Chapter 9: So Many Consequences, Not Enough Change: Alternative Perspectives on School Discipline From School Administrators

Students in urban schools face a wide variety of challenges including higher suspension rates than their peers in nonurban schools (Lindsay & Hart, 2017). These higher suspension rates and exclusion from classroom settings have the drastic consequence of increasing the achievement gap (Gregory et al., 2010). Traditional consequences to discipline infractions have included in-school and out-of-school suspensions with little to no consideration of alternatives. In order to remedy this situation, school administrators, specifically principals and assistant principals, need to explore alternatives to suspension and alternate classroom management and behavior techniques.

Lewis and Moore (2012) describe discipline disproportionality as the “over-representation of a group of pupils for in-school behavioral referrals” (p. 19). It has also been described as the “inequitable distribution of disciplinary actions in schools” (Wallace et al., 2008). Discipline disproportionality often appears as a concern in school discipline data due to the adoption of zero-tolerance policies for behaviors (Skiba & Peterson, 2000). Developed as a solution to the war on drugs, zero tolerance policies gained popularity in schools in the 1990s as a means to apply severe and punitive consequences to students regardless of the magnitude of their behavior (American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008; Skiba & Rausch, 2006). A universal definition of zero tolerance policies does not exist thus schools can assume the power to remove students who participate in perceived disruptive behavior in an effort to improve the school environment and student engagement (American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008). Zero-tolerance policies do not include interventions to support students before they get to the point of being removed from an educational setting by suspensions or expulsions. Townsend (2000) references consequences for the over-disciplined African American student and states that the loss of instructional opportunities contribute to the ever-widening achievement gap between African American and White students. Lewis and Moore (2012) point out that the loss of academic opportunities lessens a student’s ability to learn when they are excluded from classes due to suspension.