Electronic Urban Report:
“Between the Lines: Report on Increasing Black Student Class Exclusions is Troubling
*Last week, a new report offered a renewed look at a persistent problem in how public education is failing our children.
Disproportionately excluding black children from the classroom, through suspensions, expulsions and non-learning “holding rooms,” are a glaring problem in U.S. public schools. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released new data that suggests that suspension/expulsion problem, which we all knew existed in LAUSD, was deeper than we ever suspected.
While previous data focused on the race gaps and exclusion disparities of middle and high school systems, this latest study found that out of class exclusions are continuing to be a K through 12 problem—regardless of grade level, across public school systems, nationwide.
Okay…so what else is new? Well, here’s what’s new and it’s shocker…
The new study reports that classroom exclusion starts as early as preschool.
That’s right… preschool.
If you’re not shocked, you should be.
Even the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, is. The study shows that black children in preschool enrollment—and only 60% of the nation’s school districts even have pre-schools—represent 42% of students suspended, even though they represent only 18% of the preschool population. Nobody saw this coming. What’s wrong with this picture, everybody?
Well, what is wrong is that, according to the study, students that are suspended once—are more likely to be suspended again, and thus—are less likely to graduate. Students least likely to graduate, are most likely to dropout. Dropouts are most likely to become involved in criminal behavior, and are the leading targets for perpetual imprisonment.”
Read the rest here.
