McIntosh, KentAustin, Sean2022-10-042022-10-042022-10-04https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27637This study identified the discipline decision situations that contribute most to racial discipline disparities from a sample of 992 schools across the U.S. Next, latent profile analysis was used to identify distinct patterns of VDPs across schools, and then membership of schools in these profiles was predicted by school characteristics. Additionally, the strongest VDP in each school was directly compared to situations with the highest rates of ODRs to identify the extent of agreement with overall school discipline patterns. Subjective behaviors (e.g., defiance, disruption) in classrooms throughout the day were found to be the decision situations comprising the most common VDPs within school, with ODRs for physical aggression contributing notably to disparities among the top ten VDPs. Eleven distinct latent profiles of VDPs were identified among schools in the sample, with school characteristics having limited predictive effects. Last, there was moderate agreement between situations with the most referrals and those with the strongest racial disparities, with 63% of schools in the sample having VDPs that identical to their situations with most referrals. In the absence of prescriptive analysis of their own school data, the results of this study provide school leaders and intervention researchers with more precise, promising targets for intervention to increase educational equity.en-USAll Rights Reserved.discipline gapdisproportionalityeducationracial disparityElectronic Thesis or Dissertation