A Critical Race Analysis of High School Educator Perceptions of School Discipline and Racial Disproportionality

Abstract Two elements of zero tolerance school discipline make it a major component of the school-to-prison pipeline. One is overreliance on exclusion and punishment. The other is disproportionate use of these practices on minoritized populations, particularly Black students, who are twice as likely to be suspended as White students. While evidence suggests that preventative frameworks like positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) help improve school discipline and lower suspension and expulsion rates, they do not consistently decrease racial disciplinary disparities. This study used a hybrid inductive/deductive thematic analysis approach to analyze semistructured interviews of 23 educational staff at one high school at the outset of PBIS implementation to understand their perceptions of school discipline and racial disciplinary disproportionality. Educators supported several aims of PBIS, including reducing suspensions and improving schoolwide disciplinary consistency. While they expressed concern about racial disproportionality and its potential causes, many also engaged in discourse rooted in cultural deficit narratives and normalization of racial inequality, which served to rationalize disparate racial outcomes and processes. The findings suggest that race-neutral frameworks like PBIS have the potential to be an alternative to punitive school discipline, but face significant barriers in addressing the roots of disciplinary disproportionality.