Board told disparity in reporting leads to disparity in student punishment

How discipline violations are written up, rather than the punishment itself, is a primary driver of why minority students in Beaufort County have received a disproportionate number of suspensions and expulsions, school board members were told Friday.

A data review shows a disparity in how similar incidents might be reported, said Gregory McCord, the district’s chief auxiliary services officer. The challenge will be how to get teachers and administrators to be more in line with each other.

“I think we all agree that we have to view things through the same lens,” McCord said, “so we can assure that if disparities exist, they won’t (result in) different outcomes,” McCord said.

Better definitions for certain infractions would help, board members suggested.

But racial awareness also was a point of emphasis.

“They (administrators and teachers) don’t recognize their own presumptions,” said board member Geri Kinton. “We need to get our administrators to accept that they have biases and work within that. Until we do, we’re going to have administrators unconsciously treating (students) different.”

Statistics from the 2015-16 school year showed that though blacks and Hispanics accounted for about 60 percent of the student population, they received 73.7 percent of the in-school suspensions handed out and 77.9 percent of out-of-school suspensions.

In addition, 29 of 32 students expelled during the last school year were minorities.

Digging deeper, though, McCord said punishment actually was consistent across racial lines for similar infractions.

“It’s how the information is entered,” McCord said, illustrating his point with an example of two students getting into a physical altercation.

“One may be entered for horseplay. One might be entered for fighting. One might be entered for assault. Then you may see differences in how consequences are handed out.”

Though administrators receive disciplinary training, he said, complete uniformity is an elusive target. “At any different time,” he said, “someone can take one piece of information and discern differently how it was given.”

The dilemma only grows as information is passed down from principals to teachers and school staff.

“Every time they have regular meetings with teachers, (they should) re-emphasize the importance of understanding the Code of Conduct and fairness,” said board member Bill Payne. “That’s where it starts. We can talk to our administrators every meeting, but those leaders need to take it back to their teachers.”

How to deal with repeat offenders also is an issue.

Superintendent Jeff Moss noted that 541 disciplinary incidents involved just 42 students — an average of 12.2 per student.

“We have to continue to ask our administrators, what are you doing with the high flyers?” Moss said. “After the third, fourth, fifth time, is that person going to be handled differently?”

The board also received an update on the district’s continued efforts to reduce the achievement gap, in which minority students trailed their white peers by anywhere from 20 to 40 percentage points in four core assessments.

Moss noted that several initiatives remain in their early stages and need time to be evaluated. Students in the district’s expanded pre-K program, for example, will not be tested for the first time until third grade. “We need time for these programs to take hold in a school building -- to change the culture, change the methodology,” he said.

The board will study best ways to measure progress and set annual targets for improvement.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Board told disparity in reporting leads to disparity in student punishment."