School suspensions and expulsions in California public schools have dropped dramatically among all racial and ethnic groups over the past five years but a significant gap remains for African-American students, according to new state data released Wednesday.

In the 2016-17 school year, the suspension rate of African-American students in California public schools was 9.8 percent. Still, that rate was significantly lower than it was in 2011-12, when the rate for African-American students was 13.7 percent. The rate is calculated by dividing the total enrollment of students in a particular subgroup by the number of students suspended in that subgroup.

By contrast, the suspension rate for Latino students was 3.7 percent, 3.2 percent for white students, and 1.1 percent for Asian students.

[For more on this story by, Carolyn Jones go to https://edsource.org/2017/susp...rities-remain/589722]