Disrupting disparities in school discipline

Abstract

Schools across the country are grappling with vocal resistance to educational equity efforts, while disparities, including racial disproportionality in school discipline, persist. In this research-practice-partnership project, Adai A. Tefera, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Ashlee Sjogren, and David Naff learned of the ways educators and leaders across three distinct schools adopted and engaged in widespread discipline interventions and practices that often failed to consider race, culture, and context — issues central to racial disproportionality in discipline. To counter these race-evasive interventions and practices, they offer recommendations for leaders, educators, and students to engage in race-conscious discipline to advance more just school policies and practices.