Today is my daughter Cincia’s birthday. She is set to begin her final year of middle school and is excited about the future. I don’t tend to worry too severely about her experiences in school and whether she faces unnecessary discrimination. Yes, my kids have come home and told me stories about things they shouldn’t have to experience at school, but nothing worth getting overly worked up about. However, as I began to look at the disparity in disciplinary treatment for girls in the public school system, it reminded me of some of the prevalent trends observed in our report “Female Federal Arrests and Booking Trends 2000 – 2001.” Similar to their male counterparts, minority females are also at greater risk of being affected by the school-to-prison pipeline.
Unequal Treatment
While conducting my research, I noticed a significant contrast in how disciplinary issues are handled for girls of various races and ethnicities. In her article summarizing discipline data for girls in U.S. Public Schools during the 2015–2016 school year, Misha Inniss-Thompson found that in comparison to White female students, Black female students were:
- 7 times more likely to receive 1 or more out-of-school suspensions.
- 4 times more likely to be arrested.
- 4 times more likely to receive 1 or more in-school suspensions.
- Over 3 times more likely to receive corporal punishment.
- 3 times more likely to be referred to law enforcement.
- 2 times more likely to be physically restrained.
In addition, data also showed that 75 percent of Black female discipline referrals were for disruption, compared with 19 percent for White girls; 69 percent were for defiance, insubordination, or noncompliance, compared with 19 percent for White girls. How do we as a nation reconcile this? Who is to blame, the teachers who are predominately White females or the Black female students?
Probable Causes in the Disparity
Feelings are difficult, if not impossible, to regulate. How do you tell a teacher not to feel disrupted, defied, or disrespected, or when to ignore such feelings if they are present? As a fellow educator, I sometimes experience these feelings with my students. Sharing similar backgrounds with many of my students at Morehouse College allows me to deal with issues more effectively because I can understand their problems better. This same dynamic exists in just a few public school classroom environments.
Unfortunately, feelings spurred by differences are not always the cause for the over-disciplinary treatment of Black girls in school. In their three-year study, Ming-Te Wang and Juan Del Toro found that 26 percent of Black students received at least one suspension for a minor infraction (e.g., dress code violations, inappropriate language, cell phone usage) over the course of the three years, compared with just 2 percent of White students. These results reflect a level of bias against these Black students.
The problem is not in the teachers’ feelings or solely due to biases against Black female students. The problem is a result of availability or the lack thereof, that is, a limited availability of Black teachers and a limited availability of different levels of punishment.
Potential Solutions
One obvious solution is to have more Black or minority teachers available. National Center for Education Statistics data showed that only 7 percent of public school teachers were Black in 2017–18. Due to the shortage of teachers from diverse backgrounds, certain students may need access to role models or mentors in their academic environment to whom they can relate. Brookings released a report yesterday that finds that having even one same-race teacher in their grade level improves test scores, graduation rates, attendance, and behavioral outcomes for Black students. In addition, having more Black faculty members could help teachers from other racial backgrounds understand their Black students better.
Another solution that has been promoted is the termination of zero-tolerance policies adopted at the state or local level. These policies involve strict punishment, such as removal from class or school through suspensions (in-school and out-of-school) and expulsions. While initially intended to deter incidents involving weapons, drugs, or acts of violence, these policies have also been applied in more subjective situations involving defiance, talking in class, tardiness, or truancy. With these policies in place, school administrators have fewer choices for handling each disciplinary situation based on the circumstances. In
Fortunately, my daughter has not had to deal with unfair disciplinary issues. But for too many families like ours, this is not the case. For these families, the school-to-prison pipeline is not just a theory but a reality.