welcome designing positive school- wide discipline plans randy sprick, ph.d
TRANSCRIPT
The most popular question at _____High School this month won’t be “Who are taking to the prom?” or “What are you wearing?” The most pressing question will be, “Which prom are you going to?”
Irked by a school rule that bars many of their classmates from the school-sponsored prom, a group of students is planning an alternative prom to compete with the official prom on April 24th.
High school principal Buddy ____, to encourage classroom attendance, decreed that students who collected eight absences between November 10 and March 31, excused or not , can’t attend the prom.
That didn’t sit well with seniors Ian ___ and Peter ____, who launched the alternative prom idea with the help of friends.
“It was a joke at first, “ said Ian, 17.
“Then we just said, ‘Let’s do it. They can’t stop us,’” added Peter, 18,
“We’re teenagers with time.”
0
20
40
60
80
100
1900U.S. Dept. of
Education
Percent
1946U.S. Dept. of
Education
2000Manhattan Institute
Graduation Rates??
6%
48%
71%
13
Variables:
There are five variables that staff can manipulate to increase the chances that students will behave in a safe and civil manner.
• Structure/organize all school settings for success.
• Teach students how to behave responsibly in those settings.
• Observe student behavior (supervise!).
• Interact positively with students.
• Correct calmly, consistently and immediately in the setting in which the infraction occurred.
Many schools depend too much on punitive consequences
• Punitive consequences have inherent and inescapable drawbacks including, but not limited to:• escape/avoidance• fear• may become neutral• may become reinforcing• can set a negative climate
The Improvement Cycle:
Review
Prioritize
ReviseAdopt
Implement
SurveysObservationsDisc. ReferralInjury reportsFocus groups
Surveys:Middle School Student Survey Responses % Agree
6th 7th 8th
Students feel safebefore school
84% 78% 86%
Students feel safe inthe cafeteria
81% 74% 92%
Students feel safeoutside at noon
78% 62% 94%
Students feel safe inthe halls
93% 77% 95%
Students feel safeafter school
84% 71% 86%
Disciplinary Referrals
Trends and patterns:• Type of offense• Location• Month or week• Day of the week• Time of the day• Referring staff
Structure/organize all school settings for success. For example: Ending Routines1
QuickTime™ and aDV - NTSC decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Structure organize all school settings for success. For example:
• Physical arrangements
• Scheduling issues
• Organizational patterns
• Routines and procedures
• Expectations for students
• Expectations for staff
1
Teach students how to behave responsibly in those settings. For example:
• Lessons on classroom expectations, routines and policies
• Lessons on common area expectations, routines and policies
• Lessons on essential behaviors such as respect, bullying prevention, school pride, and possibly even keeping things neat
2
Teach students how to behave responsibly in those settings. For example:
• Lessons on classroom expectations, routines and policies
• Lessons on common area expectations, routines and policies
• Lessons on essential behaviors such as respect, bullying prevention, school pride, and possibly even keeping things neat
2
Teach students how to behave responsibly in those settings. For example:
• Lessons on classroom expectations, routines and policies
• Lessons on common area expectations, routines and policies
• Lessons on essential behaviors such as respect, bullying prevention, school pride, and possibly even keeping things neat
• Coaching provides a great model of teaching, and reteaching as needed.
• Coaching also provides a great model of inspirational leadership.
2
Observe student behavior (supervise!).
• Without monitoring, even responsible adults will push the limits.
• In the classroom, this involves circulating and scanning.• In the common areas, this involves organizing
supervision to insure that:– a sufficient number of adults are present.– friendly, respectful behavior is modeled.– the adults are coordinating with and supporting each
other.– students receive consistent information on what is
acceptable and not acceptable.
3
Observe student behavior (supervise!)--Consistently.
QuickTime™ and aDV - NTSC decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Interact positively with students. This involves three different skills.
• A. Interact in a welcoming manner with every student.– Say hello, use students’ names– Show an interest in students—listen, converse.
• B. Provide age appropriate, non-embarrassing positive feedback.
4
• C. Strive to interact more frequently with every student when s/he is engaged in positive behavior than when s/he is engaged in negative behavior.– Some students are starved for attention.– What you pay the most attention to is what will
occur more frequently in the future.– Strive for at least 3:1 positive to negative ratios.
Positively interact with students. This involves three different skills.4
Correct irresponsible behavior calmly, consistently and immediately in the setting in which the infraction occurred.
– Some schools may implement a 3-Level System for responding to misbehavior.
5