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September 12,2012____________________________ C^bgCtUer
photo by
M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver
School district records in Oregon clearly demonstrate that students o f color are more often suspended or expelled than their white peers. We are not treating all kids
equitably and that needs to change, ” said Dana Hepper, who has served as advocacy director for Stand for Children Oregon.
Unequal School Justice
c o n t i n u e d f r o m fro n t
Education, the advocacy groups
together recom m ended the devel
opm ent of a data tool to make
yearly discipline data from school
districts more easily available to
m embers of the public, fam ilies
and educators.
The new state w ebsite, which
breaks down the data by race and
ethnicity, district by district, al
lows viewers to easily understand
the charts and tables.
A ccording to a recent report
issued by M ultnom ah County's
Com m ission on Children, Fam i
lies, and Com m unities, African
Am erican students in the Port
land area are suspended and ex
pelled 2.5 times m ore often than
white students for subjective in
fractio n s, such as "disruptive
conduct" and "disrespect."
The sam e study found that
Latino students are 1.5 times more
likely to be suspended or expelled
for the same offenses.
April Cam pbell, participant of
the Tribal Government to Govern
ment Education Cluster of Oregon,
pointed to sim ilar patterns affect
ing Native Am erican students.
"Native Am erican students at
tend public schools all over our
state, and many o f our youth re
ceive harsher discipline,” said
Cam pbell, who is an active m em
ber of the organization. “Like other
students of color, their needs are
not being met and their achieve
ment suffers. It is my hope to
bring awareness to this issue as
well as find positive solutions so
that all students can be success
ful."
Although there is a whole sleuth
of disciplinary issues for youth
within the Oregon school system,
Campbell said there is a major need
to educate educators on how to
approach different learning styles.
“If a student is suspended, and
you are not working with them to
solve the behavior com m unica
tion issue, then they are going to
continue that behavior until they
end up suspended again,” she
said. “I think a big piece is just
educating educators on learning
styles and even the cultural as
pect of Native students.”
Campbell said, however, the is
sue spans across the board for
m inority youth within the state.
“This is why this group had rep
resen tatio n from a variety of
ethnicities,” said Cam pbell, who
is excited about the new database,
which she believes, will bring more
aw areness.
Once you are aware of the issue
then you can fix it that is kind of
what we are hoping, she said.
"This tool will highlight the
need for all school districts to
build more cultural responsive
ness in their program s to help pre
vent more students from losing
valuable school time and create
more equitable practices to en
sure stu d e n ts ' su c c e ss," said
Inger M cDow ell, com m unity or
ganizer for the Urban League of
Portland.
M cD ow ell said, the U rban
League felt it was an im portant
issue because high proportion of
those being ‘pushed out’ of the
school system , which m eans re
peatedly disciplined for subjec
tive infractions, are black and
Latino students.
“The blam e could go m any
ways, but what is more important
is that we are working towards
s o lu tio n s th a t a c tu a lly h e lp
schools that are having poor track
records with high disc issues,”
she said. “The reality we want
students to stay in school.”
M cDowell said, the new data
base will definitely help Portland,
which is the largest school sys
tem in the state, with 47,000 stu
dents and 82 schools.
“There is an opportunity with
this particular data base tool to
see which schools are really strug
gling and find a way to help them ,”
she said.
“They want kids to graduate from
high school, but if they are being
pushed out, how are they supposed
to graduate?” she asked. “There
needs to be a commitment to keep
kids in schools and find an alterna
tive to expulsion.”
Hepper agreed. “Now anyone
can see in their school district
what is happening, in term s of
student discipline,” she said.
“We hope it em pow ers people
to get involved and inform ed.”
For the future, representatives
from the advocate organizations
said they will continue to encour
age state education policy makers
to improve legislation and create
in te rv en tio n stra te g ie s, w hich
have been successful to keep stu
dents in school and improve edu
cation outcom es.
“The next thing we want to con
tinue to work on is to ensure the
practices that decrease suspen
sion and expulsion and increase
student safety are im plem ented in
more com m unities,” said Hepper.
We really ju st need to raise
standards, added M cDowell. “We
need to work together to improve
the education system because it
can’t be done alone.”
For more inform ation, visit the
new
d a ta
w eb
site
at
educationdataexplorer.com .
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