School Discipline

Reducing Black Student’s Experience of Exclusionary Discipline

Funder

Principal Investigator: Dorinda Carter Andrews, EdD

Co-Principal Investigator: Chezare A. Warren, PhD

Co-Principal Investigator: Ken Frank, PhD

Co-Principal Investigator: Bryan Beverly, PhD

Description

This study evaluates how fostering empathy and critical race consciousness paired with critical use of data can reduce the racial gap in Black students’ discipline referrals and suspensions. We examine how teachers’ empathy and critical race consciousness is impacted after participation in a 6-session series Racial Awareness and Knowledge Intervention (RAKI). We’re working with four districts across the state of Michigan already engaged in the disciplinary reform initiative Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The RAKI is designed to enhance empathy and critical race consciousness while developing teachers’ capacity to use disciplinary data. We directly measure levels of teacher empathy and critical race consciousness at the start and finish of the Intervention. Further we study changing levels of these variables flow through social network analyses.