This paper critically evaluates school discipline reform policy and implementation by California in the Oakland Unified School District after the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights investigation. It demonstrates that policy implementation at the school level is equally as important as policy building and reform at the state-and district level. The Oakland Unified School district was subject to many reforms at the district level through change in state-wide legislation, and school board reform after the investigation concluded with several recommendations for the district. This provides a unique opportunity to study policy implementation at the school-level to understand how school environment and discretion may affect reform implementation. As research surrounding the effects of punitive school discipline continue to support alternative discipline practices, many states and school-districts have begun to implement its own reform. However, school discretion on how these policies are implemented call for researchers to focus on the school-level of policy implementation. This thesis is motivated to create an understanding in how policy implementation at the state and district level will differ across schools in the same district, focusing on school environment can influence implementation. / Master of Arts / This paper evaluates policy implementation in a California School District as a school-level. In 2012, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights conducted an investigation in California's Oakland Unified School District on reports of the district subjugating students of minority status to harsher punitive punishment than those of their white peers. The Office for Civil Rights found evidence to support this claim and suggested many disciplines policy and practices reform to the district, which the district began to implement throughout its schools. This paper focuses on reviewing state-wide and district-wide discipline reform by comparing two high schools who experienced a difference in suspensions after reform was implemented. I offer insight into policy implementation by focusing on school environment through mission and vision statements. I perform my analysis through a comparative case study analysis of the two schools as well as content analysis of the state policy and district level policies and practices discussing school discipline. This paper emphasizes that school policy reform at the state and district level is important, however; policy implementation at the school-level ultimately creates change and is affected by school environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115488 |
| Date | 22 June 2023 |
| Creators | Segura Betancourt, Maria Alejandra |
| Contributors | Political Science, Caraccioli, Mauro J., Kitchens, Karin E., Poets, Desirée |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Coverage | Oakland, California, United States |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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