Taking
a Hard Look at Our Practices, Our Interactions, and Ourselves
Dear Colleagues,
Introduction: Back to the Future
Almost immediately
after writing Part I of this Blog series a few weeks ago, two additional reports
(see below) were published providing additional, persistent documentation
regarding how African-American students and Students with Disabilities (SWD)
continue to be discriminated against in our schools relative to discipline,
office discipline referrals, and school suspensions.
This Blog Part
II does the following:
* Summarizes the
critical points from Part I of this series; and
* Describes the
information provided in the two new recent reports on disproportionality with
minority students and SWDs. These
reports are:
U.S. Office of
Civil Rights’ School Climate and Safety brief based on its 2015-16 Civil
Rights Data Collection data base
Disabling
Punishment: The Need for Remedies to the Disparate Loss of Instruction
Experienced by Black Students with Disabilities from the Center for Civil
Rights Remedies at the UCLA Civil Rights Project, and the Houston Institute for
Race and Justice
_ _ _ _ _
Taking the two
reports above together, they provide data from schools across the country
demonstrating that, once again, African-American and SWDs are
disproportionately missing school—and needed academic instruction—when compared
with students from other racial and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, African-American SWDs are
additionally missing disproportionately more time than their white SWD peers.
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Why
Disproportionality Outcomes Haven’t Changed
In Blog Part I, we reviewed
six primary flaws that explain why most of the disproportionality
“efforts” to date have not worked:
Flaw #1. Legislatures (and other “leaders”) are trying
to change practices through policies.
Flaw #2. State Departments of Education (and other
“leaders”) are promoting one-size-fits-all programs with “scientific”
foundations that do not exist or are flawed.
Flaw #3. Districts and schools are implementing
disproportionality “solutions” (Frameworks) that target conceptual constructs
rather than teaching social, emotional, and behavioral skills.
Flaw #4.
Districts and Schools are not recognizing that Classroom Management and Teacher
Training, Supervision, and Evaluation are Keys to Decreasing
Disproportionality.
Flaw #5. Schools and Staff are trying to motivate
students to change their behavior when they have not learned, mastered, or
cannot apply the social, emotional, and behavioral skills needed to succeed.
Flaw #6. Districts, Schools, and Staff do not have the
knowledge, skills, and resources needed to implement the multi-tiered
(prevention, strategic intervention, intensive need/crisis management) social,
emotional, and/or behavioral services, supports, and interventions needed by
students.
[CLICK
HERE for Blog Part I]
By understanding
these flaws, districts and schools can evaluate their current effective school
and schooling, and school discipline and classroom management practices—applying
them to students from minority backgrounds and students with disabilities.
The ultimate
point here is this:
During the past ten-plus years of trying to
systemically decrease disproportionality in schools, we have not
comprehensively and objectively identified the root causes of the students’
challenging behaviors, and we have not linked these root causes to
strategically-applied multi-tiered science-to-practice strategies and
interventions that are effectively and equitably used by teachers and
administrators.
Moreover, we
have not comprehensively and objectively identified and addressed the root
causes of staff members’ interactions and reactions with
African-American students, boys, and students with disabilities. . . reactions
that, at times, are the reasons for some disproportionate Office Discipline
Referrals (when compared with the other groups in the Figures above).
And, we have
not comprehensively and objectively identified and addressed the root causes of
administrators’ disproportionate decisions with these students as they
relate to suspensions, expulsions, law enforcement involvement, and referrals
to alternative school programs.
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Solving the
Disproportionality Dilemma
In this Blog
message, we discuss the following:
In order to
establish effective, multi-tiered systems that address disproportionality, we
need to strategically implement effective school discipline, classroom
management, and student self-management systems, strategies, and (as needed) strategic
and intensive interventions.
The ultimate
goal here, for students from minority backgrounds and SWDs (although the
goal is the same for all students), is for these students to learn,
master, and be able to apply—from preschool through high school—social,
emotional, and behavioral self-management skills.
In order to attain
the goal of helping these (and all) students develop effective interpersonal,
social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional
control and coping skills, five interdependent science-to-practice components
are needed. Moreover, as some students
need more strategic and/or intensive services, supports, strategies, or
interventions to attain the “ultimate goal,” these components must be available
along a multi-tiered continuum.
The five
interdependent components (see the Figure below) needed to help minority and
SWDs to realize social, emotional, and behavioral self-management are:
* Positive
Relationships and School/Classroom Climate
* Positive Behavioral Expectations and Skills Instruction
* Student Motivation and Accountability
* Consistency
* Implementation and Application Across All Settings and All Peer Groups
* Positive Behavioral Expectations and Skills Instruction
* Student Motivation and Accountability
* Consistency
* Implementation and Application Across All Settings and All Peer Groups
The remainder of
the Blog describes these components in detail as related to minority students,
SWDs, and the goal of decreasing or eliminating disproportionate office referrals
and school suspensions.
Significantly, the
discussion includes the development and implementation of a classroom
motivation and accountability system that is anchored by a Behavioral Matrix.
Every Behavioral
Matrix has components that address appropriate versus inappropriate behavior,
respectively. The first two parts of the
Matrix specify (a) the behavioral expectations in the classroom connected (b) with
positive responses, motivating incentives, and periodic rewards.
The third and
fourth parts identify four progressive “Intensity Levels” of inappropriate
behavior, connected with corresponding corrective responses, in and
out-of-classroom consequences, and administrative actions. These components make students aware of how
inappropriate behavior will be addressed when it occurs—thereby (a) motivating
student to avoid these responses by demonstrating appropriate behavior, or (b)
preparing students for the consequences or administrative responses if they
choose to demonstrate inappropriate behavior.
Critically, when
students and staff are taught and begin to internalize the Behavioral Matrix
and its processes, student motivation and self-management increases, as
does effective classroom management and teacher consistency.
Relative to disproportionality,
when teachers consistently use the Intensity I, II, and III areas of the Matrix
for all students, disproportionality is decreased or eliminated. Often, this occurs because the Matrix specifically
discriminates between annoying (Intensity I) and disruptive behavior in the classroom
(Intensity II)—explicitly the identifying different responses that are differentially
appropriate for them.
When Administrators
additionally hold teachers accountable for using the Matrix appropriately and consistently
for all students, once again, disproportionality is effectively addressed.
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Summary
While they are
important in reminding us that we have not successfully addressed
disproportionality in our schools nationwide, and while they hold us
continually accountable, we do not need to spend most of our time more reading
reports documenting this problem.
Instead, we need to
do something functionally, systemically, and substantively about the
problem.
This Blog reviews
the science-to-practice components that have successfully addressed
disproportionality in the thousands of schools we have worked in across the
country.
With our partner
schools, staff, and students, we have been successful because we have analyzed
and addressed the underlying student- and staff-focused reasons for the problem—while
implementing multi-tiered disciplinary and student service approaches along a
prevention, strategic intervention, and intensive need continuum.
Please read the
entire Blog. What do you think?
