University Study Finds School Discipline Policies Unfairly Impact Black Girls

A new study conducted by scholars at Michigan State University finds that zero-tolerance discipline policies in the nation’s schools unfairly punish Black girls. These policies call for a student’s removal from school for any infraction relating to policies ranging from dress code violations to truancy to fighting.

The authors point out that Black girls have a higher rate of suspensions than girls from any other racial or ethnic group and have a higher rate of suspension than for boys, except for African Americans and American Indians.

Dorinda Carter Andrews, an associate professor of teacher education at Michigan State University and a co-author of the study, notes that “the research shows that teachers and other adults may give a pass to certain students for the ways in which they talk back. Teachers may view some girls, particularly African-American girls, as attitudinal or aggressive, even though they may be using the same talk-back language as a White female student.”

Dr. Carter Andrews adds that “zero tolerance constructs these young girls as criminals. It’s a criminalization of their childhood, and it’s a very prison-type mentality for schools to take.”

A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Carter Andrews holds a master’s degree in elementary education from Vanderbilt University and a second master’s degree and an educational doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The paper, “The Effects of Zero Tolerance Policies on Black Girls: Using Critical Race Feminism and Figured Worlds to Examine School Discipline,” was published on the website of the journal Urban Education. It may be accessed here.

Co-author of the study is Dorothy Hines-Datiri, an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas, who earned a Ph.D. in educational policy at Michigan State University in 2014.

Related Articles

1 COMMENT

  1. The universal negative portrayal of black women as seen through the media via shows like Love and Hip-Hop, and Housewives of Atlanta and in addition on the internet, such as WorldStar Hip-Hop certainly doesn’t help, and may have seeped into the consciousness of educators.

    Just my take.

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

A Strategy for Integrating Artificial Intelligence at Historically Black Colleges & Universities

For faculty in higher education, creating a generative AI policy for usage in completing assignments is creating somewhat of a confrontation of ethics and substitutional learning.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Featured Jobs