Education News – Kristin Decarr
“New research from the University of California at Los Angeles has found that despite suspension rates dropping in school districts across the country, US students still lost around 18 million school days due to out-of-school punishments in the 2011-12 school year. The report, “Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap,” looked at data for every school district across the country, finding school systems in Missouri, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania that have an “alarming” suspension rate of 20% or higher among their elementary school students…Despite a number of improvements, there have not been many meaningful changes to the national suspension rate, causing racial gaps to continue to persist. Including all grade levels, 16% of black students were suspended in 2011-12 in comparison with 7% of Hispanic students and 5% of white students. Researchers suggest the current concern pertaining to out-of-school suspensions comes from a greater risk of academic failure, dropping out of high school, and involvement within the juvenile justice system…“We conclude that our nation cannot close the achievement gap if we ignore the discipline gap,” the UCLA report said.”(more)