Despite decades of political debate, racial disparities continue to run rampant in American schools. One particularly important imbalance: the race gap in school discipline, especially suspension rates. Now, researchers have discovered an unfortunate revelation: Teachers come down harder on black students than whites for the same infractions.
A number of studies in recent years demonstrate white and black students aren't punished at the same rates. Last year, Department of Education data revealed that this discipline gap is substantial—enough so that it raised eyebrows in the Department of Justice—and can start as early as preschool.
But an explanation for the gap remained elusive, and without knowing what specific factors were behind the disparity, there wasn't much either researchers or educators could do about it, Stanford psychology graduate student Jason Okofonua writes in an email.
[For more of this story, written by Nathan Collins, go to http://www.psmag.com/books-and...in-school-discipline]
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