AN INTERVIEW WITH KAITLIN ANDERSON: DIFFERENCES IN DISCIPLINE

Abstract

Kaitlin Anderson is Distinguished Doctoral Fellow in the Department of
Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, 212 Graduate Education Building
College of Education and Health Professions, Fayetteville, AR 72701. She can be
reached at: kaitlina@uark.edu
In this interview, she responds to questions regarding schools in America and
disparities in discipline procedures.
1) Dr. Anderson, what first prompted you to investigate "disparate
disciplinary outcomes"?
It’s difficult for anyone who reads the news to not be aware of some of the
racial disparities in school discipline policies, but my interest in this issue stems
from the question: “are certain students being punished more harshly than their
peers of different races, who commit the same infractions and in the same types of
schools?”
Most of the numbers we see frequently just focus on outcomes, which are
often naively critiqued by just blaming the issue on the fact that certain kids are
just “bad kids.” The problem with this view point is that, according to my research,
there are still disparities even conditional on the type of infraction and within the
same school.