WLCSC Disciplinary Rate Discrepancies

One of WL CARE’s requests in our initial letter was a review of academic track recommendations and disciplinary rates. In one of our meetings with now Board President Rachel Witt, the board was hesitant to publish this information on the school website. While we posed a couple solutions to her concerns, it’s unclear whether the board will move forward with publishing this data. In the meantime, we found data from previous years that we thought was important to show.

ProPublica, looking at 2015-2016 data, found that white students at WLCSC schools were 3.3x more likely to be enrolled in at least one AP class. Black students are 8.5x more likely to be suspended as white students.

In 2015 and 2016, Black students made up 7% of the district, but made up 36% of students suspended and 50% of students expelled. Hispanic students made up 6% of the district, but were 7% of students suspended and the other 50% of students expelled. Notably, white students make up 60% of the district, but only 36% of students suspended and 0% of students expelled.

This racial discrepancy is even more apparent at certain schools. At Happy Hollow (WLIS), Black students are over 20x more likely to be suspended, compared to white students. The principal of Happy Hollow, Margaret Psarros, was one of the two co-chairs the board chose for the diversity committee. Principal Psarros did not respond to our letter and story addendum (sent in June and August respectively), and as you may remember from Daniel’s post, refused our repeated requests to meet.

These trends continue back. In 2013-2014, Black students made up 4.9% of the district and 27.6% of suspensions.

A serious investigation needs to be made into honors and AP track recommendations and the disproportionate disciplinary measures against Black and Hispanic students. Community input and elevating the voices of BIPOC and other marginalized people is vital. The only way toward this is transparency, communication, and the willingness to have these difficult conversations.