We can’t fix that”: Deficit thinking and the exoneration of educator responsibility for teaching students placed at a disciplinary alternative school

The increased use of exclusionary discipline over the past four decades has included educators sending students to involuntary disciplinary alternative schools. Reasons for sending students often include infractions that are subjectively defined by educators and nonviolent in nature, suggesting that educators' beliefs about students and their behaviors play an important role in shaping these students' trajectories. Using Valencia's (2010) deficit-thinking framework, this qualitative study of 29 educators and nine students in one school district in the Southeast examines the role that deficit thinking plays in shaping the educational experiences of students who had been placed at an alternative school. Findings suggest that both educators and students blame students' individual traits and decisions for their plights. Even when institutional barriers to success, such as racism, are identified, individuals stop short of advocating for changes that they themselves could enact. Instead, deficit thinking justifies inaction and students' struggles.