TY - JOUR
T1 - A multilevel analysis of racial discipline disproportionality
T2 - A focus on student perceptions of academic engagement and disciplinary environment
AU - Larson, Kristine E.
AU - Bottiani, Jessika H.
AU - Pas, Elise T.
AU - Kush, Joseph M.
AU - Bradshaw, Catherine P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education , through Grant R305H150027 (PI: C. Bradshaw) and the National Institute of Justice ( 2014-CK-BX-0005 ), to the University of Virginia. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, or the National Institute of Justice. This work was also funded in part by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation (PI: Jessika Bottiani). We would like to thank the Maryland State Department of Education and Sheppard Pratt Health System for their support of this research through the Maryland Safe and Supportive Schools Project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/12
Y1 - 2019/12
N2 - Excessive use of exclusionary school discipline with Black students is a persistent, systemic problem in U.S. schools with potential to affect students' perceptions of their school. For example, students may notice racial differences in out-of-school suspensions, which may relate to how academically engaged they feel and the extent to which they view the school's disciplinary environment as positive. The current study investigated school-level racial discipline disproportionality and observed classroom-level, positive behavior supports in relation to student perceptions of academic engagement and school disciplinary environment by fitting a series of three-level models, which included data on students (N = 17,115), classrooms (J = 310), and schools (K = 53). Two metrics of discipline disproportionality were used (i.e., the risk ratio and the risk difference) and moderation was examined through cross-level interactions. Results indicated that, regardless of race, students perceived the disciplinary environment as significantly less favorable in schools with greater racial discipline disproportionality when measured by the risk ratio, but not when measured by the risk difference. Using different disproportionality metrics in education research has important implications for policies and practices to identify and address the issue. How discipline disparities relate to the way that students perceive the disciplinary environment will likely inform intervention efforts for school psychologists.
AB - Excessive use of exclusionary school discipline with Black students is a persistent, systemic problem in U.S. schools with potential to affect students' perceptions of their school. For example, students may notice racial differences in out-of-school suspensions, which may relate to how academically engaged they feel and the extent to which they view the school's disciplinary environment as positive. The current study investigated school-level racial discipline disproportionality and observed classroom-level, positive behavior supports in relation to student perceptions of academic engagement and school disciplinary environment by fitting a series of three-level models, which included data on students (N = 17,115), classrooms (J = 310), and schools (K = 53). Two metrics of discipline disproportionality were used (i.e., the risk ratio and the risk difference) and moderation was examined through cross-level interactions. Results indicated that, regardless of race, students perceived the disciplinary environment as significantly less favorable in schools with greater racial discipline disproportionality when measured by the risk ratio, but not when measured by the risk difference. Using different disproportionality metrics in education research has important implications for policies and practices to identify and address the issue. How discipline disparities relate to the way that students perceive the disciplinary environment will likely inform intervention efforts for school psychologists.
KW - Academic engagement
KW - Disciplinary environment
KW - Multilevel modeling
KW - Positive behavior support
KW - Racial discipline disproportionality
KW - School climate
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jsp.2019.09.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jsp.2019.09.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 31837724
AN - SCOPUS:85076193151
SN - 0022-4405
VL - 77
SP - 152
EP - 167
JO - Journal of School Psychology
JF - Journal of School Psychology
ER -