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
