Perceptions of middle school disciplinary agents related to discipline and out -of -school suspensions

This dissertation represents an investigation beyond the quantitative discipline data from the urban school district and analyzes the disciplinary agents' perceptions of how they make decisions when issuing discipline in a diverse urban school district. Bolman and Deal's theoretical perspectives on decision making within organizations was used to address the decision-making process of the disciplinary agents. Eight middle school disciplinary agents were interviewed. The data suggested that the level of experience of the disciplinary agent influences the disciplinary practices including out-of-school suspensions (OSS).;The majority of the middle schools present in the study had a higher percentage of out-of-school suspensions (OSS) for minority students than the percentage of minority students within the school. The majority of the middle school disciplinary agents also perceived decision making within the symbolic frame in their focus on considering the importance of the school's culture. The present study showed a correlation between Black student population and low income population and OSS rates.