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According to the new data, disparities begin as early as preschool. Black students make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, but they comprise 48 percent of preschool students receiving more than one suspension out of school. White students, representing 43 percent of preschool students, only receive 26 percent of out-of-school suspensions more than once.

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ORIGINAL: vincentML
Equal access to education? Good luck with that?
Students of color receive more punishment and have less access to experienced teachers beginning as early as preschool.
Black students in public schools are suspended at triple the rate as white students.
Proportionally more are referred to law enforcement and more are arrested for crimes in school.
More troubling: "Students with disabilities make up one-fourth of students referred to law enforcement or arrested, although they represent 13 percent of the student population. Students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended out of school than peers, with 13 percent of such students being sent home for misbehaving. One of four boy students of color who have disabilities and one in five girl students of color who have disabilities were suspended. Students of color include all non-white ethnic groups except Latino and Asian-American."
I realize this is a sensitive topic and people with divergent views might remain silent for fear of being labeled racist. I hope this will not happen here. I think this topic needs an open and fearless discussion. So, your thoughts please. Is the data the result of systematic racism in the schools as the article claims or are there other issues to be considered? What can be done to correct the problem?
ARTICLE

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‡ Estimate has been suppressed. Associated standard error exceeds 50 percent of the estimate.
! Associated standard error exceeds 30 percent of the estimate.  Interpret data with caution.
¡ Interpret data with caution.  Estimate has been flagged for large differences from other reported data sources from the U.S. Department of Education.
1 Interpret data with Caution.  Estimate presented is a subtotal associated with a grand total that has been flagged for being different from other U.S. Department of Education data sources.

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ORIGINAL: Zonie63

I'd be interested in seeing the data broken down by region/state/district. It might give some insight as to where, specifically, this is happening to a higher degree than elsewhere. I can't tell if this phenomenon is across the board throughout America or if there may be some districts where this is happening much more (which would raise the overall national average).

I would also be interested in seeing any data from private or parochial schools.

This part of the article also struck me:

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According to the new data, disparities begin as early as preschool. Black students make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, but they comprise 48 percent of preschool students receiving more than one suspension out of school. White students, representing 43 percent of preschool students, only receive 26 percent of out-of-school suspensions more than once.

How the hell does somebody get suspended from preschool?

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What the HuffPo article doesn't address, is whether or not the investigation was proper. For instance, if 100% of all students that commit some action that requires law enforcement were referred to law enforcement, would it be racist if 75% of the students committing the action were white?

If only black students are being referred and other students aren't being referred, for the same issue, there may be truth to the racist claim. It might also have something to do with prior infractions, too. If no students are referred until their 3rd incident, and only one race has students getting 3 incidents, it's not a racist thing that only that race is being referred.

If blacks students commit more infractions than students of any other race, would it be a surprise for more black students to be corrected? Note that I'm not claiming they do, but questioning whether or not the investigation took everything into account.

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Would a School District want experienced or inexperienced teachers? I'm absolutely sure that most School Districts would rather have experienced teachers leading their students. If an experienced teacher decides to jump from a large city District to a suburban District, whose fault is that? If there isn't an experienced teacher to fill that void, isn't an inexperienced teacher more desirable to either not filling the position, or filling it with someone who isn't even trained as a teacher?

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: vincentML

Black students in public schools are suspended at triple the rate as white students.

Whether that is "racist" or simply appropriate depends on what they're being suspended for and how that compares with what white kids get suspended for.

K.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

I've seen quite a few studies conclude "racism" that was better attributed to the socio-economic status of the population studied.

That status may well be exacerbated by racism--but the studies didn't consider that, to me, clearly more obvious hypothesis.

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Is the data the result of systematic racism in the schools as the article claims or are there other issues to be considered? What can be done to correct the problem?

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ORIGINAL: vincentML

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What the HuffPo article doesn't address, is whether or not the investigation was proper. For instance, if 100% of all students that commit some action that requires law enforcement were referred to law enforcement, would it be racist if 75% of the students committing the action were white?
If only black students are being referred and other students aren't being referred, for the same issue, there may be truth to the racist claim. It might also have something to do with prior infractions, too. If no students are referred until their 3rd incident, and only one race has students getting 3 incidents, it's not a racist thing that only that race is being referred.
If blacks students commit more infractions than students of any other race, would it be a surprise for more black students to be corrected? Note that I'm not claiming they do, but questioning whether or not the investigation took everything into account.

Let me point out that this is not a field study but a self-reporting collection of data submitted by all school districts, so I fail to see the relevance of a "proper investigation."
However, I do not discount the points you make about the behavior of the students. I don't think the data is available to get to such a fine understanding and as I pointed out above to Zonie these are only tables of raw data, and the tables are not collated (if that is the right word)
So, we are presented with raw data that reflects poorly on the ideal of equal access to education for children of color and children with disabilities. If we accept the data at face value we are left with the question of why is it so?

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it is difficult to tell if the student acted without cause or if he/she was provoked by some other student or by an impatient teacher. I think it would require a very in depth study of cases to learn the truth.