School Composition and Disproportionality in Discipline: A School-Level Analysis of Disciplinary Actions against Various Offense Types in the United States, 2007–2008

This dissertation addresses race, poverty, and school locational and organizational characteristics to explore three specific questions: (1) Are there discrepancies across American public schools in terms of managing discipline? (2) What are the underlying factors that explain this discrepancy? (3)...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Fisher, Julie D
Format Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Published ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2011
Subjects
African American Students
Behavior Patterns
Behavior Problems
Discipline Policy
Education Policy
Educational Environment
Longitudinal Studies
Nontraditional Education
Organizational behavior
Poverty
Public schools
Race
Rural Schools
School discipline
School Safety
Socioeconomic Status
Suspension
Urban Schools
Zero Tolerance Policy
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Summary:This dissertation addresses race, poverty, and school locational and organizational characteristics to explore three specific questions: (1) Are there discrepancies across American public schools in terms of managing discipline? (2) What are the underlying factors that explain this discrepancy? (3) What are the school and organizational characteristics that are associated with the way in which students are disciplined? The school-level data for this study is based on the 2007-2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) and the Common Core of Data (CCD), both provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Existing literature suggests that minority and poor students are disciplined differently – often more punitively - than White and affluent students. The findings from this research suggest that school level dynamics may be different than what the student level literature suggests. Specifically, the results indicate that racial and poverty concentrations do affect the types of violations that occur in schools and school officials’ responses’ to different offense types. However, it is not race and poverty alone that are associated with this. Racial and poverty concentrations are mediated by several school characteristics, and matter to a lesser degree when specific characteristics are accounted for. Additionally, disciplinary responses to violations depend on the type of violation, not necessarily on the racial or poverty make-up of the school.
ISBN:9781124593876
112459387X