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