The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literat... more The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literature as "disproportionality" "over-representation" and in a nod to the achievement gap, as the "discipline gap," has become the subject of increased concern and analysis in recent years. In this dissertation, I apply concepts from Historical Institutionalism to the formation of exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies in postwar New York City. First, I identify and illuminate how actors, in framing the problem of school disorder, deployed competing logics of discipline. Next I explore how the context, in particular tensions regarding school integration, influenced the framing of school disorder and contributed to the rising salience of logics that individualized school disorder and decontextualized it from the conditions of racism. Finally, I examine how school personnel engaged with and deployed these logics in their participation in the expansion and institutionalization of punitive, exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies. This analysis demonstrates that punitive and criminalizing disciplinary policies were never neutral, but rather emerged out of a context of fraught racial politics that favored policies and actors that individualized, criminalized and racialized school disorder. Ultimately I demonstrate that the policies undergirding contemporary disproportionality in discipline were contested, contingent with pressure for integration and supported by educators and school personnel. This complicates existing explanations for the discipline gap that conceptualize the disproportionate punishment, exclusion and criminalization of black students as "unintended" and "unconscious." It also highlights the organizational and ideological forces embedded in the institutional environment of schools that may pose challenges to reform efforts. 1 CHAPTER 1: THE "DISCIPLINE GAP" On February 6, 1958 the New York City Board Of Education released the following statement: Resolved, that it is the policy of the Board of Education that any pupil who shall be charged with a violation of a law involving violence or insubordination shall be forthwith suspended from regular school attendance. Such suspension shall not be revoked unless the pupil is found not guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. In establishing this policy, which is a departure from previous policy, the Board recognizes that in such cases under existing condition, no instruction can be provided for such pupils. 1 Prior to the policy change, a student could only be suspended by an Assistant Superintendent and only after a hearing had taken place. Moreover, no student could be legally suspended from school without an alternative school placement being arranged. In the past, the state's compulsory schooling laws required principals to continue to accept the students awaiting suspension hearings. By contrast, the Board's new policy allowed for what the New York Times described as the "wholesale suspension of troublesome pupils from the schools without any provision for their future care." 2 For the first time, the policy gave the power to remove a student to individuals at the school site, the very individuals who had much to gain from the removal of demanding or challenging pupils. The Board openly acknowledged that the policy might result in children being sent "right out into the street." 3 This policy marked a stunning departure from official prior practice in a number of ways. First, the suspension policy change indicated a dramatic shift from disciplinary policies based in the doctrine of in loco parentis. 4 In 1930, less than 3 decades earlier, then Superintendent O'Shea claimed emphatically that: No principal has the right to suspend a student, nor has any local school board that power. I alone have the authority to make suspensions...we try to run our schools under different principles from those of forcible suspension and harsh measures... and try not to resort to such awful measures if we can help it. 5 The Board of Education President at the time seconded O'Shea's statement explaining that "if occasionally a child is found to lack [character] it is the business of the system to get to work to provide it." 6 The belief that it is "the business of schools" to shape the moral character of 7.
Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary dis... more Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary disciplinary practices in response to behavior management challenges in classrooms and schools. This is of great concern given data that suggests that such practices predict negative outcomes for students, including repeat suspensions, dropout and incarceration. Instead, the professional development literature has focused largely on instructional practices in the classroom. Using secondary data, the current paper sought to address this limitation by examining the potential impact of a professional development intervention, focused on classroom management strategies through training and one-on-one coaching, on reductions in disciplinary practices. School-level suspension and behavioral incidence data were available for 70 schools participating in the intervention and 1605 schools that did not participate in the intervention during the 2011-2012 school year. First, differences in demographics between the schools receiving the professional development intervention and schools that did not receive the intervention were explored. Next, a series of hierarchical regression models were estimated in order to test the level of dosage as a predictor of change in suspensions and behavior incidents. Results reveal that intervention schools experienced significantly reduced suspensions and behavior incidents in the school year following the intervention. The number of coaching sessions also predicted significant decreases in suspensions and marginally significant decreases in behavioral incidences. These findings suggest that professional development interventions may have the potential to shift teacher behavior management practices that reduce exclusionary disciplinary practices known to be detrimental to student outcomes.
The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literat... more The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literature as disproportionality over-representation and in a nod to the achievement gap, as the discipline gap, has become the subject of increased concern and analysis in recent years. In this dissertation, I apply concepts from Historical Institutionalism to the formation of exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies in post-war New York City. First, I identify and illuminate how actors, in framing the problem of school disorder, deployed competing logics of discipline. Next I explore how the context, in particular tensions regarding school integration, influenced the framing of school disorder and contributed to the rising salience of logics that individualized school disorder and decontextualized it from the conditions of racism. Finally, I examine how school personnel engaged with and deployed these logics in their participation in the expansion and institutionalization of punit...
The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literat... more The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literature as "disproportionality" "over-representation" and in a nod to the achievement gap, as the "discipline gap," has become the subject of increased concern and analysis in recent years. In this dissertation, I apply concepts from Historical Institutionalism to the formation of exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies in post-war New York City. First, I identify and illuminate how actors, in framing the problem of school disorder, deployed competing logics of discipline. Next I explore how the context, in particular tensions regarding school integration, influenced the framing of school disorder and contributed to the rising salience of logics that individualized school disorder and decontextualized it from the conditions of racism. Finally, I examine how school personnel engaged with and deployed these logics in their participation in the expansion and institutionalization of punitive, exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies. This analysis demonstrates that punitive and criminalizing disciplinary policies were never neutral, but rather emerged out of a context of fraught racial politics that favored policies and actors that individualized, criminalized and racialized school disorder. Ultimately I demonstrate that the policies undergirding contemporary disproportionality in discipline were contested, contingent with pressure for integration and supported by educators and school personnel. This complicates existing explanations for the discipline gap that conceptualize the disproportionate punishment, exclusion and criminalization of black students as "unintended" and "unconscious." It also highlights the organizational and ideological forces embedded in the institutional environment of schools that may pose challenges to reform efforts.
Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary dis... more Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary disciplinary practices in response to behavior management challenges in classrooms and schools. This is of great concern given data that suggests that such practices predict negative outcomes for students, including repeat suspensions, dropout and incarceration. Instead, the professional development literature has focused largely on instructional practices in the classroom. Using secondary data, the current paper sought to address this limitation by examining the potential impact of a professional development intervention, focused on classroom management strategies through training and one-on-one coaching, on reductions in disciplinary practices. School-level suspension and behavioral incidence data were available for 70 schools participating in the intervention and 1605 schools that did not participate in the intervention during the 2011–2012 school year. First, differences in demographics between the schools receiving the professional development intervention and schools that did not receive the intervention were explored. Next, a series of hierarchical regression models were estimated in order to test the level of dosage as a predictor of change in suspensions and behavior incidents. Results reveal that intervention schools experienced significantly reduced suspensions and behavior incidents in the school year following the intervention. The number of coaching sessions also predicted significant decreases in suspensions and marginally significant decreases in behavioral incidences. These findings suggest that professional development interventions may have the potential to shift teacher behavior management practices that reduce exclusionary disciplinary practices known to be detrimental to student outcomes.
The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literat... more The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literature as "disproportionality" "over-representation" and in a nod to the achievement gap, as the "discipline gap," has become the subject of increased concern and analysis in recent years. In this dissertation, I apply concepts from Historical Institutionalism to the formation of exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies in postwar New York City. First, I identify and illuminate how actors, in framing the problem of school disorder, deployed competing logics of discipline. Next I explore how the context, in particular tensions regarding school integration, influenced the framing of school disorder and contributed to the rising salience of logics that individualized school disorder and decontextualized it from the conditions of racism. Finally, I examine how school personnel engaged with and deployed these logics in their participation in the expansion and institutionalization of punitive, exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies. This analysis demonstrates that punitive and criminalizing disciplinary policies were never neutral, but rather emerged out of a context of fraught racial politics that favored policies and actors that individualized, criminalized and racialized school disorder. Ultimately I demonstrate that the policies undergirding contemporary disproportionality in discipline were contested, contingent with pressure for integration and supported by educators and school personnel. This complicates existing explanations for the discipline gap that conceptualize the disproportionate punishment, exclusion and criminalization of black students as "unintended" and "unconscious." It also highlights the organizational and ideological forces embedded in the institutional environment of schools that may pose challenges to reform efforts. 1 CHAPTER 1: THE "DISCIPLINE GAP" On February 6, 1958 the New York City Board Of Education released the following statement: Resolved, that it is the policy of the Board of Education that any pupil who shall be charged with a violation of a law involving violence or insubordination shall be forthwith suspended from regular school attendance. Such suspension shall not be revoked unless the pupil is found not guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. In establishing this policy, which is a departure from previous policy, the Board recognizes that in such cases under existing condition, no instruction can be provided for such pupils. 1 Prior to the policy change, a student could only be suspended by an Assistant Superintendent and only after a hearing had taken place. Moreover, no student could be legally suspended from school without an alternative school placement being arranged. In the past, the state's compulsory schooling laws required principals to continue to accept the students awaiting suspension hearings. By contrast, the Board's new policy allowed for what the New York Times described as the "wholesale suspension of troublesome pupils from the schools without any provision for their future care." 2 For the first time, the policy gave the power to remove a student to individuals at the school site, the very individuals who had much to gain from the removal of demanding or challenging pupils. The Board openly acknowledged that the policy might result in children being sent "right out into the street." 3 This policy marked a stunning departure from official prior practice in a number of ways. First, the suspension policy change indicated a dramatic shift from disciplinary policies based in the doctrine of in loco parentis. 4 In 1930, less than 3 decades earlier, then Superintendent O'Shea claimed emphatically that: No principal has the right to suspend a student, nor has any local school board that power. I alone have the authority to make suspensions...we try to run our schools under different principles from those of forcible suspension and harsh measures... and try not to resort to such awful measures if we can help it. 5 The Board of Education President at the time seconded O'Shea's statement explaining that "if occasionally a child is found to lack [character] it is the business of the system to get to work to provide it." 6 The belief that it is "the business of schools" to shape the moral character of 7.
Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary dis... more Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary disciplinary practices in response to behavior management challenges in classrooms and schools. This is of great concern given data that suggests that such practices predict negative outcomes for students, including repeat suspensions, dropout and incarceration. Instead, the professional development literature has focused largely on instructional practices in the classroom. Using secondary data, the current paper sought to address this limitation by examining the potential impact of a professional development intervention, focused on classroom management strategies through training and one-on-one coaching, on reductions in disciplinary practices. School-level suspension and behavioral incidence data were available for 70 schools participating in the intervention and 1605 schools that did not participate in the intervention during the 2011-2012 school year. First, differences in demographics between the schools receiving the professional development intervention and schools that did not receive the intervention were explored. Next, a series of hierarchical regression models were estimated in order to test the level of dosage as a predictor of change in suspensions and behavior incidents. Results reveal that intervention schools experienced significantly reduced suspensions and behavior incidents in the school year following the intervention. The number of coaching sessions also predicted significant decreases in suspensions and marginally significant decreases in behavioral incidences. These findings suggest that professional development interventions may have the potential to shift teacher behavior management practices that reduce exclusionary disciplinary practices known to be detrimental to student outcomes.
The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literat... more The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literature as disproportionality over-representation and in a nod to the achievement gap, as the discipline gap, has become the subject of increased concern and analysis in recent years. In this dissertation, I apply concepts from Historical Institutionalism to the formation of exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies in post-war New York City. First, I identify and illuminate how actors, in framing the problem of school disorder, deployed competing logics of discipline. Next I explore how the context, in particular tensions regarding school integration, influenced the framing of school disorder and contributed to the rising salience of logics that individualized school disorder and decontextualized it from the conditions of racism. Finally, I examine how school personnel engaged with and deployed these logics in their participation in the expansion and institutionalization of punit...
The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literat... more The disproportionate suspension and criminalization of black students, referred to in the literature as "disproportionality" "over-representation" and in a nod to the achievement gap, as the "discipline gap," has become the subject of increased concern and analysis in recent years. In this dissertation, I apply concepts from Historical Institutionalism to the formation of exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies in post-war New York City. First, I identify and illuminate how actors, in framing the problem of school disorder, deployed competing logics of discipline. Next I explore how the context, in particular tensions regarding school integration, influenced the framing of school disorder and contributed to the rising salience of logics that individualized school disorder and decontextualized it from the conditions of racism. Finally, I examine how school personnel engaged with and deployed these logics in their participation in the expansion and institutionalization of punitive, exclusionary and criminalizing disciplinary policies. This analysis demonstrates that punitive and criminalizing disciplinary policies were never neutral, but rather emerged out of a context of fraught racial politics that favored policies and actors that individualized, criminalized and racialized school disorder. Ultimately I demonstrate that the policies undergirding contemporary disproportionality in discipline were contested, contingent with pressure for integration and supported by educators and school personnel. This complicates existing explanations for the discipline gap that conceptualize the disproportionate punishment, exclusion and criminalization of black students as "unintended" and "unconscious." It also highlights the organizational and ideological forces embedded in the institutional environment of schools that may pose challenges to reform efforts.
Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary dis... more Little is known about how professional development models can be used to address exclusionary disciplinary practices in response to behavior management challenges in classrooms and schools. This is of great concern given data that suggests that such practices predict negative outcomes for students, including repeat suspensions, dropout and incarceration. Instead, the professional development literature has focused largely on instructional practices in the classroom. Using secondary data, the current paper sought to address this limitation by examining the potential impact of a professional development intervention, focused on classroom management strategies through training and one-on-one coaching, on reductions in disciplinary practices. School-level suspension and behavioral incidence data were available for 70 schools participating in the intervention and 1605 schools that did not participate in the intervention during the 2011–2012 school year. First, differences in demographics between the schools receiving the professional development intervention and schools that did not receive the intervention were explored. Next, a series of hierarchical regression models were estimated in order to test the level of dosage as a predictor of change in suspensions and behavior incidents. Results reveal that intervention schools experienced significantly reduced suspensions and behavior incidents in the school year following the intervention. The number of coaching sessions also predicted significant decreases in suspensions and marginally significant decreases in behavioral incidences. These findings suggest that professional development interventions may have the potential to shift teacher behavior management practices that reduce exclusionary disciplinary practices known to be detrimental to student outcomes.
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