UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE SUBJECTIVE EXCLUSIONARY DISCIPLINE PRACTICES IN A LARGE SCHOOL DISTRICT(2019) Walls, Anita C; Snell, Jean; McLaughlin, Margaret; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The problem investigated for this dissertation was the overuse of exclusionary discipline practices across a large, suburban school district adjacent to a major metropolitan area. The purpose of this descriptive, mixed methods study was to examine within five elementary schools if and how student discipline referrals varied across the subgroups of grade, race/ethnicity, and gender, and the reasons teachers gave for subjective discipline referrals. In addition, this study inquired into principals’ processes for determining when a subjective student discipline referral warrants a suspension, and how their perspectives, beliefs, and experiences influence their use of exclusionary discipline actions. Student discipline referrals and suspension data were collected and reviewed from five elementary schools in Success Public Schools, as well as interviews from the principals in the identified schools. The findings from the examination of the sampling of classroom referrals and suspension data revealed that African American male students had two to three times as many student discipline referrals and suspensions as African American females in each school. Across the total population of all five schools for student discipline referrals, there were 49% for subjective offenses and 51% for objective offenses. In addition to examining the student discipline referrals, this study also investigated the principals’ beliefs. All of the principals who were interviewed for this study reported that they believe that suspensions should be implemented as a last resort and that alternatives should be considered, such as the following: after school detention, positive behavior intervention supports, and restorative practices. This study confirms and highlights that students who are referred for subjective discipline offenses are suspended from school about half of the time. In addition, descriptions of behaviors that triggered a discipline referral for a subjective offense reveal that the interpretation of student behaviors heavily relies on teachers’ judgements and their perceptions of what constitutes disrespect and disruption. Moreover, the study revealed that how administrators respond to subjective student discipline referrals varied from school to school.Item Predictors of Disproportionate Use of Suspensions and Expulsions(2019) Williams, Alisa; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study used the nation-wide U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights dataset to investigate the school characteristics that influence disproportionate rates of harsh discipline in public schools. At the individual student level, research indicates that racial minority students receive suspensions and expulsions at rates that are greater than their membership in their schools’ population. However, there is little research investigating whether school-level variables (i.e., school characteristics) can predict disproportional discipline and how predictors may differ between groups. This study used school-level discipline data from schools in all fifty states as well as the District of Columbia with a minimum enrollment of 15 each of African American, Hispanic and White students to investigate potential school characteristics that predict disproportional discipline as well as whether the effect sizes of these predictors vary for disproportionality with regard to African American and Hispanic students. Predictors were school-level and included student body size, diversity and poverty level; school level and typology; student: teacher ratio and percentage of new teachers, and the presence of school resource officers, while states were used as a clustering variable and controlled for state-level effects such as state discipline policies. Results indicated that on average, disproportional discipline continues to affect both African American and Hispanic students, but that the degree of disproportionality varied considerably between schools. Few of the included variables predicted disparities in African American discipline. However, several variables, including the percentage of minority student enrollment, percentage of Hispanic student enrollment and being a middle school, high school or rural school, predicted disparities in Hispanic discipline. Results are interpreted and discussed in the context of existing, relevant research literature.