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This program, a collaboration between the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning and the Office of Equity and Civil Rights, aims to provide technical assistance to Washington districts in order to reduce discipline disparities among student groups based on race/ethnicity, disability status, poverty, housing instability, and other factors.
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Measuring Discipline Disparities Mark McKechnie, MSW Senior Consultant on Equity in Student Discipline Center for the Improvement of Student Learning Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, State Superintendent
Equity in School Discipline This program is a collaboration between the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning and the Office of Equity and Civil Rights to provide technical assistance directly to Washington districts in order to reduce the disparate discipline of overrepresented student groups based upon: • Race/ethnicity • Disability status • Poverty • Housing Instability • And other factors
Context: Students Excluded Statewide Student Population excluded by year: Includes Short-Term Suspension (SS), Long-Term Suspension (LS), Emergency Expulsion (EE) and Expulsion (EX)
There are four common measures to examine discipline data disaggregated by student group • Exclusion Rate (provides the basis for the other three) • Composition Index • Risk Ratio • Relative Rate (note: The Relative Rate is sometimes considered one type of Risk Ratio)
Exclusion Rate • Exclusion rate = # of students excluded ÷ # of students enrolled • The total exclusion rate counts students who have been excluded through any of the four types of school exclusion: • Short-term Suspension (SS): ten days or less • Long-term Suspension (LS): up to one school term • Expulsion (EX): up to one school term, or up to one calendar years in limited circumstances • Emergency Expulsion (EE): up to 10 days
Composite Index Compares the Exclusion Rate for one Group to the Enrollment % of the same group Composite Index (example) = % of African-American students excluded in the district ÷ % of African-American students enrolled in the district
Risk Ratio The likelihood of a student from a particular group being excluded, compared to the likelihood from a student from any other group being excluded. Risk Ratio (example) = % of American Indian/Native AK students excluded ÷ % of All other students excluded
Relative Rate The proportion of students from one group excluded compared to the exclusion rate for a comparison group Relative Rate (examples) = % of Multi-Racial students excluded ÷ % of White students excluded or % of Students with Disabilities excluded ÷ % of Students without Disabilities excluded
Recap • Disaggregated exclusion rates are necessary to identify disparities. • Composite Indices, Risk Ratios and Relative Rates are each commonly used measures of disproportionality. • Risk ratios and composite indices may be favored because they don’t single out one group, but they are more complicated to calculate and less intuitive as to what they represent. • Relative rates use one group as the denominator, so the other groups rates are compared to a fixed reference, and the meaning may be more intuitive (and easier to describe).