Read the following article then use Google to find information about the study they reference. See if there are any other correlations you can draw or infer that were not brought up in the study.
African-American and Latino Students Overrepresented in School Suspensions
By nsenga.burton
Created 09/29/2010 - 08:52
It looks like zero tolerance only applies to some of us.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has released findings of a study of out-of-school suspension rates for 18 of the nation's largest school systems. Black and Latino students were overrepresented in the out-of-school suspensions doled out to students. Since the 1970s, out-of-school suspension rates have escalated due to zero tolerance policies implemented by school systems. Since the 1970s, K-12 suspension rates have at least doubled for all non-whites. The study focused on middle-schools and found that the racial gap in suspension has grown considerably since 1973, especially for African-American students. The Black/White gap has grown from 3 percentage points in the ’70s to over 10 percentage points in the 2000s. Blacks are now over three times more likely than Whites to be suspended. While the average suspension rate was 11.2% in 2006 in the middle schools surveyed, disaggregating the data by race and gender reveals great disparities in the use of out-of-school suspension. For example, for middle school Blacks, 28.3% of males and 18% of females were suspended. In Palm Beach County and Milwaukee, the district-wide middle school suspension rate for Black males exceeded 50%. The suspension rate for Black females exceeded 50% in Milwaukee and was over 33% in Palm Beach County, Indianapolis, and Des Moines. We could go on but we'll stop. We're sure that the racial make-up of the schools has something to do with the numbers and we'd be interested in knowing if they were able to disaggregate the numbers based on offense committed, but still. This sounds like prison prep to us. Why do these numbers correlate with disparities in prison sentencing for blacks and Latinos? To add insult to injury, research shows that removing people from the classroom does not result in better productivity and learning outcomes for students in the classroom. Guess who is getting suspended more often? Black females. Shouldn't there be a zero tolerance policy against targeting black and brown middle-school children for out-of-school suspension? We're just saying.
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ReplyDeleteOne problem in the study is that the exact numbers of students that were suspended at each school. Some schools might have only suspended 2 or 4 students and half of there population might be African American so it would not be a surprised that 50 percent of the students suspended are African American cause that would only be 2 students. Another problem is the information on where these schools that were in the study were located. If the schools were located in an area heavily populated by minorities then the schools would be heavily populated by minorities so the suspension rate for minorities would be higher in that school because mainly minorities attend that school.
ReplyDeleteSince the 1970's, the rates of the out of school suspensions have risen to a whole new level. The rate has doubled for the non-whites in the country. This shows that it is very much less likely for a white person to get suspended from school than it is for a minority too. I believe that this may actually be true because minorities tend to get into more fights and other sorts of altercations that could easily be avoided. I’m not exactly sure why this is but this does seem to be the case at almost every high school in our area. There has been a lot more violence in the world since the 1970’s; this could be one of the reasons for this statistics. There are so many fights and crimes going on in the world, and there are so many people dying over unnecessary issues. There are a lot more males being suspended that there is females as well, this shows that males tend to have more problems if anything. I can also believe this statement because males fight a lot more than females, it’s always more likely for this to happen. There are also a lot of females that get in trouble as well. For example, in Milwaukee, the female suspension rate exceeded 50%. This is an extremely large amount, especially for the females. All of these suspensions could potentially lead to prison for a lot of these young adults. They must not be making the best decisions if they are getting into so much trouble at school.
ReplyDeleteI Found This Study To Be Very Interesting. This Is Sad That More Minoritiy Students Get Suspended Because When These Statistics Are Looked At, The Generalization Can Be Made That In Any Case, Minority Students Get Suspended More, Meaning They Are The Offenders. One Artice I Found Was This One: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/103172354.html
ReplyDeleteOne Thing I Didn't Consider In The Original Article That I Read In This One Is Whether The Student Is Poor Or Not. This Could Affect The Way The Person Handling The Situation Will React. If The Student With Parents That Have Alot Of Money Gets In Trouble, Depending On How Powerful The Parent Is, The Student Will Probably Get Off Easy, Leaving The Student Who Is Poorer To Get A Harder Punishment.
Another Article That I Read Was This One:
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/04/05/does-race-influence-who-gets-suspended-in-georgia-schools/
This Article Gave A Situation That Hits Very Close To Home Where A Minority Student Was Choked By A White Principal, or A White Man In Power, And When The Student Reacted, He Was Suspended For Trying To Protect Himself.
Some correlations that I can draw up is that they both compared the rates of suspension for 2000 with the rates of suspension from 1970. Both state that African American's and other minorites over populate the suspenision list. In the other article it states that even in the 1970's miniorites in suspenison was twice the percentage as whites. Also that since the 1970's it has increased from 6% to 15%. Both articles are sending the same kind of message that their seems to be more minorites getting into trouble than whites. In the article above it states that this could be forshawdoing the imprisonment rate. I agree. I feel if you look up any article right now about increase rate in suspension that they would all come to the same concluision. Between k-12th grade minorities are more likely to face out of school suspension than whites. One thing that is different is the article that I looked up mentions that the rate it white suspension has increased also but not as much as the others. So like the article said above it can be because some schools have more miniorites than whites. I guess it just all depends on what school you take your information from.
ReplyDeleteThe rate of suspensions go up every year or risen. In the article the problem i see is that the exact number of suspensions. Most likey if you hear a kid say im suspended is going to be an African American. Also the information that were recieving on these people probably arent from the same area were from. If the schools were located in an area populated by minorities then the schools would be populated by minorities so the suspension rate for minorities would be higher in that school because mainly minorities attend a school like that.To me it depends on were the school is because it might be a higher minority rate.
ReplyDeleteI think that the research didn’t provide enough information to determine if race is a factor for school suspensions. For example the research didn’t provide details of the population of blacks and Latinos in each school, if the school is highly populated blacks than it would not be unusual for blacks to get suspended because the school will have a majority of black students. I strongly agree with the article when it talks about kids being suspended and their learning. I think suspension is not the best solution for the misbehavior of students because kids miss all the information from those days they out of school.
ReplyDeleteThe rate that students nowadays receive an out-of-school suspension is outrageous. Among these students that get out-of-school suspensions is a large quantity of African-American and Latino students. Statistics that were described in the article African-American and Latino Students Overrepresented in School Suspensions and an article on the Southern Poverty Law Center named Findings show that a majority of the students that get out-of-school suspension are in fact African-American and Latino students. This research could’ve been biased as well due to racial confounding variables. If we don’t know that random sampling was done we cannot conclude that the minorities do tend to receive out-of school suspensions more than the white population. We don’t have the actual sample size and the population from where this data was taken so there are many factors that contribute to why this may not be a legit study taken.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the increase in the suspension rate has to do with the children getting worst over the course of the years.I see the data where it has to do about the race, but i feel it has a lot to do with times changing. Also lack of corret parenting. Some people act out for different reason. When talking about this topic you have to look at all aspects and confounding variables. Males also have certain way of acting and thinking that might cause the to get into trouble in school. Females are the same way expect for they like to argue and fight their way through things instead of acting like mature people and talking things out the correct way.
ReplyDelete