Disparities in School Discipline & Claudette Colvin's Legacy

Massachusetts student discipline by race 2014

On Wednesday, as American media headlines were abuzz with political analysis of the Super Tuesday presidential primary results, Motoko Rich published an interesting article in the New York Times about troubling findings from an analysis of wide disparities in school discipline in charter schools based on data collected by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

The report found that black charter school students are four times as likely to be disciplined as their white peers for the same offenses (disabled students are two to three times as likely to face discipline) and that these disparities begin as early as preschool.

The report offers insight not only into how student's race impacts the way teachers and administrators perceive, and interact with students of color, but how that perception can consciously or subconsciously skew the ways they decide to mete out disciplinary measures as well.

The OCR data reflects similar findings in American public schools as well, as reflected in a 2014 OCR analysis of the 97,000 public schools across the nation which showed disparities in school discipline based on race as well which, like the OCR data on charter schools shows, begin as early as preschool.

UCLA researchers from the Center for Civil Rights Remedies also analyzed federal data to do comparisons of out-of-school suspensions in elementary and secondary schools in districts across all 50 states in 2015 and found wide disparities based on student's race in states like Missouri, Florida and Wisconsin.

According to UCLA's data, Wisconsin, the home state of former Republican Presidential candidate Governor Scott Walker, suspended 34% of its black students, even though blacks only make up about 6.3% of the overall state population and whites make up about 86.2%.

2013 NYC student rally against disparities in discipline 

Back in the fall of 2014 a non-profit based in Boston, the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights School Discipline, issued a report based on data compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Education that found that black and Latino students were far more likely to face school discipline for non-criminal, non-violent and non-drug related offenses, and the discipline they received was more harsh than that meted out to their white classmates (see graphic above). 

The disparities in discipline were actually worse in Boston charter schools.

In an interview one of the authors of the LCCRSD report, Matt Cregor, told Boston public radio station WBUR:

"It could be disrespect, it could be dress code violations, it could be tardiness, whatever it is we know it's a harsh punishment that research has shown to predict school drop-out, grade retention and involvement in the juvenile justice system."

The last time I blogged about this issue was back in January in response to a reader named Katherine who sent me a link to a report entitled, "Separate and Unequal: School Funding in 'Post Racial' America" which examined how public school funding reinforces racial segregation in American schools - in the 21st century no less.

While I'm certainly not a qualified researcher, having blogged about this issue a few times in the past few years, I have to wonder if the gaps in discipline in U.S. public and charter schools are getting worse - or are researchers and institutions simply devoting more comprehensive analysis of the problem?

Civil rights icon Claudette Colvin

On Tuesday, Melinda Archer published a really insightful interview in The Atlantic with Monique W. Morris, author of "The Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools", an analysis of how long-festering stigmas based on race and sex have combined to disenfranchise, marginalize and exclude African-American girls in American schools.

A really interesting example of the impact of stereotypes on black American girls that Morris cites in her book is that of Claudette Colvin (pictured left), a black Montgomery, Alabama teenager who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus on March 2, 1955 - a full nine months before seamstress Rosa Parks did in December 1955.

Like Parks, Colvin, then 15-years-old, was sitting on a crowded bus after a long days work when the driver ordered her to give up a seat to one of the white passengers who boarded at a stop.


Colvin refused and she was arrested.

As the Website The Visibility Project notes in an article about Colvin's largely-unheralded contribution to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, local church and civil rights leaders at the time opted not to rally behind Colvin's arrest because they were concerned that because she was dark-skinned, several months pregnant and had been outwardly confrontational with with the policeman who arrested her, she was "not the right type" for mainstream civil rights leaders to get behind.

According to the Visibility project, Aurelia Browder was arrested in April, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, and Mary Louise Smith was arrested in October of the same year - so there were at least three other women arrested before Rosa Parks.

In fact it was actually Colvin, Browder, Smith and two other black Montgomery women who were the plaintiffs in the federal court case Browder v. Gayle that deemed the segregation on Montgomery buses a violation of the Constitution - a case which was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

As Morris noted in The Atlantic interview, Colvin was well-read, active in the civil rights movement and was a member of the local NAACP Youth Council, but her pregnancy and militant attitude left her largely forgotten in the history of the civil rights movement - but Rosa Parks is the one whose face is on a stamp.

Obviously that's not to minimize Park's courage or determination in any way, I just grew up with the knowledge that it was Park's refusal to give up her seat that sparked the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott, when in fact Colvin, Browder and Smith all showed the same non-violent resistance months before Parks, yet I never heard their names before reading The Atlantic article  cited above.

But to come back to my original point and wrap up, it's been remarkable to see how little the disparities in the American education system have been covered by mainstream media over the course of the presidential campaign season.

Sure we've seen the occasional run-of-the-mill political analysis of Senator Bernie Sanders' call for free college tuition or Hillary Clinton's call to cap student loan interest rates by the usual assortment of talking heads on cable and network television.

But for the most part, the state of American schools has been relegated to the proverbial side burner of political discussion.

Over the course of 2015 - 2016, mainstream American media (online, television, print and radio) has devoted an alarmingly large percentage of it's presidential campaign coverage to Donald Trump to the exclusion of far more important stories and issues affecting the global population.

As essayist / journalist Matt Taibbi observed in a revealing look at the state of Trump's candidacy in the March 10th issue of Rolling Stone, many journalists seem at once revolted and consumed with the divisive, toxic nature of the Republican front-runner's campaign - expressing alarm that such a controversial candidate has won so many primaries, even as they continually devote front-page coverage to his predictable insults and slights.

To the point that the collective media coverage of Trump replaces any need for him to spend anywhere near the level of money on campaign commercials as his competitors do.

According to a Buzzfeed article, an assortment of American journalists have begun to express "concern" over what is being deemed "wall-to-wall" coverage of Trump - which frankly strikes me as coming more than just a little too late in the political game.

So while it's a positive sign to see more comprehensive analysis of disparities in school discipline being reported in the media, the issue is far more critical to the future of America than Trump's latest tirade or comment.

Maybe if the media saw it that way, the issue would attract the level of attention and visibility it deserves from politicians, school administrators, academics and parents alike.

In the meantime, millions of students of color in elementary and secondary public and charter schools around the nation must overcome yet another barrier to a fair and substantive education based not on their capacity to learn or absorb knowledge, but on the color of their skin or ethnicity - and the way teachers and administrators view them.

Separate & Unequal: Who's Getting Disciplined in US Schools & Why?

Just about this time of year back on March 23, 2014 I wrote a blog entry about troubling Department of Education statistics that showed an alarming disparity in the severity and frequency of discipline given for Pre-K - 12th grade American students based on their race. 

Last Thursday February 5th, reporter Nina Strochlic published an eye-opening piece on The Daily Beast Website highlighting how this trend in education seems to be growing nationwide; especially in major school systems located along the east coast.

Click the link above and check her article out.

Among the highlights, how a twelve year old African-American girl from Georgia who faced juvenile court and expulsion from school for scribbling the word "Hi" on a locker while her white counterpart who was also caught scribbling was only required to pay a small restitution.

Disparities like that reflect DOE statistics that show young girls of color are six times as likely as their white counterparts to face suspension; in New York City schools (amongst the most segregated in the nation) the ratio jumps to TEN times to one.

It hasn't escaped the attention of the Obama administration.

In January of 2014, a Washington Post rticle by Donna St. George highlighted efforts by the DOE and the Department of Justice to bring attention to the issue:
 
“The need to rethink and redesign school discipline practices is frankly long overdue,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, speaking in Baltimore alongside Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. as the two leaders unveiled what were described as the first national guidelines on school discipline.

As the article states, the event at which Duncan and Holder spoke was held at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland; a city which showed a significant drop in student suspensions in previous years, but have other schools around the nation followed those guidelines since the announcement was made?

Why isn't there more public focus on this issue?

After all, with the 2016 presidential and Congressional elections on the horizon, calls for educational reforms in the US these days are as frequent as they are varied in their scope and purpose.

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio has been an advocate for universal Pre-K for all New York City students and President Obama echoed that goal nationally in his recent State of the Union address, where he also called on Congress to support legislation that would make community college free for any student wishing to attend.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats have led the charge to cap interest rates on college loans to help make a university degree more accessible, and paying back student loans less financially crippling for young professionals entering the job market.  

Republicans have some bold ideas for educational reform too.

Scott Walker's educational reform? Cutting state funding for college

Like conservative Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's new $68 billion state budget proposal which, in addition to more tax cuts, also calls for a staggering $300 million cut in state funding to the University of Wisconsin system; he's already backed a proposal to privatize Wisconsin's K - 12 public schools system.

Critics have called Walker's budget an unrealistic reflection of his desire to appease the right wing base of the national Republican party rather than a sensible approach to the needs of the people of Wisconsin. 

Democrats and Republicans alike have called for reducing the amount of time students spend on standardized testing during the school year, but where's the focus on the fairness of who's getting disciplined and why?

Can there really be a discussion on reforms in American education without addressing racial bias in the severity and frequency of discipline measures being based on skin color or ethnicity? 

I look at the conditions of many American schools today and it makes me truly thankful for having had the opportunity to attend quality public and private schools, with quality teachers and administrators who really cared while growing up in the '70's and 80's.

Even now I still remember my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Goldblatt, my first grade teacher Mrs. Lehman and my fifth grade teacher Mr. Williams; and how they molded and shaped me.

I can also remember my language arts and English teachers in middle school who helped encourage my ability to write.

My Pre-K - 12th grade education was a launch pad that eventually led me to graduate from Penn State University with no college debt; thanks to my parent's insistence that I get my degree, hard work and coach Joe Paterno giving me a full scholarship to play Division I college football.

My own public and private school experience infused me with a life-long love of reading, history and politics as well as a genuine desire to learn, intellectual curiosity and a passion for writing.

All students deserve that opportunity, and it shouldn't be based on the color of one's skin, or one's ethnicity.

So before we begin addressing standardized testing, maybe we as a nation need to focus on standardized discipline that treats all students equally; instead of separate and unequal.