Aurora (CO) Disparities
(Aug. 8, 2018)
This is one of the many pages on this site discussing that, contrary to the belief promoted by the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services (as well as the social science community) that generally reducing discipline rates will tend to reduce relative racial and other demographic differences in discipline rates, generally reducing discipline rates tend to increase such differences. This page is similar to the following subpages of the Discipline Disparities page on this site, which discuss like situations where (in the jurisdictions indicated in the titles of the subpages) general reductions in discipline rates were in fact accompanied by increased relative racial/ethnic differences in discipline rates: California Disparities, Colorado Disparities, Connecticut Disparities, Florida Disparities, Maryland Disparities, Massachusetts Disparities, Minnesota Disparities, Oregon Disparities, Rhode Island Disparities, Utah Disparities, Beaverton, OR Disparities, Denver Disparities, Henrico County, VA Disparities, Kern County (CA) Disparities, Los Angeles SWPBS, Loudoun County (VA) Disparities, Milwaukee Disparities, Minneapolis Disparities, Montgomery County, MD Disparities, Portland, OR Disparities, St. Paul Disparities, South Bend Disparities, Urbana Disparities. Some of the subpages may provide substantial detail, while others (like this subpage) simply present statements describing the situations. Readers of the pages may also find useful my “Discipline disparities in Md. Schools,” Daily Record (June 21, 2018), which discusses a study showing that generally reductions in suspension in Maryland schools between the 2008-09 and 2013-14 school years had been accompanied by an increase in the ratio of the statewide black suspension rate to the statewide white suspension rate, and that, during that period, 21 of the 23 Maryland school districts for which data on black and overall suspension rate reductions could be analyzed there occurred an increase in the ratio of the black suspension rate to suspension rate for other students.
Other useful related readings include my December 8, 2017 testimony explaining the issue to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, my letters explaining the issue to the United States Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice (July 17, 2017), Comptroller General of the United States (Apr. 12, 2018), Minnesota Department of Human Rights (May 14, 2018), and Maryland State Department of Education (June 26, 2018), as well as my “The Paradox of Lowering Standards,” Baltimore Sun (Aug. 5, 2013), “Innumeracy at the Department of Education and the Congressional Committees Overseeing It,” Federalist Society Blog (Aug. 24, 2017), “The Pernicious Misunderstanding of Effects or Policies on Racial Differences in Criminal Justice Outcomes,” Federalist Society Blog (Oct. 12, 2017).
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According to a March 28, 2018 Chalkbeat article title “To close persistent disparities in discipline, some Aurora teachers are confronting racial bias,” the Aurora, Colorado public school system is one of the many school districts across the country proceeding under the belief that generally reducing public school suspensions will tend to reduce (a) relative racial differences in discipline rates and (b) the proportions African Americans make up of suspended students. As explained in the materials above, the opposite is the case.
According to the article, during a period when suspensions were declining substantially, the racial disparity – apparently appraised in terms of some measure of difference between the proportion African Americans make up of students and the proportion they make up of suspended students – was slightly larger in the 2016-17 school year than it was in the 2012-13 school year. An increase in the disparity (though not necessarily a slight increase) is what should be expected in the circumstances, though it is the opposite of what the author and policymakers in fact expect.