Using Data to Build Safety, Belonging, and Accountability
BELONG Partners school Data Teams bring together a representative group of educators and administrators to share leadership and responsibility for school climate. These teams meet regularly to review discipline and climate data through a trauma-responsive, equity-centered lens.
Rather than focusing on individual incidents in isolation, Data Teams look for patterns—patterns that reveal how systems are functioning, where adult and student skills may be lagging, and where school responses may be causing unintended harm.
When day-to-day challenges arise in classrooms, hallways, or common spaces, data helps place those moments in a broader context. Patterns in referrals, exclusions, and responses often point to upstream issues in school processes, policies, practices, and adult mindsets. Data Teams use this insight to ask different questions, shift practice, and strengthen relationships across the school community.
Seeing the Pattern: A Classroom Wake-Up Call
Ms. Thompson’s 4th grade classroom illustrates the kind of insight that can surface when Data Teams collect and analyze discipline data. When she first reviewed her disciplinary referral data with her school team, she was shocked: every student she had referred to the principal’s office was a Black girl.
“When I saw that, it was a wake-up call. I had to take a hard look at myself. Growing up in my household, there were very clear rules. We did not raise our voices to adults. We were to comply with directions without question. That was so deeply ingrained in me that it never occurred to me there could be another way of communicating.”
As Ms. Thompson sat with the data, she began to recognize how her early experiences shaped her expectations in the classroom.
“I figured out that I was the problem. What I was labeling as disrespect really was not actually disrespect. I was interpreting behavior through a biased lens, and I was getting it wrong. They were being themselves. Seeing the data helped me wake up.”
With support from her colleagues on the Data Team, Ms. Thompson began practicing new ways of responding. She named her emotions in front of students, took breaks to regulate herself when she felt overwhelmed, and worked intentionally to build trust and connection in her classroom.
“Sometimes I still get mad,” she said, “But now I tell my class I need a minute to calm down. I am trying to walk the talk.”
Disproportionate Discipline Is a Systemic Issue
What happened in Ms. Thompson’s classroom is not unusual.
A New York Times analysis on disciplinary disproportionality, “A Battle for the Soul of Black Girls,” found that Black girls are:
- more than five times more likely than White girls to be suspended at least once
- seven times more likely to receive multiple out-of-school suspensions
- three times more likely to be referred to law enforcement
Drawing on data from the U.S. Department of Education, the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, and the American Civil Liberties Union, the article centers the voices of scholars and advocates including Monique W. Morris, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and former Iowa City Council Member LaTasha DeLoach.
Their work, alongside the lived experiences of students and families, highlights not only the causes of disparate discipline practices, but also the devastating consequences of educational disruption, loss of opportunity, criminalization, and profound harm to young people’s sense of worth and safety. University of Georgia education professor Bettina L. Love names this harm “spirit murdering.”
Why Data Teams Matter
BELONG Partners believes that meaningful change requires more than new strategies in individual classrooms. Educators need shared frameworks, practical tools, and ongoing support. Just as importantly, schools must look at the whole system, because what happens on the bus, in the front office, in the lunchroom, and during school day transitions matters as much as what happens during classroom instruction.
Data Teams make this possible by creating structured spaces where adults can reflect honestly, learn together, and take collective responsibility for outcomes. When every adult in a school community sees themselves as part of the solution, schools move closer to becoming places where all students experience safety, belonging, and significance.
When schools start to work with BELONG Partners, sometimes they assume the focus will be on ‘fixing students’. Through regular data reflection and shared leadership, Data Teams support a different shift. Adults begin to see how systems, expectations, and responses shape student behavior—and where changes can create more supportive conditions for learning.
When adults are supported, and grow their own skills, students can be engaged as collaborators. When leaders commit to aligning policies with their values, schools move toward discipline practices that build safety, belonging, and accountability for everyone.
To learn more about the work of BELONG Partners or to inquire how we might support your family, classroom, school or district, please contact us here.