Multilevel exploration of factors contributing to the overrepresentation of African American students in office disciplinary referrals

Disruptive behavior problems in the classroom have been associated with attendance problems, substance abuse, and later school failure. Frequently, students who exhibit behavior problems in the classroom receive disciplinary actions such as being referred to the principal's office, which can limit the opportunity for learning. Although there is increasing awareness of the overrepresentation of ethic minority students - particularly African Americans - in disciplinary actions, the extant research has rarely empirically examined potential factors which may contribute to these disparities. The current study used a multilevel modeling approach to examine factors at the child (e.g., teacher-rated disruptive behavior problems) and classroom/teacher levels (e.g., teacher ethnicity) which may contribute to the over-representation of minority students in office disciplinary referrals (ODRs). Data come from 6,888 African American and White children in 381 classrooms at 21 elementary schools. The logistic regression analyses indicated that even after controlling for the students' levels of teacher-rated behavior problems and other classroom factors, African American students were significantly more likely than non-African American students to receive ODRs. Since these data suggest that race/ethnicity plays an important role in the assignment of ODRs, professional development on culturally sensitive practices may be warranted. Specifically, creating awareness of ethnic disparities along with enhancing classroom management strategies among teachers could in turn improve student behavior and retention in the classroom.