School Discipline Policies and Practices, the Impact of Out-of-School Suspensions, and How to Rethink our Approaches for Greater Student Success
The Dilemma
While the school year
typically begins in many positive ways— relative to student behavior, schools
without effective school-wide discipline approaches and multi-tiered services
and supports begin to see “old patterns” emerge around the middle of
September. When students exhibit “Code
of Conduct” offenses, it is often is necessary to suspend those students for a
period of time.
Numerous national studies over
the past year have reported that many of these students— disproportionately—
are students from minority backgrounds and students with disabilities. With our nation’s schools now majority
minority, this is concerning in and of itself.
But, we will leave that discussion for another day.
For today, we want to pose a
critical question when students need to be suspended (according to the Code of
Conduct):
Will the suspension— while administratively appropriate— result in the
ultimate, desired goal: to decrease and
eliminate future inappropriate student behavior, resulting in an increase of
appropriate behavior?
If the above goal is not met,
then the suspension (while temporarily improving a school’s climate and other
students’ academic engagement due to the absence of the student) has minimal long-term
impact.
What do Superintendents’
Think?
In April 2014, the American Association of
School Administrators (our country’s primary professional association of school
superintendents) and the Children’s Defense Fund conducted a national survey of
500 demographically-representative school superintendents to determine their
district-wide school discipline policies and practices, and the impact and why
their used out-of-school suspensions (OSS).
CLICK HERE FOR SURVEY RESULTS
Below are the highlights (with our comments)
of what they found:
Survey Result. Maintaining
safety and order in the school building was considered the primary purpose of an
OSS; followed by communicating to students, parents, and teachers that the
school is taking disciplinary issues seriously; and removing disruptions so
that other students could learn.
Only 12% of superintendents
identified the primary purpose of the OSS was to discourage future misconduct
and to change future student behavior.
Response. While the
primary purposes above are important, if student disruptions do not
change, student learning continues to be impacted; and students, parents, and
teachers end up feeling that administrators do not have solutions—even though
they are taking discipline problems seriously.
If administrators know that a
suspension, while appropriate, will not change a student’s behavior, they need
to call on their Student Assistance Team (or the equivalent) which should be
staffed with the best academic and behavioral assessment and intervention
professionals in their school or district.
This Team needs to functionally assess why a student is
demonstrating social, emotional, or behavioral problems, and design and
implement effective services, supports, interventions, or programs.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Survey Result. 40% of the
superintendents said that insubordination, defiance, and failure to obey and
disrespect of teachers and staff were the most common OSS infractions. 30% said that fighting was the most common
infraction.
Response. While
insubordination, defiance, and disrespect are problematic, they rarely rise to
a level requiring an OSS. Many school
districts do not have a school-wide accountability system that
identifies how staff will address annoying (Intensity I) versus classroom
disruption (Intensity II) versus antisocial (Intensity III) versus Code of
Conduct (Intensity IV) behaviors. By
connecting research-based responses focused on changing student behavior
with these Intensities of inappropriate behavior, we have successfully
addressed (or prevented) many of the problems above.
When fighting occurs,
administrators could require the students involved (and, perhaps, their
parents) to come to, for example, the district office on the first day of
the suspension so that (a) the fight can be debriefed and analyzed; (b)
preventative strategies can be identified, taught, and practiced in roleplay
scenarios; and (c) other restorative or “action plan” interventions are
organized. Once again, members of the
Student Assistance Team are probably the professionals involved in this
debriefing and intervention process. And
again, the ultimate goal is to eliminate the potential of future fights, and to
increase the students’ ability to get along with each other (or, at least,
co-exist).
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Survey Result. 92% of the
superintendents believed that OSSs had negative consequences in their
districts. 67% indicated that lost class
time was the most significant consequence.
As a result, 82% of the superintendents noted that suspended students
were allowed to make up missed work and receive full credit for that work; 50%
provided suspended students with access to tutoring or other academic
assistance; and 19% reported that suspended students received one-on-one or
small group instruction with a certified teacher during the suspension.
Response. A critical
question here is: “How many students are
behaviorally acting out because of academic frustration?” When students act out due to academic
frustration, they are exhibiting behavioral problems NOT disciplinary
problems. This distinction is
important because an academic intervention has a higher probability changing
these students’ behavior, as opposed to a disciplinary response.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Survey Response. 43% of urban
and 38% of high poverty district superintendents believed that OSSs encouraged
later student disengagement, absenteeism, truancy, and/or dropout rates.
Response. Research and
practice support these beliefs. Many
school districts have decreased their need for OSS, and implemented proactive
and successful alternatives to OSS over the past number of years— through
multi-tiered positive behavioral support systems with embedded school
discipline, classroom management, and student self-management approaches.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Survey. 40% of the superintendents
believed that social skills instruction— focusing on prosocial interpersonal
skills, conflict prevention and resolution skills, social problem-solving
skills, and emotional coping skills would have the greatest impact on reducing
OSSs and improving school climate and school relationships. 38% cited the need for more mental health
supports, counselors, or social workers; and 38% believed that additional
training for teachers and staff was needed.
Response. A 2011
meta-analysis of over 200 studies investigating the impact of social skills
training for all students as part of a kindergarten through high school
“Health, Mental Health, and Wellness” program increased (a) positive school
climates and safety; (b) positive student and staff relationships and
interactions; (c) students’ social, emotional, and behavioral self-management
and adjustment; and (d) students’ academic engagement and achievement. These approaches also decrease classroom
discipline problems, and the need for office discipline referrals, and OSSs.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary and Update. There
are approaches to address the concerns of school superintendents across
the country relative to student discipline, disproportionality, and school
suspensions. Over the past month, we
have heard from schools across the country that we have worked with— some for
over 10 years— that their test scores are up, their office discipline referrals
are down, their schools are safer and more positive, and that they have
sustained these successes over a number of years because we have helped them
build the school-wide skills and capacity to do this on their own.
As many of you know, I spent
much of last month in Montana working with an elementary through high school
day and residential treatment facility for emotionally and behaviorally
disabled students. Significantly, I
spent the first two days of their school year on-site to help implement
the strategies and supports that we developed during our before-school
professional development days.
Based on data and debriefing
discussions and surveys, the school year began with more student engagement,
more positive interactions in the classrooms and common school areas
(especially the hallways, cafeteria, and playground), there were virtually no
incidents requiring the Time-out rooms, and no physical restraints
reported. Overall, the staff felt more
empowered and confident of their ability to succeed with these challenging
students, and they demonstrated an exceptional level of dedication and
independence in implementing the approaches that were planned and taught.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I hope that
your new school year has had a very successful start. If there is
anything I can do to help you move "to the next level of excellence,"
please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best,
Howie
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