Report: black students suspended at higher rates than whites, trend starts as soon as preschool
A study about race in American education conducted and released by the Education Department had a brow-raising finding.
Although it might not be surprising that black students are suspended at higher rates than white students, what is especially troubling is that this trend starts as soon as preschool.
The suspensions – and disparities – begin at the earliest grades.
Black children represent about 18 percent of children in preschool programs in schools, but they make up almost half of the preschoolers who are suspended more than once, the report said. Six percent of the nation’s districts with preschools reported suspending at least one preschool child. […] Overall, the data show that black students of all ages are suspended and expelled at a rate that’s three times higher than that of white children.
Advocates have long connected tough suspension and arrest policies in schools to a “School-to-prison” pipeline that funnels minority students out of classrooms and into prisons.
This was the first time the department reported data on preschool disciplinary habits.
What can be done to change this alarming trend?
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