Strategies That Support Inclusion and Equity: Promising Practices from Schools with Low out-of-School Suspension Rates

Purpose: Scholars and policy makers are paying increasing attention to the negative impacts of exclusionary school discipline practices and related racial disparities on young people’s life trajectories. In the last two years alone, the “school to prison pipeline” has become the target of several major federal, state, and local initiatives that aim to reduce schools’ reliance on out-of-school suspensions in response to discipline incidents. As school districts across the country rethink discipline policies, it has become increasingly important to identify alternative approaches that do not rely on exclusion. Indeed, a growing body of research indicates that out-of-school suspension rates are not inevitable consequences of individual student characteristics or school compositional features. However, this literature has not identified many specific prevention or intervention strategies that can be replicated and further researched. To this end, this exploratory study investigated the discipline practices employed by schools with low suspension rates in a large urban district.

Methods: 37 schools (from a population of 180) were purposively selected for the study sample based on the criteria of having a suspension rate that was 3% or lower for all students and for Black youth in particular. Of these schools, 33 participated in the study (an 89% response rate) including 20 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 3 high schools, and 5 schools serving multiple grade levels. At each school, interviews with principals and focus groups with key staff members were conducted using semi-structured protocols.  Topics included site-specific discipline policies, prevention and intervention programs, hiring practices, staffing structures, and professional development approaches. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded using Dedoose qualitative software. Analysis used both inductive and deductive techniques, with preliminary codes gleaned from a literature review and iterative code development driven by participant responses. Codes were assessed for inter-rater reliability across three researchers using Cohen’s Kappa (k > .80). 

Findings:   Participating schools prioritized efforts to improve climate and culture through school-wide systems that emphasized relationship building, universal social emotional learning approaches, rewards for positive behavior, and restorative practices in response to misbehavior. They had discipline policies that required classroom-based interventions and student support services prior to an office discipline referral and clearly dictated that out-of-school suspensions were only to be used as a last resort, or in cases where an investigation is needed.  Compelling quotes, additional details about specific programs and interventions, and a discussion of the conditions that supported these approaches will be shared in the full presentation.

Conclusions and Implications:  Study findings are consistent with theory and research on effective school-based prevention programs and behavioral interventions.  In particular, results align with literature indicating that ecological and school-wide approaches are needed to improve student outcomes. Implications for future research include the need to evaluate innovative policies and practices that do not yet have a strong empirical foundation. Findings also point to key school- and classroom-level variables that should be measured and incorporated into basic and applied research on school discipline.