INEQUITIES IN EXCLUSIONARY DISCIPLINE CONSEQUENCE ASSIGNMENT TO STUDENT MISBEHAVIOR BY ETHNICITY/RACE AND BY ECONOMIC STATUS: A MULTIYEAR ANALYSIS

Purpose The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the primary reasons that students are assigned exclusionary discipline consequences. Another purpose involves ascertaining the degree to which differential consequences are present by student ethnicity/race in the discipline consequence assigned for the same misbehavior. These determinations will be performed for Grade 6 boys, Grade 6 girls, and for middle school students in poverty. Moreover, the extent to which trends are present in these areas will be addressed. Method A causal comparative research design was used in this journal-ready dissertation. Data on three major ethnic/racial groups of students in Texas (a) White, (b) Hispanic, and (c) Black were analyzed herein for, the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019- 2020 school years. Findings Descriptive statistics were calculated to determine the most commonly committed student misbehaviors and then the most common disciplinary consequences assigned as a result. Grade 6 boys committed similar misbehaviors, such as Tardy, Disruption of Class, General Misconduct, and Noncompliance regardless of their ethnicity/race. In-School Suspension and Out-of-School Suspension were assigned to Grade 6 Black and Hispanic boys for the same misbehaviors more often than they were assigned to Grade 6 White boys. Grade 6 girls also committed similar misbehaviors, such as Tardy, General Misconduct, Disruption of Class, and Absent Without Permission regardless of their ethnicity/race. Grade 6 Black and Hispanic girls were assigned In-School Suspension, Detention After School, and Out-of-School Suspension more often than Grade 6 White girls. Grade 6 White girls were assigned Administrative Conference and Lunch Detention more often than Grade 6 Black and Grade 6 Hispanic girls. Middle school students, regardless of economic status, committed Tardy violations, Disruption of Class, General Misconduct and Noncompliance at similar rates. In-School Suspension, Out-of-School Suspension and Detention After School were assigned more often to middle school students in poverty than it was assigned to their peers who were not in poverty. Non exclusionary consequences such as Administrative Conference and Detention Before School were assigned more often for similar misbehaviors to middle school students who were not economically disadvantaged than they were assigned to their peers who were in poverty.