Conducting “Special Situation Analyses” for Your
Hallways, Bathrooms, Buses, Playgrounds, and Cafeteria
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HERE for the Full Blog Message]
Dear Colleagues,
Reviewing Parts I and II of this Blog Series, and
Introducing Part III
This three-part
Blog Series has been an “after-school special.”
That is, we have discussed the importance of schools and districts synthesizing
and analyzing their end-of-year data so that they can evaluate the
accomplishments of the past year, while strategically planning for the coming
year. And critically, when we say, “the
coming year,” we are talking about the need for schools and districts to
prepare for the very first day of the new school year.
In looking at these
data, we have focused especially on school and district discipline, classroom
management, and student self-management (or SEL/PBSS) outcomes. We have done this from individual student,
peer group, and school setting perspectives.
_ _ _ _ _
In Part I of this
Blog Series, we encouraged schools to evaluate the behavioral outcomes
generated by their Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Positive Behavioral Support
(PBSS), or school safety and discipline systems for the school year that just
ended.
[CLICK HERE for Part I
of this Blog Series]
To do this, we
established a context by reviewing a number of recent national reports that surveyed
educators about students’ behavioral problems in their schools, and other
reports suggesting that bullying (including cyberbullying) is increasing
in our schools nationwide. Some of these
reports focused on Social and Emotional Learning approaches and outcomes, and
some on school safety and bullying.
The Social and
Emotional Learning Reports included the following:
·
Report 1. A recent survey of 800
nationally-representative kindergarten through high school principals completed
by the MCH Strategic Data company and published last month as K-12
Principals’ Assessment of Education.
·
Report 2. A report, Breaking Bad
Behavior, published by research company EAB that validates and extends the
MCH Report above relative to elementary students’ behavioral challenges.
·
Report 3. A report, Teacher and Principal
Perspectives on Social and Emotional Learning in America’s Schools,
published earlier this year by the Rand Corporation. It is based on a Spring, 2018 survey of the
American Educator Panels that involved 15,719 nationally-representative teacher
and school principal respondents. These
educators answered questions about the importance and value of SEL in schools,
how they were promoting and measuring SEL, and how they thought SEL approaches
could be improved.
Based on these
reports and our research and analysis, we discussed six significant flaws in the
SEL framework advocated by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and
Emotional Learning (CASEL).
_ _ _ _ _
The School
Safety and Bullying Reports included the following:
·
Report 1. Published by YouthTruth, Learning
from Student Voice: Bullying Today analyzed survey responses from
students during the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years regarding their
experiences with school climate and safety.
·
Report 2. Published by Comparitech, this
report discussed a survey on student bullying completed by over 1,000 parents.
A primary implication of these Reports was
our strong recommendation that all districts and schools analyze their
discipline, school climate, and classroom management data from this past school
year. . . NOW. . . to determine (a) the current status of their students,
staff, and schools; (b) what was accomplished (or not) in these important
areas; (c) each school’s “return on investment” relative to, for example, their
SEL or PBIS program(s); and (d) what situations need to be address for the
coming school year.
To assist here, we
identified a series of analyses and questions that schools can use to evaluate
the discipline data from their student information or data management systems.
Based on the
results from these analyses, we then recommended that school administrators and
other leaders select one or two targets to address on the first day of the new
school year, and begin the planning and preparation process now.
_ _ _ _ _
In Part II of
this Blog Series, and based on the Reports above, we addressed the
importance of analyzing school discipline data with an eye toward existing
bullying and cyberbullying problems in and outside of our schools.
[CLICK HERE for Part II
of this Blog Series]
To begin this
discussion, we summarized a research-rich article, Studies and Teachers
Nationwide Say School Discipline Reform is Harming Students’ Academic
Achievement and Safety, written by Max Eden, a senior fellow who
specializes in education policy at the Manhattan Institute.
This article reinforces many of the
discipline-focused Blogs that I have written recently and over the years.
The “bottom line” is that policies
rarely decrease school discipline problems or increase school safety or student
engagement and their prosocial interactions. Instead, student behavior and school
discipline problems are functionally changed through integrated,
multi-tiered evidence-based practices.
This has been especially true in the
policy-driven quest to decrease disproportionate discipline actions against
students of color and with disabilities.
Hence, the Part II Blog discusses six national flaws that have slowed
our progress in decreasing not just these disproportionate disciplinary
actions, but the need for discipline actions with all students.
Part II of the Series then described our Special
Situation Analysis process, and applied it both to analyzing school
discipline data and to developing systemic interventions for school bullying
when it is identified. The goal is for
schools to use this process to develop and implement “prevention and early
response” approaches now . . . for immediate roll-out on the first
day of the new school year.
_ _ _ _ _
And now in Part
III of this Series, we will apply the Special Situation Analysis process to
school situations where significant numbers of disciplinary problems are
occurring in the Common School Areas—the hallways, bathrooms, buses,
playgrounds, and cafeteria.
To do this, we will
review our Special Situation Analysis process, and then apply it to schools’
Common Areas and, especially, their cafeteria and buses.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Need for and Components of a Special Situations
Analysis as Applied to Common School Areas
When students
exhibit inappropriate behavior in the Common Areas of a school (e.g., the
hallway, bathroom, buses, playground, or cafeteria), or anti-social behavior
with their peers (e.g., teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, hazing, or
physical aggression/fighting), there are a number of complex individual, small
group, large group, and even environmentally-relevant psychological processes
in play. When there are problems in
these areas, school leaders (and relevant members of their School Discipline
and/or Behavioral Mental Health teams) need to systematically analyze these
processes—in an objective, data-based way—to determine the root causes of the
problems. The results of these analyses
can then be linked to strategic or intensive interventions to decrease and
eliminate the problems— replacing them with appropriate student, staff, and
school interactions and related processes.
Thus, we are
recommending a data-based problem-solving process to comprehensively (and
effectively) address existing, persistent, and/or significant Common School
Area or Peer-Related Antisocial Behavior problems. Given the complexity of the “processes in
play” (as above), we call this data-based process a “Special Situation
Analysis.”
_ _ _ _ _
The Components of a Special Situation Analysis in the
Context of a School’s Common Areas
Given the ecological
nature of behavioral problems in the Common Areas of a school (or as
related to Peer-to-Peer Antisocial interactions), the Special Situation
Analysis must be similarly ecological in nature. This is because the root causes of the
problem could exist in any one (or a combination) of the ecological components.
Thus, like the
detective in a murder case, the analysis begins by (a) identifying and
functionally describing what appear to be the essential problems; and (b)
systematically evaluating the characteristics and interactions within each
of the components.
Then, as the data
and analytic results include or exclude the involvement of specific components,
the interdependencies of the remaining components are re-analyzed to
objectively and validly reveal—as much as possible—the root causes of the
existing problem.
There are six
components in a Special Situation Analysis.
They are: (a) Student Characteristics, Issues, and Factors; (b) Teacher/Staff
Characteristics, Issues, and Factors; (c) Peer Group Characteristics, Issues,
and Factors; (d) Environmental Characteristics, Issues, and Factors— Physical
Plant and Logistics; (e) Incentives and Consequences; and (f) Resources.
[CLICK
HERE for the Full Blog Message with a Full Description of these Components
as Applied to Common School Areas]
Critically, the peer
group is considered a distinct part of the analysis as research has clearly
established the connection between peer group interactions and the safety and
climate of a Common School Area. Thus,
using bullying as an example, the interplay among student aggressors, targets,
and by-standers in a Common School Area problem situation must be analyzed
early on, and then specifically addressed through Special Situation Analysis
results.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A Setting-Specific Special Situation Application: Sample Questions When Analyzing
Inappropriate Behavior in the Cafeteria
Many times, across
my different consulting experiences, an analysis of the discipline data for an
entire school year showed a high percentage of office discipline referrals
coming from the cafeteria. Often, this
was backed-up by my observations in the cafeteria where I saw students running
around without permission, supervising staff not responding or huddling to the
side of the room talking together, and/or a single paraprofessional screaming
into a microphone while trying to maintain “order.”
Given the
description of the Special Situation Analysis components above, below are two or
three sample questions when applying a Special Situation Analysis to a Cafeteria
with large numbers of student behavior concerns.
[CLICK
HERE for the Full Blog Message with All of the Questions in Each Area]
Student Characteristics, Issues, and Factors
·
Are there specific students, groups of students,
and/or grade levels of students who are the primary offenders?
·
Are there specific students (etc.) who
consistently reinforce peers’ inappropriate behavior?
·
Are there specific students (etc.) whose
presence and/or actions result either in less inappropriate behavior by the
primary offenders, and/or more appropriate student behavior in general?
_ _ _ _ _
Teacher/Staff Characteristics, Issues, and Factors
·
Are there specific staff members to whom (differ
groups of) students respond more positively or negatively, and does their
presence in the cafeteria predict when inappropriate behavior occurs or does
not occur, respectively?
·
Do staff consistently teach (in advance), and
prepare or remind students of the cafeteria expectations before they enter the
cafeteria? How (and how quickly,
directly, and consistently) do they reinforce or correct students (if they do)
for appropriate versus inappropriate cafeteria behavior as it occurs?
_ _ _ _ _
Environmental Characteristics, Issues, and Factors--
Physical Plant and Logistics
·
Are there certain areas of the cafeteria where
behavior problems occur or do not occur?
·
Do the behavior problems occur (a) in the
cafeteria line as students wait to get their food; (b) in the serving area; (c)
as the students are leaving the serving area and going to their lunch table;
(d) at the lunch table; (e) when students are throwing their trash away; and/or
(f) when students are exiting the cafeteria?
_ _ _ _ _
Incentives and Consequences
·
What incentives and consequences are motivating
students and staff to demonstrate appropriate behavior and interactions in the
cafeteria?
·
What incentives and consequences are motivating
students and staff to demonstrate inappropriate behavior and interactions in
the cafeteria?
·
Are the incentives and consequences meaningful
and powerful from the perspective of the students demonstrating the
inappropriate behavior?
_ _ _ _ _
Resources and Resource Utilization
Based on the
Special Situation Analysis:
·
What resources (money and finances; facilities
and physical plant; materials and activities; time, scheduling, deployment, and
logistics; people and professional development; technology; and creativity and
hard work) are being used that are partially helping to either prevent or
directly solve the problem?
·
What resources are available to help directly
solve the problem—but are not being used or used effectively?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Another Brief Special Situation Application: Bad Behavior on the Bus
While many of the
questions in the Cafeteria section immediately above can be adapted to
behavioral situations that may be occurring on different buses serving a
school, below is a sample of the critical points (suggesting possible
interventions) that are somewhat unique to this setting.
[CLICK
HERE for the Full Blog Message with All of the Relevant Points in this
Section]
·
Many students do not understand that the school
day begins at their bus-stop in the morning, and ends after they leave the
vicinity of their bus-stop in the afternoon.
·
Many school buses have a wide range of student
age levels on them, and some begin their runs very early in the morning and/or
finish them very late in the afternoon (when students are tired and more prone
to behavioral upsets).
·
Many school buses travel either a significant
distance both to pick up their students and get to school, or their students
are on the bus for an excessive amount of time due to traffic or other delays.
·
On most buses, the only adult present is the bus
driver (that is, except for buses transporting students with disabilities, most
“general education” buses have no on-board assistants or paraprofessionals)— thus,
there is a minimal level of supervision (especially as the bus driver’s most
important job is to drive the bus).
When schools have a
number of buses with problematic student behavior, each bus should be
independently evaluated through a Special Situation Analysis. Based on the results, the school can then
prepare common interventions when the root causes of the inappropriate behavior
are similar across numerous buses. But
more individualized interventions may be needed when different buses have
different root causes to their respective behavioral challenges.
One of the keys to
both the Special Situation Analysis and to the interventions that follow is the
active involvement of the bus drivers.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
In this three-part
Blog Series, we have encouraged schools and districts to synthesize and analyze
their end-of-year data so that they can (a) evaluate the accomplishments of the
past year; while (b) strategically planning for the coming year—beginning on
the very first day of the new year.
In looking at these
data, we have focused especially on school and district discipline, classroom
management, and student self-management (or SEL/PBSS) outcomes. We have done this from individual student,
peer group, and school setting perspectives.
In Part I of this Blog Series we recommended
that schools evaluate their Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Positive Behavioral
Support System (PBSS), or school safety and discipline systems and outcomes from
the school year that is now ending.
Initially, we
created a context to help schools to evaluate (with a goal of improving) their
SEL programs by reviewing a number of recent national reports that surveyed
educators about students’ behavioral problems in their schools, and other
reports suggesting that bullying (including cyberbullying) is increasing
in our schools nationwide.
We then recommended
that schools analyze their discipline data now so that they can
identify large-scale school problems that have consumed significant amounts of
staff time this past year.
To assist here, we
identified a series of analyses and questions that schools can use to evaluate
this year’s discipline data from their student information or data management
systems.
In this Part II of
the Series, we described our Special Situation Analysis process, and
applied it to analyzing and developing systemic interventions for school bullying. The hope is that schools will use this
process to develop and implement “prevention and early response” approaches now
. . . for immediate roll-out on the first day of the new school year.
In the current Part
III of this Series, we applied the Special Situation Analysis process to
the Common Areas of a school—the hallways, bathrooms, buses, playgrounds, and
cafeteria—using bullying in these settings as an embedded example. We then used the Special Situation Analysis
process to address cafeteria and bus situations.
_ _ _ _ _
As previously
discussed, a Special Situation Analysis begins by (a) identifying and
functionally describing what appear to be the essential problems; and (b)
systematically evaluating the characteristics and interactions within each
of the components. Then, as the data
and analytic results include or exclude the involvement of specific components,
the interdependencies of the remaining components are re-analyzed to
objectively and validly reveal—as much as possible—the root causes of the
existing problem.
At this point:
·
High-probability-of-success services, supports,
strategies, and/or interventions—that are directly linked to the interdependent
root causes—are researched and identified;
·
A comprehensive Special Situation Intervention
Action Plan is developed, written, and approved—specifying the goals and
objectives, needed resources and training, people involved and implementation
timelines, and short- and long-term success evaluations;
·
The prerequisite training and resource-acquisition
activities are completed, and the services, supports, strategies, and/or
interventions are implemented;
·
The short-term evaluations are completed, along
with needed modifications, additions, mid-course corrections, and/or other
changes; and
·
The long-term (or summative) evaluations are
completed, and the services, supports, strategies, and/or interventions are
faded out and discontinued, or maintained and generalized.
In going back to
the original theme of this Blog Series, if administrators and school
leaders—who have analyzed their end-of-year discipline data—identify trends or
results that implicate a Common School Area and/or Peer-Related Antisocial
Interactions. . .
We strongly
encourage that they complete a Special Situation Analysis now, that they
develop their Action Plan soon, and that they work toward implementing
that Action Plan on the first day of the new school year.
To accomplish this,
the administrators and school leaders probably need to focus on only one
Special Situation, and they will need to select one where the Special Situation
process has a high probability of being successfully implemented at the
beginning of the school year.
The ultimate
point here is that, without attention and intervention, a “true” Special
Situation at the end of one school year is likely to re-emerge and continue
starting at the beginning of the new year.
Based on
well-analyzed data, the summer is a perfect time to “knock one Special
Situation out of the ballpark”—that is, to move in a strategic and concerted
way to address (if not eliminate) one Special Situation from “re-emerging and
continuing” into the next year.
Hopefully, this can then create the momentum needed for other situations
to also be addressed . . . resulting in a cumulative effect that improves the
safety and climate of the school, and the prosocial interactions of the
students and staff.
_ _ _ _ _
I hope that the information in this Series
has been useful to you. As always, I
look forward to your thoughts and comments.
Please know that, even during the Summer, I
am still available to provide a free hour of telephone consultation to those
who want to discuss their student, school, and/or district needs.
Feel free to contact me at any time if there
is anything that I can do to support your work.
Best,
Howie
