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Professor: ‘Black students aren’t misbehaving more,’ they’re just ‘being treated differently’

Scholars are not happy about another of President Trump’s executive orders, this one banning the consideration of race when it comes to school discipline.

The officially named “Reinstating Common Sense Discipline Policies” EO singles out the “disparate-impact” framework upon which many current school discipline policies are based.

Disparate impact posits that the “presumption of unlawful discrimination exists where there are any differences in outcomes in certain circumstances among different races, sexes, or similar groups, even if there is no facially discriminatory policy or practice or discriminatory intent involved.”

In other words, if the number of, say, black students being suspended doesn’t match up proportionately to the black population within the school/district, teachers and/or administrators can be presumed to be acting in a racially discriminatory manner.

As noted in the EO, the Obama Departments of Education and Justice issued a “Dear Colleague” letter in 2014 which said schools could lose federal funding if they ran afoul of the disparate impact framework.

The result often leads to careful “bean counting” among educators — although Education Week claims only “conservative groups” objected to the Obama discipline guidance.

Trump rescinded the Obama letter in his first administration, but the Biden administration effectively reinstituted it in 2023.

Education Week, which apparently could not find anyone in academia who supports the new Trump EO, reports that “research has repeatedly shown” that minority students face “exclusionary” discipline — detention, suspension, expulsion — more often than their white counterparts.

MORE: No, teachers are NOT racist because of disparate rates of racial discipline

Blair Wriston of EdTrust (a group “committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the American education system”), said that due to the Trump EO race disparities are “going to go up.”

“We know that kids are going to be removed from the classroom more than they already are because of the color of their skin, or because they have a disability,” Wriston told EW.

Vanderbilt University’s Richard Welsh said “the research is clear that Black students aren’t misbehaving more,” they’re just “being treated differently.”

Welsh, whose research in part deals with school discipline, added that while school safety is “important,” more investments in “school climate” not only will help safety but also “keep Black students in the classroom.”

MORE: School discipline issues reach fever pitch as districts fear the racial bean counters

From the article:

Dan Losen [bio], senior director for the education team at the National Center for Youth Law, advised educators continue trying to keep students in class and school and not turn to suspension or expulsion.

“We benefit all kids in addressing racial disparities,” he said. “Why would we want to kick out more kids of color or more kids with disabilities or English learners? How does that benefit anybody?” …

Russ Skiba, professor emeritus of school psychology at Indiana University Bloomington, said the order was another case of overreach by the Trump administration.

“It is based on their fondest wishes and their clear attempt to drive the situation through fear and coercion rather than the rule of law. It’s been pretty typical,” he said. “We have expected these attacks on school discipline all along, and they’re here now.”

The Trump executive order also blasts “restorative justice” practices widely used in schools, but which have “little basis” supporting their effectiveness, according to a 2019 study.

MORE: Progressive enclaves growing weary of ridiculously lax school discipline policies

IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Young academics express disapproval; Voyagerix/Shutterstock.com

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