Identify and address the root causes of discipline disparities in schools flagged as disproportionate¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 2 studies (2 associational), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The report recommends that, given persistent disproportionality in exclusionary discipline, educators and policymakers work to "identify and address the root causes of these discipline disparities". It supports this by applying the MSDE definition of disproportionality to administrative data to identify and describe disproportionate schools, giving practitioners a way to locate schools where disparities concentrate before intervening.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Administrative school discipline, enrollment, and student demographic data sufficient to apply the state's disproportionality definition and identify disproportionate schools.

Constraints¶

• The snapshot analyzes Maryland data through 2017/18 and does not itself evaluate any intervention to reduce disparities.

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students in Maryland public schools, particularly Black students and students with disabilities

Target Learning Goals¶

• Reducing exclusionary discipline (out-of-school suspensions and expulsions) and eliminating subgroup disproportionality in school removals

Claims¶

• Black students are suspended at the highest rate of any racial group, at 12% in 2017–18, with persistent disparities across all years analyzed [+W]
• Black students and students with disabilities in Maryland were suspended and expelled at more than twice the rates of other students [+W]
• For the same types of infractions, Black students and students with disabilities were significantly more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than other subgroups [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Restorative Circles
• Empathic Discipline
• Restorative Approaches
• Political Education
• Restorative Practices
• Replace exclusionary discipline with restorative practices and implement data-driven attendance monitoring
• Address digital well-being with empathy, root-cause understanding, asset framing, and tech-free spaces
• Districts should track rates of lost instruction from suspensions and conduct recurring public reviews of discipline disparities

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Johanna Lacoe, Mikia Manley. (2019). Disproportionality in School Discipline: An Assessment in Maryland through 2018 (Study Snapshot). Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/disproportionality-in-school-discipline-an-assessment-in-maryland-through-2018-study-snapshot