Nudging the Gap: Introduction to the Special Issue “Closing in on Discipline Disproportionality”

This special issue of School Psychology Review, entitled “Closing in on Discipline Disproportionality,” examined promising approaches and critical challenges to closing racial and ethnic gaps in schools' use of exclusionary and punitive discipline practices. In this introductory article, we briefly review the rationale and urgency for a focus on disproportionality in discipline and highlight some of the most salient findings from the five empirical studies in this special issue. We identify directions for the field going forward, with particular attention to measurement dilemmas and structural factors that shape differential disciplinary outcomes. Consistent with the National Association of School Psychologists’ position statement, we emphasize the need to build the science of discipline disparities intervention through more systematic empirical research. Taken together, these new directions are intended to catalyze scientific rigor in the next generation of evidence-based interventions to close the discipline gap.