Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

School of Public Service

Program/Concentration

Public Administration and urban Policy

Committee Director

Meagan Jordan

Committee Member

Adam Eckerd

Committee Member

Stephanie Smith-Durkin

Abstract

An under-researched area of public administration, bureaucratic discretionary practices regarding student discipline and resulting inequitable consequences are explored throughout this study from a theoretical perspective. The study examines student discipline outcomes for conduct violations in America’s schools. Further, research will determine if data supports the notion that school leaders’ administrative discretion contributes to inequitable student disciplinary practices. Evidenced by research and corresponding data regarding discriminatory student disciplinary actions, this study relies on Critical Race Theory (CRT) as its foundation and theoretical framework.

Using relevant literature, research questions were formed, hypotheses were crafted, and statistical analyses were performed to test means of Black and White students, students with disabilities, and non-disabled students, who received exclusionary discipline outcomes in Virginia’s public schools during the 2018-2019 school year. An examination was conducted to assess school administrators’ decisions to issue discriminatory discipline outcomes and to determine how historically marginalized Black students and students with disabilities are impacted. Using exclusionary discipline outcomes as the unit of study, this non-experimental empirical quantitative examination investigates schools’ policies, procedures, and practices. Research questions are presented with hypotheses to determine how disproportionate student discipline outcomes impact historically marginalized students, including Black students and students with disabilities, because of bureaucratic decisions made by school officials. Following an abbreviated model established by Heilbrun et al. (2015), this study will analyze data sets, which examine students’ race and disability, in addition to zero tolerance and subjective outcomes. Methods are employed using two-sample one-tailed t tests and ANOVA testing.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/8e38-e229

ISBN

9798280752122

ORCID

0009-0008-0823-3825

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