Report shows racial disparity at Poplar Bluff schools

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Minority students in the Poplar Bluff school district are disciplined at a higher rate proportionally than white peers, according to a recent U.S. Department of Education report.

The department recently released information online on schools participating in the 2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection. The CRDC has been used since 1968 to collect data on civil-rights adherence in the administration of discipline and other aspects of public education and draws data from more than 50 million students in 95,000 schools.

Nationwide reports on school discipline released in June showed minority students in U.S. schools were suspended at a rate four times their white peers and referred to law enforcement twice as much. The data for Poplar Bluff Public Schools also reflected several racial disparities in the administration of discipline.

District superintendent Scott Dill, who was superintendent of the Houston, Missouri, school district when was collected, said he is committed to having a conversation with administrators and the community about the report’s findings.

“I think we historically as a society don’t talk about race very much. But race matters; these data show it. If you look at our historical performance data, there are some indicators there that raise some questions as well. As a school leader, I am committed to having this conversation,” Dill said.

“And that may not make people comfortable, but I was not hired to make people comfortable. I was hired to do right by kids — all kids,” he said.

During the data collection period, 2013-2014, enrollment in the Poplar Bluff R-I school district was reported at 5,306. White students made up 84.6 percent of district enrollment, black students 10.6 percent, Hispanics 1.8 percent and Asians less than 1 percent.

While only accounting for about 10 percent of the student body, black students accounted for 24.8 percent of 415 suspensions issued districtwide that year. Hispanic students saw a 3.9 percent suspension rate. Asians accounted for about 1 percent of suspensions.

Those figures are an improvement over 2011-2012 data, which reflected black students accounted for 31 percent of suspensions in the district but only 11.3 percent of the student body.

The CRDC reports 721 students were assigned in-school suspensions in 2013-2014. Black students accounted for 17.3 percent of that total. Hispanic students accounted for 3.6 percent of in-school suspension actions.

“Race matters. Not just within the Poplar Bluff School District, but in our country as a whole. When you look at this data, it is obvious that there is a trend here. We have 10 percent of our students who are African-American, yet they represent 17 percent of in- school suspensions and 24 percent of our out-of-school suspensions,” Dill said.

Expulsion rates — which dropped from 85 in 2011-2012 to eight in 2013-2014 — also reflected black students being affected at a proportionally greater rate than white students. Of the eight expulsions in 2013-2014, four of those students were black.

The number of students referred to law enforcement increased in 2013-2014 from the previous data collection. While only six students were referred to police in 2011-2012, that number climbed to 64 in 2013-2014. Black students accounted for 33 percent of referrals to law enforcement and white students 67 percent.

“The data is what it is, and when we get our assessment data, I will be looking at that as well. The bottom line for me is that race matters. If you pretend it doesn’t or pretend students come to us from the same background with the same stories and predispositions toward the world, we are doing our kids a disservice,” Dill said.

“We need to come to this with our eyes open and recognize that we have a diverse culture right here in Poplar Bluff, and we need to meet their needs where they’re at,” he said.

Corporal punishment doubled district-wide between 2011-2012 and 2013-2014, from 130 incidents to 257. Districtwide racial disparity in the administration of that discipline action decreased, however.

While black students accounted for 25.4 percent of all corporal punishment actions in 2011-2012, that number fell to 19.5 percent in 2013-2014.

While Hispanic students accounted for 5.4 percent of corporal punishments in 2011-2012, that number also fell to 3.9 percent.

“I can’t speak to these data specifically because I have not been in the district very long, but my personal philosophy — I am not a fan of corporal punishment. I am an educator and a person of intellect and words. I think that if I have to hit you with a piece of wood to make my point, then I have failed with my words,” Dill said.

The bulk of corporal punishments — 153 of the 257 and more than the entire district in the previous data collection — were administered at the junior high.

Dill said while he would not “second guess” his administrators nor the parents who have requested that punishment action, he would like to see other actions applied.

“If that is the culture in our community, then I respect that; however, I would like to see us get to a point where we are applying other tools. I think if you look at the programs in the district — Capturing Kids Hearts, Positive Intervention Behavior Support — all of these are about building character and establishing responsibility,” he said.

Dill said ultimately, he wants to see discipline numbers drop in the district, regardless of demographics.

“I would hope that long-term, our discipline numbers drop. I mean overall. Across the board for all students — Caucasian, African American, Latino, Latina, I don’t care — we want students of character. We want citizens of character for our society, and our job as a school is to prepare our kids to take their place as responsible members of our republic,” he said.

The statistics contained in the report and other civil-rights data, including a breakdown by individual school, are available at crdc.ed.gov/.