| Inspired by the mighty Masai warriors, Rev. Dr. Patrick T. O'Neill (p. 2) delivered a sermon centered around the traditional Masai greeting, "Kasserian Ingera (And how are the children)?" This study uses Kasserian Ingera as the primary question and attempts to shed light on the relationship between literacy and discipline as measured by out-of-school suspensions, and how this impacts African American students' success. A binary logistic regression found reading performance is statistically significant and highly correlated with suspensions for African American middle school males, particularly at third and eighth grade, but does not serve as an adequate predictor of suspension. Essentially, the odds of being suspended are relatively equal for African American middle school male students of all reading levels at each of these grade levels. SES, however, does predict suspensions, with students in the highest economic category least at risk for suspension, and all levels below the highest bracket are at greater risk for suspension than the highest income bracket. In general, poorer students are at greater risk for suspension. |
