Project Activities
Research indicates that efforts to reform school discipline practices through policy have seen mixed success. In 2018, the District of Columbia (DC) passed the Student Fair Access to School Act, which sought to significantly limit schools' use of suspensions and promote alternative discipline practices, among other reforms. To date, there has not been any research on the implementation of those reforms across 70 education agencies, including DC Public Schools and all public charter systems, that operate in DC. The research leverages a mixed-methods design to explore school-level implementation of discipline reform across the DC system. The study, in partnership with the DC Education Research Collaborative, will use administrative data and surveys of administrators, teachers, and parents to document how reforms were implemented, and the successes and challenges of implementing discipline reform. The career development plan will support the (Principal Investigator) PI in building project management and leaderships capabilities, expertise in conducting partnership-based research, and skills in survey development and measurement.
Research plan
The project will take place in DC and include all 70 PK–12 local education agencies (LEAs) in DC, including the DC Public School (DCPS) system and all public charter schools managed by the DC Public Charter School Board. The study will be conducted in partnership with the DC Education Research Collaborative, a research-practice partnership between the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, DCPS, the DC Public Charter School Board, along with 15 universities and think tanks in the DC metro area. The research aims to answer the following five questions:
- What were trends in suspension rates, test scores, and attendance in DC schools before and after the 2018 Student Fair Access to School Act? How do student outcomes (and disparities) vary across different LEAs and schools in DC in the pre- and post-2018 reform periods? (RQ1)
- What school-level factors predict whether a school complies with the 2018 policy in subsequent school years? Did schools substitute to ISS when OSS was no longer available? Did schools substitute to more serious offenses when lesser offenses were no longer suspension eligible (High School only)? (RQ2)
- What programs, policies, and practices have DC schools put in place since the 2018 reforms to promote positive school climate, prevent student misbehavior, and respond to disciplinary issues? How do current student discipline approaches vary with school contextual factors? (RQ3)
- How do student discipline and academic outcomes vary with different school-based approaches to student discipline? (RQ4)
- What are educators' and community members' perspectives on the implementation of discipline reform efforts? How do they vary by individual- and school-level factors? (RQ5)
Key measures will vary for each research question. Key measures for the first study (RQ1) include in-school and out-of-school suspension rates, expulsion rates, as well as student test scores and attendance rates, and measures of between-group disparities in those outcomes. For the second study (RQ2 and RQ3), key measures include an indicator for whether a school (or LEA) reported any suspensions that were non-compliant with the 2018 reforms and counts of non-compliant suspensions (and other discipline outcomes) reported each year. Additionally, the research team will develop measures to describe the discipline practices, programs, and policies in place in DC schools in the post-reform periods for use in answering RQ3 and RQ4. Finally, to answer RQ5, the researchers will use surveys of school leaders, teachers, and parents.
The data analysis plan will include descriptive analysis methods to describe the variation and trends in school-level implementation of discipline reform. These analyses will describe variation and trends in student outcomes and disparities in the pre- and post- reform periods, variation and trends in compliance with local policy directives, variation and trends in the policies, programs, and practices that exist across DC schools in the post- reform periods, and variation and trends in community experiences and perspectives on the successes and challenges of discipline reform. The research team will use simple descriptive statistical methods, including regression analyses, to systematically explore variation and trends along these dimensions.
Career plan
The PI's career development plan is organized around three training goals: 1) build project management and leadership skills; 2) build expertise in conducting partnership-based work; and 3) build methodological expertise in survey development and measurement. To accomplish these goals, the PI will participate in regular mentor meetings, in-person and virtual workshops and conferences, and a focused plan of independent study. Dr. Jon Valant, senior fellow at Brookings Institute and Director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, will provide mentorship to support the PI's project management, leadership, and research-practice partnership skills. Dr. Jonathan Schweig, senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation, will provide mentorship on building methodological skills related to survey development and measurement. The PI will attend in-person and virtual workshops through the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships, the University of Michigan's Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, along with additional workshops provided by Brookings Institute to its research staff and relevant pre-conference workshops at academic research conferences. Additionally, the PI, supported by her mentors, will build reading lists for independent study.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Products: Products will document how DC schools have approached discipline reforms, trends in student outcomes related to these reforms, and educator and community member perspectives on these reforms. The project will result in publications and presentations as well as other dissemination products (e.g., executive summary memos, policy report and briefs, and blog posts) that will reach the DC education community, research community, and education leaders and policymakers across the U.S. working to reform school discipline.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
