Citation

Christie CA, Nelson CM, Jolivette K. Educ. Treat. Child. 2004; 27(4): 509-526.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, West Virginia University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Concerns about school safety and disruptive behavior, as well as increasing use of zero tolerance policies, have resulted in escalating rates of exclusionary disciplinary practices (out-ofschool suspension and expulsion) in America's schools. The present study examined suspension rates in Kentucky middle schools (N = 161), using both quantitative and qualitative procedures. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were computed to identify those school-level variables that showed strong relationships to suspension rate. A sample of 20 schools with the highest suspension rates was compared to a sample of 20 schools with the lowest suspension rates using a multi variate analysis of variance (MANOVA). In addition, four schools from each group were selected as case examples. Information gathered from administrator surveys, staff interviews, and on-site observations provided detailed descriptions of the characteristics of schools with high and low suspension rates. The findings of this study demonstrated that a number of school variables are differentially related to suspension rates. Implications of these findings for school discipline reform are discussed.

Language: en