HOW TO: Explore the OCR Website

1. HOW TO: Explore the OCR Website Part 1: A Look at District Data Summaries

2. 1. What Is the Civil Rights Data Collection? • Survey of school districts by the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) • Conducted usually every two years • Covers a number of school characteristics, like access to Advanced Placement courses, percentage of first-year teachers, and discipline • Data is disaggregated by race and gender for students with disabilities and students without disabilities • Data on individual schools and districts

3. What schools are covered? In the 2009 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC): • Sampling of 7,000 school districts (over half the nation’s districts) • Includes all districts with over 3,000 students • Includes state-run juvenile justice facilities • Requires schools to be identified by type (e.g., “charter,” “disciplinary alternative school,” etc) In the upcoming 2011-2012 CRDC: • Expanded to all schools and districts!

4. What’s in the disciplinary data? • In the past: • Out-of-school suspensions • Expulsions • Corporal punishment • Now includes the number of students receiving: • In-school suspensions • Out-of-school suspensions: • Students receiving one out-of-school suspension • Students receiving more than one out-of-school suspension • Expulsions under zero-tolerance policies • School-related arrests • Referrals to law enforcement • Information on bullying, harassment, restraint, and seclusion

5. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights Go to ocrdata.ed.gov. Click on Find school- or district- level summaries.

6. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights On this page you can access information about specific schools. Click on Find District(s) to search for data for your district.

7. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights Enter your district’s name. Select your state. Select the most recent survey year (2009).

8. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights Click on District Search.

9. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights Your district’s name, state, and enrollment statistics will appear at the bottom of your screen. Click on your district’s name.

10. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights This page has the summary of key data from your district. You can access the different types of data by clicking the menu items on the side…. …or scrolling down the page.

11. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights To see the summary of your district’s discipline data, click on Discipline, Restraints/Seclusion Harassment/Bullying.

12. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights This page shows the summary of key discipline data for your district. This pie chart shows the break down by race of students who received in-school suspensions, in the district. The Philadelphia City School District did not report on its in-school suspensions, so the chart is blank. This pie chart shows the break down by race of students enrolled in the district. Scroll down to see more data.

13. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights This pie chart shows break down by race of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions. This pie chart shows break down by race of students who received an expulsion. These are the totals for the number of students referred to law enforcement, arrested and expelled under zero-tolerance policies. This link takes you to the definitions for the different data categories.

14. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights You can find more detailed summaries under “Additional Discipline and Bullying Facts.” • For example, you can look at details on out-of-school suspensions (OSS) separated into two different categories: • students with one OSS • students with more than one OSS

15. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights As another example, click on One Out-of-School Suspension. • Two additional options will appear: • Data on students with disabilities • - Data on students without disabilities. Now click on With Disabilities to see detailed charts

16. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights This page has the summary of key discipline data for students with disabilities who received one out-of-school suspension in your district. This bar chart shows the breakdown by race of students with disabilities who received one out-of-school suspension.

17. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights This bar chart shows the rate at which students with disabilities of each race received one out-of-school suspension – a/k/a the risk of receiving one out-of-school suspension for students with disabilities of each race.

18. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights You can scroll down for similar information on the gender, language and disability status of students with disabilities who received one out-of school suspension… …or you can use this menu to find information about students without disabilities and/or students who received in-school suspensions, more than one out-of-school suspension, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement, arrests, etc.

19. HOW TO: Explore the District Data Summariesfrom Office for Civil Rights Click here to start over. You can find summaries and charts for specific schools, and get more detailed data charts for districts and schools.

20. 2. What’s Missing from the Data? • Failure to report: • A number of districts did not report data on new categories. Where a district did not report, OCR included a “0.” • For example, there were “0” school based arrests reported in Los Angeles, even though local data shows there were in fact many school-based arrests. • Definition issues: • Some districts did not accurately report particular disciplinary categories because the way OCR defines a category does not match the district’s definition. • For example, New York City reported a lower out-of-school suspension rate in the federal data compared to what they report locally because they define out-of-school suspension differently.

21. Some things to keep in mind…. • Separation by disability: • In each category, the number of students suspended is reported separately for students with disabilities and students without disabilities. • So, for example, to get the total number of in-school suspensions (ISS) in a district, you have to add the ISS data for students with disabilities and the ISS data for students without disabilities. • Repeated out-of-school suspensions: • For the first time in 2009, districts reported both the number of students receiving only one out of school suspension (OSS), and the number of students receiving more than one OSS. • However, it does not include how many suspensions students received in the category for more than one OSS. • To get the total number of students receiving out-of-school suspensions, you have to add together the number of students receiving one OSS and the number of students receiving more than one OSS for both students with disabilities and those without. (See slide 41 for more.)

22. HOW TO: Explore the OCR Website Part 2: Download and Analyze Detailed Data Tables

23. HOW TO: Download Detailed Data Tablesfrom Office for Civil Rights Go to ocrdata.ed.gov. Click here on Custom Charts & Detailed Data Tables. When the dropdown options appear, click on Detailed Data Tables… …or you can click here on Detailed Data Tables

24. HOW TO: Download Detailed Data Tablesfrom Office for Civil Rights On this page you can access information about specific schools. Click on search for districts to search for data for your district.

25. HOW TO: Download Detailed Data Tablesfrom Office for Civil Rights Enter your district’s name. Select your state. Select the most recent survey year (2009).

26. HOW TO: Download Detailed Data Tablesfrom Office for Civil Rights Make sure the name of your district appears here... …then scroll down the page under Choose Your Data to find “Discipline and Disability 2009+” in the left column

27. HOW TO: Download Detailed Data Tablesfrom Office for Civil Rights After scrolling down, click on “Discipline and Disability 2009+”

28. HOW TO: Download Detailed Data Tablesfrom Office for Civil Rights Your table should look like the one shown below. You can either download the table (we recommend Excel) or do calculations from the numbers on the screen. ….then click Export To download the table in an Excel file, first choose “Excel 2003+” from the dropdown menu here…

29. Examples of Philadelphia analysis • The Excel file on your district should look like this: http://thenotebook.org/sites/default/files/Philly-discipline.xls • You can look at the full analysis done by Harold Jordan (described below) on Philadelphia at: http://thenotebook.org/blog/124692/whate-federal-civil-rights-data-says-about-philadelphia

30. A few simple calculations you can do Percentage of Students Receiving Out of School Suspension (OSS) by Racial Category • There are 8 different rows of data that you need to add together to get the total number of students who received OSS(SWD=Students with Disabilities) (SWOD=Students without Disabilities)- SWD: One or more OSS, male - SWOD: One or more OSS, male - SWD: One or more OSS, female - SWOD: One or more OSS, female- SWD: Only one OSS, male - SWOD: Only one OSS, male- SWD: Only one OSS, female - SWOD: Only one OSS, female • The same kind of calculation can be done for arrests, referrals to law enforcement, etc.

31. A few simple calculations you can do Comparing Racial Impact • Here is what a table would look life for OSSs, arrests, and referrals to law enforcement in Philadelphia. • The Total Enrollment for each racial category are at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

32. A few simple calculations you can do Comparing Racial Impact (contd.) • There are several ways to compare the likelihood of one racial grouping receiving a certain kind of punishment vs. another. • Using the data from the previous slide, here is one way to do it: • For Black students, 13,400 out of 105,005 received OSS – 12.76% • For White students: 1,195 out of 22,505 received OSS – 5.31% • Then divide 12.76% by 5.31% to show that Black students were suspended at 2.4 times the rate of white students during the 2009-2010 school year. • In his report, Dan Losen uses an approach designed to capture both the volume and disparity of punishment as a more uniform way to compare schools. Follow the links on slide 37 for more!

33. Uses and Limitations of the Data – Case of Pennsylvania Presentation from Harold Jordan, ACLU of Pennsylvania • OCR data is self-reported, so quality depends on what the district or state submits to OCR • Analyzed data from 280 districts in Pennsylvania • Data in Pennsylvania seems consistent with information available from other sources • Because the State Department of Education in Pennsylvania has required districts to submit discipline and incident data since 2000, districts are used to reporting at least some of the data required under OCR, but in a different format • Federal data gives you the number of students disciplined, while most PA data reports the number of discipline actions taken, such as suspensions - this allows you to view discipline rates in two ways • Most states are not in as good shape as Pennsylvania

34. Limitations of the data • Limitations on Alternative Schools • Data may not fully capture how many students in Pennsylvania are sent to disciplinary Alternative Schools. • Districts can place students in Alternative Schools without formally expelling them. Yet some disciplinary transfers may meet the federal definition of expulsion. It is not clear how districts reported this data or whether they did so consistently across the state. • Different Definitions • Your state may use different definitions than OCR. This may lead to some confusion about how OCR data can be interpreted in the local/state context. • For example, in Pennsylvania an expulsion is a school removal of more than 10 consecutive days, and it requires a majority vote of the school board. The federal definition of expulsion is different. As a result, the CRDC data reports a far greater number of expulsions than approved by school boards. No doubt, some of these "expulsions" are transfers to disciplinary alternative schools without students being put into an expulsion process.

35. Limitations of the data • Why is it important to explain the data in ways that are consistent with local or state measures? • Districts may dispute specific conclusions drawn from federal data. • You might understate (or misstate) the degree of racial disproportionality in discipline. • For example: • In Philadelphia, all expulsions were under the zero tolerance policies; but CRDC reports expulsions in three different categories. • District profile (see slide 15) states that Black students make up 78.6% of students expelled. • But Black students made up 86% of students expelled by vote of the school board under zero tolerance policies. • Suggestion: It is always a good idea to take a look at the detailed data table (slide 33)!

36. 3. What Can We Do About It? (I of II) • Dignity in Schools Campaign is advocating for changes with Office for Civil Rights • Highlighting inaccuracies in several districts where DSC members are located (will also send letter to the districts) • Calling for districts to properly report the 2011-2012 data in all categories • Urging OCR to address inaccuracies and ensure better collection of the 2011-2012 data

37. What Can We Do About It? (II of II) Dan Losen, Director, Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA • No need to wait three years for the 2011-12 data: • OCR is collecting data on every U.S. public school for 2011-12 • You can file open records requests for your district’s 2011-12 data once it’s due for submission to OCR (Nov/Dec 2012). • Upcoming national report on out-of-school suspensions • Analyzes OCR data from districts and creates user friendly Excel tables with out-of-school suspensions by race and disability • Excel tables will be available on-line for groups to download • Take a look at data tables on California already available at: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/school-discipline/suspended-education-in-california.

38. Examples from the CA report • You can sort the spreadsheet by risk of suspension for each race!