Keeping Black Girls in School: A Systematic Review of Opportunities to Address Exclusionary Discipline Disparity

A punitive legacy of the responses to school shootings in the United States is the expansion of exclusionary discipline. Black girls have disproportionately experienced this form of punishment as compared to white girls and non-Black girls of color. A small, but growing, body of research has examined the patterns and causes of this disparity. Current studies have made suggestions for possible solutions to address this disparity, but these recommendations are not readily accessible in a single location. A catalogue of these ideas could provide a useful foundation for policy development and evaluation. The present research note seeks to generate this resource by conducting a systematic review to identify and categorize recommendations aimed at reducing the discipline disparity experienced by Black girls. Based on this review, four categories emerged that center around: (1) culturally competent school programs, (2) enhanced teacher training, (3) spaces at school for empowering Black girls, and (4) trauma-informed student policies. This research note discusses these categories of recommendations using an intersectional framework and concludes with a summary of next steps to guide future research and policy work to address the disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline against Black girls.