Black students in Wisconsin are much more likely to receive school discipline that White students, and the gap is widening, according to figures from the state’s Department of Public Instruction.
In 2010-11, about one out of every 20 students in Wisconsin was suspended from school. But that number conceals significant racial disparities between Black and White students. In the most recent school year, about one out of every four Black students was suspended. Black students were suspended at a rate nearly ten times that of White students last year, an increase from 1998-99 when Black students were five times more likely than White students to be suspended.
Far fewer students are expelled than suspended, but expulsions in Wisconsin show a similar pattern when broken down by race. About one out of every 75 students was expelled last year in Wisconsin. For Black students, one of every 16 students was expelled, compared to one out of every 140 White students. That means Black students were about 9 times more likely than White students to be expelled, an increase from the 1998-99 school year when Black students were three times more likely than White students to be expelled.
The interactive data feature below shows suspension and expulsion rates by race and ethnicity, and lets you explore how differences among groups have changed over time. If you are receiving this blog post via email, you will have to go to the blog’s website for the chart to function.
Tamarine Cornelius
