Zero Tolerance is a Zero Sum Game for Education
By Miguel Gonzalez and Cindy Long
Zero tolerance and other exclusionary school discipline policies, which were supposed to make schools safer, have done more harm than good—pushing kids out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system at unprecedented rates, according to new research released today.The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative (the Collaborative), a group of 26 nationally recognized experts from the social science, education and legal fields — finds that students of color, particularly African-Americans, are suspended at hugely disproportionate rates compared to white students. Students with disabilities and LGBT students are also suspended at higher rates than other students.
Citing data from the U.S. Department of Education, the report, How Educators Can Eradicate Disparities in School Discipline, by the Discipline Disparities Collaborative found that more than 3 million students in grades K-12 were suspended during the 2009-10 academic year, reflecting a steady rise since the 1970’s when the suspension rate was half that level. According to the Collaborative, school leaders either are so overwhelmed with money and testing demands that they gravitate toward what they perceive as “easy”