ERIC Number: ED671828
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Apr
Pages: 37
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Equal Time for Equal Crime? Racial Bias in School Discipline. EdWorkingPaper No. 21-383
Ying Shi; Maria Zhu
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Well-documented racial disparities in rates of exclusionary discipline may arise from differences in hard-to-observe student behavior or bias, in which treatment for the same behavior varies by student race or ethnicity. We provide evidence for the presence of bias using statewide administrative data that contain rich details on individual disciplinary infractions. Two complementary empirical strategies identify bias in suspension outcomes. The first uses within-incident variation in disciplinary outcomes across White and under-represented minority students. The second employs individual fixed effects to examine how consequences vary for students across incidents based on the race of the other student involved in the incident. Both approaches find that Black students are suspended for longer than Hispanic or White students, while there is no evidence of Hispanic-White disparities. The similarity of findings across approaches and the ability of individual fixed effect models to account for unobserved characteristics common across disciplinary incidents provide support that remaining racial disparities are likely not driven by behavior.
Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education, Discipline Policy, Punishment, Racial Discrimination, African American Students, Hispanic American Students, White Students, Social Bias, Racism, Suspension, Observation, Critical Incidents Method, Restorative Practices, Equal Protection, Incidence, Social Justice, Civil Rights
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: annenberg@brown.edu; Web site: https://annenberg.brown.edu/
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Location: North Carolina
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A