It has long been known that black students, especially male students, have been negatively targeted for suspensions and discipline as a result of teachers’ implicit biases. Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.
This unconscious bias against male black students can start as young as kindergarten and continue all the way through high school. Evidence from the Washington Post shows that while male black students constituted 15.5 percent of public school students, they accounted for 39 percent of students suspended from school. Black boys are missing school because of suspensions at a disproportionately higher rate compared to their peers who receive much smaller and shorter disciplines. (see graphs below).
Teacher’s bias and expectations, even if they are unconscious, can lead students to a self-fulfilling prophecy where the students begin to act a certain way based on the teacher’s belief in them. This, as well as teacher bias that black boys are much more mischievous than any racial group or gender, factors into the reasons why male students of color receive suspensions or disciplinary actions much more than white students.
Despite the fact that classifying students by their race is not a moral way to teach, the suspension of black boys strongly influences the achievement gap. It is well established that there is a large gap between black students and white students as a result of a number of factors, one being that at home learning between the two racial groups usually differs. The time children spend in school only allows kids learning to rise at an equal rate; it is the time spent at home when gaps in learning increase drastically. Suspension punishes children by sending them home and does not allow them at school for a certain time, which means that the students are missing out on valuable classroom time that would help them stay at the same level in learning as their peers. When they are sent home they are subject to their home environments, which are one of the biggest causes of the achievement gap. Suspension only furthers the gap between white and black students because because black students are missing important in school instruction at a disproportionately higher rate than their white peers.
In order to combat the achievement gap we must train teachers to see past their implicit biases and create other methods of discipline for students that keep them in school so that they are not missing any learning time. Overall, the achievement gap can be lowered if out of school suspension is retired and all students can have an equal opportunity to learn.
Post by: Eliza Dean