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."
Could it possibly be that they commit more offenses that call for suspensions? nah, it's Bush's fault.
Not all athletes proform the same way and to require a basketball player to catch the football on sunday would just end up in exasperation far everyone. So we wonder why some act out.
Such disparities also exist nationally and suggest a culture clash in schools, experts say.
He wants to expand training for teachers to better understand the culture of poverty, which he believes plays a role.
The obvious solution is to encourage white kids to misbehave more often so that the suspension rates will be similar.
Were they more honest -- no doubts there'd be -- Massive screams of "racism" and boycotts.... extortion by special interest groups "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY".
I wish they (those "power groups") would take their toys and go home -- and let people truly and earnestly wanting to help the problem, get at it.
We're talking about CHILDREN. Precious, unique, little souls. But special interest groups are into power and money; babies and children being mere "instruments" in their grand ole' strategy to "control" others.
Bingo. It's called "leveling the playing field" in modern liberalese. Creates a "war" zone, actually. And then the demands that only "specific minority teachers" teach only that specific minority. Quotas by another means. I've not ever seen it work well or bring up student grades, under those terms.
Not loosers, but LOSERS! Gad!
"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.
The above is a classic "pro-culture-war zone" hack assertion. Dime a dozen. It uses this scenario to "grow" liberal/democrat bureacracies. Don't fall for it. There are some superb charter schools in the area. If the parents really care...
I guess it's because the black kids behave worse. Before anyone gets mad I am black and five members of my family are teachers. Each one of them says that the kids who give them the most trouble are black boys.
If you take a kid, create conditions where there is no father and not much of a mother, "raise" him in a part of town where everything is ugly, mean and crooked and tell him that learning or just shutting up and sitting down is behaving like a hated white kid then don't be surprised if he becomes the problem child in class.
One of the dumbest things black women ever did was to listen to the feminists and the hippies in the 60s. The message of free love, scorning marital convention and encouragement of underclass women to have babies with the expectation the government would take care of them forever was not a good thing. It ruined the black family.
The hippies grew up or moved on to other causes. They're still liberals but they live in the burbs and send their kids to private school. The feminists still hate men in public but many either give it up when they finally meet a man or keep their love lives private. When Gloria Steinem got engaged to a very rich old man a number of feminists were furious but she got married anyway. For black women the way back isn't so easy (the pool of marriagiable black men is not that big and these men usually don't want a woman who already has somebody else's kids) and the kids are a reflection of that.
Simple answer to the question: BECAUSE THEY VIOLATE THE SCHOOL RULES that non-suspended students observe. Since violaters and suspended students are both white and black, the percentage of each does not matter. Get it? These nervous nellies don't.
"casts dispersions" ???? How does one cast a dispersion? That's a new one. I've heard of casting aspersions, but not dispersions. (the spelling police strike again!)
bump for later
Well, maybe a tiny bit of good news from southernnorthcarolina's beloved long-ago alma mater, Myers Park High School.
Myers Park's [Principal] 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.
Oops, looks like I spoke too soon. Seems we have an apologist for a principal now.
When asked why there were problems in Georgia's prison system, Governor Lester Maddox replied, "We need a better class of prisoners." There is wisdom in that. We need a better class of prisoners in the government schools.
Does this mean that Project Head Start doesn't work?
Please let me finish this sentence.
...but if we allow disruptive children to remain in the classroom, it will interfere with education process of the other children and leave them unemployable, prone to poverty and reliant on crime for survival."
In the vernacular, the cause of the disparity can be attributed to lack of "home trainin'."
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