Saturday, June 29, 2019

Analyzing Your School Discipline Data Now . . . to Prepare for the New School Year (Part III)


Conducting “Special Situation Analyses” for Your Hallways, Bathrooms, Buses, Playgrounds, and Cafeteria

[CLICK 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.
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   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). 
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   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.
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   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.
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   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.
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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.”
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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. 

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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.
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   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

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