Middle schools top state’s suspension rate
Middle school can be the worst.
Raging hormones, peer pressure and social media all converge as know-it-all teens and tweens grapple with their newfound independence, requiring extreme patience from frequently frustrated adults.
It is this hotbed of poor decision-making — not high schools — where Texas educators most often suspend misbehaving children from school at the state’s highest rates, an analysis of Texas Education Agency discipline data show.
Among the 500 Texas schools with the highest suspension rates last school year, 60 percent exclusively educated students in grades six through eight. Those campuses combined to suspend nearly 1 in 5 students, with most receiving more than one suspension during the year.
By contrast, 23 percent of the 500 campuses were high schools, 3 percent were elementary schools and the remaining 16 percent served multiple grade levels.
While it is not possible to calculate statewide suspension rates based on school type — the TEA does not release data on campuses reporting fewer than 10 suspensions — the trends at high-discipline middle schools reflect widespread challenges in curbing and changing inappropriate student misconduct.
Kevin Curtis, a former assistant middle school principal in the San Antonio area and founder of the National Educators for Restorative Practices, said many middle school staff have not been properly equipped for understanding the complex factors contributing to poor behavior.
“We become very frustrated with middle school kids because we think they should know how to act at this age, and they don’t,” Curtis said. “There’s just many new levels of independent thinking and practice for kids at that age, and we’re not doing enough intentional thinking about these things.”
Texas’ highest-suspension middle schools mostly serve students in large, urban districts, where children of color living in poverty are significantly more likely to receive discipline. Researchers and educators have concluded various factors contribute to suspension disparities — including differences in student behavior, varying administrative approaches to discipline and bias among campus staff — but there is widespread disagreement on how much each influences discipline rates.
For Delandria Burnett, who said her sixth-grade daughter received several suspensions while attending school in Aldine ISD, impatient staff in middle schools too often resort to discipline.
“If the kid’s not here in school, causing the problems, they don’t have to deal with them,” Burnett said. “But they don’t understand that the kids are missing out on their school, their work.”
Burnett ended up transferring her daughter to a Houston ISD school following the just-completed winter break.
Greater Houston is home to 75 middle schools that ranked in Texas’ top 500 for campus suspension rates last year, roughly equivalent to the number in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Twenty-six of those were in Houston ISD, the state’s largest district at 210,000 students and 280 campuses. Four of the state’s five highest suspension rates belonged to district campuses serving exclusively middle school students: Attucks, Cullen, High School Ahead and Thomas.
HISD administrators refused multiple requests for comment on this article.
In Aldine ISD, which borders HISD in northern Harris County, nine of the district’s 12 middle schools landed in the state’s top 500 suspension rates. Katy Roede, a former middle school teacher who now serves as Aldine ISD’s chief of schools, said the district has sought to reduce student discipline by training teachers more on classroom management, developing relationships with students and being visible in areas where children most frequently misbehave.
“I think we may need to change mindsets but also look at the human capital on our campuses to ensure they know how to do those things,” Roede said. “I think the most powerful thing to address discipline is an incredible teacher, regardless of what programs are in place.”
Raff Saeed, the thirdyear principal of Sheldon ISD’s C.E. King Middle School, said his approach to reducing discipline involves setting clear conduct standards, reinforcing positive behavior and understanding why students are acting out. Despite serving a high at-risk student population, Saeed’s staff issued 7 suspensions per 100 students last school year, well below average for Houston-area middle schools with similar demographics.
“We start by providing a structure with consistency in our school,” Saeed said. “We know what the expectations are, and as a coach or teacher or principal, you correct the kids on the spot. And you let them know we’re doing this because we care about you.”