A.    Greater Suspension Rates Are Not Clearly Linked to More Frequent or More Serious Misbehavior

Research on student behavior, race and discipline has found no evidence that Black over-representation in school suspension is due to higher rates of misbehavior (Kelly, 2010). Strikingly, the Council of State Governments Report found that Black students were more likely to be disciplined for less serious ““discretionary” offenses, and that when other factors were controlled for, higher percentages of White students were disciplined on more serious nondiscretionary grounds, such as possessing drugs or carrying a weapon (Fabelo et al., 2011). This robust study controlled for 83 variables that made the racial comparison one of similarly situated students. Further, a 2010 study by Johns Hopkins researcher Dr. Catherine Bradshaw (2010), based on 21 schools, found that even when controlling for teacher ratings of student misbehavior, Black students were more likely to be sent to the office for disciplinary reasons. These, and numerous other empirical studies (Skiba et al., 2002; Skiba et al., 2009) suggest that Black students are being unfairly singled out when it comes to prosecuting misbehavior that requires more of a subjective evaluation.

Similar conclusions are suggested by an analysis of recent data from North Carolina (Figure 3) concerning first-time offenders. As the sample below illustrates, Black first-time offenders in the State of North Carolina were far more likely than White first-time offenders to be suspended for minor offenses, including cell phone use, disruptive behavior, disrespect and public displays of affection.

TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE

Figure 3 North Carolina Black/White suspension rates suspensions for selected categories of infractions; first offense.

*392 Data on first-time offenders, disaggregated by race and type of offense, is not generally accessible or reported to the public, but was obtained by lawyers who filed an OCR complaint against Wake County School District that asserted that district data, like the state data charted above, demonstrated that for the same category of offense, far higher percentages of Black first-time offenders received out-of-school suspensions than of White first-time offenders (NAACP et al., v. Wake County Board of Education et al., 2010).

Other research, also suggest that suspension rates are significantly influenced by factors other than differences in student misbehavior. For example, a statewide study of Indiana that controlled for race and poverty, concluded that the attitude of a school's principal toward the use of suspension correlated highly with its use (Rausch & Skiba, 2005). Principals who believed frequent punishments helped improve behavior and who blamed behavioral problems on poor parenting and poverty also tended to suspend more students than those principals who strongly believed in enforcing school rules yet regarded suspension as a measure to be used sparingly. This evidence raises the possibility that schools with high levels of poverty and racial isolation are more likely to embrace the kind of harsh discipline policy and school leadership embodied by the iconic bat-and-bullhorn principal Joe Clark. According to Time Magazine: “On a single day in his first year, he threw out 300 students for being tardy or absent and, he said, for disrupting the school. ‘Leeches and parasites,’ he calls such pupils. Over the next five years he tossed out hundreds more” (Bowen, 1988).

Clark's methods, portrayed by Morgan Freeman in the popular movie Lean on Me, can be summarized as kicking out the bad kids so the good kids can learn. Despite the common-sense appeal, and near heroic status that Clark achieved, there is no evidence that Clark's approach worked to improve the education of well-behaved students, let alone for the students removed from school (Biama & Moses, 1989). To the contrary, the schools run by the low suspending principals in Indiana had higher test scores after controlling for race and poverty (Rausch & Skiba, 2005).

Still, many believe a heavy reliance on out-of-school suspension is necessary to protect the learning environment for well-behaved students. Misperceptions about the use and benefits of suspending students may contribute to the public embrace of the practice.