1. The Need to Support Challenging Students as part of Massachusetts’ Discipline Reform
by Daniel J. Losen
Director, The Center for Civil Rights Remedies, at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project

2. The Civil Rights Project
Suspension’s Impact
Loss of instructional time.
Three days of absence predicted one lower grade level in reading.
Associated with three-fold increase in risk of dropping out in Texas.
After controlling for other contributing factors suspension predicted a lower graduation rate by between 6 and 14 points.
(Florida; California; and Nationally)
A leading indicator of future incarceration.
The Civil Rights Project 2

3. Discipline Reform Changes in Massachusetts: Chapter 222 (603 CMR 53:00)
Additional due process: short and long-term suspensions.
Ensures that all students suspended or expelled over 10 days continue to get education services.
State monitoring and reporting of disaggregated discipline data at district and school levels.
Calls for state to investigate schools and identify schools and districts in need of assistance and with significant disparities in levels of suspension/expulsion and require those identified to develop and implement a plan to address the disparities.
Current metric: Schools and districts 2 or more standard deviations above average for all students: a) school or district; and b) the state average.
Identified 25 schools in 18 districts and an additional 3 districts and 10 charter schools.

4. Suspended Education in Massachusetts: Lost Instruction Due to Suspension
Massachusetts average per every 100 students enrolled miss 16 days of instruction in one year (all behaviors).
Many more schools were far below the state-wide average than above it:
Less than 10 days were lost in 69% of all schools.
21% of all schools were above the state-wide average.
Black 34; White 10; Students with disabilities 32.
Average Black/White gap was 24 more days of lost instruction.
10 Schools had a Black/White racial gap of over 100 days of lost instruction.
The full report can be found at
You will find the estimates for every school and district in the state.

5. Districts with Highest rates for Students With Disabilities

6. The Highest Rates in Boston: Charters and Non Charters

7. The Massachusetts Racial Gap In Lost Instructional Time Is Greatest among Students with Disabilities And is growing

8. Factors Controlled by Adults Predict Frequency of School Suspension and Disparities
Multi-regression analysis: High rates and large racial disparities are predicted by the beliefs and approaches of school leaders, more than any other factor (Skiba, 2015).
Are school staff and leaders trained to deal with children who have experienced trauma?

9. The Hard Bigotry of Inadequate Funding
Inadequate funding for meaningful 222 reform.
School finance woes dating back to McDuffy were never resolved.
McDuffy Court deferred to state accountability plan.
Ask, are there enough resources to adequately meet the needs of all students?
Is there more money available for cops in schools than counselors?
Do we invest more in security hardware than for training staff in how to support youth that experienced trauma?
School shootings may cause us to overlook what we should be doing instead of expulsion and arrest. (Dr. Ross Green)

10. Research Distortions are Fueling Misguided Resistance
Cost of being exposed to disruptive peers
Actions of a White racist who murdered students in Broward, who neither the FBI police stopped, is being blamed on the Obama discipline policy.
Same researcher who claimed New York teachers expressed chaos in response to reforms, suggested that discipline reform was the reason the shooter was able to buy a gun.
False claims of failed reform in LAUSD
Too bad to be true!

11. Two Periods of Discipline Reform in NYC

12. New research findings Illustrates the problems and solutions

13. What Works? Common to All the Solutions
Improving teacher-student engagement.
Improving teacher- parent trust and collaboration.
Improving sense of community and school climate.

14. What Remedies Should Include:
Routine review of discipline data disaggregated by race, disability, gender (and cross-sections) including suspensions by category and days of lost instruction.
Revisions to code of conduct:
Shorter suspensions;
Limit categories;
Document non-punitive interventions as part of greater due process.
Training and ongoing supports for teachers and school leaders to ensure full implementation of promising practices.

15. The End
Recent Book of Research: Closing the School Discipline Gap (2015)
New Reports:
Disabling Discrimination (Pending, 2018)
Suspended Education in Massachusetts (2017)
The Hidden Costs of California’s Harsh School Discipline: And the Localized Economic Benefits From Suspending Fewer High School Students, by Russell Rumberger and Daniel Losen (2017) 15