Media Coverage of "Opportunity Suspended" (8/11/2012)

August 7, 2012

New York Times: Disabled Students Almost Twice as Likely to Be Suspended, Analysis Finds

By: Motoko Rich

"Students with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be suspended from school as nondisabled students, with the highest rates among black children with disabilities."

 

NPR: Report: Disabled, Minority Students Bear Brunt Of Disciplinary Policies

By: Claudio Sanchez

"Researchers with the civil rights project at University of California, Los Angeles examined disciplinary policies in 7,000 districts and found that from 2009-2010, one in six black students was suspended at least once. Compared to 1 in 25 white students. The reasons? Foul language, disruptive behavior, fighting and tardiness."

 

Los Angeles Times: State schools suspend at higher rates than average, study finds

California ranked 15th of 47 states in their suspension rates of white and black students, according to the study by The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA.  It ranked eighth for Asian Americans and 17th for Latinos. In what the study’s co-author called one of the most alarming findings, 28% of black students with disabilities had been suspended in California at least once during the 2009-10 school year.

 

Education Weekly: Researchers Sound Alarm over Black Student Suspensions

By: Nirvi Shah

Nearly one in six African-American students was suspended from school during the 2009-10 academic year, more than three times the rate of their white peers, a new analysis of federal education data has found.

 

Education Weekly Blog: How Often Are English-Learners Suspended?

By: Lesli A. Maxwell

Using data collected from more than 6,800 school districts by the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights, the researchers found that one in six African-American students was suspended from school at least once during the 2009-10 school year. The rate for Native American students was one in 12; for Latino students, it was one in 14. For whites, it was one in 20, and for Asian Americans, the rate was one in 50.

 

TheRoot.com: Report: Suspension Harming Black Kids

By: Joshua Weaver

African-American students were overwhelmingly more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended from school. The report found that nearly 1 in 6 was suspended during the 2009-2010 school year, compared with 1 in 20 white students. Black students with disabilities faced the highest rates, with an average of 25 percent or more having been suspended in most of the sample districts.

 

Yubanet.com: Millions of Children Find the Schoolhouse Door Locked

The real disturbing story, however, is at the district level. This review covers school districts across the country, from every state, and it found that in nearly 200 districts, 20% or more of the total enrolled students in K-12 were suspended out of school at least once. The numbers are more shocking when broken down by race and disability. For all students with disabilities, regardless of race, over 400 districts suspended 25% or more of these students. Black students with disabilities were most at risk for out-of-school suspension with an alarming 25% national average for all districts in the sample.

 

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign: Millions of Students Locked Out of the Classroom

The report highlights the unconscionable disparities regarding which students are pushed out of the classroom. Not only are students of color suspended at higher rates, but students with disability are also at a much higher risk for being locked out of the classroom. 13 percent of all students with disabilities (the very students who should be receiving extra support and services at school) are suspended, which is near twice the rate of suspension for students without disabilities.

 

Contra Costa Times: Report: Ravenswood has nation's highest suspension rates for Asian/Pacific Islander students

By: Sharon Noguchi

A study of 2009-10 data showed Ravenswood suspended 19 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander students at least once. It also suspended 40 percent of its African-American students and 12 percent of Latino students. Overall, Ravenswood suspended nearly 16 percent of students at least once in 2009-10.

 

Ed Source: Report pinpoints high-suspension districts

By: John Fensterwald

“Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School” is the latest report to highlight racial and ethnic disparities in student discipline and to call for alternatives to out-of-school suspensions. It includes a database of suspensions by race and ethnicity for districts and states.

 

M Live: Report: Black students suspended at higher rate than white students, Michigan’s disparity among the highest

By: David Murray

Black students in Michigan are suspended at a higher rate than white students – and the gap between the two ranks among the highest in the nation, according to a new report.

 

Latino Ed Beat: Study Analyzes Suspension Rates by Race, Ethnicity, and Disability

By: Katherine Leal Unmuth

The report warned that suspension rates among minority male students with disabilities were disturbingly high. This group of students was also likely to be suspended multiple times within the same year. In the Chicago Public Schools, about 29 percent of Latino male students with disabilities had been suspended at least once, compared with a shocking 73 percent of black students and 20 percent of white students.

 

 

Latina lista: Latino and black youth in juvenile justice system lose out on getting an education- twice

By: Marisa Trevino

Today, the Civil Rights Project released a study Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School, which reports: National suspension rates show that 17%, or 1 out of every 6 Black school- children enrolled in K-12, were suspended at least once. That is much higher than the 1 in 13 (8%) risk for Native Americans; 1 in 14 (7%) for Latinos; 1 in 20 (5%) for Whites; or the 1 in 50 (2%) for Asian Americans.

August 8, 2012

Chicago Tribune: Illinois, CPS top national list for suspension disparities

By Joel Hood

One of every 4 African-American public school students in Illinois was suspended at least once for disciplinary reasons during the 2009-10 school year, the highest rate among 47 states examined in a national study released Tuesday.

 

Black Christian News: Researchers Sound Alarm Over Black Student Suspensions

And for black children with disabilities, the rate was even higher: One in four such students was suspended at least once that year.

In some districts, as many as one out of every two black students was suspended.

 

Fix School Discipline: National Report Reveals Growth of School-Suspension Crisis

The report confirms other nationwide trends: that some schools suspend more students than others, that African American students are most likely to be suspended, and that suspensions for students of all races have increased dramatically over the past 40 years.

 

August 9, 2012

UPI.com:  Suspensions higher for minority students

The analysis by UCLA's Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project found that during the 2009-10 school year 17 percent of African-American students were suspended compared to only 5 percent of white students. The project said the ...

 

Dropout Nation: Suspending Kids into Despair: A High Cost of Systemic Failure

by Rishawn Biddle

So the report on the overuse of harsh school discipline released yesterday by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA offered little in the way of surprises. The data, based on the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights database for the 2009-210 school ...

 

August 10, 2012

Education Next: A Little Context on Racial Disparities in Suspension Rates

By: Michael Petrilli

The Civil Rights Project is getting a ton of press attention for its new report finding that black students—and especially black students with disabilities—are suspended at much higher rates than their peers. But does that mean that our public schools—and the people working in them—are racist?

The study found that black students were 3.4 times as likely to be suspended as white students. That’s a lot! But consider this: Black adults are 5.8 times as likely to be in prison as whites. Suddenly the suspension rate doesn’t look so bad.

 

KPFK: School suspensions target African Americans, students with disabilities at higher rates, study finds

 

 

In the 2009-2010 K-12 school year, more than three million students were suspended, according to a new study, enough to fill “every seat in every major league baseball park and every NFL stadium in America, combined." The study, from the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California Los Angeles, is the first-ever breakdown of 7,000 school districts. Researchers found disproportionate rates of suspension for African American students and students with disabilities.

 

August 11, 2012

Truth-Out: Suspensions Are Higher for Disabled Students, Federal Data Indicate

By: Motoko Rich

The analysis, which reviewed data at the state and district levels, found that in 10 states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware and Illinois, more than a quarter of black students with disabilities were suspended in 2009-10. In Illinois, the rate was close to 42 percent, compared with about 8 percent for white students. New York and Florida were not included because of problems with their data.

 

August 17, 2012

Bethesda Magazine. Education Matters: African-American Students Face Higher Suspension Rates in MCPS High Schools

By: Julie Rasicot

The report, released last week, also found that “suspension rates were equally striking for students with disabilities and revealed that an estimated 13 percent of all students with disabilities were suspended nationally, approximately twice the rate of their non‐disabled peers.”

 

August 29, 2012

Special Education Law Blog. Minority Students and Students with Disabilities Suspended at a Higher Rate

By: Charles P. Fox

The Civil Rights Project study is a strong step in the right direction of rectifying the use of disproportionate disciplinary action.  By providing their data spreadsheets on their website (1) to allow quick comparisons among districts, the Civil Rights Project is enabling Federal and state policymakers; school districts, educators, the media, and parents to look hard and critically at the data for their individual districts and states.