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By Dr. Harry Tennant

Comments: Dan S. Martin's Principal Rider

Friday, May 25, 2012

Education Ride 365: Discipline Efforts In Schools Defined & Explained #5

Every school has a discipline system, in the sense that every school has processes in place for implementing whichever discipline program they have embraced. The discipline system is not the philosophy (program) of discipline....nor is it the tool(s) used to facilitate implementation of the program and system.

The discipline system is best understood as a systematic procedural blueprint for how discipline will occur in a school. This is a major undertaking with many important considerations. This post is an introduction to the subject and, as such, only scratches the surface. It is intended to broadly define the outlines of establishing a discipline system and is in no way definitive. I intend to expand, further organize, and elaborate on this explanation/list as a whole---as well as for each consideration---as this series of blog posts continues.

A partial list of questions asked and answered when establishing a discipline system include:

What are the consequence options for misbehavior? Examples include:

Parent Contact

Coach and/or Activity Sponsor Contact

Detentions: Lunch, Before- and After-School

Extra School: Saturday School, Thursday School, Friday Night Reflections

In-School Suspension

Out-of-School Suspension

Disciplinary Alternative School

Restitution

Behavior Contracts

Suspension of Privilege

Behavior Questionnaires

Character Building Assignments

What are the considerations for each misbehavior warranting which consequence is assigned under which circumstances? Examples include:

Type of misbehavior.

Context of the misbehavior.

Discipline history of the offender.

Focus priority of the misbehavior.

Ability of the system to support follow-through on the consequence.

How will misbehavior be reported and otherwise logged for review and action? Examples of questions considered include:

What procedure does a staff member actually follow to report violations?

Depending on the nature of the offense, what interventions were expected to be tried by the referring staff member prior to formal referral to the office?

In what way should those interventions be documented?

Where are the referrals and other related documentation collected and organized for review?

How will fact-finding occur? Examples of considerations include:

How can missed instructional time be minimized when students must be called to the office?

Must students be called to the office for every teacher referral?

Are there ways to better manage high volumes of referrals that may occur at any given time?

What procedure should be used for documenting or otherwise establishing the "student's side" of any given situation?

In what way can the administrator determine if the student has a Special Education 'Behavior Intervention Plan' or other special consideration of this nature before assigning a consequence without referencing this important information?

How will appropriate communications be made? Examples include:

Under what circumstances and in what manner will parents be notified?

How will the referring staff member be notified of administrative action taken in response to their referral?

How will other staff members involved in the discipline process be notified of administrative actions taken?

Which other staff members should be made aware of specific cases of inappropriate student behavior? How will this be done?

What is the process for recording which consequences have been assigned to which students and when those consequences are expected to be fulfilled? Examples include:

In what manner will lists be created?

Which staff member(s) will maintain the lists, including who is credited as fulfilling an assigned consequence and who is overdue?

How/where is this information logged for future reference, for instance when sharing a student's discipline history with a parent?

How are corrections, postponements, and other such extraordinary adjustments communicated and represented on the master list?

What is the procedure for establishing consequence follow-through and escalating (or otherwise handling) student failure to satisfy assigned discipline consequences? Examples include:

Which staff member(s) will be responsible for determining fulfillment of assigned discipline consequences?

What is the "cost" when a student fails to fulfill a discipline consequence?

How will that "cost" be communicated to the student and recorded to make sure the reassigned consequence is ultimately fulfilled?

How will discipline histories be created and accessed when needed for review of each student's interactions with the discipline system? Examples include:

Do administrators have the benefit of reviewing each student's discipline history prior to addressing a new referral as context for making a more informed decision regarding the most current referral?

In what way can a student's parents view a telling picture of their child's discipline history?

How can data on any given student's previous discipline history be accessed and represented to support current and future disciplinary actions as needed?

In what way can discipline trends and progress be analyzed to direct a continuous improvement effort regarding the overall discipline climate at a school or in a district? Examples include:

On what basis can a school or district determine the relative state of success of their discipline program?

Is the school or district able to quantify and disaggregate data regarding the frequency, nature, location, and other relevant data points regarding discipline incidents occurring over time?

This is blog entry #5 of an unknown number of coming blog posts providing information aimed at improving a school's efforts to promote appropriate student discipline. Click a number to the right to view prior entries in this series: #1, #2, #3, #4.

Posted at 9:26 PM Keywords: Education Ride 365 , EdClick , Cycle Of Education , Discipline 1 Comments

Harry said...
Would this be an accurate summary?
System...What: what are the misbehaviors, what are the consequences?
Program...Why: why have we made the choices we've made?
Implementation...How: how do we translate the system into an effective process with clearly defined steps and actions?
Tools...How: how do we support our implementation to make it as easy as possible to administer?

Sunday, May 27, 2012 2:06 PM

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