Office Disciplinary Referral Patterns of American Indian Students from Elementary School through High School

Abstract

Disciplinary referrals and exclusions among students from minority backgrounds have been a persistent concern for decades. The purpose of this study was to determine (a) the rate at which American Indian students received office discipline referrals (ODRs) in comparison to students of other races/ethnicities, (b) the rate at which male American Indian students received ODRs in comparison to female American Indian students, (c) leading behavior violations and how they compare across race/ethnicity, and (d) the impact that the type of ODR and race/ethnicity have on administrative action. Logistic regression was used to examine ODRs for 9,330 students from prekindergarten through 12th grade in two Southwestern public school districts with a large combined American Indian population (23.5%). Results indicated higher odds of American Indian students receiving ODRs than Caucasian, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian students but lower odds than African American students. In addition, results indicated higher odds of American Indian boys receiving ODRs than American Indian girls, whereas the majority of ODRs were given for defiance, disrespect, and noncompliance, followed by aggression, disruption, and then attendance. Lastly, results indicated higher odds of American Indian students receiving differing levels of administrative action, including suspension and expulsion, than Caucasian and Hispanic/Latino students. Implications for practice and research are provided.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arizona Department of Education. (2012). AzSAFE Project. Retrieved from http://www.azed.gov

Baker

J. A.

(2006). Contributions of teacher-child relationships to positive school adjustment during elementary school. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 211–229. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2006. 02.002

Brown

C. A.

, & DiTillio

(2013). Discipline disproportionality among Hispanic and American Indian students: Expanding the discourse in U.S. research. Journal of Education and Learning, 2(4), 47–59. Retrieved from http://www.ccsenet.org

Butterfield

(2003, April). Strengthening partnerships for Native American students. Summary report. Denver, CO: Council of Chief State School Officers.

Donovan

M. S.

, & Cross

C. T.

(Eds.). (2002). Minority students in special education and gifted education. National Research Council Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Faircloth

S. C.

, & Tippeconnic

J. W.

III , (2010). The dropout/graduation rate crisis among American Indian and Alaska Native students: Failure to respond places the future of native peoples at risk. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA. Retrieved from http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu.

Fallon

L. M.

, O'Keeffe

B. V.

, & Sugai

(2012). Consideration of culture and context in schoolwide positive behavior support: A review of current literature. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 14, 209–219. doi:10.1177/1098300712442242

Gregory

, Skiba

R. J.

, & Noguera

P. A.

(2010). The achievement gap and the discipline gap: Two sides of the same coin? Educational Researcher, 39(1), 59–68. doi:10.3102/0013189X09357621

Hammond

, Dupoux

, & Ingalls

(2004). Culturally relevant classroom management strategies for American Indian students. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 23(4), 3–9, Retrieved from http://acres-sped.org/journal

10.

Kaufman

J. S.

, Jaser

S. S.

, Vaughan

E. L.

, Reynolds

J. S.

, DiDonato

, Bernard

S. N.

, & Hernandez-Brereton

(2010). Patterns in office referral data by grade, race/ethnicity, and gender. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 12(1), 44–54, doi:10.1177/1098300708329710

11.

Kokkinos

C. M.

, Panayiotou

, & Davazoglou

A. M.

(2005). Correlates of teacher appraisals of student behaviors. Psychology in the Schools, 42(1), 79–89. doi:10.1002/pits.20031

12.

Ladd

G. W.

, Kochenderfer

B. J.

, & Coleman

C. C.

(1996). Friendship quality as a predictor of young children's early school adjustment. Child Development, 67, 1103–1118. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01785.x

13.

Lubinski

, Benbow

C. P.

, Webb

R. M.

, & Bleske-Rechek

(2006). Tracking exceptional human capital over two decades. Psychological Science, 17, 194–199. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01685.x

14.

McIntosh

, Campbell

A. L.

, Russell Carter

, & Zumbo

B. D.

(2009). Concurrent validity of office discipline referrals and cut points used in schoolwide positive behavior support. Behavioral Disorders, 34(2), 100–113, Retrieved from http://www.ccbd.net

15.

Mertler

C. A.

, & Vannatta

R. A.

(2010). Advanced and multivariate statistical methods: Practical application and interpretation (4th ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak.

16.

Oberg

M. L.

(2010). Native America: A history. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

17.

Office of Civil Rights. (2013). Civil rights data collection, 2006 national estimations. Retrieved from http://ocrdata.ed.gov/StateNationalEstimations/projections_2006

18.

Parrish

(2002). Racial disparities in the identification, funding, and provision of special education. In Losen

D. J.

, & Orfield

(Eds.), Racial inequality in special education (pp. 15–37). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

19.

Rocque

, & Paternoster

(2011). Understanding the antecedents of the “school-to-jail” link: The relationship between race and school discipline. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 101, 633–666. Retrieved from http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals

20.

Skiba

R. J.

, Horner

R. H.

, Chung

C. G.

, Rausch

M. K.

, May

S. L.

, & Tobin

(2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40(1), 85–107. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org

21.

Skiba

R. J.

, Poloni-Staudinger

, Simmons

A. B.

, Feggins-Azziz

L. R.

, & Chung

C. G.

(2005). Unproven links: Can poverty explain ethnic disproportionality in special education? Journal of Special Education, 39, 130–144. doi:10.1177/00224669050390030101

22.

SPSS. (2011). IBM statistical package for the social sciences for Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corporation.

23.

Sugai

, Sprague

J. R.

, Horner

R. H.

, & Walker

H.M.

(2000). Preventing school violence: The use of office discipline referrals to assess and monitor school-wide discipline interventions. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 8(2), 94–101. doi:10.1177/106342660000800205

24.

Tabachnick

B. G.

, & Fidell

L. S.

(2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

25.

Theriot

M. T.

, Craun

S. W.

, & Dupper

D. R.

(2010). Multilevel evaluation of factors predicting school exclusion among middle and high school students. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(1), 13–19. Retrieved from www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth

26.

US Census Bureau. (2010). American FactFinder. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov

27.

Vincent

C. G.

, Sprague

J. R.

, & Tobin

T. J.

(2012). Exclusionary discipline practices across students' racial/ethnic backgrounds and disability status: Findings from the Pacific Northwest. Education and Treatment of Children, 35, 585–601. Retrieved from http://www.educationandtreatmentofchildren.net/

28.

Wald

, & Kurlaender

(2003). Connected in Seattle? An exploratory study of student perceptions of discipline and attachments to teachers. New Directions for Youth Development, 2003(99), 35–54, doi:10.1002/yd.53

29.

Wallace

J. M.

, Goodkind

, Wallace

C. M.

, & Bachman

J. G.

(2008). Racial, ethnic, and gender difference in school discipline among U.S. high school students: 1991–2005. The Negro Educational Review, 59(1–2), 47–62. Retrieved from http://thener.org/