A Darker Shade of Gray: A Year‐End Analysis of Discipline and Suspension Data

School demographic variables and out‐of‐school suspension rates: A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a large, ethnically diverse school district

“…Significantly, Skiba et al (1997) confirmed the inequities noted above for race, gender, disability, and SES; and Nichols et al (1999) confirmed these same inequities for race, gender, and SES.…”

“…Finally, when it has been investigated, it appears that students from lower socioeconomic (SES) home situations also have been disproportionately suspended from school, both historically (e.g., Wu, Pink, Crane, & Moles, 1982) and recently (Nichols et al, 1999;Skiba et al, 1997). Significantly, Skiba et al (1997) confirmed the inequities noted above for race, gender, disability, and SES; and Nichols et al (1999) confirmed these same inequities for race, gender, and SES.…”

“…For example, Skiba et al (1997) reported that (a) 41% of the students from 19 midwestern middle schools were involved in disciplinary actions; (b) 5,673 OSS (33.3%) occurred for the 17,029 disciplinary actions involving these students; (c) these students averaged 1.25 suspensions during the school year considered; and (d) among all of the students enrolled in these schools, there were 0.5 suspensions per student. Similarly, Nichols, Ludwin, and Iadicola (1999), who investigated nine middle schools and six high schools in a large midwestern metropolis, reported 25,776 disciplinary actions for 14,921 total students, with 5,633 of these actions (37.7%) involving OSS. Interestingly, Skiba et al (1997) also reported data from a single suburban middle school 600 miles from the schools studied by Nichols et al where suspensions comprised only 6% of the disciplinary actions taken.…”

Black-White Differences in School Suspension: Effect of Student Beliefs About Teachers

“…The overrepresentation of African American students in suspension and expulsion practices at school has been documented consistently in the literature across time. Virtually every study undertaken of schools and school districts has revealed the same types of disparities (Costenbader and Markson, 1998;Gregory, 1997;McCarthy and Hoge, 1987;Mendez et al, 2002;Morris and Goldring, 1999;Morrison et al, 2001;Nichols et al, 1999;Skiba et al, 1997Skiba et al, , 2000Skiba et al, , 2002Taylor and Foster, 1986;Thornton and Trent, 1988;Wu et al, 1982).…”

“…Most of the research on school punishment has focused on documenting race differences and looking for student and school-level factors to help explain disproportionality in out-of-school suspension (Costenbader and Markson, 1998;Gregory, 1997;Mendez et al, 2002;Morrison et al, 2001;Nichols et al, 1999;Skiba et al, 1997;Taylor and Foster, 1986;Wu et al, 1982). Less work has been done examining teachers and their potential effect on school suspension.…”