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