What Districts Need to do Instead of Suspending (Young) Students: Effective Student, Staff, and Student
Approaches
Today, I am writing this E-Blast
at 30,000 feet as I return from presenting a workshop on "How Teaching
Social Skills in the Classroom Increases Academic Engagement and Reduces
Discipline and Mental Health Problems" at the annual School-based Mental
Health Conference that was held this week in Pittsburgh.
While I will share some
reflections on the conference in two weeks, today I want to focus on a recent Education
Week article. Titled "Minneapolis Superintendent Bans Most Suspensions
for Youngest Students," the article describes how School Superintendent
Bernadeia Johnson has placed an immediate moratorium in her district on
suspending students in prekindergarten through Grade 1 for non-violent
behaviors.
CLICK HERE FOR EDWEEK ARTICLE
Clearly, for the
Minneapolis schools, this decision is related to the fact that the U.S.
Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is investigating the district
due to its "inconsistent (read disproportionate) suspension
practices." But this issue is not new-especially over the past year or
so-as a number of scholarly or investigative reports have (again) noted that nationally:
* Zero
tolerance school discipline policies do not work;
*
Minority students and students with disabilities are disproportionately sent to
the principal's office for "low level" issues like disrespect to
teachers-situations that should be resolved in the classroom by the students,
their teachers, and as appropriate, the students' parents, guardians, or caretakers;
*
Minority students and students with disabilities are disproportionately
suspended from schools-again, often for "offenses" that often do not
rise to the level of needing a suspension;
*
Preschool students are kicked out of school (typically due to behavior) more
often than any other age group attending our nation's schools; and
*
Educative, restorative, culturally- and trauma-sensitive, and other school,
staff, and student interventions have demonstrated their consistent ability to
decrease student misbehavior, while increasing positive school and classroom
climates, prosocial and effective interpersonal interactions, and students'
academic engagement.
While Superintendent
Johnson's decision is a good start, I hope that some additional things have
occurred at the same time in the areas of:
*
Professional development,
* Staff
supervision and support,
* Data-based
problem solving, and
* The
availability of district-employed consultants (or coaches) who have the
expertise to work with classroom teachers-helping them implement needed social,
emotional, and behavioral interventions.
The point is:
If students are not demonstrating
consistently positive and prosocial behavior in the classroom, the teachers--supported,
as needed, by other support professionals--need to determine why this is
happening so that classroom-based instructional or intervention approaches can
be implemented to change the behavior and solve the problem.
If all we do is to
make policy decision to not suspend students without the problem solving
approaches focused on identifying and addressing existing problems, we are not
appropriately serving students, staff, schools, or systems.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Why Do
Students Demonstrate Social, Emotional, or Behavioral Challenges?
When students
demonstrate social, emotional, or behavioral challenges, we need to work
together to figure out why. Sometimes this can be done by an individual
teacher. . . sometimes this is accomplished by a grade-level (or instructional)
team working together. . . and sometimes this requires a school-level
multidisciplinary early intervention team (like a Student Assistance Team, RtI
Team, Student Services Team, or the equivalent).
Critically, though, everyone
in the school needs to be trained in the same effective data-based
problem-solving process (that addresses both academic and behavioral
situations), and this process needs to be integrated into the school's RtI
or Multi-Tiered Services approach. Beyond this, schools need to have
professionals with extensive knowledge in classroom interventions so that
problem analysis results can turn into the right effectively-implemented
interventions.
CLICK HERE FOR A
FREE RTI SCHOOL IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL
(Look at First Entry
on this Page)
Once again, we
first need to understand the underlying reasons for a student's problem BEFORE
we begin implementing instructional or intervention approaches.
Clearly, your doctor always does a
medical analyses of your problem before beginning treatment. Doctors do
not implement the same (Tier 2) interventions for every patient that walks into
their office. If they did that, many patients would still be sick (or worse),
and doctors would either lose patients (figuratively or literally!), and in the
latter situation, they would probably lose their licenses to practice (due to
successful litigation against them).
Some of
the primary reasons why students demonstrate social, emotional, or behavioral
problems in the classroom include:
* They do not
have positive relationships with teachers and/or peers in the school, and/or
the school or classroom climate is negative. . .or negative for them.
* They
are academically frustrated (and often, unsuccessful), and this frustration and
failure is exhibited emotionally, socially, or behaviorally.
* Their
teachers do not have effective classroom management skills, and/or the teachers
at their grade or instructional levels do not have consistent classroom
management approaches.
* They
have not learned how to apply and demonstrate effective interpersonal, social
problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and/or emotional coping
skills to certain (school-based) situations in their lives.
* Meaningful
incentives (to motivate appropriate behavior) or consequences (to respond to
inappropriate behavior, while simultaneously motivating appropriate behavior
the next time) are not consistently present.
* They
are not held accountable for appropriate behavior by, for example, requiring
them (a) to apologize for and correct the results of their inappropriate
behavior; and (b) role play, practice, or demonstrate the appropriate
behavior-after the fact-that they should have done originally.
* Their
behavior is a function of inconsistency-- across people, settings, situations,
or other circumstances. For example, in the face of inconsistency across
different teachers, some students will manipulate the situation or see how much
they can "get away with." When peers or parents reinforce
inappropriate student behavior, students sometimes use this as an excuse, or
they behave inappropriately because they value their peers more than the adults
in the school.
* They
are experiencing extenuating, traumatic, or crisis-related circumstances
outside of school, and they need support (sometimes including mental health) to
stabilize and address these situations so that they can be more successful at
school.
[NOTE that many classroom
teachers have received inadequate training in classroom management during their
university-training, and many schools/districts do not provide systematic and
ongoing in-service training and supervision in this area. This is also true of
administrators. Thus, many educators are not trying to be ineffective in this
area-they can only do what they know to do.]
[NOTE that there are a wide
range of social, emotional, and behavioral interventions-- many that can be
implemented by classroom teachers with the support of special education,
related services, or mental health professionals. However, many of these
professionals have not been trained in these interventions, or their roles do
not include the consultation time needed to work with classroom teachers to
facilitate their implementation.]
SEE THE WEBINAR BELOW
THAT DISCUSSES HOW TO LINK FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT WITH THESE STRATEGIC
INTERVENTIONS
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Why Do Some
School-wide Approaches to Discipline and Behavior Management Not Work?
There are two reasons
why many school-wide approaches to school discipline and classroom management
have not worked across the country.
The first reason is
that the goal for many schools is to decrease or eliminate office discipline
referrals and/or school suspensions, rather than teaching and
reinforcing students' social, emotional, and behavioral self-management and
self-control skills.
The second reason is
that effective, multi-tiered school discipline, classroom management, and
student self-management processes have not been integrated into most district
or schools':
* Annual school planning and
improvement process
* Staffing and resource management
process
* Professional development and
school/staff evaluation process
* School-level Committee and
shared leadership process
* Curriculum and instruction
process
For us, effective
schools have the following primary goals:
1. High levels of academic
engagement and academic achievement for all students.
2. High levels of effective
interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict resolution, and coping
skills/behaviors by all students (and staff).
3. High levels of critical
thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills by all students (and staff).
4. High levels of teacher
confidence- relative to instruction, classroom management, and in helping
students with academic or behavior problems.
5. Consistently effective
instruction and classroom management across all teachers/instructional support
staff.
6. Low levels of classroom
discipline problems, discipline problems that need to involve the Principal, or
discipline problems that require student suspensions or expulsions.
7. High levels of parent support
and involvement in student self-management.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
Clearly, it is great
that districts and schools nationwide are examining and evaluating their
outcomes relative to their academic and social, emotional, and behavioral
services, supports, strategies, and programs for all students. And, I applaud
the Minneapolis School District for recognizing that suspensions are not going
to change the (mis)behavior of their youngest students, and that different
approaches are needed.
As a school
psychologist and a national consultant who has worked with thousands of schools
and districts over the last 30 years, I know first-hand that many of the things
described above DO work and DO NOT cost excessive amounts of
money. As is often said, "We can't work any harder than we are, but we CAN
work smarter."
I hope that some of
the ideas above resonate with you. Meanwhile,
please accept my best wishes as you continue to provide the services and
supports that all of your students need. Have a GREAT week !!!
Best,
Howie
