The South Bend Community School Corp. is examining disparities in student discipline and possible factors contributing to those differences.
At a public meeting Monday night, the district outlined five hypotheses to guide its review. Those include subjective discipline decisions, teacher experience levels, literacy challenges, environmental factors and differences between student and staff demographics.
School board attorney Pete Agostino said the ideas are not conclusions, but a starting point for analyzing district data and identifying where disparities occur.
Patrick Graff, a sociology professor at the University of Notre Dame, presented data showing discipline gaps persist at both the state and national levels. In Indiana, Black students are disciplined at significantly higher rates than white students.
Graff said multiple factors contribute to those disparities, including conditions outside the classroom.
“We know from the research literature that things like poverty, environmental factors... things like pollution... we know that lead exposure is a big problem in South Bend,” Graff said. “Lead exposure has been credibly linked to discipline problems in schools.”
Graff recommended the district focus on teacher recruitment and retention, support for less-experienced educators and continued analysis of data to identify areas where interventions are needed.
He said addressing discipline disparities will take sustained effort over time.
The meeting also included public comment, with several teachers echoing concerns raised in the presentation and emphasizing the need for long-term solutions.
