At the end of 2018, Obama-era disciplinary guidance aimed at reducing the use of suspensions in schools (especially for minorities and students with disabilities) was revoked by the U.S. Department of Education. A key piece of research supporting the decision was based on the analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K), which showed that the racial suspension gap was not really about race but resulted from the differential behavior exhibited by Black and White students. We reanalyzed the public-use ECLS-K and provide syntax for our analyses to show that the findings were primarily due to sample selection bias. Several alternative model specifications were tested and continued to show the persistence of the race-based suspension gaps regardless of model or measure used.
AnyonY.JensonJ. M.AltschulI.FarrarJ.McQueenJ.GreerE.DowningB.SimmonsJ. (2014). The persistent effect of race and the promise of alternatives to suspension in school discipline outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 44, 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.06.025
4.
BodnerT. E. (2008). What improves with increased missing data imputations?Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 15, 651–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510802339072
5.
BradshawC. P.MitchellM. M.O’BrennanL. M.LeafP. J. (2010). Multilevel exploration of factors contributing to the overrepresentation of black students in office disciplinary referrals. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 508–520. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018450
6.
BreenR.KarlsonK. B.HolmA. (2018). Interpreting and understanding logits, probits, and other nonlinear probability models. Annual Review of Sociology, 44, 39–54.
CameronA. C.MillerD. L. (2015). A practitioner’s guide to cluster-robust inference. Journal of Human Resources, 50, 317–372. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.50.2.317
9.
EndersC. K. (2017). Multiple imputation as a flexible tool for missing data handling in clinical research. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 98, 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.11.008
10.
FabeloT.ThompsonM.PlotkinM.CarmichaelD.MarchbanksM.IIIBoothE. (2011). Breaking school rules: A statewide study of how school discipline relates to students’ success and juvenile justice involvement. Council of State Governments Justice Center.
GilliamW. S.MaupinA. N.ReyesC. R.AccavittiM.ShicF. (2016). Do early educators’ implicit biases regarding sex and race relate to behavior expectations and recommendations of preschool expulsions and suspensions. Yale University, Yale Child Study Center.
13.
GreshamF.ElliotS. (1990). Social Skills Rating System manual. American Guidance Service, Inc.
HuangF. L. (2018). Do Black students misbehave more? Investigating the differential involvement hypothesis and out-of-school suspensions. The Journal of Educational Research, 111, 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2016.1253538
16.
HuangF. L. (2019). Alternatives to logistic regression models in experimental studies. The Journal of Experimental Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2019.1699769
17.
HuangF. L.CornellD. (2018). The relationship of school climate with out-of-school suspensions. Children and Youth Services Review, 94, 378–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.08.013
18.
Ispa-LandaS. (2018). Persistently harsh punishments amid efforts to reform: Using tools from social psychology to counteract racial bias in school disciplinary decisions. Educational Researcher, 47, 384–390. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X18779578
McCarthyJ. D.HogeD. R. (1987). The social construction of school punishment: Racial disadvantage out of universalistic process. Social Forces, 65, 1101–1120. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/65.4.1101
21.
MendezL. M. R.KnoffH. M.FerronJ. M. (2002). School demographic variables and out-of-school suspension rates: A quantitative and qualitative analysis of a large, ethnically diverse school district. Psychology in the Schools, 39, 259–277. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.10020
22.
MoodC. (2010). Logistic regression: Why we cannot do what we think we can do, and what we can do about it. European Sociological Review, 26, 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcp006
23.
MorganP. L.FarkasG.HillemeierM. M.WangY.MandelZ.DeJarnettC.MaczugaS. (2019). Are students with disabilities suspended more frequently than otherwise similar students without disabilities?Journal of School Psychology, 72, 1–13.
24.
OkonofuaJ. A.EberhardtJ. L. (2015). Two strikes: Race and the disciplining of young students. Psychological Science, 26, 617–624. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615570365
25.
OwensJ.McLanahanS. S. (2019). Unpacking the drivers of racial disparities in school suspension and expulsion. Social Forces. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soz095
RobinsonL. D.JewellN. P. (1991). Some surprising results about covariate adjustment in logistic regression models. International Statistical Review / Revue Internationale de Statistique, 59, 227–240. https://doi.org/10.2307/1403444
28.
RubinD. B. (2004). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys (Vol. 81). John Wiley & Sons.
29.
SkibaR. J.ChungC.-G.TrachokM.BakerT. L.SheyaA.HughesR. L. (2014). Parsing disciplinary disproportionality contributions of infraction, student, and school characteristics to out-of-school suspension and expulsion. American Educational Research Journal, 51, 640–670. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831214541670
30.
SkibaR. J.MichaelR. S.NardoA. C.PetersonR. L. (2002). The color of discipline: Sources of racial and gender disproportionality in school punishment. The Urban Review, 34, 317–342. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021320817372
31.
SkibaR. J.PetersonR. L.WilliamsT. (1997). Office referrals and suspension: Disciplinary intervention in middle schools. Education & Treatment of Children, 20, 295–315.
WrightJ. P.MorganM. A.CoyneM. A.BeaverK. M.BarnesJ. C. (2014). Prior problem behavior accounts for the racial gap in school suspensions. Journal of Criminal Justice, 42, 257–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2014.01.001
35.
WuS.-C.PinkW.CrainR.MolesO. (1982). Student suspension: A critical reappraisal. The Urban Review, 14, 245–303. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02171974
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
