Black students across the nation receive harsher discipline than whites, an article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune notes.  Teachers dole out suspension, expulsion, and detention disproportionately to black students, who, researchers have shown, are not more likely to misbehave.

This is a problem, guys.  This kind of disciplinary action can really discourage a student, and if black students are getting punished more harshly, their record is unfairly tarnished for future career or school goals.

A report by the Harvard Civil Rights Project – yeah it’s 127 pages, but I’ll link to it anyway – highlighted these “race-based disciplinary disparities” and criticizes the

Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education for not initiating investigations, especially since increased punishments do not reduce school violence.

Russell Skiba, Professor of Educational Psychology at Indiana University, co-wrote a study in response to black students getting punished in disproportionate numbers:

“No support was found for the hypothesis that African American students act out more than other students. Rather, African American students appear to be referred to the office for less serious and more subjective reasons.”

He’s got no perfect answers, and neither do I.  But one thing’s for sure, the Tribune article has generated some pretty scary comments, ones that definitely do not get at the root of the problem.