Last week, Dallas ISD trustees and administrators took up a discussion related to student behavior, discipline, and race. It’s an important conversation for the district to have because school discipline is an area where racial disparity is pervasive.
During the 2018-19 school year, Black students made up about 22% of DISD enrollment, but accounted for nearly 52% of out-of-school suspensions and 35% of in-school suspensions, according to data supplied by the Texas Education Agency. To address that disparity, trustees debated several measures, including a ban on out-of-school suspensions and a redoubled campaign to recruit more minority teachers.
We applaud trustees for considering solutions and while they look for the best way forward, we might suggest another source of guidance: charter schools.
Charter schools have better results when it comes to the intersection of discipline and ethnicity. In 2018-19, a larger portion of charter school students were minorities but a smaller portion of them were disciplined. Statewide, 86% of charter school students are minorities as opposed to 72% of ISD students. But ISDs assigned in-school-suspensions at twice the rate of charters (8.5% to 4%) and out-of-school suspensions at about the same rate (4.1% for ISDs and 4.5% for charters). Among Black students specifically, ISDs issued in-school suspensions at 15.7% and out-of-school suspensions at 10% compared to 6% and 8.1% in charters, according to data from the Texas Education Agency.
Admittedly, comparing ISDs to charters is not comparing apples to apples. Charters tend to be smaller which saves them many of the institutional challenges that come with size. Charters are more nimble, exempt from some of the rules by which ISDs must play. And, of course, not all charters outperform all ISDs. There are successful and not-so-successful campuses in both categories.
Those aren’t the only factors contributing to better behavioral outcomes in charter schools.
In line with DISD’s instincts about the importance of minority teachers, charter schools are able to waive some certification requirements and recruit teachers before their certification is complete. In 2018-19, just 4% of ISD teachers statewide were Black, but 22% of charter teachers were Black. Starlee Coleman, CEO of the Texas Public Charter Schools Association, told us that such flexibility also allows charters to recruit out of state more often than ISDs.
The better behavior of charter school students may also be the result of restorative practices, which Coleman told us are used more often at charters, and which DISD trustees may expand. They may be the result of increased parental involvement, though some recent research suggests that’s not the case. Or it may be that the presence of choice itself may contribute to better behavior. Whatever the causes, the effects are consistent and compelling.
According to Coleman, a larger percentage of Dallas students are in charter schools than in any other city in Texas: 17%.
If there are lessons for ISDs to learn from their charter school colleagues, we suggest collaboration. And if there are bureaucratic strictures that keep minority students in ISDs from achieving their potential, we suggest reform. What we can’t support — what a month’s worth of demonstrations declare that America will no longer allow — is continued disparity between white and minority students.
