Virginia - State Level Out-of-School Suspension Report

Virginia Discriminology Report
A State Level Equity Analysis of Virginia Public Schools
-This is a living document and is regularly updated-





On average, Black students lose 120 more hours of instruction due to suspensions, than White students.
Research shows that missing 20 or more hours of instruction before taking the fourth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading lowers achievement by a full grade level (Ginsburg, Jordan, & Chang, 2014).

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One obvious reason exclusionary discipline contributes to the opportunity gap is that getting suspended denies access to instruction, and missing instruction has been shown to contribute to lower achievement (Losen & Whitaker, 2017). Learn more on how we calculate the impact exclusionary discipline has on instruction time.


 
How Likely?
 


How likely are Black students to be given an out-of-school suspension in the state of Virginia?


 

3x
More likely than White students overall
This number represents how likely Black children are to get an out-of-school suspension, when compared to White children.

3x
More likely than White boys
This number represents how likely Black boys are to be given an out-of-school suspension, when compared to White boys.

4x
More likely than White girls
This number represents how likely Black girls are to be given an out-of-school suspension, when compared to White girls.




A risk ratio greater than 1.0 indicates that the risk for Black children is greater than the risk for White children.

Generally, a risk ratio of 1.0 indicates that Black children are no more likely than White children to be issued an out-of-school (OSS) suspension. A risk ratio greater than 1.0 indicates that the risk for Black children is greater than the risk for White children. Accordingly, a risk ratio of 2.0 indicates that Black children are twice as likely as White children to be issued an OSS; a risk ratio of 3.0 indicates that Black children are three times more likely as White children to be issued an OSS; etc. Learn more about Risk Ratios

The data featured in this report was sourced from the 2013/14 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a survey administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The data are sometimes referred to as the “OCR” data and sometimes as the “CRDC” data; the two are identical. The data and more details about the data collection can be found online at http://ocrdata.ed.gov. The OCR data set we used was coded as is, and includes juvenile justice facilities as well as schools with missing and incomplete data.
Help us clean our data.


How Many?
 


What percentage of Black students were given out-of-school suspensions in the state of Virginia?


 

13%
of Black students overall
This number represents the overall percentage of Black children issued an out-of-school suspension.

17%
of Black boys
This number represents the percentage, or ‘‘rate,’’ of Black boys issued an out-of-school suspension.

9%
of Black girls
This number represents the percentage, or ‘‘rate,’’ of Black girls issued an out-of-school suspension.




By law, schools may not suspend students with disabilities for behavior that is caused by their disability.

The suspension rate is the percentage of Black students issued an out-of-school suspension (OSS) within a particular school, district or state. It is a straightforward calculation that divides the number of students suspended in a student subgroup (e.g., Black students, White students, Black boys with disabilities, etc) by that same subgroup's overall enrollment. For example, if a school serves 100 Black boys and 15 of them were suspended, the ‘”rate” for Black boys to be suspended would be 15 percent (15/100 = 15 percent).

The data featured in this report was sourced from the 2013/14 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a survey administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The data are sometimes referred to as the “OCR” data and sometimes as the “CRDC” data; the two are identical. The data and more details about the data collection can be found online at http://ocrdata.ed.gov. The OCR data set we used was coded as is, and includes juvenile justice facilities as well as schools with missing and incomplete data.
Help us clean our data.


Black-White Gap
 


What is the size of the racial gap between Black and White students that were given an out-of-school suspension in the state of Virginia?


 

9
Percentage point gap overall
This number represents the difference between the rate that Black and White children are issued an out-of-school suspension.

11
Percentage point gap for boys
This number represents the difference between the rate that Black and White boys are issued an out-of-school suspension.

7
Percentage point gap for girls
This number represents the difference between the rate that Black and White girls are issued an out-of-school suspension.




Large racial disparities in suspension rates can have a dramatic impact on academic and life outcomes for millions of Black families.

The Black-White suspension gap is the difference between the percentage of Black students issued out-of-school suspensions to that of White students. This measure is important because we know that the loss of classroom instruction time damages student performance. With the average suspension at around 3.5 days, large racial/ethnic disparities in suspension rates can have a dramatic impact on academic and life outcomes for millions of Black families.

The data featured in this report was sourced from the 2013/14 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a survey administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The data are sometimes referred to as the “OCR” data and sometimes as the “CRDC” data; the two are identical. The data and more details about the data collection can be found online at http://ocrdata.ed.gov. The OCR data set we used was coded as is, and includes juvenile justice facilities as well as schools with missing and incomplete data.
Help us clean our data.


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This section includes links to important resources that can be used to facilitate change in your school or district. We will be updating this area as we find new information that could be useful to parents and community members.

 

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