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Cited by 57Education Discipline and InequalityEarly Childhood Education and DevelopmentSchool Choice and Performance

A scalable empathic-mindset intervention reduces group disparities in school suspensions

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Okonofua, Jason A., Goyer, J. Parker, Lindsay, Constance A., Haugabrook, Johnetta, Walton, Gregory M.·2022·Science Advances
DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abj0691PMC PMC8942350
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Abstract

Suspensions remove students from the learning environment at high rates throughout the United States. Policy and theory highlight social groups that face disproportionately high suspension rates—racial-minoritized students, students with a prior suspension, and students with disabilities. We used an active placebo-controlled, longitudinal field experiment ( N teachers = 66, N students = 5822) to test a scalable “empathic-mindset” intervention, a 45- to 70-min online exercise to refocus middle school teachers on understanding and valuing the perspectives of students and on sustaining positive relationships even when students misbehave. In preregistered analyses, this exercise reduced suspension rates especially for Black and Hispanic students, cutting the racial disparity over the school year from 10.6 to 5.9 percentage points, a 45% reduction. Significant reductions were also observed for other groups of concern. Moreover, reductions persisted through the next year when students interacted with different teachers, suggesting that empathic treatment with even one teacher in a critical period can improve students’ trajectories through school.

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  • In evaluating two separate empathetic mindset interventions for teachers, an interaction effect for the intervention condition and prior student suspension was statistically significant, showing benefits for students who had been suspended in the prior year.

    “Another set of studies also demonstrated effects for students with prior suspensions: in evaluating two separate empathetic mindset interventions for teachers with the aim of improving student–teacher relationships, an interaction effect for the intervention condition and prior student suspension was statistically significant showing benefits for students who had been suspended in the prior year (”

    From The Impact of Restorative Practices on the Use of Out-of-School Suspensions: Results from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (2023) · cites this paper as Okonofua et al., 2022

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  • Other studies have also found intervention effects for students with a prior out-of-school suspension history.

    “The finding of intervention effects for those students with a prior history of OSS has been shown by others as well (Glenn et al., 2020; Okonofua et al., 2022).”

    From The Impact of Restorative Practices on the Use of Out-of-School Suspensions: Results from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (2023) · cites this paper as Okonofua et al., 2022

    The Results section ('Additional student subgroups'; page unavailable) reports a significant intervention effect for students with at least one suspension the previous year. It does not distinguish prior out-of-school suspensions from prior in-school suspensions, so it does not establish the effect specifically for students with an OSS history. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cited by

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Authors
Okonofua, J. A., Goyer, J. P., Lindsay, C. A., Haugabrook, J., & Walton, G. M.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Berkeley (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • Multi-Tiered System of Supports, Largo, FL, USA.
Corresponding author
Okonofua, Jason A.
ORCID
Venue
Science Advances
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Published
2022-03-25
Volume
8
Issue
12
Pages
eabj0691-eabj0691
ISSN
2375-2548 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1126/sciadv.abj0691
PMC
PMC8942350
OpenAlex
W4220935676
Cited by
57
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 5
FWCI
27.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Science Advances (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Education Discipline and Inequality
  • Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
  • Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
Keywords
school suspension, racial disparities in discipline, teacher empathy, teacher-student relationship, junior high school students, Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, scalable interventions, online exercises

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