Racial gap growing in middle schools.

• Position: Student Suspensions - Brief article

Middle schools across the country are suspending children with alarming frequency, particularly in some large urban districts, where one-third or more of their black male students are suspended in a given year, according to a study by researchers Daniel J. Losen of the Civil Rights Project and Russell Skiba, director of the Equity Project, and distributed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Ala.

The study found that African-Americans are suspended far more frequently than white children, causing them to miss valuable class time during a crucial period in their academic and social development. In a national sample of more than 9,000 middle schools, 28,3% of black males, on average, were suspended at least once during a school year, nearly three times the rate for whites. Black females (18%) also were suspended more than white females (four percent). For all students in the schools examined, the suspension...