In the latest episode of EdTalk, host Alex Granados talks with James Ford, executive director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED).
CREED is releasing two reports examining equity in North Carolina, and content related to them is being released on EducationNC throughout August.
In this episode, Ford talks more about his project, including the impact of race on school discipline.
“Generally speaking, there are about a quarter million suspensions — out-of-school suspensions — during the year studied, and the largest share of that, of course, goes to black students,” Ford says. “What’s interesting about that is not just the larger share, but also when you look at the amount of days that are assigned, it’s disproportionately black kids. So black kids are over-suspended, and the time periods that they serve seem to be especially punitive.”
Editor’s note: James Ford is on contract with the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research from 2017-2020 while he leads this statewide study of equity in our schools. Center staff is supporting Ford’s leadership of the study, has conducted an independent verification of the data, and has edited the reports.