We’re all aware of racial achievement gaps that exist across the country and right here in Wisconsin, but there’s another racial gap in education worth noting: suspensions and expulsions. A nationwide look at suspension and expulsion rates, broken down by race and ethnicity, shows that black and American Indian students are more likely than their white, Latino, and Asian peers to be removed from school. In the 2011-12 school year, 15% of black students and 8% of American Indian students were suspended from public schools, compared to only 4% of their white counterparts. Rates of suspensions for black and American Indian children also exceeded the suspension rate of all students, which was about 6%. These out-of-school suspensions mean that many students of color are missing out on valuable instruction time, making it hard to catch up even when they do return to school.

The data shows even more striking racial disparities for expulsions. In 2011-12, black students and American Indian students were expelled at rates that more than doubled the rate of Hispanic/Latino and multiracial youth, and about triple the rate of expelled white students. Although rates of expulsion are low (on average, less than 1% of all students are expelled), racial differences in the few youth who are expelled are concerning. Expulsion from school can have serious, long-term negative consequences, such as stunted academic achievement and involvement with crime and substances—effectively contributing to some of the issues schools try to punish through expulsion.

Although this data is a few years old, it demonstrates the work left to do in closing racial gaps in education. But how does Wisconsin fare? Part 2 of this post will show more recent data that breaks down suspension and expulsion rates by race/ethnicity in Wisconsin.

For a closer look at this data, and other indicators of child and family wellbeing, visit the Kids Count Data Center. Watch for Part II – Wisconsin data coming next week.

by Karissa Propson