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When I read this article, I found it shocking that students can be suspended under "superintendent's suspension" that can last up to an entire year. I can only imagine how far this will put some student's behind.

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I found this article to be of value because it addresses that the suspension of students who are nonviolent does not benefit the students, nor does their removal benefit their peers. It also addresses that frequent suspension leads to lower academic scores and more absences.

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I found this article to be of value because it addresses that the suspension of students who are nonviolent does not benefit the students, nor does their removal benefit their peers. It also addresses that frequent suspension leads to lower academic scores and more absences.

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https://www.educationnext.org/how-school-suspensions-affect-student-achievement-philadelphia/

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The Philadelphia School District's decision in 2012 to end suspensions for minor infractions provided fertile ground for the research team of Matthew Steinberg at the University of Pennsylvania and Johanna Lacoe at Mathematica Policy Research. Their findings have proved a Rorschach test, with both sides of the fraught debate on school discipline drawing conclusions from their work. FutureEd chatted with Steinberg about the academic impact on both suspended students and their peers. Critics and supporters of discipline reform has drawn on your research to make their own arguments. What do you think is the most important lesson we should take from your work?
First, suspending students for non-violent classroom misconduct does not benefit either the suspended students or their peers. Second, we should not expect changes in student behavior simply by removing consequences for student misconduct, such as limiting the use of suspensions. Indeed, district-level policy reforms designed to reduce the use of suspensions should be coupled with intensive school-level supports for schools struggling with the most with student misconduct.

Doing so will help address the underlying behavior that produces suspensions, providing necessary resources for school leaders and teachers to help improve the behavioral climate in these schools.
Did you find evidence linking student suspensions to weaker academic performance?
Our study finds that out-of-school suspensions have a negative effect on student achievement for students suspended for any infraction, including for non-violent or what we call classroom disorder infractions. These included using profanity or general classroom disruption. We also find that the effect on achievement is concentrated in the academic year of the suspension. We find no evidence that a suspension in the prior school year has any adverse consequence for the academic achievement of suspended students in the current year.
How do you measure that impact?
We looked at two outcomes. We looked at achievement, and then we looked at student absences or attendance. What we find specifically is suspensions for any reason are tied to lower scores in math and English language arts tests and that the negative effect increases with each additional day of suspension. The impact varies depending on the age of the student.
What about attendance?
We find some evidence that suspension has a negative effect on school attendance, particularly for younger students, grades 3 through 5. But we're not talking about many missed days. We also find that students suspended for classroom disorder infractions are significantly more likely to receive a suspension in the subsequent school year.
You also look at how the suspensions impact peers in the classroom.
What we find is that for students in grades where there are more serious misconduct coupled with a higher rate of suspension, student achievement is lower. What we also find is that there is no strong evidence that exposure to low-level, classroom-disorder misconduct has any association with peer achievement. This again suggests that a policy where we suspend, at high rates, kids for low-level misconduct is not defensible.
How is your study different from past research?
The literature goes back 15, 20 years already, where researchers have looked at the association between receiving an out-of-school suspension and student achievement. That research has compared students in the same school who did and did not receive suspensions, and the achievement consequences. What we were able to do was compare students' achievement to their records in other years when they weren't as likely to be suspended.

While we find significant adverse effects on student achievement, the magnitude of this effect is substantially smaller than what has been found in prior research and suggests that student-level factors that are typically unobserved by researchers-such as student motivation, ability, etc.-are correlated with both the likelihood a student receives a suspension and a student's academic achievement.
How can you tell that the suspensions are causing weaker performance versus the weaker performers are acting out and being suspended?
The direction of causality as you've identified it is always an important issue that researchers must address. What we're doing is relying on a comparison of achievement changes within the same students. We're basically asking, for the same student who received a suspension in one year and not in another year, how did his/her achievement differ?

You could imagine that, on average, students who receive suspensions are much lower-performing (which is what we find in Philadelphia and has been found elsewhere) than students who do not receive suspensions. But the question is, have we accounted for all the factors that may be related to both receiving a suspension and a student's achievement trajectory so that we can isolate the effect of just receiving the suspension? And we believe we have.

We also then rely on the change in Philadelphia's district-wide discipline policy reform beginning of the 2012-13 school year.

Let's imagine a student misbehaved in the 2011-12 school year. That was the year before the reform. Then the student misbehaved in the same way, let's say, using profanity in the classroom, in the 2012-13 year. The only thing that would change is that in the 12-13 year, the probability that this student would get suspended for profanity should go down.
In Philadelphia, did the discipline reform stop schools from suspending students for classroom disorder infractions?
In the 2011-12 school year, 25 percent of all suspension in Philadelphia were for either classroom disruption or the use of profanity, In the 2012-13 year, after the reform, the percentage of suspensions due to these infractions went down to 15 percent, and then 2013-14, they went down to 12 percent. So while some schools eliminated suspensions for these two forms of low-level, non-violent conduct, many schools in Philadelphia either did not comply or, in some cases, actually increased the use of these suspensions.
Why was that happening?
The schools that were not complying were, as one might expect, the schools that served the most academically and the most economically disadvantaged kids in Philadelphia.

These schools were probably overwhelmed. Just saying you're not going to suspend these kids doesn't make the conduct go away. You need to have an alternative. But the district did not provide any support or resources to address the underlying student behavioral issue that were leading to the high rates of suspension.
That seem like an important part of this work.
That is the part of the policy conversation that is typically ignored. Instead of focusing on whether or not we should institute a consequence for student misbehavior, we also need to address the underlying issues. Johanna and I argue that in light of the fact that suspension caused negative consequences for student achievement, we need to also think about what we can do to improve students' behavior before it reaches the point of schools having to suspend them.
How would you suggest doing that?
One approach that comes to mind is called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support. It's typically a school-wide intervention, and there's experimental evidence that shows that those types of interventions do, in fact, improve student behavior. There are fewer suspensions. And as a result, schools tend to be safer.
Did this reform reduce the racial disparity we see in suspensions in Philadelphia and elsewhere?
Unfortunately, we find some worsening in the racial suspension or discipline gaps following the introduction of Philadelphia's 2012 reform. The evidence suggests that while there was a modest decline in the use of suspensions for classroom disorder infractions among Black and Hispanic students by the end of the first year of the policy compared to White students, we actually find a commensurate increase in suspension days for more serious offenses.

As a result, on balance, we find a slight increase of about 0.08 days per student, or about 8 additional days of suspension for every 100, for Black students relative to White students.
That's discouraging. How did that happen?
This evidence suggests the possibility-though, again, we don't have direct evidence-that some schools may have re-labeled student misconduct among Black and Hispanic students from classroom disorder infractions to more serious infractions so that they could actually use suspensions as a behavioral consequence.
Is the school district aware of this? Are officials there doing anything about it?
We've presented this evidence to the district. And the district has initiated a number of interventions at the school level, and a local foundation is working with them on school climate and safety issues.

Ultimately, in Philadephia and elsewhere, the policy conversation should focus both on efforts to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline practices, particularly for the least severe forms of student misconduct, and to couple these efforts with the provision of intensive resources and training at the school level to assist school leaders and teachers to both implement district reforms and to improve the school climate by addressing student misconduct.

- Phyllis Jordan
Phyllis W. Jordan is FutureEd's editorial director. This piece originally appeared on the FutureEd website. FutureEd is an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy. Follow on Twitter at @futureedGU

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How School Suspensions Affect Student Achievement - Education Next

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The Philadelphia School District's decision in 2012 to end suspensions for minor infractions provided fertile ground for the research team of Matthew Steinberg at the University of Pennsylvania and Johanna Lacoe at Mathematica Policy Research. Their findings have proved a Rorschach test, with both sides of the fraught debate on school discipline drawing conclusions from their work.

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This school social worker explains his beliefs that it is a professional and ethical duty of the people working in schools to stop kicking kids out for nonviolent behaviors. He expresses the importance of keeping kids in school versus out on the streets at risk. Are these kids skipping school because they are scared and feel unsafe, and in turn being forced to miss more school? He challenges us to consider the conditions these children are coming from and to help make it better. My favorite quote from this TED talk is "by kicking kids out we are punishing protective biological responses that are colliding with a classroom environment that WE have not equipped to handle."

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What Are We Doing About School Suspensions | TJ Rumler | TEDxGreenville

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The statistics in this video shows the alarming rates of suspension. The speaker argues that children are being suspended for typical child-like behaviors. The children being suspended in pre-school (3x the amount of K-12 combined) and childcare (infants and toddlers) are so young they probably have not yet developed the skills to comprehend what suspension is. Nineteen percent of the pre-school population is made up by African American children, yet they account for half of all suspensions. Does this really benefit the children, or does it just make life easier on the teachers?

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School suspensions are an adult behavior | Rosemarie Allen | TEDxMileHigh

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Not much evidence has been found that the zero tolerance policies (mandated, pre-determined consequences) have benefitted students. "Moreover, zero tolerance policies may negatively affect the relationship of education with juvenile justice and appear to conflict to some degree with current best knowledge concerning adolescent development."

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An extensive review of the literature found that, despite a 20-year history of implementation, there are surprisingly few data that could directly test the assumptions of a zero tolerance approach to school discipline, and the data that are available tend to contradict those assumptions.

Moreover, zero tolerance policies may negatively affect the relationship of education with juvenile justice and appear to conflict to some degree with current best knowledge concerning adolescent development.

To address the needs of schools for discipline that can maintain school safety while maximizing student opportunity to learn, the report offers recommendations for both reforming zero tolerance where its implementation is necessary and for alternative practice to replace zero tolerance where a more appropriate approach is indicated.

Recommendations include applying zero tolerance policies with greater flexibility that takes school context and teacher expertise into account, and mandating that teachers and other professional staff who have regular contact with students serve as the first line of communication with parents and caregivers regarding disciplinary incidents. The task force also recommends reserving zero tolerance disciplinary removals for only the most serious and sever of disruptive behaviors, and replacing one-size-fits-all disciplinary strategies with graduated systems of discipline, where consequences are geared to the seriousness of the infraction. Most importantly, the group recommends implementing preventive measures that can improve school climate and promote a sense of school community and belongingness.

Chair: Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD
Texas A&M University

Jane Conoley, EdD
University of California at Santa Barbara

Enedina Garcia-Vazquez, PhD
New Mexico State University

Sandra Graham, PhD
University of California at Los Angeles

Peter Sheras, PhD
University of Virginia

Russell Skiba, PhD
Indiana University

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An extensive review of the literature found that, despite a 20-year history of implementation, there are surprisingly few data that could directly test the assumptions of a zero tolerance approach to school discipline, and the data that are available tend to contradict those assumptions.

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Is suspension enabling racism and allowing discrimination? Oppressed groups of people are being suspended at alarming rates- young black girls are the most likely to be suspended. Also, students with disabilities are being suspended at an alarming rate as well.

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This article argues that change might be coming in suspension rates and policies, but why is the change so quiet?

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We are in the midst of a quiet revolution in school discipline.

In the past five years, 27 states have revised their laws with the intention of reducing suspensions and expulsions. And, more than 50 of America's largest school districts have also reformed their discipline policies - changes which collectively affect more than 6.35 million students.

A new paper from Max Eden, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, argues that this is all too much, too soon. In New York City, for example, suspensions have fallen by half since 2011.

Eden's read of the available evidence argues that school climate in the city, on the whole, has gotten worse. "Without making the case that we need to start suspending more students," Eden tells NPR Ed, "the point is that, wow, we really haven't looked into this. We don't know what's going on."

The pressure to stop putting so many students out of class came largely from new data showing blacks and Hispanics are far more likely to be suspended and expelled from school. Students who are suspended are, in turn, far more likely to drop out of high school. And, as police officers have come to be employed directly in schools to enforce "zero-tolerance" discipline, incidents more often result in arrests and even criminal charges, a connection that has become known as the "school-to-prison pipeline."

Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court nominee now in hearings, has ruled in at least two such cases, one involving a 9-year-old whose arm was intentionally twisted when he was put in handcuffs, and another a middle schooler arrested for burping in class.

The data has prompted more widespread legal action as well. In 2014, the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights warned school districts around the country that any discipline policy that has a disparate impact by race, even if it is neutral on its face, can be found to be in violation of the law.

OCR investigated several school districts over discipline policies. Two of them, Oakland and Oklahoma City, agreed in legal settlements to reduce suspensions. Other cities where suspensions have been limited include Los Angeles, Chicago and St. Paul, Minn.

If a disruptive student can't be removed from class, what should be done instead? The prevailing alternative is a set of practices known as "restorative justice." The philosophy behind it could be summed up as: "The kids who are misbehaving are also members of the school community," says Kelly Welch, a criminologist who studies the topic at Villanova University.

"Something's going on with them that we can't punish away, or we're going to be seeing them again, either in the principal's office or criminal justice system," Welch adds.

Students who offend or come into conflicts may be asked to sit in "circles" where they apologize for what they've done, make restitution, go through peer mediation, or perform community service. Teachers may also apologize for their part in a conflict.

New York City, the nation's largest school district, first moved in this direction under Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2012-2013 school year. Bloomberg's changes to the city discipline code banned suspensions for first-time, low-level offenses such as uncooperative, noncompliant or disorderly behavior.

"If I say, 'Hey Anya, f*** off!' " explains Eden, "Or if I just do something that irks you, you have to wait til the third time to suspend me." Studies show bias can especially come into play when teachers face this kind of student behavior, as opposed to offenses like stealing, damaging property or violence, which are less open to interpretation.

"There is discretion in those situations, and sometimes teachers or principals will look the other way and other times they follow through," says Welch.

Mayor Bill de Blasio went further, requiring principals to seek written permission from the district's discipline office whenever they suspended students for any low-level offense. He also provided $1.2 million to train teachers in restorative justice techniques. Under both mayors, suspensions dropped, from 69,643 in the 2011-12 school year to 37,647 in 2015-16. (This is after suspensions had increased dramatically in the previous decade.)

For his research, Eden looked at teachers' and students' responses to the city's annual school climate survey. Across more than 900 schools, he found that in the Bloomberg years there were few changes in student answers to questions about drugs, violence and gang activity. This could be interpreted as a "win-win" - suspensions dropped significantly and schools felt no less safe as a result.

In the de Blasio years the results were more complicated. The most worrying finding? In just over half of middle and high schools, students reported less mutual respect. In addition, in half of schools, students reported more physical fighting. On the other hand, in a majority of schools, teachers' perceptions of order and discipline either stayed the same or, in a third of schools, got better.

By contrast, in other teacher surveys Eden cites from around the country, from Denver to Baton Rouge to Syracuse, N.Y., large majorities have reported a lack of school safety, order and respect after similar discipline reforms.

New York City responded by noting that the discipline policies are working as designed: to lower suspensions and arrests.

"Crime in schools is at an all-time low as suspensions and school-based arrests and summonses are continuing to decline," Freddi Goldstein, de Blasio's deputy press secretary, told the New York Daily News in response to Eden's report. "Research shows that overly punitive disciplinary practices are not effective and our investments in mental health and school climate programs ensure students are provided with a safe and supportive learning environment."

Eden himself acknowledges this paper raises more questions than it answers. For example, we don't know whether school surveys are a valid measure of actual school climate. The survey responses aren't cross-referenced with other measures such as student achievement, attendance or behavioral incident reports, which might help clarify that point.

Villanova's Kelly Welch calls the paper as a whole "hugely problematic." She acknowledges that the degree to which teachers and students subjectively feel safe and happy at school is an important indicator in itself. But, she says, "to say that perception equates with reality is really wrong."

Perhaps, she adds, students in schools practicing restorative justice become more aware of fights, for example, because they are asked to discuss every incident in detail in a large group. "That's plausible," agrees Eden.

The study also doesn't tell us whether the schools that did see an improvement in school climate were doing a better job implementing restorative justice policies.

And because these policies are still new, a major point we still don't know is whether students who escape suspension under new discipline policies will eventually end up better off. Can restorative justice work to keep kids in school, help them graduate and go on to better lives? Or, as critics argue, will the same adverse social and emotional factors that cause students to act up also drive them out of school eventually, regardless of the consequences the school puts in place?

"The rigorous academic research on this, I think, is sorely lacking and will remain sorely lacking," says Eden, pointing out that it would be unethical to randomly assign students to be suspended or not be suspended for the same offense.

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School Suspensions Have Plunged: We Don't Yet Know If That's Good News

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A controversial new paper suggests schools in New York City are less safe now that fewer students are being suspended.

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This article sheds a light on a problem but because the population of Native American children is so insignificant, it is overlooked that they are being suspended at extreme rates. Again, allowing for discrimination and for these groups of students to feel unwanted and unvalued at school.

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Community College Equity Assessment Lab
Native American students in California public schools suffer outrageously high suspension and expulsion rates largely due to teacher bias and systemic racism, according to a new report.

In one rural county, for example, Native youth were 40 times more likely to be suspended.

The report, From Boarding Schools to Suspension Boards: Suspensions and Expulsions of Native American Students in California Public Schools, is a collaboration by researchers from the Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative (SNAHEC) in collaboration with the Community College Equity Assessment Lab (CCEAL) at San Diego State University (SDSU).

Educators called on Gov. Newsom, who has apologized for the "genocide" against Native Americans in California, to address the school suspension issue.

"The data clearly indicates the path Governor Newsom must take to make his recent pledge to begin reconciliation between the State of California and its tribal nations a reality," said Ricardo Torres, a board member of Sacramento Native American Health Center and report contributor. "The safeguarding of Native children in public schools is fundamental to the success of reconciliation."

"This report shines a light on a problem our communities have known about for years, yet schools ignore due to Native students representing an 'insignificant' population size," said Dahlton Brown, Executive Director of Education for Wilton Rancheria in Sacramento County. "It is deeply unjust for schools to be complicit in the continued oppression of our youth, and I hope this report starts conversations between Native educators and school systems to address these disparities."

The report is based on data self-reported by districts, and, examined in the context of the tragic history of Indian boarding schools, indicates many public schools are still dangerous places for Native American students.

The founding philosophy of the boarding schools was to "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" through forced assimilation, which often led to students suffering physical, mental and sexual abuse. In California today, many Native American students are suspended due to "willful defiance," a vague term that in many cases can actually refer to Native American students standing up for their culture or resisting school systems that fail to respect indigenous identities.

The report highlights a number of key findings that raise concern:

The statewide suspension rate for Native American children and youth is 7.2 percent, much higher than the statewide suspension average of 3.5 percent.

The expulsion rates for Native boys has been steadily rising, they are expelled at a rate that is 4.2 times higher than the state average, representing the highest expulsion rate for any racial/ethnic or gender group.

Early childhood (kindergarten through third grade) is the area with the greatest suspension disparity. Native American boys are 2.5 times more likely to be suspended while the rate is 3.7 times greater for Native American girls.

The top counties for suspending Native American boys were Modoc County, Mono County, and Lassen County. Modoc County was the top county suspending both Native American boys at 38 percent and Native girls at 26.1 percent.

(Image: Community College Equity Assessment Lab)

Kings County was the top expulsion county for both Native American boys and girls. Native American boys are more than 40 times more likely to be expelled in this county than the statewide average. For Native American girls, the rate is 20 times higher than the statewide average - these rates are egregiously high.

The number one suspension district for Native American boys in California are Fortuna Union High in Humboldt County. This district suspends more than 71 percent of their Native American males. This is followed by Modoc Joint Unified in Modoc County at 42.5 percent.

The top suspension district for Native American girls is Loleta Union Elementary in Humboldt County. In this district, 32.3 percent of Native American girls were suspended. This district has long struggled with its service to Native American students, having been the focus of a 2013 Office of Civil Rights investigation for its treatment of Native students.

The study provides recommendations for reducing the suspension and expulsion of Native youth in public schools. These range from suggestions for professional development and the preparation of school district personnel to better understand and respond to trauma, and a call for the elimination of suspensions in early childhood education. The report also includes several anecdotes from real Native American parents whose children suffered questionable suspensions or expulsions.

"As a parent of a middle schooler, I'm alarmed by the report's findings. It's important to make sure that Native students are understood, valued and academically supported in the K-12 system," said Crystal Martinez-Alire (Miwok), a report contributor. "To succeed and achieve their goals, Native students need to feel a sense of belonging in their schools."

The report is part of an ongoing series focused on suspensions of youth of color in California public schools, following the release of the Get Out! and Capitol of Suspensions reports focused on Black boys and young men.

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New report exposes extreme school suspension rates for Native youth in California schools - IndianCountryToday.com

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Community College Equity Assessment Lab Native American students in California public schools suffer outrageously high suspension and expulsion rates largely due to teacher bias and systemic racism, according to a new report. In one rural county, for example, Native youth were 40 times more likely to be suspended.

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Overall, I feel that suspension used too much in schools, for the wrong reasons. As teachers I feel that we should be using suspension as our absolute last resort in most cases, instead of the easy way out from dealing with behavioral issues. If suspension does not benefit the students or their peers, why is it happening at such a high rate?  I believe that before being so quick to suspend nonviolent offenses, there should be more of a focus on addressing the underlying behavior causing these suspensions. School is supposed to be a safe place for all learners where everyone feels welcome and valued. The purpose of school is to keep kids in, not kick them out. We as educators can do better for our schools, students and classrooms and should be advocates of change for these extreme policies.

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Overall, I feel that suspension used too much in schools, for the wrong reasons. As teachers I feel that we should be using suspension as our absolute last resort in most cases, instead of the easy way out from dealing with behavioral issues. If suspension does not benefit the students or their peers, why is it happening at such a high rate?  I believe that before being so quick to suspend nonviolent offenses, there should be more of a focus on addressing the underlying behavior causing these suspensions. School is supposed to be a safe place for all learners where everyone feels welcome and valued. The purpose of school is to keep kids in, not kick them out. We as educators can do better for our schools, students and classrooms and should be advocates of change for these extreme policies.