Placing high school students on different math tracks can lead to more disciplinary outcomes for marginalized students

Authors Edosomwan and Williams used data from the High School Longitudinal Study, 2009-2013 [United States] (ICPSR 36423), a nationally representative, longitudinal study of 9th graders who were followed through their secondary and postsecondary years. The key variables of interest to the authors were the students’ gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and how many times they received an in-school suspension during their junior year of high school in 2011-2012. With this information, Edosomwan and Williams could analyze how being placed in lower versus higher level math classes (referred to as “math tracking”) in 11th grade affected students’ likelihood of receiving an in-school suspension that year, and how suspension rates differed for students based on their race, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. They found that Black students and multiracial students were over-represented in receiving in-school suspensions compared to the overall student population. Girls from several racial/ethnic groups (Black, Latinx, multiracial, white) had higher odds of suspension than boys in the same groups when in lower-level math classes. In fact, for most groups, being enrolled in a non-advanced or lower-level math class increased the odds of suspension more than just the students’ race, gender or income status alone. The authors argue these findings show how math tracking, along with race and gender biases, contribute to disproportionate disciplining of marginalized student groups.