Rethinking Schoolwide Discipline and Student Support through the

Lens of the New Federal Guidelines

May 14, 2014

Hosted by Presented by

John Nori

Carol Lieber

Associate Director of Program Development

Rethinking Schoolwide Discipline and Student Support Through the Lens of New Federal Guidelines

Senior Consultant,Educators for Social Responsibility

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New Guidance on School Climate and Discipline

Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide for Improving School

Climate and Discipline US Department of

EducationJanuary 2014

For more on Supportive School Discipline go to:

www.nassp.org/ed-discipline

Outcomes

1. Greater awareness of the issues that have prompted concerns about schoolwide discipline

2. Familiarity with the 3 major principles of new federal guidelines

3. Identification of potholes that sustain ineffective and inequitable discipline and student support policies and practices

4. Recommendations for fixing the potholes

Essential Question

What will it take to ensure that schoolwide discipline and student support policies and practices reduce the use of exclusionary sanctions and increase the use of interventions that support improved behavior?

A Sense of Urgency

What issues and concerns have prompted national attention to schoolwide discipline in public schools?

A Sense of Urgency

What has prompted national attention to schoolwide discipline in public schools?

The overuse of suspension and student removal from classrooms

• Suspension rates have more than doubled since the 1970s.

• In Texas: 6 out of 10 students were suspended between 7th and 12th grades.

• Nationally, more than 30% of secondary schools suspend more than 20% of their total enrollments every year.

A Sense of Urgency

What has prompted national attention to schoolwide discipline in public schools?

The “discretionary” use of suspension

Over 80% of suspensions are “discretionary”, that is, most suspensions are assigned at the discretion of an administrator for violations that are not designated as criminal or seriously violent or dangerous behaviors.

A Sense of Urgency

What has prompted national attention to schoolwide discipline in public schools?The disproportional use of suspension

and student removal• Nationally, students with disabilities12%, but have a suspension

rate of over 20% compared with regular education students.

• African-American students are 3 times more likely to be suspended than white students.

• “Hot spot” schools have suspension rates for Black male students with disabilities as high as 40%.

Concept of Disparate Impact

Practices may be considered discriminatory and illegal if they have a disproportionate, adverse impact on members of a protected group

Disparate impact is unintentional, whereas disparate treatment (overt discrimination) is intentional.

Consequences of Disparate Impact

School alienation and disengagement

Higher dropout rates

Greater loss of instructional time

Unsupervised time during school hours puts students at higher risk

School to prison pipeline

Conditions that Influence Disparate Impact on Different Student Groups

PollIdentify two factors that are most likely to contribute to disparate impact in your school or district.1. Implicit bias and stereotype

2. Low expectations for some groups of students

3. Too much emphasis on punitive measures

4. Suspension is too discretionary

5. Too little attention to early intervention

Bottom Line about Suspension

“There are no data showing that out-of-school suspension or expulsion reduce rates of disruption or improve school climate; indeed, the available data suggest that, if anything, disciplinary removal appears to have negative effects on student outcomes and the learning climate.”

American Psychological Association, 2008

Guiding Principles

Principle 1: Climate and Prevention

Schools that foster positive school climates can help to engage all students in learning by preventing problem behaviors and intervening effectively to support struggling and at-risk students.

Principle 1: Climate and Prevention Pothole

Pothole: Systems break-down across discipline and student support structures (the “silo” effect)

Too often, discipline and student support policies and practices are developed and implemented in different silos by different people resulting in: inconsistent follow-through randomly applied consequences and

interventions an incoherent case management system for

tracking and monitoring students with the most problematic behaviors.

The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Systems break-down across discipline and student support structures (the “silo” effect)

The Fix: All discipline and student support staff work as one interdependent teamsharing data, using the same common language, committing to the same goals and approach to discipline and student support, and engaging in the same set of practices that support personal, social, and academic efficacy and improved student behavior.

A Continuum of Restorative Conferencing

Social Discipline Conference When a specific incident or behavior has harmed others or the community….. What happened? (What was your part in what happened?) What were you thinking and feeling at the time? Who else was affected by this? In what ways? What have been your thoughts/feelings since then? What are you

thinking/feeling now? What are some things you need to do to make it right?

Principle 1: Climate and Prevention Pothole

Pothole: Tier 2 and 3 behavioral interventions are not fully articulated, delivered early enough, delivered consistently enough, or delivered to all students who need them.

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2

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Barriers to the Fix

Principle 1: Climate and Prevention

What are the barriers in your school to putting in place timely, consistent, and effective behavioral interventions?

Principle 1: Climate and PreventionThe Pothole and the Fix

The Pothole: Multiple referral systems and disconnected data bases that don’t provide a holistic picture of a student.

All attendance and disciplinary

dataAll physical,

mental health and risk referrals

Crisis referrals

All academic diagnostic and

assigned referrals

IEPs

The Fix:One Referral System

Principle 1: Climate and PreventionThe Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: No coherent case management system

The Fix: Establish a case management team that meets weekly, reviews data to identify high needs students, determines appropriate interventions, tracks entry, progress, and exit from interventions, and assigns high needs students to “student support coaches”

Guiding Principles

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences Schools that have discipline policies or codes of conduct with clear, appropriate, and consistently applied expectations and consequences will help students improve behavior, increase engagement, and boost achievement.

Principle 2: Expectations and ConsequencesThe Pothole

What potholes might you encounter with these descriptions of behavior violations and associated consequences found in many codes of conduct?

Insubordination warrants a range of consequences from a warning to an extended suspension of more than 10 days

Physical fighting warrants consequences that range from in-school suspension to expulsion

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences

The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Global Language

The Fix: Avoid using the “D” words (DISRESPECTFUL, DISRUPTIVE, DISOBEDIENT, DISORDERLY, DEFIANT) + INSUBORDINATION to describe rule violations or behaviors that are inappropriate, unacceptable, or unskillful. Use precise language that describes observable behavior.

From “disruptive”excessive noise or movement during whole group instruction

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences

The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: No differentiation regarding severity of a behavior violation.

Attack on student with physical injury: Hitting, kicking, or punching another student with no provocation

Attack on student with physical injury: Hitting, kicking, or punching another student with provocation

Attack on student without physical injuryFighting with physical injury: All students involved engage in hitting,

kicking, or punching the other personFighting with no physical injury: All students involved engage in hitting,

kicking, punching the other personMinor physical or verbal aggression or threat without injury: Unwanted

touching, poking, pushing, shoving, physical intimidation, verbal threats, persistent teasing, taunting, or name calling

The Fix: Differentiate similar behaviors by severity of the violation

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences

The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Too wide a range of consequences over multiple levels for the same violation

The Fix: Narrow the range of assigned consequences for a specific violation

5 day suspension and district hearing

3 day suspension

1 to 3 day suspension

1 to 2 day in-school suspension

Incident report, conference with administrator, dean, or student support staff member, assigned intervention during school day

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences

The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: No differentiation for chronic violations of the same behavior

The Fix: Be clear that multiple incidents or chronic violations of the same behavior will warrant more serious and severe consequences and more intensive interventions.

Principle 2: Expectations and ConsequencesThe Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Assigned consequences are often clustered with interventions or they are not linked to specific interventions

The Fix:From the disciplinary side of things, students are assigned a consequence. Consequences signal that a student’s actions are perceived to be inappropriate, unacceptable, or unskillful. For students who engage in serious violations this may include district level sanctions.

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences

The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Assigned consequences are often clustered with “interventions” or are not linked to specific interventions

The Fix: From the student support side of things, students participate in an accountable, restorative intervention that addresses specific issues and behaviors that warrant the assignment of a consequence. The intervention is the part of the process where the student does the work to right oneself, restore one’s good standing, make amends, learn and practice a different behavior, repair the harm, or make it right.

Principle 2: Expectations and Consequences

The Pothole and the Fix

Level 2 Behavior Violation

Assigned Consequence

Aligned Intervention

Persistent confrontational and aggressive arguing, refusal, backtalk

One day in-school suspension during which student receives the right interventions

Student-teacher conference facilitated by student support team memberBehavior replacement interventionMonitoring and feedback

Pothole: Assigned consequences are often clustered with “interventions” or are not linked to specific interventions

The Fix: Aligned consequences and interventions

Guiding Principles

Principle 3: Equity and Continuous Improvement Schools that build staff capacity and continuously evaluate the school’s discipline policies and practices are more likely to ensure fairness and equity and promote achievement for all students.

Principle 3: Equity and Continuous Improvement The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: The data base is not able to capture specific behavior violations beyond global descriptions.

• Over 75% of all discretionary secondary suspensions and office referrals are designated as “insubordination, “classroom disruption”, or “other disruption”.

The Fix: Configure your data base so that specific Level 1, 2, and 3 behaviors can be identified. Consider Level 1 behaviors as a diagnostic for early intervention. Submit an “observation report” rather than removing student from classroom.

Level 1 Behaviors: Use as Diagnostic

Classroom Non-ComplianceFailure to follow directionsNo attempt to do assigned workNon-compliance with classroom rules, proceduresNon-participation in activitiesClassroom Off-Task Behaviors: Loss of focus or disengagementFailure to work silently or independently without bothering othersFailure to manage anger, self-regulate or deal with persistent

discouragement and frustration effectivelyNon-Cooperative BehaviorsInitiating or joining in “side bar” conversations, interrupting, blurting out,

talking out of turn

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Principle 3: Equity and Continuous Improvement The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Most teachers are not fully equipped to address more confrontational and defiant behaviors in ways that depersonalize the situation, defuse the confrontation, address the needs of the student, and provide concrete strategies to help students get back on track.

The Fix: Build capacity of the school staff to more fully understand challenging, high needs students and to address challenging behaviors effectively.

Principle 3: Equity and Continuous Improvement The Pothole and the Fix

Pothole: Reactive responses to inequitable discipline policies and practices

The Fix: Make all discipline data transparent, meet weekly to review the data, and create “red flag” protocols to lift up concerns about:• Overuse of suspension and student removal• Disproportional use of suspension and student removal• Students who are “frequent flyers”• Teachers who are “frequent flyers”

Assessing and Prioritizing Your Needs

PollIdentify one priority action step that will bring you closer to the discipline and student support system you would like to have in place.

1. Establish a more systemic student support/case management system that can determine and deliver more timely interventions2. Use more specific language to describe behavior violations3. Narrow the range of consequences for a specific violation4. Align specific interventions to assigned consequences.5. Build capacity of school staff to work with challenging students.

Questions

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For More Information

Educators for Social Responsibility

www.esrnational.orgCarol Miller Lieber

carolmlieber@esrnational.org

For more on Supportive

School Discipline go to:

www.nassp.org/ed-discipline

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