Racial disparities push schools to overhaul approach to discipline [View all]

[RandySF]

In recent years, San Francisco Unified School District officials and local youth advocates have grown increasingly concerned by statistics showing that such students are expelled, suspended and disciplined more often than white and Asian classmates. And students subjected to those punishments are less likely to graduate and attend college.

“Race is absolutely a part of the equation, from how the teacher is expected to deal with the students to the resources that are available at the schools these students attend,” said Alize Asberry, an organizer with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, which is pressuring the district to address racial disparities.

In March, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released data from 2009 that showed such disparities across the country. In San Francisco, black students represented less than 12 percent of enrollment, but more than 42 percent of suspensions. Hispanic students made up 22 percent of enrollment but 29 percent of suspensions. These students are also far less likely to take advanced classes, such as physics or chemistry, or to be enrolled in gifted and talented programs.

District officials say they are aware of the problem, and are moving away from traditional, punishment-based discipline. Their new model, called “restorative practices,” brings students together with teachers and peers to discuss the effects of their misbehavior on the school community and to uncover the emotions that underlie it.



http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/education/2012/06/taking-prejudice-out-punishment#ixzz1xj8NRBHf