Removing Defiance: An Analysis of Disciplinary Referral Data of African American Children Within a Title 1 School.

The research base establishing connections between children who identify as African American and increased disciplinary referrals due to defiance and/or insubordination has long been established. In August of 2014, the author was hired to serve as an assistant principal at a Title 1 urban public elementary school in the Midwestern USA. The author cataloged nearly 1000 referrals using an internal data management system while eliminating the consequence(s) of suspension and/or expulsion for the offense of 'defiance.' The study found that, despite this limitation, African American students were grossly overrepresented in both disciplinary referrals and exclusionary discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]