Is suspension data truly reflective of Black students in Durham County grades K-12?

 As I continue to research, and present results based on the qualitative study referencing strategies to reduce/eliminate the suspension/expulsion of African American preschoolers I was asked to submit a proposal on this topic for Durham County Public Schools kindergarten teachers. Therefore, I needed to retrieve information compiled by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction 2018-19 school year suspension data.

Initially, when I reviewed the data my mouth fell open of the data disparity reflective for Black students versus White students.  It should be noted that the data was not broken down by grade level, but I was able to compare elementary schools that are in more minority communities as opposed to ones not.  The chart below presents the overall data for short- term suspension, long-term suspension and expulsion.  

Gender	Race or Ethnicity	Short-term suspension	Long-term suspension	Expulsion
Female	Black	1,025	6	0
Female	White	41	0	0
Male	Black	1,987	31	0
Male	White	169	0	0

(Source:  https://www.dpi.nc.gov/data-reports/dropout-and-discipline-data/discipline-alp-and-dropout-annual-reports)

According to Article 27 115C-390.5 defines short-term suspension as the removal of student from school and school activities for a period from fraction of one (1) day through ten (10) school days duration.  Along with section 115C-390.7 defines long-term suspension as the temporary withdrawal of the privilege of attending a school by a student for a period not less than eleven and not more than one hundred eighty consecutive days (https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_115C/Article_27.html).  In addition, Durham Public Schools ranks 64 out of 100 counties with short-term suspension (Roadmap of Need 2019, Public School Forum of NC).

The research continued by reviewing Durham Public Schools Student-Parent Handbook for short-term suspension alternatives for grades 3-8.  “Students who are administratively assigned a short-term suspension in grades 3-8 will be offered the opportunity by school administration to complete the short-term suspension at New Directions Center (NDC) or the Lakeview Intervention Center (Dearborn Drive).  During a student’s assignment to NDC, the student will continue his/her learning and develop skills to decrease the likelihood of future incidents.  Transportation is provided for all assigned students after the first day of suspension.  Students who attend NDC and the Lakeview Intervention Center will have their short-term suspension (STS) re-coded to an in-school suspension (ISS) (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-r3e6kc40G6DTcIyWXgmsnnCPDh5-CAH/view ,page 22).

All this information raised questions of whether African American parents/legal guardians sign off on for the short-term suspension alternatives that would be re-coded for the child as an in-school suspension for the reason White students’ numbers are lower than Black peers?  Were counselors relaying this information clearly as an option for the child and parents/legal guardians still opted to have their children on short-term suspension?  Is this a lack of knowledge which widens the opportunity versus academic gaps for an even educational playing field for all students?  What happens to students in grades K-2 for short-term suspension are parents/legal guardians given any alternatives than have it re-coded? 

Based upon the unanswered questions, but the data it looks bleak for Black students with the high numbers of short- term suspensions where they are missing instructional time with teachers and grade peers. We must advocate ensuring that Black parents/legal guardians in particularly understand school district’s alternatives for short-term suspensions so the students will not continue down the pathway of being a drop-out, criminal justice system, lower academic performance and other factors.  The goal should be that Black students graduate high school, become gainfully employed or continue education plight towards becoming productive citizens of society.  Yes, it is all our work ensuring the future generations have every opportunity towards successful lives.

 

References

Chapter 115C – Article 27 – NC General Assembly retrieved from https://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_115C/Article_27.html

Durham Public School 2020-21 Student/Family Handbook retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-r3e6kc40G6DTcIyWXgmsnnCPDh5-CAH/view

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Discipline, ALP and Dropout Annual Reports retrieved from https://www.dpi.nc.gov/data-reports/dropout-and-discipline-data/discipline-alp-and-dropout-annual-reports  

Roadmap of Need 2019 – Public School Forum of North Carolina retrieved from https://www.ncforum.org/?s=roadmap

 

Challenging behaviors: Child versus Educator

 While attending an equity session, where facilitated shared research data by Walter Gilliam where African American preschool boys are 3.5 times more likely to be suspended/expelled more than their white age peers.  In state-funded programs the expulsion rate from prekindergarten is about three times higher than students in grades K-12.  His data revealed the indicators of characteristics which were denoted as the 3 Bs.  The 3 Bs of expulsion risk are Big, Black and Boys who are more likely to be suspended or expelled.  Therefore, teachers are more like to recommend preschoolers for suspension or expulsion when the child is black, or boy, or is physical bigger than their peers. 

 

The United States Department of Education Office of Civil Right (2016) stated, 

• Black preschoolers 3.6 times as likely to be suspended than their white peers. 
• Black children represent 19% of preschoolers but the rate is 47% of them are suspended. 
• Boys represent 54% of preschoolers, but 78% of suspensions. 

 

Afterwards, a participant asked the question paraphrasing “What do you do when you have a child (ethnicity nor gender given) who is exhibiting inappropriate behaviors constantly and I don’t have time for one-on-one due to State ratio nor do the parents help nor care?”  The facilitator reiterated the importance of administrator’s support systems (e.g., early childhood mental health consultant, coaching, mentoring) conduct behavioral assessment and more.  The constructivist theory encourages children to construct their knowledge when actively interpreting their experiences in the areas of academic, physical and social world at-large (DeVries & Kohlberg, 1987; DeVries & Zan, 2012) where this approach can lessen inappropriate challenging behaviors.  

 

I chimed in this a topic [challenging behaviors] where the child is always the protagonist instead of the educator taking a deep look at the following: 

1. Take a deep hard inner look at self and if there are implicit and/or explicit bias actions demonstrated towards the child. 
2. Conduct a real look at the physical environment to see if child’s interests are represented. 
3. Record interests of the child via conversations with him/her and engage in conversations of parents/family members to incorporate in lesson plans and throughout the learning environment. 
4. Write behavior goal plan outlining goals to embed and steps toward accomplishing which are written in the child’s individualization goal plan as stated on weekly lesson plan. 
5. Implement culturally responsive age appropriate practices.  Yes, one must know cultural experiences of all children and family members that are incorporated into the learning environment towards a sense of self-pride. 
6. Mirrored books that represent child … engage in conversations of content along with having representation in the learning environment.  Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop coined the term “mirrored” books where characters look like the child themselves to make relationships with content. 

If educators and administrators have a child who has been deemed as having challenging behaviors and done soft suspensions acts such as (a) send child to director’s office, and (b) place child in a fellow colleague’s room where s/he is missing instructing time with fellow peers.  Therefore, it is crucial for the adults to take a deeper dive into the ecological systems of Urie Bronfenbrenner to support the child in making effective means of change.  The ecological systems are microsystem (activities and interactions in the child’s immediate surroundings, parents, friends, etc.), mesosystem (relationships among entities involved in the child’s microsystem:  parents’ interactions with teachers, school’s interaction with school and child), exosystem (social institutions which affect child indirectly; the parent’s workplace, extended family, mass media, community resources), macrosystem (broader cultural values, laws and governmental resources) and chronosystem (changes which occur during child’s life both personally and culturally) to see the whole child and factors of their life that will directly impact behaviors displayed in the learning environment and school building at-large.  Wright and Counsell (2018) want educators to self-reflect “whether they thought factors other than assigning blame to children and families, such as teacher attitudes, teacher expectation, implicit bias, racism, and/or discrimination, were important considerations (p. 51).  Yes, it’s easy to blame the child; however, educators and administrators must switch lens to effective actions where child is not being suspended and/or expelled from school.     

 

After the facilitator and I shared, it was easy to feel in the air she and other participants were re-thinking how they had laid the blame 90 to 100% on the child and not really looking in the mirror of self to seek out what modifications and/or adaptations could and should be made towards reducing and/or eliminating the inappropriate action(s).  Whereas, the questioner still could not see outside of her lens it’s the child who needed to adhere to whatever her perceived rules and guidelines are to stay in the classroom.  If some early educators are in serious quandary whether challenging behaviors are of the child versus educator to seek strategies to align with what have been deemed by educator’s themselves as challenging behaviors with no foresight of alternatives other than to suspend or expel child from program.  Therefore, for those who are instructing child guidance  and behavior management courses at 2 and 4-year institutions of higher education, technical assistants, mentors, evaluators, early childhood mental health consultants, education consultants and others must truly know the breadth, depth and application of culturally responsive developmentally age appropriate practices through behavioral goal plans that include family partnerships which will lessen and hopefully eliminate the desire to feel the only method is to suspend and/or expel the child.

  

                                                           References 

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory of development:  Definition & examples (n.d.) Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/bronfenbrenners-ecological-systems-theory-of-development-definition-examples.html 

DeVries, R., & Kohlberg, L.  (1987).  Constructivist early education:  Overview and comparison with other programs.  Washington, DC:  National Association for the Education of Young Children.   

DeVries, R., & Zan, B.  (2012).  Moral classroom, moral children:  Creating a constructivist atmosphere in early education (2^nd ed.).  New York, NY:  Teacher College Press. 

Gilliam, W. S.  (2005).  Pre-kindergarten left behind:  Expulsion rates in the state
prekindergarten programs.  Retrieved from [https://www.fcd-%0bus.org/assets/2016/04/ExpulsionCompleteReport.pdf] https://www.fcd-
us.org/assets/2016/04/ExpulsionCompleteReport.pdf. 

US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights – Civil Rights Data Collection
Data Snapshot:  Early Childhood Education (March 2016).  Retrieved from
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-early-learning-
snapshot.pdf 

Wright, B. L., & Counsell, S. L.  (2018).  The brilliance of black boys:  Cultivating
     school success in early grades.  New York, NY:  Teacher College Press.