In-depth: Discipline disparity
Discipline disparity is a term which refers to the trend of disproportionate disciplinary actions taken by a school against certain students due to their race or another demographic.
This behavior may seem nonexistent in KSD and surrounding districts, but recent data suggests that a disproportionate amount of disciplinary action was taken against Black students when compared to their white classmates in the past two years.
In the 2019 and 2020 school years, there were 29 and 22 out-of-school suspensions, respectively.
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Nathan Sweeney • Apr 3, 2021 at 1:35 pm
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (linked in the article), is a government-operated database that holds various statistics regarding the Kirkwood School District and every other district in the state. In the database, available to the public, there is surface-level information about discipline incidents in the district. To receive more specific information about race, since that information is not open to the public on the website, we had to submit a media request to Mallory McGowin, the Chief Communications Officer for the database. If you would like to see all of the specific data we received from Ms. McGowin, please let us know, and we would be happy to email you.
J. Bradley • Mar 19, 2021 at 3:58 pm
Would you mind sharing how you were able to obtain this data and specifically who? I ask as a parent, because I have genuine concerns about how students are being treated in the district, especially during these difficult times. The March issue of TKC is yet another outstanding example of how courageous, prepared, and well put together every issue is.