suspension rates by race

Nearly one in six African-American students was suspended from school during the 2009-10 academic year, more than three times the rate of their white peers, new analysis of federal education data has found. 

That compares with about one in 20 white students, researchers at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, based at the University of California, Los Angeles, conclude. They use data collected from about half of all school districts in the nation for that year by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights. 

And for black children with disabilities, the rate was even higher: One in four such students was suspended at least once that year. In some districts, as many as one out of every two black students was suspended. 

“These numbers show clear and consistent racial and ethnic disparities in suspensions across the country,” said John H. Jackson, the president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, based in Cambridge, Mass., which supports equity in schooling for all students and efforts to improve outcomes for African-American boys. “We are not providing [these students] a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. Any entity not serious about addressing this becomes a co-conspirator in the demise of these children."

-- Ed Week

I'll give you one guess: What state has the highest disparity of suspensions between white and Black students?