South Bend Disparities
(May 2017)
Prefatory note added February 1, 2020: This page, which was originally created as a placeholder in May 2017, is similar to the is similar to the following subpages of the Discipline Disparities page on this site, which discuss like situations where (in the jurisdictions indicated in the titles of the subpages) general reductions in discipline rates were in fact accompanied by increased relative racial/ethnic differences in discipline rates: California Disparities, Colorado Disparities, Connecticut Disparities, Florida Disparities, Illinois Disparities, Maryland Disparities, Massachusetts Disparities, Minnesota Disparities, North Carolina Disparities, Oregon Disparities, Rhode Island Disparities, Utah Disparities, Virginia Disparities, Allegheny County (PA) Disparities, Aurora (CO) Disparities, Beaverton (OR) Disparities, Denver Disparities, Evansville (IN) Disparities, Henrico County (VA) Disparities, Kern County (CA) Disparities, Los Angeles SWPBS, Loudoun County (VA) Disparities, Milwaukee Disparities, Minneapolis Disparities, Montgomery County (MD) Disparities, Nashville Disparities, Oakland (CA) Disparities, Portland (OR) Disparities, Seattle Disparities, St. Paul Disparities, Urbana (IL) Disparities.
Some of the subpages may provide substantial detail, while others (like the instant page) simply present statements describing the situations. See also my “Maryland Discipline Study Shows Usual – But Misunderstood – Effects of Policies on Measures of Racial Disparity,” Gunpowder Gazette (Dec. 16, 2019), which discusses a study showing that general reductions in suspension in Maryland schools between the 2008-09 and 2013-14 school years had been accompanied by an increase in the ratio of the statewide black suspension rate to the statewide white suspension rate, and that, during that period, 20 of the 23 Maryland school districts for which data on black and overall suspension rate reductions could be analyzed there occurred an increase in the ratio of the black suspension rate to suspension rate for other students. See also the Minnesota Disparities page regarding a study finding that in all 73 districts in Minnesota where the matter could be analyzed general reductions in suspensions were accompanied by increases in the ratio of the black suspension rate to the white suspension rate.
Other useful related readings regarding the pervasive misunderstanding of this issue include my December 8, 2017 testimony explaining the issue to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, my letters explaining the issue to the United States Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice (July 17, 2017), Comptroller General of the United States (Apr. 12, 2018), Minnesota Department of Human Rights (May 14, 2018), and Maryland State Department of Education (June 26, 2018), as well as my “Misunderstanding of Statistics Leads to Misguided Law Enforcement Policies,” Amstat News (Dec. 2012), “The Paradox of Lowering Standards,” Baltimore Sun (Aug. 5, 2013), “Innumeracy at the Department of Education and the Congressional Committees Overseeing It,” Federalist Society Blog (Aug. 24, 2017), “The Pernicious Misunderstanding of Effects or Policies on Racial Differences in Criminal Justice Outcomes,” Federalist Society Blog (Oct. 12, 2017). Some recent discussions of the continuing failure of the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies of federal and state governments to understand this issue may be found in “COPAA v. DeVos and the Government’s Continuing Numeracy Problem,” Federalist Society Blog (Sept. 12, 2019) (the appendix to which discusses the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ treatment of the above-mentioned testimony) as well as the above-mentioned Gunpowder Gazette commentary. While the recent “Usual, But Wholly Misunderstood, Effects of Policies on Measures of Racial Disparity Now Being Seen in Ferguson and the UK and Soon to Be Seen in Baltimore,” Federalist Society Blog (Dec. 4, 2019), principally addresses misperceptions about the effects of policies on measures of racial differences in criminal justice outcomes, its Appendix discusses like misperceptions with regard to school discipline outcomes.
I never got around to expanding this page in the manner I originally intended. I may give it greater attention in light recent coverage of the efforts South Bend has been giving to reducing disparities, as discussed in this January 26, 2020 South Bend Tribune article.
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This is a placeholder for a page discussing spring 2017 reportage of increased racial differences in discipline rates, appraised in terms of (a) relative racial differences in discipline rates or (b) the proportion Americans make up of students disciplined, in conjunction with general decreases in discipline rates. The reportage reflects the mistaken view that generally reducing discipline rates would be expected to reduced, rather than increase, (a) and (b). The reportage is found in a May 23, 2017 abc57.com article titled “Community groups talk discipline in SBCSD,” which discussed an April 12, 2017 South Bend Tribune April article titled “School discipline still lopsided for black students in South Bend.” The data in the report are limited but appear to reflect an increase in the proportion African Americans make up of persons experiencing out of school suspensions and expulsions during a period when those outcomes are declining (though compete data for the latter period examined is not yet available).