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Black students 5 times more likely to be suspended/expelled in schools in Southern US

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Tripon

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It’s a problem that echoes the “black codes” of the nation’s Jim Crow era: African American schoolchildren nationwide are up to three times more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended or expelled from school.

But a new study shows that things are even worse for black grade-school kids in the South, where they are up to five times more likely than whites to be suspended or expelled—an eyebrow-raising disparity experts say is a big factor in the school-to-prison pipeline.

The assessment, made by the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, found that African American students were consistently suspended and expelled at higher rates than their peers in each of the 3,000 school districts in the 13-state region. The pattern held steady for black boys and girls even when they were a substantial minority of the district’s population and regardless of whether they attended school in an affluent suburban or a poor urban district.

http://news.yahoo.com/youll-never-guess-region-suspends-black-kids-school-113154402.html

Nationally, 1.2 million Black students were suspended from K-12 public schools in a single academic year – 55% of those suspensions occurred in 13 Southern states. Districts in the South also were responsible for 50% of Black student expulsions from public schools in the United States.

This report aims to make transparent the rates at which school discipline practices and policies impact Black students in every K-12 public school district in 13 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Despite comprising only 20.9% of students in the 3,022 districts analyzed, Blacks were suspended and expelled at disproportionately high rates.

The authors use data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to present school discipline trends related to Black students district-by-district within each state. Districts in which school discipline policies and practices most disproportionately impact Black students are also highlighted. The report concludes with resources and recommendations for parents and families, educators and school leaders, policymakers, journalists, community stakeholders (NAACP chapters, religious congregations, activists, etc.), and others concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline and the educational mistreatment of Black youth in K-12 schools. The authors also offer implications for faculty in schools of education, as well as other sites in which teachers are prepared (e.g., Teach for America) and administrators are certified.

http://www.gse.upenn.edu/equity/SouthernStates
 
I've heard disciplinary stories where black kids are punished harsher or automatically assumed to do wrong even if their white friends have done it or done worse. It's just that confirm bias happening. And it hurts the children because it basically conditions them to do that stuff in the future and get into trouble with the law
 

Tripon

Member
I've heard disciplinary stories where black kids are punished harsher or automatically assumed to do wrong even if their white friends have done it or done worse. It's just that confirm bias happening. And it hurts the children because it basically conditions them to do that stuff in the future and get into trouble with the law

Speaking as a teacher working in SPED, black students in general are placed in SPED because they're getting disciplined at a higher rate than the majority school population (whatever it is, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc.)
 
Speaking as a teacher working in SPED, black students in general are placed in SPED because they're getting disciplined at a higher rate than the majority school population (whatever it is, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc.)
Are they being disciplined at a higher rate because of racial bias?
 

Lenardo

Banned
now are they getting punished harsher for the same problem as the other races OR....

are they getting punished more because they are the ones causing more problems thus, if they are causing more problems, are the really getting punished more?


what i mean is... classroom of 30 kids

10 white 10 black 10 other

in class someone gets in trouble

x student gets punished. if the student is colored, is the punishment harsher than if the student was white?

or if the punishment is the same, is it the fact that more colored kids are getting into trouble, thus causing the perception that they are more likely to be punished, but the fact that they are causing more problems in the first place is the issue, not the punishment aspect...

personally, i treat everyone the same, unless a person is an asshat, then i treat that one negatively. my kids have friends who are white, black, asian, hispanic, i make no distinction between them, and they are all good kids
 

JC Lately

Member
No surprise to anyone who grew-up/went to school in the south. But maybe having hard numbers will help promt change.



That last sentence was naive of me, and I apologize.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Looking at what I know of my area, it matches what I expected.

Arcadia - The rural farm area in Desoto county is exceptionally bad about this. Edit: I worked for 4 years there, so the result is not surprising at all to me.
Charlotte County - My hometown, I did not see much of this growing up here, and the stats show that to be true.
Lee County - Area south of Charlotte is between the two which is more surprising, but I only went to College there.

I wonder how difficult it would be correlate population percentages with the data... Most of the data is in the report, maybe if I get board and want to brush up on Excel and Stats. I am considering going into Systems Analysis after all.
 
I may get banned but this is kinda true.
I went to school in South Georgia and usually black people were the ones that got in trouble the most, fights, disrespected teachers, bullying, among other things.

Not all blacks though some were extremely smart and well mannered.

All races got in trouble and were punished equally though.
 
now are they getting punished harsher for the same problem as the other races OR....

are they getting punished more because they are the ones causing more problems thus, if they are causing more problems, are the really getting punished more?


what i mean is... classroom of 30 kids

10 white 10 black 10 other

in class someone gets in trouble

x student gets punished. if the student is colored, is the punishment harsher than if the student was white?

or if the punishment is the same, is it the fact that more colored kids are getting into trouble, thus causing the perception that they are more likely to be punished, but the fact that they are causing more problems in the first place is the issue, not the punishment aspect...

personally, i treat everyone the same, unless a person is an asshat, then i treat that one negatively. my kids have friends who are white, black, asian, hispanic, i make no distinction between them, and they are all good kids
That was also my question.
I have absolutely no doubt some black kids are getting unfair punishment though or that they get a MUCH shorter leash ftom teachers. It's embedded in Americas institutions,an inherent bias against African Americans.
 

AGITΩ

Member
Have they never gone to school in the ghetto? When i moved to Georgia from Connecticut at 11, it was a drastic difference. Though im hispanic, i was the lightest person in my middle school here, and the school was across the street from the projects. The death threats, actual shootings and the behavior was awful. But you know, youd never hear about it in news. My high school was no different either. Plus out of school suspension was a god send. Was like a vacation from school, and was treated as such.
 
It's mostly due to the teachers as well. Not all teachers but the difference of how minority teachers can handle their minority students compared to most white teachers are astounding
 

Tripon

Member
Are they being disciplined at a higher rate because of racial bias?

I can only speak of my experience. A part of the cases I saw was yes, but many of them benefited from receiving SPED services because it meant their needs was being addressed. This was in a high SES environment and a lot of the students came from much lower SES environments and struggled in making the transitions.

The situation, like most things were complicated, but I couldn't help but noticed the disparity when I was working for that district.
 
I mean I'm sure per-capita this is true everywhere in the US. Especially inner-cities and cities with shoestring budgets or running deficits like Philly.

A product of a lot of things. But no less sad.
 
I for one am shocked at this study. Utterly shocked. Next thing you're going to tell me is that 47-ish years of Civil Rights "equality" doesn't make up for the 300 years of oppression. Or that the war on drugs set black people back.

ALL THIS NEW FOUND KNOWLEDGE!
 

Envelope

sealed with a kiss
I for one am shocked at this study. Utterly shocked. Next thing you're going to tell me is that 47-ish years of Civil Rights "equality" doesn't make up for the 300 years of oppression. Or that the war on drugs set black people back.

ALL THIS NEW FOUND KNOWLEDGE!

if only these black students had been able to walk with Dr. King ;__;
 
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