher-reported use of these strategies varied according to student racial/ethnic composition. In a sample of 2,053 teachers and 40,771 kindergarten students, teachers reported on their use of five…

Student removal became an increasingly utilized form of discipline since the implementation of zero-tolerance policies during the early 1990s. Evaluative studies have consistently found negative relationships between student removal and academic success. Majority of cases regarding student removal are for minor and non-violent offenses and…

Black youth overwhelmingly experience excessive discipline and exclusionary practices in schools, which contribute to the growing achievement and opportunity gaps between Black and White students. This study examined 915 teacher education students' (TES') interpersonal attributions of classroom behaviors of elementary age Black and White girls,…

Disproportionate discipline, also known as the discipline gap, is the result of the frequent occurrence of punitive or exclusionary discipline measures. It represents a flaw in the educational system that negatively disrupts the African American student population more than any other demographic. This form of punishment removes students from the…

Black girls are the only group of girls across the United States disproportionally suspended from school. Studies have documented that disproportionality cannot be explained solely by greater misbehavior among students of color. Instead, discipline disparities are also informed by punitive/inequitable discipline policies and practices, less…

National policies have targeted widespread exclusionary discipline in schools which is associated with negative academic outcomes. Principals play an important role in making disciplinary decisions, yet little is understood about how their mindsets might impact these decisions. We hypothesized that principals' mindsets regarding the purpose of…

While existing literature documents disparities in and implications of absenteeism and truant behavior, less is known about truancy as defined in state laws. Habitual truancy, which can trigger external punitive responses, is particularly underexplored. The current study utilizes administrative data from the universe of Pennsylvania schools to…

Nearly 3.5 million American students (K-12) experience some form of ostracization from educational settings yearly in the form of In-School-Suspension (ISS), Out-of-School suspension (OSS), or expulsion. Impact research reveals that exclusionary practices correlate with negative outcomes for students including academic achievement (e.g., lower…

We investigate the beginning of the school discipline pipeline using a reform in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools that limited the use of out-of-school suspension for students in grades K-2. We find that the reform reduced the likelihood of out-of-school suspension by 1.4 percentage points (56%) and had precise null effects on test scores and…

Currently 15 percent of U.S. students receive special education services, a widespread intensive intervention with variable effects on students. Spurred by changes in federal policy, many states and districts have begun adopting the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach to identifying students to receive special education services. RTI seeks to…

The rapid expansion of charter schools has fueled concerns about their impact on traditional public schools. I estimate the effect of charter openings on traditional public schools in Massachusetts and North Carolina by comparing schools near actual charter sites to those near proposed sites that were never occupied. I find charter openings…