Here are two posts in a row, this one from the Stamford, CN paper, and the other one by Larry Elder, on a taboo subject. But until they are faced, we won't solve the education problem. I would bet that the Advocate reporter catches hell for this article from the black community.
The Advocate
stamfordadvocate.com
Discipline and race: Black students suspended more than their peers, numbers show
By Matthew J. Malone
Staff Writer
April 24, 2005
Norwalk and Stamford schools have a discipline problem, but it's not necessarily about cursing out the teachers, smoking in the bathrooms or brawling in the halls.
It's about race.
Hundreds of students are suspended in both cities each year for everything from fighting to cutting class. Suspension and expulsion data from Norwalk and Stamford from the last four school years show that a grossly disproportionate number of them were black.
* Though black students made up about a quarter of Norwalk's school enrollment, they received more than half the total suspensions each year. The number of black students suspended during the four-year period would fill about 58 school buses. White students, who make up nearly half of enrollment, would fill 28 buses.
* Black males accounted for more than a third of Norwalk suspensions each year. They also received multiple suspensions more than white and Hispanic students combined.
* More Norwalk black females were suspended each year than white and Hispanic males, even though education researchers say that boys are much more likely to engage in disruptive behavior.
* A much larger percentage of Norwalk's total suspensions, compared with Stamford, are for multiple offenses.
Norwalk hands out, on average, more than twice the number suspensions than Stamford each year. The racial disparity is consistent in both districts.
"I think they look at us like a threat," Courtney Carmichael, an 18-year-old black senior at Stamford High School, said of teachers and administrators. "I don't think they think they can handle us."
Interviews with more than two dozen students, educators, parents and community leaders about the cause of the disparity resulted in many guesses and few answers.
Several whites interviewed refused to speak on the record, fearing their comments would be misconstrued and they would be labeled racist.
Whites were quick to say that poverty, not race, accounts for the disparity. Blacks were more eager to attribute at least part of the problem to racial bias. Neither group, however, was surprised by the statistics.
Education experts said that without a districtwide plan to address the disparity, black students as a whole will continue to underperform in school, rebel against authority and lack confidence in their ability to get equal treatment.
Many equated the problem with the racial disparity in American prisons. Blacks make up less than a tenth of Connecticut's population, but are nearly half of the prison population, according to a 2002 study by Human Rights Watch.
"It's a lifelong crisis for the community," said Gary Orfield, a Harvard professor and director of the university's Civil Rights Project. "It doesn't go away."
Black students in the state and the nation are also suspended disproportionately. Black students make up about 10 percent of Connecticut's school enrollment, but receive about a third of suspensions, state data show. In the past four years, blacks in Stamford averaged about a quarter of school enrollment, but received nearly two-thirds of the suspensions.
Russell Skiba, a professor at Indiana University who specializes in school discipline, said 25 years of research has found a consistent gap in punishment between black students and their peers.
School administrators said that for nonviolent behavior, suspensions are used as a last resort, part of a process of "progressive discipline" that begins with counseling, calls to parents and detentions.
Music, parents, low expectations
There's no question that educators in both towns have a tough job. James, whose name has been changed for this story because he is a juvenile, is a 14-year-old black student in a Stamford alternative education program for troubled students and young parents. He was sent there by a judge after he was arrested last fall for drug possession.
He talks proudly of his history of misbehavior in school, such as the time he started a fire in a trash can and rolled it down the hallway. Asked why he got into so much trouble, James replied, "I actually enjoy it."
Most suspensions are for less sensational offenses -- hallway fights, cutting class, drinking before the senior prom. Research shows that black students are not more likely to engage in such misbehavior, said Skiba, the Indiana University professor.
It's a finding that several educators, school board members and students dispute. They said that much of the difference in suspension rates is the result of behavior among black students.
"People do it to show off. It's something that makes them hard," said Michael Baldwin, a black Stamford High sophomore who's been suspended several times. "It's a reputation thing. There's some pride in poor performance and bad behavior."
Some say black popular culture glamorizes misbehavior -- rap music, with its exhortations to violence; the athletic industry, where so-called bad boys get cheered.
Evangeline Carmichael, the mother of Courtney, the Stamford High senior, said the lack of involvement by black parents makes it easier for teachers to punish their children more harshly. Courtney was suspended in seventh grade for fighting.
"We need to be on top of things," Evangeline Carmichael said of black parents.
There is cultural misunderstanding between teachers and students, several observers and students said. Courtney said the cultural disconnect is evident in rules that may seem innocuous but are more of an issue for black students, such as a Stamford school ban on baseball hats and "do-rags," the tight-fitting, bandana-like headwear popular with black males. About 90 percent of the faculty in both cities is white.
"You can count all the black (teachers) at Stamford High on your hand," Courtney said.
In the past several years in Stamford, the commitment to recruit and retain black teachers has been inconsistent. From 2001 to 2003, a human resource employee focused on recruiting minority teachers. Nearly a quarter of all teachers hired in those years were minorities.
After the employee left, less than 15 percent of those hired have been minorities, according to district data. The district recently began recruiting for the vacant human resources position.
Lisa Stagliano-Mackey, an assistant principal at Rippowam Middle School in Stamford, which so far this year handed out more suspensions than all other Stamford middle schools combined, said she does not think race is a factor in discipline.
"I just don't believe in my heart, anywhere that I've been in Stamford, that kids are suspended because they're minorities, or they're treated differently or we have less tolerance for them because of the color of their skin," she said. "I won't buy in my heart that we suspend on race. I just can't."
In a study of a year's worth of disciplinary records in a large, Midwestern school district, Skiba of Indiana and others tested the popular theories about what caused the disparity in suspensions. The findings pointed to bias as a partial cause.
Skiba, who now leads an effort aimed at reducing the disparity in suspensions in Indiana, said reaction to his findings depends on the audience -- whites demand more proof while blacks embrace it enthusiastically, seeing it as affirmation of personal experiences.
"We've come to the mistaken notion that we ought to be color-blind," Skiba said. "The unfortunate consequence of that is that, where there are problems, they don't get dealt with."
Feeling targeted
Even choir boys and choir girls fall into the suspension gap. Every Thursday, more than a dozen black students from Fairfield County meet at their Stamford church to practice their harmony and perfect their pitch. Asked how many had been suspended, six of the eight choir members present raised their hands.
Michael, the Stamford High sophomore, said some teachers automatically expect the worst from him. This year, Michael said, he moved up a level in history class, but the teacher questioned his ability from the start.
All of the students said they felt targeted for punishment. One black freshman at Stamford High said she got suspended in January for fighting. Her opponent, a Hispanic girl who she claimed started the fight, got two days detention.
Courtney, the Stamford High senior, said, "The white kids get swept under the rug."
The potential for bias is most acute in situations that, unlike smoking or skipping class, depend on the interpretation of those meting out punishment, Skiba said. Stamford's statistics appear to bear that out. During the 2002-03 school year, nearly half of all suspensions of black students were for school policy violations, compared with less than 40 percent for white and Hispanic students.
Courtney said teachers don't give black students the benefit of the doubt.
"We all do the same things, we commit the same acts," Courtney said. "If white kids argue, 'they're just offering their opinion.'"
Bias might be most prevalent in what President Bush calls "the soft bigotry of low expectations," several educators and researchers said. Bush has cited institutionalized low expectations for minority students in promoting the No Child Left Behind law, which requires states to focus on improving academic achievement for underperforming students, who are largely minorities, foreign-speaking and those with special needs.
Salvatore Corda, Norwalk's school superintendent, said, "I think we have an obligation to examine everything, including examining our own attitudes. Are there attitudes that are subliminal that we are not aware of? No doubt about it."
A tepid response
Outgoing Stamford Superintendent Anthony Mazzullo said schools are scapegoats for a problem not of their making. The disparity in suspensions is a cultural and community problem, not a school one, he said.
During his six-year tenure, there has been no comprehensive effort to study or reduce the racial disparity, Mazzullo said. Narrowing the gap in academic performance between minorities and whites would help improve student behavior, Mazzullo and others said.
Corda said Norwalk school officials are discussing the issue, but no concrete plans have been made to address the racial disparity and large number of suspensions overall.
Jody Bishop-Pullan, a Norwalk school board member, said finding money for alternative approaches to student behavior is difficult, but it is something the school board would like to explore.
"I think that students still need to know there is behavior that is not acceptable, but personally I would like to see it handled in a way that is not detrimental to their education," she said.
Should the differences in suspensions between blacks and their classmates endure, black students will continue to miss opportunities, several of those interviewed said. Too often, prison becomes the out-of-school suspension of adulthood.
"It's from fighting, to stabbing, to shooting, to jail," said Michael, the Stamford High sophomore.
-- Staff Writer Alison Damast contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. |
