The Atlanta Journal Constitution – Maureen Downey
“Nothing brings out the blog skeptics as reports on disparities in how schools dole out student discipline, the focus a new report released this morning. The disparity in school discipline is an important issue and one that needs to be better understood. It’s also a complex issue because many parents and teachers contend they are seeing increased discipline problems in their schools and feel little is being done about it. My own teens complain of time lost to kids acting up in their classes. The conflicting views of student discipline – too much or too little — explain why a five-member Senate study committee led by Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, could not come to consensus on recommended policy changes. Among the research discussed by the committee at its fall hearings: Georgia third-graders and eighth-graders who’ve been suspended for 10 days or more are less likely to earn a high school diploma. An AJC investigation a year ago found 57 percent of students expelled and 67 percent of students given out-of-school suspensions were black. Thirty-seven percent of Georgia public school students are black.”(more)