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Schools across the country are grappling with vocal resistance to educational equity efforts, while disparities, including racial disproportionality in school discipline, persist. In this research-practice-partnership project, Adai A. Tefera, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Ashlee Sjogren, and David Naff learned of the ways educators and leaders across three distinct schools adopted and engaged in widespread discipline interventions and practices that often failed to consider race, culture, and context--issues central to racial disproportionality in discipline. To counter these race-evasive interventions and practices, they offer recommendations for leaders, educators, and students to engage in race-conscious discipline to advance more just school policies and practices.

Although metal detectors, guards, and law enforcement officers are intended to protect students and maintain a safe educational environment, the actual effectiveness of such measures is unclear, especially when it comes to protecting Black students. Charles Bell interviewed Black students from urban and suburban schools across Michigan and learned that they did not feel safe at school. The absence of reliable safety measures at school leads students to rely on a "code" that provides protection in school by encouraging students to fight to demonstrate their toughness, win respect, and form alliances to ensure group safety. Among other things, the code of the school transforms suspension into a status symbol that undermines school authority, potentially increases school violence, and leads to the criminalization of Black students.

Schools across the United States use abeyance agreements as an alternative to suspension or expulsion, yet little is known about them. These agreements allow students to avoid or reduce suspensions or expulsions, if they meet the terms of the agreement and waive certain due process rights. David Perrodin argues that these agreements enable school districts to circumvent requirements to report disciplinary data, a requirement intended to ensure schools' disciplinary practices are fair and nondiscriminatory. These agreements appear to give students on the brink of suspension a second chance, but the terms are sometimes difficult to follow, and once the terms are broken, students may be subject to suspension without due process. They also bring disciplinary investigations to a quick close, sometimes without a clear understanding of the root causes of the misbehavior. And the lack of data about abeyance agreements means that authorities lose information that is useful in identifying potential safety threats or uncovering schools' violations of students' rights. Perrodin argues for the elimination of abeyance agreements for school discipline or for more standardized processes that can be tracked and that do not interfere with students' rights.

A school cannot be "good" unless it is good for all students -- including those with disabilities. In the 2018-19 school year, 14% of students in U.S. public schools received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, yet effective inclusion of students with disabilities is too often an afterthought. Lauren Morando Rhim describes how good schools recognize and embrace the unique learning needs of students with disabilities, creating an environment in which all students can thrive.

The 2019 PDK Poll of the Public's Attitude Toward the Public Schools finds that half of public school teachers have considered leaving the profession in the past year, and majorities say that, given the opportunity, they'd vote to strike, an action that large majorities of parents and the public say they'd support. In other results, Americans say that public schools need to be better funded, that they should require students to study civics and offer Bible classes as electives, and the mediation should be used more than detention and suspension to deal with misbehaving students.

Many school practitioners think of poverty as a kind of "culture," characterized by dysfunctional behaviors that can only be corrected by imposing harsh discipline on students. Further, beliefs about poverty are often used to justify racial disparities in disciplinary referrals, achievement, and enrollment in gifted, AP, and honors courses, as well as to justify harsh punishments for "disobedience" or "disorderly conduct" or "disrespect." Edward Fergus suggests that educators learn to understand their blind spots related to race and culture and to seek out feedback on the degree to which members of the school community experience bias.

School dress codes have been making news as students speak out about the ways the standards appear to them to be unfair, particularly to girls and Black males. Girls' clothing choices are singled out for being overly revealing and a distraction to boys, while Black males' choices are perceived as being associated with criminality. The authors surveyed students and interviewed teachers at a midwestern high school to better understand their perspectives on dress code enforcement. The survey found that Black and multiracial students were disproportionately likely to be "coded" (spoken to by a school adult) or disciplined for dress code violations.

Historically, public schools have often used shaming techniques to discipline students, even though researchers have found shaming to be not just an ineffective means of curtailing misbehavior, but, more important, psychologically harmful to children. The author reviewed policy documents from nine leading charter management organizations and found that they provide official support for specific disciplinary practices that entail shaming.

Expectations for parent involvement in their children's education have risen dramatically over the last 20 years. The demands now placed on parents to evaluate and select educational options for their children, to act as advocates for their children, and to support increasingly demanding academic standards have never been greater. Strong partnerships between home and school can increase opportunities for students. Understanding the nature of these significant changes and how parents may be affected by them is a critical first step.

Meeting the mental health needs of black children will take more than just increasing access to mental health services and early identification. It also will require a critical evaluation of the practices and models being used to diagnose and treat mental health concerns. Frameworks have been established that use a positive, strengths-based, culturally appropriate approach in working with black children and adolescents. These models recognize that while black youth go through the same developmental processes as nonblack youth (e.g., puberty, identity, and maturation), culture and context play a unique role in their lives. School-based mental health clinics, wellness centers, and using peers as first responders are all proven solutions to help improve the mental health of not only black students but all students.

A California high school develops a Student Justice Panel to hear student concerns about violations of the student code, providing students with a way to not just have a voice but to effect change in how students are disciplined. Restorative justice gives students a feeling of fairness and responsibility for appropriate behavior. Restorative justice shifts the power dynamic to enable students to not just have a voice but to effect change.

Schools across the country are changing how they discipline students by implementing research- and evidence-based disciplinary practices that have yielded positive results for schools and students. These disciplinary practices--known as Restorative Justice, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and social and emotional learning--largely aim to keep students in the classroom and modify student behavior by equipping students with the knowledge and support systems to address the root causes of misbehavior.

The author tells how he employed leadership skills to help turn around a failing school loaded with at-risk students. Dayton's Bluff Elementary School was one of the worst in St. Paul when Von Sheppard took over as principal in 2001. Changing the staff and attitudes at the largely low-income, minority majority school in a tough neighborhood helped raise achievement levels.

Unsupported fears of youth violence in schools has led to an expansion of school-based policing and zero tolerance discipline. The historical reality is that America's public schools are very safe, even when located in high crime neighborhoods. Yet, school discipline is becoming increasingly punitive, moving from the schoolhouse to the courthouse. This is apparent in Texas, where a multiyear study has determined that schools' discretionary decisions to suspend, expel and/or criminalize student misbehavior contribute to student push out, dropout, and what has been described by researchers as the school-to-prison pipeline.

What we're thinking about behaviorally challenging students and what we're doing to them requires a fresh look. When schools believe that parental discipline explains a child's misbehavior, educators are less likely to consider different explanations for the misbehavior and the full range of interventions that could be implemented at school. And when psychiatric diagnoses get involved in school behavior issues, educators and others tend to pathologize kids, implying that the "problem" resides within the child and that it's the child who needs fixing. Behaviorally challenging students are lacking crucial developmental skills. When school discipline programs focus on teaching lagging skills and solving problems collaboratively, they rely a lot less on incentive-based interventions and punitive procedures such as detention, suspension, and expulsion.

One of the most important strategies for stopping school decline is recognizing its signs early on and promptly applying appropriate interventions. In this article, the author identifies 11 indicators of school decline that are associated with inadequate and inappropriate responses to the challenges of budget cuts, state and federal mandates, loss of key personnel, and an influx of at-risk students. These are: (1) Undifferentiated assistance; (2) Inadequate monitoring of progress; (3) Unadjusted daily schedule; (4) Alignment problems; (5) Ineffective staff development; (6) Lost focus; (7) Lack of leadership; (8) Hasty hiring; (9) Increased class size; (10) Overreliance on untrained helpers; and (11) More rules and harsher punishments. (Contains 6 notes.)

Although schools are places for learning and growth, they are also places where students engage in alcohol and drug use. This study showed that most teachers were aware of drugs in their schools, but did not regard drug use as an interference in their own classrooms. Many teachers were knowledgeable about their schools' drug policy, but did not feel they were effective. Further, many teachers were reluctant to punish students for drug use because they feared wrongly accusing a student and students' reactions.

Describes positive aspects of Denmark's "class teacher" system wherein the same group of students, evenly divided by sex, remain together with the same teacher from grades 1 through 9. Includes description of testing, school and classroom discipline, and group work. Compares Danish schools with American schools. (PKP)

Describes corporate-derived teaching strategy called lesson study wherein teachers work to develop lessons, observe each other teaching lessons to see how they work, and then suggest lesson refinements. Provides examples of corporate change efforts (one successful, one not) and implications thereof for education. Evaluates two lesson-study projects. Draws conclusions about lesson study in education. (Contains 14 references.) (PKP)

Presents several questions and answers about small high schools based on Public Agenda (a nonprofit research organization in New York City) survey of 920 public high school teachers and 801 parents of students enrolled in public high schools. Discusses community issues related to reducing school size. (PKP)

Describes how one elementary school's adoption of a character-education program significantly reduced student discipline problems. (PKP)

High school English teacher shares lessons she learned about classroom management and discipline. Includes copy of memo given to students on first day of class that establishes classroom expectations, procedures, rules, and policies. (PKP)

Educator violence against students (verbal and physical assaults and the undermining of students' constitutional rights) erodes rather than enhances school safety. Unnecessarily harsh disciplinary practices create a violence-prone climate mirroring U.S. society--the most retributive of Western nations. Democratic classroom practices can help counter youth demonization. (MLH)

Judicious Discipline is a comprehensive, democratic classroom-management approach based on constitutional principles that balance personal rights against social needs. After rights and responsibilities are introduced, students learn to govern their own behavior by assessing their actions in terms of time, place, and manner. Class meetings help resolve conflicts. (Contains 10 references.) (MLH)

Educators should banish the specter of African-American children as high-risk, budding disasters and closely examine these children's schooling environment. Black children of all incomes are schooled in highly segregated settings, due to residential segregation. Exposure to health hazards (lead-based paint) and corporal punishment are serious problems. (Contains 33 references.) (MLH)

Teachers consistently viewed public schools more positively than did the general public, assigning them their highest grades ever. Teachers believe parents' lack of support and interest are schools' greatest problem; the public chose drug use. Inner-city teachers rated public schools lower than did other teachers. (MLH)

Studies the record of three companies (Sabis International, Edison Project, and Alternative Public Schools) that manage Massachusetts for-profit charter schools in serving students with disabilities. The profit motive compels even resource-heavy charter schools to limit required services, use inappropriate disciplinary procedures, segregate disabled kids, and/or counsel them out. (MLH)

Describes a high school English teacher's impromptu relationship with a troubled special-education student. Miles's satiric essay about a teacher literally blowing up in class helped revitalize the English teacher's efforts to improve his own students' writing skills. (MLH)

Evidence from the Boston Renaissance Charter School suggests that the Edison Project is struggling fitfully to learn school management. Reliance on suspension and physical restraints demonstrates Edison Project's lack of experience with inner-city children. Test scores are up, but faculty are warring over school mission, teachers are struggling to control classrooms, and a few vocal parents are moving to oust the principal. (MLH)

In the fourth Phi Delta Kappan teacher opinion poll, teachers evaluate both their own schools and colleagues highly, feel that on-campus student misbehavior has declined slightly since 1989, favor cutting administrators to save money, give parents Cs and Ds on child-rearing, think part-time student employment hurts academic performance, and believe achievement testing is too prevalent. (MLH)

In the 1991 Gallup Poll, Americans overwhelmingly supported a strong educational system as fundamental to national well-being. Respondents' opinions were more divided about achievement of national education goals, accountability measures, expanded school schedules, publicly supported preschools, a national curriculum, school choice, teacher pay and preparation, control of schools, and problems facing schools. (MLH)

Schools are plagued with significant deficiencies in measurement and assessment methods. The practice of dropping grades to control unacceptable student behavior is wrong and probably illegal. Also, tests are often severely flawed or misused. Administrators must recognize sound assessment, reward it, and deny advancement to those violating its principles. Includes seven references. (MLH)

Analyzes Arkansas case wherein the Eighth Circuit held 6-5 that letter written by seventh-grade student threatening violence against his former girl friend was not protected by the First Amendment even though a friend took the letter from student's home without his knowledge and gave it to the girl. Upheld board's decision to expel student. (Contains 11 references.) (PKP)

A former substitute teacher explains how she won first-graders' attention and significantly improved deportment by pretending to be a Martian with different communication modes and hearing capabilities than terrestrials. Children painlessly learn tips on listening, communicating, and engaging in friendly behaviors. (MLH)

In his February 1977 article in "Kappan," Alfie Kohn criticizes nearly everyone involved in character education, asserting that the values taught in American classrooms are based on the "ideological legs of behaviorism, conservatism, and religion." Kohn should partake of humility, a commonly taught virtue. Fair treatment for everyone is a teachable value that everyone agrees on. (MLH)

Being bullied is neither a "part of growing up" nor a "rite of passage." Some children never get over the fear and humiliation. Effective remedies include tougher discipline, increased supervision, counseling for students, and inservice training for teachers. A widely used Norwegian intervention by Daniel Olweus creates a school environment characterized by positive interactions with adults and sanctions against bullying behavior. (MLH)

Children of Indian descent have won first place in five of the last seven years of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and this year they made up 30 of the 273 contestants, a proportion many times larger than their 0.66% of the population. These achievements were possible because some Indian parents can become obsessive when it comes to the improvement of their children. In this article, the author examines whether practicing zero tolerance policy, the approach used by some Indian parents, can become detrimental in students' overall welfare.

Presents a critical analysis of the Reagan administration's policies on school discipline, the Bauer Report, and the National School Safety Center. Points out that school discipline improves when the general quality of education is improved. (MD)

Describes the work of an elected team of junior high school teachers that helps frustrated colleagues resolve classroom management problems. (MCG)

A teacher, responding to the commission and task force criticism of education, points out that for real educational improvement to take place, critics must communicate with teachers. (MD)

Outlines five areas--salaries, discipline, class size, student/teacher match, and professionalism--in which a "revolution" must take place if the educational reform movement is to be successful. (MD)

The director of the National School Safety Center describes the operations of the center and joins three co-authors to discuss the relationship between school climate and school discipline. The authors define six conditions essential to positive climate and explore methods for involving local agencies in achieving these conditions. (PGD)

Reviews research on classroom management, focusing on behavior modification, group management, teacher effects, management training, and planning. Five types of management skills and six principles for effective classroom organization identified by researchers are suggested for application by teachers. (PGD)