Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Over 2 Dozen MA Schools Reported Suspension Rates of Black Students Over 20% in 2018-19

In 2018, a federal report indicated that Black students in the United States saw higher rates of suspension, expulsion and arrest than white classmates. Massachusetts was just one state showing evidence of this disparity as during the 2018-2019 school year, 3% of all students and 2% of white students received an out of school suspension compared to 6.2% of Black students (and 5% of Hispanic/Latino students). I pulled the report on the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's website and looked filtered by districts schools with suspension rates of 20% or more for Black students; below is what I found.

(Note: while Phoenix Academy Charter is considered a district by the state, it is a single school enrolling students in grades 9 - 12). 

School Name
Students
Students Disciplined
% Out-of-School Suspension
Adams-Cheshire - Hoosac Valley Middle School
      17
       6
  23.5
Bellingham - Bellingham High School
      21
       6
  23.8
Boston - Clarence R Edwards Middle
      56
      23
  33.9
Boston - Community Academy
      52
      16
  30.8
Boston - Excel High School
     222
      55
  23.0
Boston - William McKinley
     201
      53
  23.9
Brockton - Frederick Douglass Academy
      47
      18
  29.8
Brockton - Huntington Therapeutic Day School
      34
       9
  26.5
Fall River - Resiliency Preparatory Academy
      50
      14
  28.0
Fall River - Talbot Innovation School
      43
      10
  20.9
Lowell - The Career Academy
      16
       6
  25.0
Lynn - Lynn English High
     195
      42
  21.5
Medford - Madeleine Dugger Andrews
      37
       9
  24.3
New Bedford - New Bedford High
     401
     105
  24.2
New Bedford - Normandin Middle School
     108
      31
  21.3
New Bedford - Roosevelt Middle School
     146
      37
  25.3
New Bedford - Whaling City Junior/Senior High School
      39
      18
  43.6
Phoenix Charter Academy (District) - Phoenix Charter Academy
      29
       8
  27.6
Pittsfield - John T Reid Middle
      86
      22
  25.6
Pittsfield - Taconic High
     118
      35
  22.9
Rockland - John W Rogers Middle
      44
      10
  22.7
Springfield - Impact Prep at Chestnut
      62
      16
  24.2
Springfield - John F Kennedy Middle
     110
      39
  34.5
Springfield - M Marcus Kiley Middle
     174
      37
  20.7
Springfield - South End Middle School
      29
       9
  27.6
Wareham - Wareham Senior High
      61
      24
  32.8

In total, there were 26 schools that met this criteria with Whaling City Junior/Senior High School in New Bedford posting the highest suspension rate here at 43.6% that school year. At the district level, Phoenix Academy Charter which appears on the list above was the only 'district' with a suspension rate above 20%; there were, however, 31 districts with suspension rates for Black students above 10% including Bellingham, Clinton, Gloucester, Palmer and Wareham. 

As the conversation around systemic racism and black lives expands to continue the conversations  around education and housing and environmental justice, interest in the suspension rates of students of color in terms of consequences such as dropping out and the school-to-prison pipeline needs to consider how to address this issue as far as alternatives to this kind of punishment but more importantly, the specific factors that are resulting in this disparity in a way that makes school a positive experience for all children. 

Data from: www.doe.mass.edu