School Racial Composition and Discipline

Abstract

Prior research finds school discipline to be a highly racialized process that contributes to greater inequality. While individual student level characteristics have been found to contribute to the likelihood of receiving an exclusionary punishment, recently there has been interest in how school context, primarily the racial composition, contributes to this trend. Until now, prior research shows that percent black is associated with an increase in punitive disciplinary outcomes, yet little is known about the relationship of percent Latino and punishment. Using data from the Houston Independent School district, the current study examines the association of both individual and school level characteristics and the likelihood a student will receive discipline. This paper concludes that both percent black and Latino are associated with an increase in disciplinary actions and that the most disadvantaged students are most at risk of discipline controlling for other individual characteristics, while advantaged students have lower odds