Posted on 06/12/2005 7:34:54 AM PDT by southernnorthcarolina
Why are Charlotte's black students suspended more often than whites?
It's a hard-to-answer question, say Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials. But they want to look deeper, they say.
An Observer investigation found black students were nearly four times more likely to be suspended than whites in the 2003-04 school year.
Overall, CMS suspended 8 percent of white students, and 30 percent of black students.
Such disparities also exist nationally and suggest a culture clash in schools, experts say.
"It's a very difficult issue, and it's uncomfortable for folks," says assistant superintendent Susan Agruso. "Part of it may be related to culture. Part of it's poverty ... You don't want to believe there are biases, but the truth is -- there probably are."
African American males made up about 21 percent of all CMS students but 46 percent of those suspended.
African American females were second. They accounted for 26 percent of those suspended -- in contrast to national studies that found white males second.
Charlotte's white students made up 42 percent of the student population but just 20 percent of those suspended. Hispanic students' suspensions were proportional to their population.
"If the bulk of our suspensions are centered around a certain group, our responsibility is to figure out why that's happening and what we can do to correct the situation," Agruso says.
The disparity is biggest in elementary schools, where black students were eight times more likely to be suspended than whites.
Agruso says that may stem from culturally different styles and expectations of behavior.
"A lot of children don't show behavior appropriate for school," she says. "We have kids who haven't learned that you're respectful to teachers, you don't curse in class, you don't get up and walk around."
Significant disparities also exist at Mecklenburg's top-achieving high schools. Myers Park and Providence don't suspend as many students as other high schools. But when they do, most suspensions are of black students.
Just 4 percent of Myers Park's white students were suspended, while 31 percent of black students were suspended.
At Providence, 6 percent of white students were suspended, compared with 37 percent of black students.
Principals at both schools were unaware of the extent of the disparities, but say race plays no role in discipline decisions.
Providence High's Mike Mathews wants to further study the disparities at his school.
Myers Park's Bill Anderson called the gap "absolutely not" acceptable. He wants to expand training for teachers to better understand the culture of poverty, which he believes plays a role.
Poverty and other socioeconomic factors may explain some of the disparity, experts say. In Mecklenburg, black school-age children are four times more likely to live in poverty than white children.
The stresses of poverty can mean less structure at home. Children are exposed to more violence and trauma in poor neighborhoods. And they're more likely to live with single parents who may not have as much time to share with their children.
UNCC researcher Laurie Garo found a link between suspensions and crime. She mapped the address of every CMS student suspended in 2003-04 -- and found them largely clustered in the same impoverished neighborhoods plagued by unemployment, dropouts and crime.
"These kids are being put out of the education process, which leaves them unemployable, prone to poverty and reliant on crime for survival," says Garo.
An Observer analysis of school-crime records found black students were far more likely to be arrested at school than white students. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police made 1,004 arrests on CMS campuses in the 2003-04 school year. Of those arrested, 81 percent were black.
A national study suggests yet another reason for the racial gap in suspensions.
Indiana University's "The Color of Discipline" scientifically adjusted for socioeconomic factors and still found blacks suspended more often -- and for more discretionary reasons.
In Charlotte, 44 percent of all suspensions were for "generally disruptive behavior" and "insubordination." Such behaviors require judgment calls by teachers and principals.
"We have to teach people to be very aware of their biases," says Agruso, "and ask if bias is creeping into how they treat a child."
Cultural differences between white teachers and black students can lead to misinterpretation. Black students talking back to teachers may not be a sign of disrespect, says diversity consultant Tim Wise, but can show engagement, as when churchgoers respond to ministers.
Even black teachers and students can misjudge one another when they come from different backgrounds. Direct confrontation by a teacher is a threat for some students.
"You just learn in certain neighborhoods, you don't back down," says Harvard University's Ron Ferguson, who researches achievement gaps. "If you back down, you're going to get your butt whupped."
The die is cast by the time the child is six years old.
Get your children out of the anarchy/chaos of the public schools.
My three cousins in Jackson Mississippi who taught public for years say precisely the same thing.
They quit and went to teaching private for less money.
Jackson public schools are 88% black
Most adults have a bias against obnoxious, disruptive behaviour. If a student chooses to act like a ghetto thug or "ho", s/he will not get much of an education. Want to help these kids? Make them behave like civilized people. Their culture, not racism or the "biased" school, is what's dragging them down.
Jus' gotta hab quotas, it jes' ain't fayuh no uther way.
Those in the best position to fix this on going problem, are too busy making excuses and blaiming everything and everyone else, to face up to and work on the problem.
The only racism present in this situation, is the raciests who prefer to blame every shortcoming by members of their own race on imagined racism by members of another race.
I went to Jackson once. It was the only place I've ever seen a mall with a 12 foot fence around it with armed security guards at the gated entrances/exits.
I wonder if there is a correlation to single parent household?
If any of the keepers of the NC Ping List are not in church at this hour (like the undersigned infidel), he or she may wish to send this out.
Where do you teach? (you don't have to be specific if you like)
I was in 7th grade Jackson MS when court ordered busing came in over Christmas break 1969 and the Jr High school went from maybe 10% voluntary black to about 65% black when we came back from break. It was supposed to have been 50% but some white booked for private asap.
I stayed and it was wild. I had never seen kids so wild. Sure there were some nerdy black kids and whatnot but I had never seen sex in the bathroom and knife fights and all sorts of crazy stuff.....gang stuff too. I was attacked by a gang for refusing to turn over my pencil...lol...a damned pencil. My black homeroom teacher saved my ass.
My folks yanked me out after that year and we went private and neighborhood schools were ruined forever.
Folks here don't have a clue unless they were there.
At the time I actually thought it was fun...12 years old and all.
Thanks for your efforts teach!
It's about the families and culture....always has been.
Parts of it have a J-burg charm.
All these kids need is a father that takes his belt off and whips their asses with it.
So, we have a study that adjusted for factors of social and economic bias. So where are the raw numbers. In other words how many of the black suspensions (other factors being controlled) are because of discretionary calls by the teacher. (and how many teachers are black?). This is a flawed study like so many examined by Thomas Sowell in his book "Vision of the Anointed". The problem is that the study started with the vision that blacks would be discriminated against in school and proceeded from there.
One thing that should be mentioned is that teachers, as a class, work very hard on their prejudices. I had a bias against kids who refused to turn in homework for example. I would never let a racial bias affect what I did as I tried to understand every student. But some kids work harder, some kids let you know they are trying to get it but can't. Some kids come after school or during lunch for the extra help that was always offered. Etc. And the teacher tries to behave equally toward every student, and tries to be fair when deciding the grades at the end of every quarter. But I would have to argue that disruptive behavior hurts all the kids for the sake one one or two who can't behave. Sorry, classes need discipline and kids need to come to school with this one understanding -- behave or out you go.
Finally it must be noted that this article casts dispersions on a fine -- usually left thinking group -- the teachers themselves. If this is a left on left problem, maybe we should let them duke it out. I for one would love to see the teachers union take on the elites who put out shoddy research like this. The anointed Vs. the anointed.
The reason is behavior and not race. The few times that I got mine busted for bad behavior in school, I got it busted again when I got home. No questions on my part concerning fairness were entertained.
I have a confession to make-it's not just the young black kids who think they're just duty bound to piss off every Cop who pulls them over. My own youngest son,white, now middle aged and solid as a rock,law abiding, hard working family man, was the same as the black kid you are talking about, in his youth.
He himself has raised four of his children to adulthood and not one ever ran a routine traffic stop into a felony, with their own lips. I believe that he learned the hard way, that sometimes the less pain, the more gain, and shared that knowledge with his children.
Would they be suspended if they called out "Amen, brother!" in class?
However, they do not want to look deeply enough to find the TRUE root of the problem, which is that blacks violate school policies at a rate four times that of whites, and the violations are more egregious on average than those of white students.
The answer is known to anyone who has taught both.
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