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According to a new report by Dan Losen of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, entitled "Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice", in the U.S., a disproportionately large numbers of minority students are being removed from schools for relatively minor infractions.

"The application of discipline is unfair and unequal in this country," Losen said in a statement. "Kicking out students for minor offenses has no academic justification. Yet students and especially minority students are removed for small infractions every day, causing them to suffer academically."

The report suggests that the overuse of zero tolerance policies and other forms of student discipline are having a detrimental effect on student achievement--and while the "problem children" who are removed from the classroom suffer academically as a result, there's no evidence that other students benefit from their absence.

Keeping kids in school

Losen's report also provides examples of states that have legislative approaches aimed at keeping kids in school--Maryland passed a law in 2004 requiring that if suspensions reach 10 percent of an elementary school's enrollment, the school must engage in a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) program; and Connecticut law requires that schools employ in-school suspension for almost every school code infraction when the violator doesn't continue to pose a threat to himself or others.

At a news conference introducing the report, Professor Kevin Weiner, director of the University of Colorado's National Education Policy Center, said, "Although our society is more diverse than ever before, schools today are more segregated than they were 30 years ago. It's important to understand the link between diversity, discipline and academic achievement. The evidence presented by Losen shows that minority students are treated more harshly when it comes to discipline, and as a result of this harsh treatment they suffer academically."

"Being kicked out leads to becoming a dropout," Weiner said.

The report was produced by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice and the Ford Foundation.

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