An Analysis of Color-Blindness in Campus Administrators and Its Impact on Discretionary Discipline

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Fall 2021

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of the correlation between the expression of the color-blind ideology of a campus administrator and the extent to which it impacts the degree to which discipline disproportionality is expressed in practice. The researcher studied three research questions to identify the statistical significance of the correlation that exists between (1) the disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline with Black students and the color-blind ideology of the campus administrators in a district; (2) the color-blind ideology of the campus administrator and the individual’s self-identified race/ethnicity; and (3) the color-blind ideology of the campus administrator and the individual’s years of experience in administration. The instruments used in this study were the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) and the QualtricsXM Statistics Software to collect survey data. The sample included 74 campus administrators from K – 12 schools in a large, suburban North Texas school district. The researcher used both a descriptive-comparative and a correlational research design. Participants responded anonymously to a 25-item online survey. Independent samples t-tests and Pearson correlations were used to test hypotheses. The IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics 27 was used to calculate t-tests and Pearson correlations. The t-test analyses determined that there was no significant correlation between the degree to which discipline disproportionality was observed for Black students and the expression of the color-blind ideology of the administrator. Also, the analyses determined that there is no significant correlation was found between an administrator’s expression of color-blind ideology and the individual’s years of experience in administration. However, the correlation between the administrator's ethnicity and the individual’s expression of color-blind ideology was found to be statistically significant. The findings support the works of van den Berghe (1978), Omi & Winant (2015), and Kendi (2016) relative to a common mindset of individuals of the same ethnicity/race. Implications of the study and recommendations for further research are discussed.

Advisor

Nathan R. Templeton

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Administration and Supervision

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