School Racial Composition

Does school racial composition affect how severely schools punish black and Latino students relative to white ones? Debates about the so-called school-to-prison pipeline emphasize the long-term effects of school disciplinary actions such as suspension, expulsion, and arrest or court referral. Youth who experience these negative outcomes are at elevated risk for dropping out of school and getting involved in delinquency and, eventually, crime. Hughes, Warren, Stewart, Tomaskovic-Devey, and Mears (2017) set out to discover whether schools’ and school boards’ racial composition affects the treatment of black, Latino, and white students. The researchers drew from two theoretical perspectives: The racial threat perspective argues that minorities are at higher risk for punitive sanctions when minority populations are higher, because whites could perceive minority groups as a threat to their place in society. On the other hand, the intergroup contact perspective suggests that racial and ethnic diversity reduces the harshness of sanctions for minorities, because having contact with members of other racial and ethnic groups diminishes prejudice. Hughes and colleagues used data from the Florida Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Uniform Crime Reports. Statistical results provided support for both perspectives. Increases in the size of the black and Hispanic student populations led to higher rates of suspension for students of these groups. On the other hand, intergroup contact among school board members of different races reduced suspensions for all students. The researchers concluded that interracial contact among school board members equalized disciplinary practices and reduced discriminatory disciplinary practices.