School Discipline Tougher on African Americans

Data from North Carolina show that Black students are twice as likely to be suspended for minor violations than white students.

In the average New Jersey public school, African-American students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled for serious disciplinary infractions.  In Minnesota, black students are suspended 6 times as often as whites.  In Iowa, blacks make up just 5 percent of the statewide public school enrollment but account for 22 percent of the students who get suspended.

Today, the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to sweeping revisions to settle a federal civil rights investigation into whether the district was denying black students a quality education.  Federal officials are demanding the LAUSD “eliminate the disproportionality in the discipline imposed on African American students” and to “minimize subjectivity” in school discipline, according to the settlement.

“I was aghast at how disproportionately African American students are disciplined in this district,” said Russlynn Ali, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights.

"In fact, the data indicate that African-American students are punished more severely for the same offense, so clearly something else is going on. We can call it structural inequity or we can call it institutional racism." said Russell Skiba, a professor of educational psychology at Indiana University whose research focuses on race and discipline issues in public schools.

"Poor home environment does carry over into the school environment," said Skiba, who is widely regarded as the nation's foremost authority on school discipline and race. "But middle-class and upper-class black students are also being disciplined more often than their white peers. Skin color in itself is a part of this function."