Closing the School Discipline Gap

Educators remove over 3.45 million students from school annually for disciplinary reasons, despite strong evidence that school suspension policies are harmful to students. The research presented in this volume demonstrates that disciplinary policies and practices that schools control directly exacerbate today’s profound inequities in educational opportunity and outcomes. Part I explores how suspensions flow along the lines of race, gender, and disability status. Part II examines potential remedies that show great promise, including a district-wide approach in Cleveland, Ohio, aimed at social and emotional learning strategies.

Closing the School Discipline Gap is a call for action that focuses on an area in which public schools can and should make powerful improvements in a relatively short period of time.

Book Features:

• Shows the academic and social costs of excessive disciplinary exclusion.
• Examines school policies and practices that lead generations of African-American and Latino youth into the school-to-prison pipeline.
• Offers evidence-based interventions for reducing excessive and disparate out-of-school suspensions.
• Connects the research presented to real changes that can be made to federal, state, and district policies.

Daniel J. Losen is director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Should be required reading for any school, district or state using suspensions. This book is a wake-up call for anyone concerned with justice and public education."

—Education Review

“This volume is a call to action for policymakers, educators, parents, and students.”
—Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund

“Offers a clear set of recommendations for anyone committed to pursuing equality in our schools.”
—James E. Ryan, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Closing the School Discipline Gap can make an enormous difference in reducing disciplinary exclusions across the country. This book not only exposes unsound practices and their disparate impact on the historically disadvantaged, but provides educators, policymakers, and community advocates with an array of remedies that are proven effective or hold great promise. Educators, communities, and students alike can benefit from the promising interventions and well-grounded recommendations.”
—Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University