Justice in K-12 Is About Quality Education, Not Distorting Discipline Data
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that real justice for students means providing excellent education, not manipulating discipline statistics to create the appearance of equity.
Key Takeaways
- Real justice is excellent education - Students are best served by great teaching and rigorous standards, not by data manipulation
- Distorting discipline data helps no one - Reducing suspension numbers by ignoring incidents doesn't make schools safer or more just
- Focus on what students actually need - Quality instruction, safe schools, and high expectations are more just than any statistical target
Transcript
Are we going to treat all students fairly according to a consistent set of rules that apply equally to everyone?
Are we going to give consistent consequences to everyone?
Or are we going to sweep behavior under the rug if it gives us statistics that we don't like?
And I think we have to get back to the purpose of education.
What are schools for?
The authors of this paper position justice as the highest aim.
And I understand they're attorneys, they're activists for youth justice, but I think our role as educators in justice for young people centers around their education.
It is just to give all young people a high quality education.
It is not just to manipulate our behavior and discipline practices in order to produce pretty statistics.
And don't get me wrong, disproportionality is ugly.
We don't like it.
We don't want it.
But the only way we can really fix it is to focus on behavior.
And we know that as schools we have some ability to improve student behavior.
We should be doing everything we can to improve student behavior.
But what we should not be doing is manipulating our statistics to produce some twisted notion of justice on paper to make attorneys happy.
So my bottom line here is that disproportionality alone is not evidence of bias or injustice.
It often reflects real-world inequalities that manifest in behavior.