Nathan Lazickas

4/6
Educational Psychology
Color of Discipline Outline

Intro: The first paragraph introduces a problem with the modern American
Educational System, the achievement gap. It states that it will look at the role
school discipline has played with this issue.

In the following paragraphs data shows that African American and Latino males are
disproportionately suspended or sent to the principals office. The numbers show
often times that African American and Latino males make up about 17% of school
populations but make up over 32% of the disciplined population, almost double their
school pop. The article then offers the idea that the data could cause some to think
that African American and Latino males are inherently bad but then provides data
that proves that notion incorrect.

Body: The Three Causes of Disparity

The article then delves into the demographic transition this nation is in when it
comes to education. The schools are becoming more and more diverse while the
teaching population is remaining prominently European American Females. The
differences between the students and the teachers often cause misunderstandings.
The educators misinterpret certain behaviors of diverse students and in turn
inappropriately discipline them. This just stems from cultural misunderstandings
and ignorance.

Resistance to authority is another example given by the article of why this disparity
happens. Due to the inherently racist system our country has been run on for
centuries, institutional racism is still alive and students of color understand this as
do educators. Unfortunately some educators have low expectations for students
from lower socioeconomic backgrounds as well as students of color and the
students are aware of these expectations. The students response can either be
passive or active. The active responses are either attempting to exceed
expectations or be disruptive and exhibit healthy signs of self-respect. The
talking back and behavior that annoys and bothers teachers is why many students
of color are disciplined. This is because teachers do not have/use the skills to defuse
and rewire the situation and choose to send the trouble-makers off to be
somebody elses problem.

The third point of the article discusses the lack of support students of color receive
in the classroom. When the teacher does not provide enough support when the
students do not understand the material they tend to act out to release the energy
not being spent on the work as well as a rude cry for help. If educators provide
active and efficient instruction in the first place and follow up with support then
students of color are statistically proven to do better in school. When the student is
removed from the classroom they cannot improve their skills thus creating a terrible
cycle that is very harmful to their education as a whole.
Nathan Lazickas
4/6
Educational Psychology
Color of Discipline Outline
Closing: The Last two sections deal with ways to remedy the situation and overcome
the institutional problems that are currently in place. Teacher community and
cultural awareness, having educators have proper conflict/situational resolution
skills, and changing the way students are disciplined were all heavily emphasized.

Critique: I really enjoyed this article and reminded me a lot of what I learned in Dr.
Connerys course SLA for Educators. I feel the problems that this article discusses
can be remedied through the solutions listed at the end. The whole time I was
reading it I thought back to Dr. Cs class and how we were taught to be a good
educator in a multicultural classroom setting and many of the strategies mentioned
were repeats from last semester. I believe it is very important for a teacher to know
the backgrounds of their students and respect the culture they come from. Students
of color have been unfairly prejudiced against the entirety of the history of
American Education and it is slowly beginning to change. Sending a student out of
the classroom I think is especially detrimental to their education and a better
alternative would be to develop a personal relationship with the student to better
understand where they are coming from. This can help one find out why that
particular student is acting out and possibly redirect those energies into a positive
outcome. Obviously with this situation extra academic support would be provided as
well to show that the student matters as person as well as a student.