Racial inequality in exclusionary discipline is a salient educational equity issue. The implications of educators' discretion in administering discipline and the complexity of repeated office discipline referrals (ODRs) and suspensions are reflected in school discipline policy debates nationwide. This brief uses New York City to learn more about…

Discipline reformers claim that suspensions negatively affect suspended students, while others suggest reforms have unintended consequences for peers. Using student panel data from the School District of Philadelphia, we implement student fixed effects and instrumental variable (IV) strategies to examine the consequences of suspensions for…

Students with disabilities (SWDs) are more likely to be suspended or expelled than their general education peers and more likely to be chronically absent. This study uses 5 years of student-level data for all Michigan special education students to examine the relationship between educational setting, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes. Using…

Zero tolerance discipline policies have come under criticism as contributors to racial discipline gaps; however, few studies have explicitly examined such policies. This study utilizes data from two nationally representative data sources to examine the effect of state zero tolerance laws on suspension rates and principal perceptions of problem…

This study challenges the belief that homogeneous ability grouping benefits high-ability students in cognitive and social-emotional development at the expense of their low-ability peers. From a developmental point of view, the authors hypothesize that homogeneous grouping may improve the learning behaviors and may benefit the literacy learning of…

The increasing trend of placing students with disabilities in general education classrooms has raised questions among researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and parents about classmate peer effects on all students. However, little is known about the peer effects of classmates with disabilities on the outcomes of other students in the classroom;…

This study examines public school characteristics, and public and private school market characteristics, associated with participation among elementary-aged students in a means-tested school voucher program in Florida. Participants are more likely than eligible nonparticipants to come from disadvantaged public schools on multiple dimensions. On…

Many schools have adopted early-grade retention as an intervention strategy for children displaying academic or behavioral problems. Previous analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort data have found evidence of negative effects of kindergarten retention on academic learning during the repeated year. Will kindergarten…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

High School and Beyond data for 175 rural high schools suggest that creating larger institutions will increase student misbehavior. However, for small rural high schools, this increase will border the trivial. Decisions to consolidate schools should rest on criteria other than equity, efficiency, and its effects on student behavior. (RLC)