A new report on discipline in Chicago Public Schools found that nearly one-third of students with a documented history of abuse or neglect faced suspensions during the 2013-2014 school year, and more than a quarter of high schoolers from the city’s poorest neighborhoods were suspended during the same period.
The report, issued Tuesday by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research, also said that African-American students continue to be suspended at a higher rate than their white, Latino or Asian counterparts — an issue educators have wrestled with for years.
The report said that schools with the highest rate of suspensions serve students who come from vulnerable backgrounds and are the furthest behind academically. Those schools, the report found, drive most of the race-based suspension disparities.
“You just see schools that are underutilized, serving really, really hard student populations where they’re bringing a lot to school,” said the study’s lead author and consortium analyst Lauren Sartain. “And they’re struggling at school as well. And these students are more likely to be suspended.”
The study comes as CPS has placed new emphasis on not only reducing suspensions, but increasing the use of alternative discipline techniques including restorative justice. Researchers weren’t able to reach definitive conclusions about the effect of those efforts, however.
“We tried to look at that,” Sartain said. “But the reality is the data is pretty limited in how schools are allocating their resources. We just don’t know that much about the quality of interventions that are happening in schools.”
In a statement, CPS said it “remains dedicated to a more holistic approach to student discipline that seeks to address the root causes of student misconduct and keep youth in class and on a path to success.”
The district said it will continue to work with experts to “adopt the most successful strategies in reducing student incidents and improving school climate.”
Sartain said the city’s high schools are often highly segregated by social and economic characteristics. “So you have schools where there are really high concentrations of students who are struggling — struggling academically, struggling behaviorally and who are struggling at home,” Sartain said.
“If you’re going to have students with really serious behavior problems in the building more, then teachers need support on how to help those students and create a really calm classroom environment so that it is conducive to learning,” she said.
The study is based on an analysis of district-operated schools during the 2013-2014 school year, leading researchers to highlight what they describe as “substantial challenges” for public schools that serve the city’s most vulnerable students.
“Changing practices will take substantial support and resources to do well in schools serving students from the most disadvantaged neighborhoods,” the report concluded. “Along with school leadership committed to substantially changing practices and reducing discipline disparities for students in their schools.”
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