The National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC) has produced a “toolkit” to provide charter schools with alternative systems of discipline that—the authors claim—will foster positive school environments.
The report begins by reviewing more punitive disciplinary practices (e.g., suspension and expulsion) and noting that they are correlated with poor student outcomes. (They make no claim of causality.) They then assert that charters have higher rates of out-of-school suspensions than traditional public schools (a somewhat misleading claim; more on that below) and that these punishments are disproportionately felt by students of color, those with disabilities, and those identifying as LGBTQ.
The toolkit goes on to outline five rather self-evident “enabling factors” for charter schools undertaking discipline reform, such as a deep dive into behavior data to target areas for improvement and the development of alternative discipline models based on schools’ needs. It also describes some non-traditional systems of discipline—such as restorative practices (relationship building), structural interventions, “emotional literacy,” and culturally-responsive approaches—and provides sample practices and evidence of prior implementation.
The toolkit identifies possible benefits of discipline models that forego exclusionary practices, but it doesn’t begin to present a comprehensive picture of today’s policy discussions regarding charter school discipline. For example, Fordham President Mike Petrilli recently cautioned that statistics on school suspension and expulsion rates may be improperly interpreted to reflect racial bias or discrimination. He urged thoughtful consideration of the data with an eye toward maintaining a school environment that ensures fair treatment of all students.
Moreover, as part of a recent Fordham forum on this issue, AEI research fellow Nat Malkus argued that many comparisons of charter and district school suspension rates are bogus. If you compare charters with nearby district schools, for example, rates at charters appear slightly lower. An even more nuanced approach reveals that because charters aren’t uniform, they “demonstrate both disproportionately higher and lower relative suspension rates” compared with similar district schools.
The toolkit is an accessible resource for leaders considering alternative discipline practices, with suggestions that may be very helpful for some charter schools. However, discipline policy must be determined on school-by-school basis, without relying on statistics that tend to oversimplify—and improperly aggregate—trends in charter school disciplinary data.
SOURCE: “Charter School Discipline Toolkit: A Toolkit for Charter School Leaders,” National Charter School Resource Center (June 2016).
