IL Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders (2023) | Institute of Education Sciences
IL Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders (2023) | Institute of Education Sciences
During the same period, Pepper Ridge Elementary School's 197 white students, who make up 60.4% of the school population, received six suspensions. This translates to an average of roughly one suspension per 33 white students, which is definitively lower than that of multiracial students, making them the best-behaved racial group in the school.
Of the 40 total suspensions at Pepper Ridge Elementary School in the 2021-22 school year, 16 were in-school suspensions and 24 out-of-school suspensions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Pepper Ridge Elementary School reported 40 students - equivalent to 12.3% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 69 students, or 21.3% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
In a broader context, data from the ProPublica database indicates that Black students are suspended at a rate 4.6 times higher than white students in Illinois—surpassing the already high national average rate of 3.9 times.
However, districts’ officials deny a direct link between these statistics and race. Lisa Small, the Superintendent of District 211, argues that these numbers oversimplify the situation. “Decisions are highly individualized and based on the specific behavior and are not well-suited to a simple numerical analysis,” she wrote in a statement. “They are not a statistic to us, but a developing young adult.”
Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for the highest rate of suspensions among Black students relative to their white peers.
| Race | Number of Students | Total Infractions | Infractions Per Student |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic | 20 | 4 | 0.2 |
| Black | 66 | 15 | 0.23 |
| Multiracial | 36 | 13 | 0.36 |
| White | 197 | 6 | 0.03 |
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