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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:34 am
Time: 11:34 am
Results for school misconduct
2 results foundAuthor: Stovall, Yolanda Jordan Title: Students' Participation in an Alternative to Suspension Program at a Midwest High School Summary: Black and Hispanic students in the United States are suspended at a higher rate and lag behind White students academically. This project study examined student achievement and behavior in an alternative to suspension (ATS) program at a Midwest U.S. high school. The purpose of this mixed methods, concurrent embedded strategy study was to determine if participation in the ATS program decreased disciplinary referrals and improved student performance. This study was guided by social control theory, which suggests that when students are disengaged in the school environment, student/teacher and peer relationships are damaged and students turn toward delinquent behavior. The study sample included 22 students who were referred to the program in 2012-2013, 12 of whom attended the ATS program and 10 (the control) who did not. Quantitative data were analyzed through inferential analysis, and qualitative data were analyzed for emerging themes. The quantitative results showed no significant relationships between student participation in the ATS program, the number of referrals received, and academic performance, and no significant difference in referrals by ethnicity. The qualitative analysis showed six themes describing the program's structural aspects: program structure, goals and vision, parental involvement, staff support, student gains in behavioral and social skills, and collaborative elements. A curriculum plan was created to proactively support 9th graders as they enter high school. These results and the curriculum plan promote positive social change by informing school personnel of the benefits of being proactive in addressing student achievement and discipline through support programs and other interventions, increasing the graduation rate and reducing the current school-to-prison pipeline. Details: Minneapolis, MN : Walden University, 2017. 129p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 19, 2018 at: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4428&context=dissertations Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4428&context=dissertations Shelf Number: 150273 Keywords: School MisconductSchool SecuritySchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Stevens, W. David Title: Discipline Practices in Chicago Schools: Trends in the Use of Suspensions and Arrests Summary: The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have initiated a number of reforms to reduce the use of exclusionary practices that remove students from the classroom, like suspensions. This report, the first in a series on discipline practices in CPS, provides an overview of the use of suspensions and arrests in Chicago schools and the degree to which practices have changed from 2008-09 to 2013-14. Districts and policymakers across the United States are in the midst of a fundamental shift in how they approach school discipline. During the 1980s and 1990s, schools increasingly enacted discipline policies that mandated the use of suspensions, expulsions, and police arrests for student misconduct. In recent years, the general public, policymakers, and school administrators, from the federal level down, have strongly questioned this approach. Critics highlight the growing number of schools with very high suspension rates, as well as inequities in suspension rates by race, gender, family income, special education status, and sexual orientation. They point out that students who are suspended or expelled are more likely to struggle academically and drop out of school. There is evidence that students who attend schools with zero-tolerance approaches to discipline are also likely to experience negative school environments. As a result, national and local policymakers have called on schools to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices-those that remove students from the classroom (see box Definitions of Key Terms on p.8 for a description of various discipline practices we highlight in this report). Key Findings Out-of-school suspensions have been declining in CPS, but are still given frequently, especially at the (ISS). In-school suspensions are given more frequently to African American students than students of other racial/ethnic groups and the use of in-school suspensions have been increasing over time. ISS rates nearly doubled for African American high schools students between 2008-09 and 2013-14, but remained the same for other student groups. In-school suspensions are rare outside of the high schools; 4 percent of middle grades students received an ISS in the 2013-14 school year. Some schools may be using in-school suspensions in instances where they previously used out-of-school suspensions, or shortening the length of out-of-school suspensions while also giving students a day or two of ISS. In-school suspensions tend to be shorter than out-of-school suspensions and they allow for the possibility that students could receive an intervention or support while serving the suspension. Yet, they still result in a loss of instructional time for students. Suspension rates are strongly related to students' prior test scores, their race, and their gender. African American students are much more likely to be suspended than students of other races/ethnicities. Suspension rates are particularly high for African American boys in high school. About a third of African American boys in high school (33 percent) received an OSS in 2013-14. In comparison, 13 percent of Latino boys in high school and 6 percent of white/Asian high school boys received an OSS in 2013-14. African American girls also have high OSS rates in high school, at 23 percent in 2013-14. This compares to high school OSS rates of 6 percent for Latina girls and 2 percent for white /Asian girls. ISS rates are also much higher for African American students than for Latino or white/Asian students. Suspension rates are also high for students with disabilities and for students who begin the school year with test scores that are below average. OSS rates for students with identified disabilities were 24 percent at the high school level and 16 percent in middle grades in the 2013-14 school year. Among students with low test scores (scores in the bottom quartile in the prior school year), suspension rates are also very high: 27 percent received an OSS at the high school level and 17 percent received an OSS at the middle school level in the 2013-14 year. Thus, students who start the year with the weakest academic skills are more likely than other students to receive a suspension that removes them from classroom instruction. Most suspensions in high schools result from acts of student defiance-where students refuse to comply with adults' demands. At the high school level, about 60 percent of out-of-school suspensions and almost all in-school suspensions result from defiance of school staff, disruptive behaviors, and school rule violations. While administrators we interviewed recognized fights as a primary concern in their schools, 27 percent of out-of-school and 7 percent of in-school suspensions in high school are for physical conflict or threats to safety, meaning most suspensions result from conflicts that involve no physical harm. In the middle grades, conflicts between students and acts of defiance toward teachers account for most out-of-school suspensions, at about equal rates. Arrests for incidents at school are uncommon, though African American high school boys are more likely to be arrested than other students. In the 2011-12 school year (the most recent year for which we have Chicago Police Department data), 1.8 percent of high school students and 1.1 percent of middle grades students were arrested for incidents occurring at school. Arrest rates were twice as high among African American boys as for the district as a whole-3.6 percent of African American high school boys enrolled in CPS were arrested for at-school incidents in the 2011-12 school year, which is about 1-in-28 students. In comparison, 1.6 percent of Latino boys and 2 percent of African American girls and fewer than 1 percent of white/Asian students or Latina girls in high school were arrested for at-school events. Students are arrested more often for incidents that occur outside of school than for incidents at school. Over 4 percent of CPS high school students were arrested in the 2011-12 school year for incidents occurring outside of school. Combining arrests inside of school and outside of school, 6 percent of CPS students were arrested in the 2011-12 school year. Schools tend only to involve police in incidents for which the SCC requires police notification. Incidents for which police notification is optional but not required high school level. In 2013-14, about 1-in-7 high school students (16 percent) received an out-of-school suspension (OSS). This number is down from the highest point in the 2009-10 school year when about 1-in-4 high school students (24 percent) received an OSS. Since 2009-10, OSS rates in high schools have declined each year. At the middle grades level (grades 6-8), OSS rates were unchanged, at around 13-14 percent from 2008-09 to 2012-13, but they dropped in the 2013-14 school year to 10 percent. The average length of suspensions has also been declining over time, with the largest drop occurring in the 2012-13 school year. This drop coincided with changes to the CPS Student Code of Conduct (SCC) which explicitly constrained the use of long suspensions. The decline in high school OSS rates has been accompanied by a doubling of in-school suspension rates among African American high school students. In the 2013-14 school year, 15 percent of high school students received at least one in-school suspension solicit police notification only 22 percent of the time. Even when an infraction is serious enough to require police notification, schools only notify police 43 percent of the time. When they occur, infractions that involve drugs or weapons are most likely to result in a police notification. That is, about one out of every three incidents that involve drugs or weapons at a school result in police involvement. However, drug and weapons infractions represent a small portion of the discipline infractions at schools, so they are not the source of most arrests. Physical altercations, or physical fights among students, are the source of most police involvement at schools. Arrest rates for both in-school and out-of-school incidents have declined over time for CPS students. The declines in arrest rates have been driven by declining arrest rates for African American boys, who have consistently been much more likely to be arrested than other students. Both out-of-school arrests and in-school arrests of CPS students declined after 2009-10, up until 2011-12. At the same time that OSS rates and arrests have declined, students and teachers are reporting that they feel safer at school. At the high school level, student perceptions of safety and teacher perceptions of order have been improving since the 2008-09 school year; this is also the period during which OSS rates declined in high schools. At the middle grades level, there have been only marginal improvements in students' feelings of safety at school. However, there was a more marked improvement in the 2013-14 school year, which was the first year that OSS rates declined in the middle grades. This research suggests three major areas of focus if the district is to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices in Chicago schools: 1. High schools. Students are suspended at all grade levels, but very high suspension rates in high schools account for 56 percent of out-of-school suspensions districtwide. If the district is to reduce the use of suspensions and disciplinary disparities substantially, it will require changes in high school practices. Efforts aimed at lower grades will do little to reduce the overall use of exclusionary practices in CPS, unless there are concurrent changes in high schools. 2. Disparities in suspensions for African American students, especially for African American boys, and for students with low incoming achievement. While students of all races are occasionally suspended, suspension rates are much higher for African American students, and especially high for boys. Students with low incoming test scores are also at high risk for being suspended. The fact that high suspension rates persist for certain groups of students, despite policy efforts aimed at reducing the use of exclusionary practices, suggests a need for better support around reducing exclusionary practices in schools and classrooms that serve student groups with a higher likelihood of being suspended. 3. Prevention and de-escalation of conflict, especially between students and teachers. Most suspensions and arrests at school are a result of conflict between students and teachers-such as disobedience and defiance-or conflicts among students, especially in high schools. This suggests a need for increased training for teachers and school staff to prevent and de-escalate conflict, as well as to develop students' social-emotional skills, particularly at schools with high suspension rates. Details: Chicago: The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (UChicago CCSR). 2015. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2018 at: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Discipline%20Report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Discipline%20Report.pdf Shelf Number: 150318 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool MisconductSchool Suspensions |