DPS expulsions, suspensions down but racial disparities in discipline remain, report says

There exists a near universal perception, promoted by the Departments of Justice and Education, that relaxing public school discipline standards will tend to reduce racial differences in discipline rates. That perception reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of statistics. Reducing the frequency of an adverse outcome, while tending to reduce relative differences in the opposite, favorable outcomes, will tend to increase relative differences in adverse outcomes. For example, lowering a test cutoff, while tending to reduce relative differences in pass rates, will tend to increase relative difference in failure rates. Similarly, relaxing discipline standards, while tending to reduce relative differences between rates at which various race/ethnic groups avoid suspension and expulsion, will tend to increase relative differences in suspension and expulsion rates. See my “Racial Differences in School Discipline Rates,” The Recorder, June 22, 2012 (http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202560408532&Viewpoint_Racial_Differences_in_School_Discipline_Rates), which discusses Colorado legislation that was apparently based on the misperception that relaxing discipline standards will tend to reduce relative differences in discipline rates. See also the Discipline Disparities page of jpscanlan.com (http://jpscanlan.com/disciplinedisparities.html)