Classroom Strategies for Teaching Across Race | Scholastic.com: Tuesday afternoon, fifth grader Jacob disrupts groupwork with his goofing around. On Thursday, it’s his deskmate, Miles, who has the class’s attention with similar antics. What’s the outcome? Jacob gets a reprimand, and Miles receives a detention. What’s the difference? Miles is African-American.
The latest government data, analyzed recently by Howard Witt in an article in the Chicago Tribune, shows that black students are getting a raw deal in American schools when it comes to discipline. In the average New Jersey public school, reports Witt, African-American students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled. Nationally, they are three times more likely than non-black students to be suspended or expelled for the same offenses. The problem has gotten worse, not better: In 1972, black students were suspended at just twice the rate of other students. And today’s numbers can’t be explained away by differences in class or income, since middle-class and wealthy black students are being punished more often—and more severely—than their non-black peers.
