An April 22, 2018 article in The News Gazette of Urbana, Illinois titled “Discipline disparity prompts change at Urban schools” discussed one of the commonplace situations where a school system relaxed standards or otherwise generally reduced suspensions while believing that doing so would reduce the ratio of the black suspension rates to the white suspension rate, but found that reductions in suspension rates were accompanied an increase in the ratio. The following material in the article describes the situation:
In Don Owen's nearly five years as superintendent, the district had "always" reviewed discipline data, he said. But it hasn't always done so in a way that revealed racial disparity.
"The way we've looked at it is often the overall trend — and for a number of years, that's been the focus because it makes us look good," Owen said. "So if you look at the overall trend with out-of-school suspensions, the overall numbers have been going down, which is a really good thing.
"But when you look at a disparity ratio, you have to be honest. (We) are going in the wrong direction. We shouldn't have a disparity ratio where students of color are twice as likely to be suspended out of school than you would expect for the percentage of the population they represent."
But that is exactly the situation the district is in, despite multiple attempts in recent years to make the discipline system more fair for all students.