The contribution of student perceptions of school climate to understanding the disproportionate punishment of African American students in a middle school

This study investigated the contribution of student perceptions of school climate to racial differences in school discipline. Four hundred middle school students completed a school climate survey. Compared to Caucasian students, African-American students were referred to the office for discipline three times as frequently and received five times as many suspensions. Regression analyses examined the extent to which differences in school punishment could be attributed to racial differences in experiences of school climate. African-American students were more likely than Caucasian students to report that their peers supported aggressive behavior and less likely to express willingness to seek help from their teachers for bullying and threats of violence. School climate differences explained 8% of the variance in discipline referrals. Race remained a significant predictor ( β = −0.29, p < 0.001) but was reduced from 11% to 8% after accounting for school climate.