50 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE PRACTICE AND THE PERCEIVED IMPACT ON BLACK STUDENTS Kandiest Martin-Brock, EdD Journal of K-12 Educational Research 2021 VOL. 5, ISSUE 1 www.dbu.edu/doctoral/edd Introduction School discipline is a major component in determining the success of a campus, district, state, and nation. According to the National Clearinghouse on Supportive School Discipline (2017), exclusionary discipline practices, such as suspensions and expulsions, are used to punish undesired behaviors, deter similar behaviors, and promote behavior that is more appropriate. While discipline administrators and teachers face day-to-day challenges with how to deal with the behaviors of students of a different social and cultural background, black boys and girls have higher suspension rates than any of their peers (Office for Civil Rights, 2014). Gentzel explains that while overly harsh school discipline policies affect all students, they disproportionately affect students of color (National School Boards Association, 2013). School administrators realize the consequences of discipline disparities based on race can prevent the educational success of an entire category of young people (Schwartz, 2001), yet they continue to rely on the usage of suspension as a way to discipline students, especially young African American boys (Leithwood & Levin, 2008). Decreasing suspensions and their disparate impact on children of color will require changing the everyday practices in principals’ offices, schools, and classrooms (Koon, 2013). The main engines of the observed differences in suspension rates are school policies, practices, and leadership, rather than differences in student behavior (Losen et al., 2015). Losen et al. (2015) concluded district leaders have the power and capacity to eliminate excessive disciplinary exclusion, and thus the large disparities it often produces. The purpose of the current study was to examine middle school assistant principals’ perceptions of their role in administering policies and procedures and the impact of policies and procedures and race on discipline decisions. By examining the perceptions of middle school administrators who experience discipline in a meaningful social context each day, one may contribute to the literature on the impact discipline policies and micro-level processes at the school building level have on discipline decisions. For the current study, the researcher worked with an expert panel of researchers within the field of educational leadership, conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with nine middle school assistant principals, and interviewed a key informant within a large suburban school district. Literature Review Public school is a different place for many minority students than it is for White students (Toppo, 2016), and when some students’ access to a high-quality education is denied, all students lose in multiple ways (King, 2016). Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than White students (Losen, 2011). National suspension rates indicate 17%, or 1 out of every 6 Black students enrolled in K-12 were suspended at least once (Education Commission of the States, 2012). Additionally, in K-12, Black students were 3.8 times more likely to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions compared to White students. The racial and gender disparities at any grade level indicate the highest suspension rates typically are for Black males, followed by Black females and/or
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