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Much attention has been paid in recent months to the troubling academic achievement gap between white students and students of color at Berkeley High School, but the parallel “discipline gap” at the campus is not being openly addressed. 

That’s one of the conclusion of a report presented to the school board last week by the Diversity Project’s Discipline Committee, which has been examining the issue since September. 

“I think the challenge to the board, to the administration and to this whole community is to make sure that this issue doesn’t die, and that support for these very basic recommendations to be carried out, is provided,” Pedro Noguera, co-director of the Diversity Project and a UC Berkeley professor, said during a presentation at last week’s school board. 

A central theme in the report is the lack of accountability at the high school, which is highly evident in the often dysfunctional discipline system. The group’s research found that “not one teacher” who was interviewed felt there was a “cohesive, directed or shared understanding of discipline” at the school. 

The On-Campus Suspension (OCS) program is used unevenly, and it seems to lack a defined purpose, the report states. And Off-Campus Suspension seems equally ineffective in changing student behavior. 

But the most unsettling finding – though hardly shocking to those who know Berkeley High well – was the over-representation of minority students in the discipline system at the school. During the fall 1998 semester, African-American students comprised 39 percent of the student body but made up 70 percent of the referrals to OCS. Caucasian students were 31 percent of the campus but just 10 percent of the referrals. 

The report made a series of recommendations to begin tackling the apparent inequity in discipline, as well as academic achievement. Those ideas included increased communication on campus, a more clearly defined discipline system, needs assessment to identify how individual students can be assisted, and ongoing professional development for staff. 

The school board was largely receptive to the recommendations made in the report and the analyses provided during the presentation. School Board Director Terry Doran, himself a retired BHS teacher, told the committee members that many teachers and staff have known of the inequity issues for years, but those who have pushed for change have run into roadblocks. 

“There are many people at Berkeley High who want to do things differently, and they see the issues that you’ve raised very clearly, and they’ve been blocked,” he said. “We know that for some people, preserving the status quo preserves their programs that meet the needs of certain students.” 

But Director Shirley Issel, while saying she agreed with much of the committee’s report, took issue with some of the conclusions and recommendations. The academic achievement gap does exist, but it has to be viewed in a broader context, she argued. She cited an in-house report that showed Caucasian, African-American and Latino students performed better, on average, on the SAT-9 tests than their counterparts around the state. 

“We are nowhere near where we need to be,” she said. “But we have to realize that we are doing something right.” 

Issel offered her harshest criticisms against suggestions to create more heterogeneous courses in the freshman CORE program, and to use “equity” as the primary focus for staff development. Instead, equity must be one of several standards by which staff training effectiveness is measured. 

And she objected to “subtle and sometimes not so subtle assumptions that racism lies at the heart of the achievement gap at the high school.” 

Noguera said he was “disturbed” by Issel’s reaction and her assertion that the Diversity Project was accusing anyone of racism. 

“What we’ve tried to do at Berkeley High School is to bring together teachers, students and parents, from across racial groups, to look at these issues without fingerpointing,” he said. “And although it has been uncomfortable at times to ask the tough questions, we have never singled people out, so to hear that tonight, I find insulting.” 

He said Issel’s comments were similar to what he’s heard from other people in Berkeley, who pat themselves on the back because things aren’t as bad here as they are in other places, so they settle for not pursuing change.