Student attitudes and behaviors as explanations for the Black-White suspension gap

Purpose Although studies have documented that Black students receive out-of-school suspensions (OSS) at much higher rates than White students, few studies have investigated possible explanations for this disparity. The differential involvement hypothesis suggests that disproportionate sanctioning may be a function of racial differences in student misbehavior or characteristics that predispose them to misbehavior. Method Suspension data, risk behaviors, and aggressive attitudes from self-report surveys were collected from a statewide sample of 38,398 students attending 236 racially-diverse high schools. A series of school fixed-effect logistic and linear regression models were used to test behavioral and attitudinal forms of the differential involvement hypothesis. Results Racial differences in self-reported suspension could not be explained by different behavioral reasons for suspension (such as fighting, threatening others, and substance possession), by involvement in high risk behaviors of fighting, bullying, carrying a weapon, consuming alcohol, or using marijuana, or by aggressive attitudes that lead to hostile behavior. Conclusions Overall, these findings do not support the differential involvement hypothesis and although they do not establish the presence of bias, they strengthen concern that racial disparities are likely the result of differential decisions by school authorities.