Into DEEP: Pinpointing and Profiling Disciplinary Excellence and Exemplary Performance in Texas Urban Schools

Typically, high disciplinary rates for Black students correspond with poor academic performance. However, is the opposite also true? This study sought to identify and investigate the characteristics of urban educational academic success by geospatially mapping schools in Texas that have assisted Black children toward high academic achievement while limiting their exposure to punitive disciplinary outcomes (suspensions). The study uncovers the geographic distribution of schools exhibiting disciplinary excellence and exemplary performance (DEEP) in academics in the content areas of mathematics, science, and reading for third to eighth grades, and explores the profiles of those schools based on school- and school-level characteristics.