Discipline practices wield significant influence over the social dynamics within educational settings and profoundly impact students' ability to attain academic and social gains crucial for their success. The racialization of school discipline has been linked to negative effects on student's academic trajectories and life outcomes. Consequently,…

Racial disparities are consistently present in the office discipline referral data for schools. Beginning in primary grades, African-American students are frequently punished more severely and more often than their peers who display similar behavior. Nationally, during the 2017-1018 school year, over two million K-12 public school students were…

Disproportionate rates of behavioral problem reporting and consequences for African American males have occurred for decades. With the consequences surrounding problem behaviors typically removing the student from the classroom, whether to the principal's office or for an in-school or out-of-school suspension, time spent in the classroom for…

Beginning in the fall of 2017, forty-one districts and charter schools entered into three-year legal agreements with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights to reduce the racial disproportionality in their district or school's exclusionary discipline practices, specifically the overrepresentation of students of color in suspensions and…

Exclusionary disciplinary practices negatively and disproportionately impact Black students academically, socially, and emotionally and have been attributed to the school-to-prison pipeline. This research was conducted to determine the impact of restorative justice practices on exclusionary discipline by evaluating the lived experiences of school…

This dissertation examines the impact of restorative practices on reducing discipline disparities among Latino youth in educational settings. Historically, Latino students have faced educational and socioeconomic inequalities that have resulted in reduced academic opportunities, lower graduation rates, and a persistent cycle of poverty. While…

Race, poverty, and gender interplay with school discipline, to make schools ancillary to the juvenile justice system (Morris and Perry 2017). Exclusionary discipline contributes to the school-to-prison nexus, a metaphor that illuminates the complex, interconnected relationship between schools and prisons (Okilwa, Khalifa, and Briscoe 2017).…

Exclusionary discipline practices are frequently utilized in schools despite decades of research indicating their ineffectiveness (American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008; Losen & Skiba, 2010; Muñiz, 2021). Research shows that removing students from the classroom does not change student behavior, is administered…

The original design of zero-tolerance policies was meant to support school safety through an anti-drug and violence campaign but in the years following their implementation, school districts have employed them repeatedly without merit. Exclusionary practices have become controversial, leading to high rates of recidivism, imbalanced implementation…

The continual use of suspension and expulsion remains an unsettling concern for many educational stakeholders. With some guidance from the federal government, states have begun to address the issue of discipline disproportionality through policy reform that restrict the use of suspension and expulsion for certain student groups (e.g.,…

African American males receive a disproportionate number of referrals that result in punitive and exclusionary consequences. These referrals are often more subjective and include reasons such as disrupting class, disrespect, and refusal to obey. In- and out-of-school suspensions lead to a loss of instructional time for students, as well as a…

The problem examined in this qualitative arts-based phenomenological multi-site case study was the existence of racial discipline disparities in K-12 public schools throughout the United States. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the lived experiences of middle school principals leading the implementation of restorative justice practices…

A disproportionate representation of Black women diversity administrators within postsecondary education are confronted with institutional barriers that have seemingly obstructed their professional discovery, mobility, and success paths. Presented as the bridge leaders and cultural brokers of postsecondary institutions in the face of hegemonic…

As schools across the United States begin to move away from the harsh Zero Tolerance policies that characterised the better part of the previous three decades, there is an opportunity to change the focus of school discipline. Frequently, school discipline policies are centred on punitive approaches that separate students from their peers. Rather…

A comprehensive high school located in Southern California exhibited a suspension rate of 11.1%, placing it second among high schools within their district during the 2018-2019 academic year. According to the California School Dashboard (2019), students who were African American, Hispanic, English learners, homeless, had disabilities, and were…