Research has shown that students of color continue to lag behind their White peers on standardized test scores and rates of college graduation (Gardner-Neblett et al., 2023) and that exclusionary discipline practices have contributed to this disparity and create negative outcomes for students (Bottiani et al., 2023; Cruz et al., 2021). Subjective…

Relationships matter in the classroom. The connections elementary school teachers build with their students throughout the school year can affect learners as they move to secondary education. African American boys in third through fifth grade receive discipline consequences that remove them from classroom instruction, negatively impacting success…

The gap in achievement and discipline between White and Black students is a significant problem in education across the nation. The objective of this study was to determine if the achievement gap increases once schools decrease suspension rates and offer alternatives to out-of-school suspension. The purpose of this study was to determine the…

Discipline disproportionality in education has been a topic of conversation for years. African American male students are suspended at much higher rates than their White peers. Although Black students represent less than half of the school population in the United States, they account for a majority of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions.…

The school-to-prison pipeline has been an ongoing phenomenon for many decades that disproportionately and negatively impacts students of color. Due to research suggesting school principals play a critical role in the student disciplinary decision-making process, the present study aimed to better understand how principals make discipline decisions…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between (a) beliefs and actions of a culturally responsive school leader and (b) opportunity gaps for Latinx students in a predominantly Latinx school. The study was conducted at a Title I suburban elementary school in the Southeastern Region of Texas. Using a qualitative case study…

Student behavior is one of the top concerns for classroom teachers (Freiberg & Reyes, 2008). Student discipline has been a historic problem for teachers and schools alike. Students who misbehave tend to obstruct learning outcomes for students and negatively impact the efficacy and well-being of teachers (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy,…

Although developing a positive relationship between teachers and students is important for students to thrive in school, white teachers frequently fail to do this with their Black students. The failure of white teachers to connect with their Black students contributes to inequities such as disparities in academic achievement, the…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how K-12 teacher perceptions about Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) influenced their use towards non-white students, students with disabilities, lower socioeconomic students, and limited English proficiency students. With the well documented suspension…

Black boys often underperform in English Language assessments. Strive for Excellence Academy (SFEA, a pseudonym) was a Title I school serving more than 500 students in Grade 2 and Grade 3 in an urban/suburban city in New York State. The achievement gap for third-grade Black boys was found to originate in their second-grade classrooms. Anecdotal…

Exclusionary discipline practices (EDPs) have been linked to poor academic performance and student dropout rates. Research shows that students suspended, expelled, or placed in alternate learning environments fare worse academically than their peers. This qualitative case study explores the experiences of classroom teachers in Northwest Louisiana…

Student mobility is the process of describing how children move from one school to another for reasons other than promotion. Highly mobile students are defined as students who move six or more times during their school career. Schools that experience the constant flow of students moving in and out struggle with delivering consistent and effective…

The effectiveness of a training provided to school counselors on the implementation of comprehensive school counseling programs based on the ASCA National Model was examined. The data analyzed were the closing the gap summary results reports submitted following training. The reports were used to determine whether those trained could design,…

African American students constitute 17% of the student population in the United States of America and 36% of suspensions and 32% of expulsions; European American students comprise 59% of this population and 44% of suspensions and expulsions. This disproportionate rate is termed the discipline gap. The most discussed gap in the current discourse…

Due to the increasing pressure of meeting the demands of No Child Left Behind, and reducing the achievement gap between subgroups of school populations, school administrators across the nation have implemented a variety of short classroom walk-through observations. A walk-through is defined as a 3-5 minute observation of the classroom teacher by…