Citation

Vincent CG, Tobin TJ, Hawken LS, Frank JL. Educ. Treat. Child. 2012; 35(3): 431-458.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, West Virginia University Press)

DOI

10.1353/etc.2012.0018

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Given documented racial/ethnic disproportionality in disciplinary referrals and strong recommendations to base provision of secondary level supports on data, we explored whether students from various racial/ethnic groups have equitable access to secondary supports. We disaggregated discipline data from 155 elementary and 46 middle schools by student race/ethnicity and behavioral risk level to assess the extent to which different racial/ethnic groups were disproportionately represented among students at each risk level and students receiving secondary support. Outcomes indicated that Hispanic-American and White students were underrepresented among students with multiple disciplinary referrals, while African-American students were over-represented. African-American students were over-represented among students receiving secondary support in elementary schools but were less likely to receive this support in middle schools. Across all schools, number of referrals as well as race/ethnicity emerged as statistically significant predictors of access to secondary level support. Limitations to the current investigation and recommendations for future research are provided.

Language: en