What Does a Detailed Analysis of The Discipline Statistics Reveal?

In analyzing the data on last year’s expulsions and changes of placement, some interesting numbers and percentages stand out to me. I’m by no means a statistician, and I didn’t even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I do see some interesting patterns in the data analyzed.

First, the numbers-Here are the total numbers of students that were either expelled or given a disciplinary reassignment (change of placement), in the 2013-2014School Year broken down by race and gender, from highest numbers to lowest numbers.

Black Males (B/M)                           56

Black Females (B/F)                         41

White Males (W/M)                          30

White Females (W/F)                        16

Mixed Race Male (M/M)*                 5

Hispanic Male (H/M)                         4

Mixed Race Female (M/F)                 3

Hispanic Female (H/F)                       1

Indian Male (I/M)*                             1

Indian Female (I/F)*                           1

Asian Female (A/F)                            1

Asian Male (A/M)                              0      (not one Asian Male was expelled or reassigned in 2013-2014)

(Note, these acronyms are what was provided by the office of the Court Liaison in the report, I did not create these)

Now, at the point these students were in a position to be given a significant punishment, either a disciplinary change of placement or the more punitive expulsion, the average number of referrals data for each group before the most severe punishment was handed down, looks like this.  Essentially, this could be thought of as the “number of chances, or warnings” these students received, by race and gender, before their eventual removal from the school—ranked from highest number of referrals to lowest prior to removal.

B/F                        18

M/M                     17

I/M                        17 (only one individual)

B/M                       16

H/F                        15  (only one individual)

A/F                        13 (only one individual)

M/F                       11 (only 3 in the sample)

W/M                     11

W/F                       9

H/M                       4

I/F                          0  (One individual with 0 previous referrals,  “one and done”)

A/M                       0   (not one Asian Male was expelled or reassigned in 2013-2014)

Once either Change of Placement or the more punitive expulsion was decided upon, the statistics point out who received high percentages of expulsions, versus the less punitive change of placement

H/M                       25% Expelled                     75% COP

W/M                     20% Expelled                     80% COP

M/M                     20% Expelled                     80% COP

B/F                         17% Expelled                     83% COP

B/M                       13% Expelled                     87% COP

W/F                       13% Expelled                     87% COP

M/F                       0% Expelled                        100% COP

I/F                          0% Expelled                        100% COP

I/M                        0% Expelled                        100% COP

A/F                         0% Expelled                        100% COP

H/F                         0% Expelled                        100% COP

A/M                       N/A                                        N/A

So what does this data show?  Black Females, Mixed Race Males, Indian Males, and Black Males have the highest numbers of referrals when calculated at the time of removal from school (most chances, or warnings), whereas Indian Females, Hispanic Males, and White Females have the lowest numbers of referrals when calculated at the time of removal from school.

Additionally, when looking at what group gets the largest percentage of expulsions as a percentage of their group's individual percentage breakdown, Hispanic Males and White Males have the highest rate of expulsions compared to change of placements, whereas Black Males, White Females, and Black Females have the lowest percentage of Expulsions compared to Changes of Placement.

While some social justice organizations chastise our district for treating some minorities in what they claim to be a disparately more punitive manner---this data as broken down and analyzed clearly refutes this and actually points to the opposite condition as the reality of the situation...

In-Depth Breakdown of Last Year's Expulsions and Change of Placement Data

.....To include race, age, gender, infraction, previous numbers of referrals, and disposition (expulsion or the kinder, gentler, "change of placement").

The following pictures give an incredible amount of insight into the who, why, what, and where of discipline in our schools over last year.  Initially, the usual, detailed compilation of data to include the infractions, was not provided to the board.  This was a departure from previous years.  I asked to get this data at a workshop recently, and was initially told "staff did not have time to compile it"  I asked if they could do it because I wanted to see it.  This afternoon, the entire spreadsheet was provided.

 I'm presenting this data with the student number redacted, but with all of the other pertinent , but not individually identifiable, student  information  left in.  I especially like the breakdown that shows the number of previous referrals.  One student, who we still did not expel but instead gave a "change of placement" had an incredible 61 previous referrals.  Sixty-One!!  I've never seen that big a number, so I will be asking specific questions about this student.  Here are the seven pages

(Click "read more" below to see the next 6 pages)

2013-2014 District-Wide Discipline Statistics