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, Aurora (CO) 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 (IL) Disparities. Some of the subpages may provide substantial detail, while others 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 “Misunderstanding of Statistics Leads to Misguided Law Enforcement Policies,” Amstat News (Dec. 2012), “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).
In March of 2013, I created an Oakland Agreement subpage discussing an September 2012 an agreement between the U.S. Department of Education and the Oakland Unified School District discussing whether those monitoring the agreement would understand that generally reducing discipline rates would tend to increase, not reduce, relative differences in discipline rates. I did not look into whether the general reductions in suspensions contemplated by the agreement in fact were accompanied by increased relative racial differences in discipline rates. Apparently that did happen, though the article that brought the pertinent information to my attention suggests just the opposite.
A Spring 2017 article in Future of Children titled “Social and Emotional Learning and Equity in School Discipline” discusses the effects of programs that generally reduce discipline rates on measures of racial disparity. Because the authors apparently did not understand that it is possible for relative and absolute differences to change in opposite directions – much less that, in the school discipline context, this tends to occur systematically – they make a number of statements suggesting or stating that reductions in discipline rates reduced relative racial differences in discipline rates (although not by very much). In the case of Oakland, the article states (at 131):
“After several years of reforms, OUSD made progress in shifting disciplinary practices. From 2011 to 2013, its overall suspension rate dropped from 13.2 percent to 10.2 percent; the suspension rate of black students decreased by 7 percentage points—the greatest decrease relative to other groups.63 From 2011 to 2014, the number of referrals issued to black males for disruption or willful defiance declined by 37 percent.64 Yet despite progress over several years of reform, the racial discipline gap persisted. In 2013, the suspension rate of black students (20.5 percent) remained about ten times higher than that of white students (1.8 percent).65 Given these persistently large disparities, the district worked to strengthen its reforms by aligning them with ecologically and equity-oriented SEL.”
Readers would take for granted that, as the article implies or states, the ratio of the black suspension rate to the white suspension rate had decreased, though still remaining very high. But as shown in Table 5 (at 45) of the authors’ reference 63 (Sonia Jain et al., Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools: Implementation and Impacts (Oakland, CA: Oakland Unified School District, 2014)) the ratio of the black rate to the white rates had increased from 9.5 (27.6/2/9) to 11.4 (20.5/1.8) over the period examined.
Compare this page with the Spurious Contradictions subpage of Measuring Health Disparities page of jpscanlan.com, which discusses a situation where the authors’ failure to distinguish between relative and absolute measures caused them regard two studies that found essentially the same thing as finding opposite things.
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Other situations where observers, on the basis of the Jain study, have incorrectly reported that relative racial difference in discipline rates were reduced in Oakland are discussed in emails to editors and writers for the journal School Psychology Review and leadership of the National Association of School Psychologists.
See also the Executive Office of the President December 2016 document titled “Report: The Continuing Need to Rethink School Discipline,” which states (at 16): “Compared to six years ago, suspension rates across the District are down by 57 percent, and rates for African-American students have declined by 53 percent over the same period.” The fact that the overall suspension rate showed a larger percentage reduction than the African-American suspension rate necessarily means the ratio of the African-American suspension rate to the suspension rate for other students increased.