Research

More than two decades of research has confirmed that out-of-school suspensions do not improve student behavior and, in fact, often exacerbate it. Students who are suspended lose valuable instructional time, and are more likely to fall behind in school, drop out, and enter the juvenile delinquency system, at great cost to students and taxpayers.

The materials below illustrate the problems with out-of-school suspensions, as well as research about the solutions. For a comprehensive page of articles related to the problems and solutions of school discipline, please follow us on facebook and twitter.

Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools (HEARTS): A Whole-School, MultiLevel, Prevention and Intervention Program for Creating Trauma-Informed, Safe and Supportive Schools (2016)

THE UCLA Civil Rights Project: Closing The School Discipline Gap in California: Signs of Progress (2015)

Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT OF K-12 SCHOOL SUSPENSION AND EXPULSION ON BLACK STUDENTS IN SOUTHERN STATES (2015)

School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in California: Past, Present and Future 1st Annual (2015)

Education Week Research Center: SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING Perspectives from America’s Schools (June 2015)

International Institute For Restorative Practices: Improving School Climate: Evidence from Schools Implementing Restorative Practices (2015)

Better Than Zero: How Alternative Discipline Is Replacing Zero Tolerance To Break The School to Prison Pipeline  (2015)

National Council on Disability: Breaking The School-To-Prison-Pipeline for Students with Disabilities 

Effectiveness of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in Reducing Racially Inequitable Disciplinary Exclusion

Key Components to Culturally Responsive Teaching (2015)

The Center for Civil Rights Remedies  Are We Closing The School Discipline Gap? (February 2015)

Oakland Unified School District: Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools: Implementation and Impact (January 2015) Quick Reference Charts from this report

CLEARvoz Journal, The Equity and Social Justice Issue: Alternative Discipline Structures: A Comprehensive Approach to Changing Behavior (October 2014)

The Advancement Project: How We Are Dismantling the School-To-Prison-Pipeline in Denver (September 15, 2014)

National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities: A Literature Map of Dropout Prevention Interventions for Students With Disabilities (April 2014)

Advancement Project: Toolkit: Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools

Framing the Challenge: Research on Disciplinary Disproportionality and the Need for Equity-Explicit Intervention (EXCERPTS) (2013)

The Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy: Effective Alternatives to School Suspensions and Expulsions  and Fast-Facts-About-the-Health-and-Wellbeing-of-BMOC (2013)

Advancement Project : A Real Fix: the Gun-Free Way To School Safety ( April 2013)

Boys and Men of Color: Exclusionary School Discipline ( April 3, 2013)

SIA Cabinet Report: Alternatives to suspensions, expulsions await (September 5, 2012)

CADRE, HIP, RJP: Health Impact Assessment of School Discipline Policies (May 2012)

UCLA Civil Rights Project: Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice (October 2011)

Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions: Examining the Effects of Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on Student Outcomes– Results From a Randomized Controlled Effectiveness Trial in Elementary Schools (2010)

Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions: A Randomized, Wait-List Controlled Effectiveness Trial Assessing School-Wide Positive Behavior Support in Elementary Schools (2009)

Educational Psychology: Whole-School Positive Behaviour Support: Effects on student discipline problems and academic performance (2005)

Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions: Using Staff and Student Time Engaged in Disciplinary Procedures to Evaluate the Impact of School-Wide PBS (2004)

Education and Treatment of Children: Evaluation of a Comprehensive Behavior Management Program To Improve School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (2001)

Education and Treatment of Children: Translating Research into Effective Practice: The Effects of a Universal Staff and Student Intervention on Indicators of Discipline and School Safety (2001)

The Center For Civil Rights : Charter Schools, Civil Rights and School Discipline (March 2016)

American Journal of Sociology: The Social Structure of Criminalized and Medicalized School Discipline (May 2015)

Race and Social Problems: Restructuring Inequity: Interventions to Address Racial/Ethnic Disparities in School Discipline: Can Systems Reform Be Race-Neutral?

American Sociological Review: Suspending Progress: Collateral Consequences of Exclusionary Punishment in Public Schools (December 2014)

Discipline Disparities: A Research to Practice Collaborative: You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Look At: Acknowledging Race in Addressing Racial Discipline Disparities (December 2014)

GSA Network and Crossroads Collaborative: Gender Nonconforming Youth: Discipline Disparities, School Push-Out, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline (October 2014)

Public Policy Clinic at the S.J.Quinney College of Law: Fingerpaint to Fingerprint, The School To Prison Pipeline in Utah (2014)

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform : Cross System Collaboration (2014)

Padres & Jovenes Unidos and Advancement Project: Lessons in Racial Justice and Movement Building (2014)

The UCLA Civil Rights Project: Keeping California’s Kids In School (2014)

My Brother’s Keeper Task Force Report To The President (2014)

The Kirwan Institute: Implicit Bias in School Discipline (2014)

Public Counsel: The Impact of Policing Oakland Youth  (August 2013)

Veronica Terriquez, Robert Chlala, and Jeff Sacha The Impact of Punitive High School Discipline Policies on the Postsecondary Trajectories of Young Men (2013)

VERA Institute of Justice: BEMORE Concept Paper (2013)

Bettie Ray Butler, Marcus D. Joubert, Chance W. Lewis, Who’s Really Disrupting the Classroom? (2009), (African-American students are not statistically likely to be the instigators.)

School Discipline:  What the Research Tells Us (2011)

Adriana Villavicencio, Dyuti Bhattacharya, and Brandon Guidry, Moving the Needle Exploring Key Levers to Boost College Readiness Among Black and Latino Males in New York City (2013)

The Urban Review: The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment (December 2002)

UCLA Civil Rights Project: Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice (October 2011)

Journal of African American Males in Education: African American Male Discipline Patterns and School District Responses Resulting Impact on Academic Achievement: Implications for Urban Educators and Policy Makers (February/March 2010)

Shore Research:Disproportionality in Disciplinary Action in Public Education Literature Review (February 19 2012)

The California Report: School suspensions highlight different discipline standards (September 11, 2012)

EdSource: Study finds little uniformity in CA school discipline (September 10, 2012)

Urban Strategies Council: African American Male Achievement Initiative- A closer look at suspensions of African American males in Oakland Unified School District (May 22, 2012)

California Health Report: Disabled African-American students face frequent suspensions (May 7, 2012)

UCLA Civil Rights Project: Out-of-School Suspensions in California’s School Districts Reveal Hidden Crisis (2012)

School Psychology Review: Race Is Not Neutral: A National Investigation of African American and Latino Disproportionality in School Discipline (2011)

Knowledge Center– The Council of State Governments: Breaking Schools’ Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement (2011)

CADRE, HIP, RJP: Health Impact Assessment of School Discipline Policies (May 2012)

Educational Researcher: The Achievement Gap and the Discipline Gap: Two sides of the same coin? (2010)

National Institute of Health: Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in School Discipline among U.S. High School Students: 1991-2005

Journal of Progressive Human Services Critical Multiculturalism, Whiteness, and Social Work: Towards a More Radical View of Cultural Competence (2006)