Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

School Suspension Rates of Black Students

EDLD 672
October 20th, 2014

Kimberly Esso
Minnesota State University, Mankato

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times

greater than white students. On average, 5% of white students are
suspended, compared to 16% of black students (U.S Department of
Education Office for Civil Rights, 2014). School suspension rates have
become the focus of many school districts over the last couple of
years. With a magnify glass on the achievement gap; school
suspension rates are just one area, where there is a large discrepancy
between white and black students. Suspension policies have been
under scrutiny focusing mainly on non-violent behaviors. The use of
willful disobedience or defiance as a grounds for suspension has been
criticized locally and nationally as a subjective catchall that
disproportionately affects minority students (Lonetree, 2013).
Students who are suspended are missing out on key instructional time
and are falling behind in their courses. The intention of reducing the
suspension rate for students was to keep students in school learning.
How can we begin to address the achievement gap if our students are
sitting at home for 3-5 days every time they are suspended? Typically
students who are suspended for willful disobedience are repeat
offenders, the time of out school keeps piling up.
There is not a lot of National Legislative Policy around school
suspensions. What I have found is more policy related to a students

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

right to be in school as described in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, No

Child Left Behind, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The State of California has developed the School Discipline Consensus
Project. The school Discipline Consensus project brings together
practitioners from the field of education juvenile justice, behavioral
health and law enforcement, as well as state and local policymakers,
researchers, advocates, students and parents to collaboratively
develop a comprehensive set of recommendations for change agents
working to address this issue (U.S Dept of Ed, 2011).
Minnesota State policy gives guidelines for suspensions and
dismissals through the Pupil Fair Dismissal Act, however ultimately
leaves it up to the school board and school district to draw the lines.
Locally in Minneapolis and Saint Paul there have been more policy
change addressing school suspension rates. This year, the district
(Saint Paul Public Schools) took a significant step to erase racial
inequalities and keep students in class by removing continual willful
disobedience form the list of suspendable violations in the 2012-2013
handbook (Lonetree, 2013).

Simply changing the policy on how we

suspend students sounds like a logical fix. However, it is not that

simple, we know as educators how these changes have a trickle down
effect. There is pressure on administrators to reduce their
suspensions, which trickles down to pressure teachers to keep unruly
students in their classrooms. There has been a monetary incentive for

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

administrators to reduce suspension rates in St Paul to work towards

this policy change. What has been the incentive for teachers? What
other options are we giving teachers deal with behavior in their
classroom? What about the students that are not learning because of
so many classroom disruptions? How can we make sure that everyone
is in a safe learning environment with out one group suffering?
The criticism of this new policy comes from all students right to
learn in a safe and controlled environment. We are looking at how to
reduce suspensions for students of color, without addressing how it is
affecting other students in the classroom. In the Pupil Fair Dismissal
Act the policy addresses grounds for dismissal as, willful conduct that
significantly disrupts the rights of others to an education, or the ability
of school personnel to perform their duties, or school sponsored
extracurricular activities. We must address the right to learn for
students, regardless of behavior, race or sex. If we are going to lower
our rate of suspensions what is going to go in place of this as a
consequence? On paper we may have reduced the number of
suspensions, however we have not changed the behavior of the
students. For example, last year a student who swore at their teacher
may have been sent out of class and possibly sent out. This year a
student has sworn at their teacher send down to the office only to
return later that hour. The message that is given to the rest of the
students is that there are no longer consequences for this kind of

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

behavior. What have we done to address the behavior? This change in

policy has put a spotlight on a broken discipline system. We are not
helping a child by keeping them out of school for non-violent
behaviors. As a district and a school we have to do more to help
students on the front end to reduce the occurrence of these behaviors.
Currently we are only focusing on the behavior and the outcome.
There are two areas of focus for my recommendations to the
district, they are PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)
and increased training in classroom management. If our focus as a
district is to decrease the number of out of school suspensions we have
to have a plan in place on how we are going to change the culture of
the school to better support students and teachers. As a society we
tend to focus more on the outcomes rather than the prevention. I
believe PBIS helps as a motivator on the student side and with an
increased focus on classroom management teachers have the
opportunity to grow in their craft.
PBIS is a great program, however there has to be buy in from the
administrators, teachers, students and families in order for PBIS to be
successful. PBIS.org defines PBIS as:
Positive behavior support is an application of a behaviorallybased systems approach to enhance the capacity of schools,
families, and communities to design effective environments that
improve the fit or link between research-validated practices and

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

the environments in which teaching and learning occurs.

Attention is focused on creating and sustaining primary (schoolwide), secondary (targeted group or simple individual plans), and
tertiary (individual) systems of support that improve lifestyle
results (personal, health, social, family, work, recreation) for all
children and youth by making problem behavior less effective,
efficient, and relevant, and desired behavior more functional
(PBIS, 2014).
I like the way that PBIS does a breakdown of behaviors into different
tiers, it allows us as the school to attempt to come up with a
systematic approach to behaviors. It also allows us to take a step back
from always focusing on the negative behaviors and celebrating
students who are being successful in school.
My second recommendation to the school district is focused on
the teacher side of the equation. Teachers are not always able to
refine their craft year to year. One criticism from teachers on the topic
of reducing non-violent suspensions was the lack of support and tools
given to teachers to have a better handle on behavior. We all know of
the teachers that always send students out of their classroom and
teachers that never send those same students out. What is that
teacher doing different where students are not being sent out? Why
are we not learning from each other? So much time is spent on new
district initiatives and not enough on offering professional development

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

and support in the school to really work at having the most productive
classroom possible. I have noticed many schools in my district
reading, Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov. Lemov really digs
deep into what it makes to be a great teacher, he offers specific
techniques that can be used by all teachers regardless of experience in
the classroom.
My biggest take away from learning more about policy is how
vague it really can be. Many times school districts look at a policy and
concentrate on how to make sure the school district is in compliance
with that policy. School districts should be looking at how to make
systemic change in their schools along with adhering to the policy. As
an administrator it is my job to assess the policy and implement it at
my school. I do not consider this as a task that I would take on my
own. I would probably pull together a team of teachers, counselors,
behavior specialist, etc to dig in to our suspension reports. Students
who are repeat offenders are typically well known in school. What can
we do as the community to better support our students? Recently
there has been a shift in policy addressing the overwhelming need for
more mental health support in our schools. Allowing students a safe
place to go and meet with someone about what is going on in their life
is a huge step to help a student stay in school. Education is constantly
evolving and changing with new research and new focus areas. We as

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

administrators have to work as hard as we can to provide stability in
our schools while constantly evaluating how we can be better.

References
Alexander, N. (2013). Policy analysis for educational leaders: A stepby-step approach. Boston: Pearson.
Lemov, D. (2010) Teach like a Champion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Lonetree, A. (2013) St. Paul school suspensions drop 30%. Retrieved
from http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/208760501.html
Matos, A. (2014) Minneapolis schools ban suspensions of youngest
students.
Retrieved from http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?
id=274043091

Running Head: School Suspension Rates of Black Students

Minnesota Legislature. (2014) 2014 Minnesota Statues, 121A.61

Dicipline and Removal of Students From Class. Retrieved from
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=121A.61
PBIS.org Website. (2014) Retrieved from www.pbis.org
Post, T. (2014) Eyeing racial disparities, schools trying to cut down on
suspensions. Retrieved from
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/04/15/school-suspensions
Saint Paul Public Schools Website. (2014) Retrieved from
http://boe.spps.org/SECTION_V_STUDENTS2.html
United States Department of Education. (2011). Supportive School
Discipline Initiative. Retrieved from
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/appendix-3overview.pdf
United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. (2014).
Civil Rights Data Collection, Data Snapshot: School Discipline.
Retrieved from http://ocrdata.ed.gov/