Update on School Punishment Disparities

In a follow up on equity efforts on punishment and racial disparities in local schools and school districts, the News-Gazette had recently flagged districts by the Illinois State Board of Education. Here's a highlighted excerpt from today's paper:

5 area districts listed for racial disparities in discipline practices
...
'What does this mean?'

Thomas went on to detail various district-wide efforts, including the implementation of restorative practices and teaching staffers about trauma-informed care. The latter refers to the practice of identifying and responding appropriately to issues that may have been caused by underlying trauma issues.

Similarly, restorative practices mark a shift from "punitive responses" to behavioral issues to ones meant to "repair harm" and understand underlying issues, Thomas explained.

In Urbana, district officials say they've been implementing a shift toward restorative practices since 2015. Earlier this year, that led to changes in personnel — out in 2018-19 are deans in the secondary schools; in are more student support staff.

"An exclusionary consequence, an out-of-school suspension, is more harmful to a black student than a white student in terms for further educational outcomes," Superintendent Don Owen said. "That means that there's some systemic and implicit racial biases in our society that we, as educators, if we really want public education to be an equalizer, that we have to take a more active role in dismantling."

That shift could explain why Urbana went from being among the top 20 percent in racially disproportionate districts in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to off the list by 2016-17.

Officials in districts that have reduced the number of expulsions and suspensions also point to the 2015 passage of SB 100, which required them to "exhaust" discipline alternatives before resorting to drastic measures. Among the changes: Districts using zero-tolerance discipline policies were forced to scale back.

Full article with more information, charts, and other details here. Related recent Cheat Sheet posts on local school and district punishment and race data, Urbana restorative changes and Champaign schools addressing "pushout."