discipline

IN schools shift from punitive to restorative student discipline

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A new state law is forcing Indiana schools to adopt a restorative justice approach to student discipline, with the underlying goal of reducing disproportional suspensions and discipline of minority students.

It’s a move aimed at shifting from a punitive system that removes offending students from the classroom to one that encourages kids to work through their issues, and some are welcoming the change.

The Herald-Bulletin Editorial Board in Anderson, Indiana recently published an op-ed highlighting how the new approach has improved learning in Anderson Community Schools, and why it’s optimistic restorative justice can have a positive impact in other districts, as well.

The board wrote:

Over the past decade, many Indiana school have gotten better at dealing with problem students without resorting to suspensions and expulsions.

Anderson Community Schools is an example. Such discipline used to be practically rampant at ACS.

The district reported 8,313 in-school suspensions and 179 expulsions for the 2011-12 school year. In a school system of about 7,000 students, the suspension rate was particularly alarming – more than a suspension per student.

ACS officials made a commitment a few years ago to figure out ways to keep troubled students in the system so that they continue to learn. As a result, suspensions fell to 3,500 and expulsions to 23 during the 2015-16 academic year.

District officials accomplished the feat through new alternative school options, “a redistribution of administrative resources,” and better support programs for students, according to the board.

A new state law will require all Indiana schools to adopt similar, less punitive, strategies for student discipline that reduce suspensions of minority students, limit involvement of local police, and crack down on bullying and cyberbullying. The new law also requires districts to report to the state on the impact of positive discipline in schools.

“With a new school year about to begin, it’s incumbent on all school districts … to give kids a fresh start and to take advantage of resources to help disruptive students continue their education while addressing their behavioral problems,” according to The Herald-Bulletin.

The effectiveness of restorative justice practices in Indiana or elsewhere draws on what scholars refer to as “moral autonomy.”

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, wrote in the “The Death of Character” that moral autonomy is an individual’s capacity to freely make ethical decisions, because “controlled behavior cannot be moral behavior, for it removes the element of discretion and judgement.”

Restorative justice aims to give students the moral autonomy to do the right thing, rather than simply punish them for doing the wrong thing.

The blog Academike – “a platform to publish legal research papers” – offers a deeper look at the “Reformative Theory of Punishment” that’s becoming increasingly popular in both schools and criminal justice systems across the country.

 

Individualized learning, goal setting helps DC students become independent learners

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Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science Principal Kathryn Procope acknowledges the personalized learning system put in place at that Washington D.C. school this year is “not a silver bullet,” but it’s helping students set goals and develop self-discipline to become independent learners.

The school is in its first year using a new Summit Learning platform that encourages students to set daily goals and track their progress through online lessons, with constant feedback and guidance from teachers in the classroom. The individualized learning approach “is not a new concept,” Procope said, but the new Summit program developed by Facebook engineers is taking it to another level, EdSurge reports.

Summit Public Schools – a charter school chain operating in Washington and northern California – developed the software for its schools in partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative over the last several years, and it’s now used by about 56,000 students in 40 states and 330 campuses, including Howard and the Truesdell Education Campus in Washington, D.C.

“What Summit has done is take a concept that already existed and put a framework around it so that it assists every student,” Procope said.

Dianne Tavenner, founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools, contends the Summit system is primarily focused on changing school culture to foster independent learning, with online lessons to support that goal.

“This is really about a whole belief, a way of educating, thinking and learning,” Tavenner said. “This (platform) is just a tool.”

The program centers on several core tenets schools must adopt to implement the approach successfully, including 1:1 mentorship, project-based learning activities in all curricula, a change from A through F grades to “a competency-based system where students only progress when they demonstrate mastery of a topic or subject,” and ongoing professional development for staff, EdSurge reports.

Summit requires students to select daily goals from a list provided by teachers, and to analyze feedback on assignments using a grading rubric. Summit collects data on each student’s progress, which is relayed to students and teachers through a data dashboard and allows students to work at their own pace.

Educators also practice “aggressive monitoring” to keep students focused.

“Sixth-grade students can barely put their pants on. They lose their stuff all the time,” Procope said. “It takes a lot to help them start setting their own goals. It’s a lot of repetitive processes.”

While the impact of the new approach at Howard is unclear, results are promising at Truesdell, where the 364 mostly low-income students in grades 3 to 8 have used the program since 2015.

“The school has made gains over the years, not big leaps and bounds, but nice, consistent gains,” principal MaryAnn Stinson said. “Last year we had the highest [district] growth in English Language Arts for a Title 1 school.”

The personal education paradigm is an increasingly “thick” educational model.

James Davison Hunter and Ryan S. Olson define thickness in The Content of Their Character, a summary of character education programs in a variety of schools.

Hunter and Olson write “‘thick’ moral reasoning and discourse is not abstract, but concrete; bounded by the history, tradition, and the practices of lived experience in particular communities.”

Researchers who conducting field research for the book found that “the thicker the moral culture of the school, the more coherent it was and the more cohesive an environment it provided for the young.”

Summit Learning offers the video “Habits of Success at Summit” for those interested in more details on how the personalized approach inspires students to take control of their own learning.

Restorative justice approach reduces fights at Canadian Catholic school by 74 percent

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St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada switched from automatic suspensions for students who fight to a restorative justice approach that requires them to work with a mediator and take responsibility for their actions.

The school began the shift late in the 2016-17 school year, and officially implemented the restorative justice discipline approach in 2017-18. The change led to a 74 percent drop in “conflicts of a physical nature” compared to the previous year, while also reducing suspensions by 44 percent, CBC reports.

“It’s learning how to be in relationship with somebody,” said Shelley Schanzenbacher, restorative justice practitioner at Community Justice Initiatives Waterloo Region.

“Sometimes what happens is those situations begin to escalate, because they never get put to bed,” she told Craig Norris, host of CBC Radio’s “The Morning Edition.”

Principal Dan Witt noted mediation is not something students can choose over being suspended.

“It’s not a negotiation piece,” he said. “You don’t want the mediation to be a coercive strategy.”

Students sit with a mediator to talk one-on-one about fights or other incidents, as well as issues leading up to the conflict and how it impacted them.  Students involved then get together with the mediator to devise a resolution.

“It gives voice to each party and it gives an opportunity for each person to hear about, how did that feel when you said those things to me,” Schanzenbacher said.

Effective restorative justice practices draws on what scholars call “moral autonomy.” Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter writes in “The Death of Character” that moral autonomy is an individual’s capacity to freely make ethical decisions, because “controlled behavior cannot be moral behavior for it removes the element of discretion and judgment.”

Schanzenbacher said that even though it might seem like students are being let off easy, mediation actually is a very difficult process. It requires students to face those they’ve harmed, listen to them, express an apology and repair the damage caused. It’s a process that students must undertake freely, unlike a forced suspension.

The data suggests the approach is working well with St. Benedict students, and Schanzenbacher contends administrators are recognizing the benefits.

“They’re starting to shift their perspective,” she said, “and culture shift is hard.”

Schanzenbacher is hopeful the success so far at St. Benedict will help inspire other area Catholic schools to consider restorative justice, as well, though she acknowledges that a systemic shift won’t come easy.

“There’s a lot of hard work ahead,” Schanzenbacher said, “this isn’t going to happen overnight.”

Duke Law offers more details about restorative approaches taking root in an increasing number of schools in the report “Instead of Suspension: Alternative Strategies for Effective School Discipline.”

The report “is not only educational and informative, but also can serve as a starting point for action or as a source of guidance for policy change.”

Students work as anti-bullying ambassadors to encourage classmates to report incidents

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Students at Witham, England’s Maltings Academy in Essex are taking action to confront bullying, and they’re focused on creating new, anonymous ways for students to report incidents.

Six students in year nine recently formed an anti-bullying council to work as ambassadors to encourage students to report bullying incidents through school staff. But the students also want to open up other ways their classmates can highlight problems without exposing their identity, the Clacton Gazette reports.

“Of course, (students) can speak with their teachers, but the ambassadors want to be able to offer alternative, anonymous ways to report problems that they also feel comfortable with,” said Mark Skinner, head of year nine. “The focus is not just on preventing bullying in school, but looking at the problems young people face online.”

The ambassadors will work with the whole student council to develop the anti-bullying strategies, a process that ultimately benefits all students, Skinner said.

“It is giving them some responsibility and it is great to see them so caring of others,” he said.

“The year nine students felt it would be beneficial to involve students at an early stage, so they are consulting with their peers and staff as to what approaches would work,” Emma Baker, head of Maltings Academy, told the Gazette.  “For example, they are thinking about how they can incorporate technology,” she said. “It’s great to see the students involved and raising awareness.”

Students and staff at Maltings are addressing the particular circumstances at the school with the new bullying reporting tools, and the focus on online bullying zeroes in on specific issues facing the school and countless others schools.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, noted how that engagement plays an important role in developing strong character in students.

“We can only care for the young in their particularity,” Hunter wrote in “The Content of Their Character,” an analysis of character education work in a variety of schools. “If we are not attentive to and understanding of these contexts, we are not caring for real, live human beings, but rather abstractions that actually don’t exist at all.”

Teachers and principals interested in a whole-school approach to bullying that also targets specific aspects of the problem can find a vast array of resources from the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

The program offers free webinars, online courses, program implementation, and guidance on securing funding, all focused on reducing existing bulling, preventing future problems, and developing better relations between students.

“All students participate in most aspects of the program, while students identified as bullying others, or as targets of bullying, receive additional individualized interventions,” according to the Olweus website. “The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is designed to improve peer relations and make schools safer, more positive places for students to learn and develop.”

Salt Lake City police connect with elementary students through iCHAMPS program

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Students who took part in the Salt Lake City School District’s new iCHAMPS program were sent to the office less and behaved better than students who did not participate.

The three month youth development program – an acronym for Improving Community Health & Model Police Services – is a joint effort between the district and the Salt Lake City Police Department to connect students with police officers during physical education classes to build mutual understanding, KUTV reports.

From January to May, officers met with about 570 students in 13 schools, where they “taught the students life skills, and reinforced positive behaviors, such as anger management, empathy, and teamwork, during active play with the students,” according to the television station.

Police and district officials said they’re encouraged by the results so far, and extended the program to another 210 Salt Lake City students during summer school.

“I wanted to create a program that puts police officers in direct contact with children in a positive and fun way that allows for mutual understanding,” iCHAMPS Director Moises Prospero said. “Students and officers learn to humanize each other and build more trusting relationships.”

Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said officers are getting as much out of the experience as students are.

“Our officers love to work with the community, and being given this opportunity to work directly with the youth has offered these officers an even greater sense of purpose,” he said.

KUTV reports:

An outside evaluator for the University of Utah found that the iCHAMPS program improved positive perceptions of police officers and taught children skills to resist drug use.

The preliminary results were found by comparing classrooms in the same school participating in iCHAMPS with those which did not participate. Several P.E. teachers cited fewer officer referrals and conduct problems during the duration of the program, the news release said.

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia examined character education in a variety of different schools and outlined their findings in “The Content of Their Character.”

Editors James Davison Hunter and Ryan S. Olson wrote:

When social institutions – whether the family, peer relationships, youth organizations, the internet, religious congregations, entertainment, or popular culture – cluster together, they form a larger ecosystem of powerful cultural influences. None of these is morally neutral. Indeed, all social institutions rest upon distinctive ideals, beliefs, obligations, prohibitions, and commitments – many implicit and some explicit – and these are rooted, and reinforced by, well-established social practices. Taken together, these forma ‘moral ecology.’

Clearly, police and school officials are working to build positive influences into the moral ecology of Salt Lake City schools through the iCHAMPS program.

The Salt Lake City nonprofit – which offers youth development, professional development training and research and evaluation – offers more information about its mission to “promote safe and healthy neighborhoods through youth development, positive community-law enforcement relations, and collaborative partnerships” on the iCHAMPS website.

U.S. Air Force recognizes JROTC character education programs that ‘exceed standards’

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When it comes to character and citizenship education, Lamar Consolidated High School’s Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program “exceeds standards.”

That’s the word from the U.S. Air Force, which recognized the program and 119 others across the country “that have performed well above and beyond normal expectations, and that have distinguished themselves through outstanding service to their school and community while meeting the Air Force JROTC citizen development mission for America.”

The mission, according to the Houston Chronicle, is “to educate and train high school cadets in citizenship and life skills; promote community service; instill responsibility, character and self-discipline through character education; and to provide instruction in air and space fundamentals.”

The recognition for Unit TX-172 – which includes cadets from Lamar and George Ranch high schools – is based on a formal unit evaluation in December that pointed to the “dynamic and supportive learning environment coupled with an excellent community outreach” under the leadership of Maj. Jeffrey M. Shelton and Senior Master Sgt. Jeffrey T. Moffet, the Fort Bend Independent reports.

“The instructors provide outstanding leadership in administering the cadet-centered citizenship program,” which led to cadets who “performed exceptionally well and took great pride in leading and accomplishing their unit goals,” according to the news site.

“The Lamar Consolidated High School Air Force ROTC citizenship program is making a positive impact on the cadets, the school and the community.”

According to the Air Force, “Air Force JROTC is located in close to 900 high schools across the United States and at selected schools in Europe, in the Pacific, and in Puerto Rico. Air Force JROTC enrollment includes more than 120,000 cadets who do over 1.6 million hours of community service each year.”

Lamar Consolidated JROTC’s recognition for exceeding the standard is a timely reminder of the nature of morality.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, writes in his book the “Tragedy of Moral Education in America”:

Morality is a vision of moral goods shared by a community; the attitudes, aspirations, sensibilities, and dispositions that define its highest aspirations for itself, and how those moral goods find expression in every situation in daily life.

Virtue Insight, a blog by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, takes a deeper look at the virtues that support strong moral character – primarily temperance, courage, justice, and practical wisdom – through the observations of priest and theologian Aquinas.

University of Chicago professor Candace Vogler explains how “living well within reason” relies on applying practical knowledge through habitual virtuous activities.

“For those of us interested in thinking about the ways that virtuous activity allows reason to effectively guide us in leading better and more fulfilling lives, work on cultivating virtuous habits just is work on learning to live wisely,” Vogler wrote.

GA cheating scandal highlights importance of character education

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Dozens of students at Gwinnett County, Georgia’s Dacula High School were busted for cheating after school officials discovered answers to countywide final exams posted to social media in late May.

School officials issued a statement to Fox 5:

Dacula High School addressed a cheating issue during the last week of school. It appears that answers to final exams were posted on social media and used by students. School leaders became aware of the social media postings and were able to actively review exams for potential cheating.

Based on a preponderance of evidence, it appears that approximately 80 Dacula students used the answers posted when taking their finals. The school has addressed the issue with the students, providing them with appropriate discipline consequences. As the exams involved were for 10th grade language arts, chemistry, and world history, no seniors were involved and this did not affect graduation.

Officials would not elaborate on the disciplinary action against students, but said they believe the answers likely came from a student at a different school who already took the tests. It remains unclear whether students at other schools used the answers.

The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture examined cheating in 10 types of American high schools as part of a broader look at character and citizenship summarized in “The Content of Their Character.”

Analyzing cheating in rural schools, education researcher Richard Fournier noted:

… While teachers might be fully able to articulate the moral ideals behind their disciplinary decisions, their explanations typically varied, which presumably sent mixed moral messages to students. Similarly, although teachers, students and parents offered similar examples of bad student behavior – cheating, bullying, selfishness, etc. – they either were unsure or gave different answers when pressed for insight into why these things were bad or how students should be disciplined. (Page 67)

Students often face temptations to cheat in school, and too many of them give in to it. Without a solid reason why students should put honesty ahead of their personal gratification, they struggle to resist the temptation to cheat.

But teachers have numerous opportunities every day, in every class, with every student, for every subject to infuse discussions about integrity, and the motivations for behaving honestly.

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues offers ways to start the conversation with the guide “The Virtue of Truthfulness,” which encourages educators to prompt students to think about “the benefits of acting out” truthfulness.

“Acting truthfully guarantees social relations: we are who we say we are. This enables stability; it also enables us to think through how and where we need to improve as people,” the guide points out. “Truthful people grow in virtue much quicker than those who struggle to be truthful about who they really are.

“It’s also worth thinking through what human relationships would look like were they to be based on presenting ourselves in a false light: hypocrisy, deceit, lying and the breaking of promises would all dissolve social bonds.”

 

Michigan students earn $500 for campaign to fight community opioid troubles

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Eight students at Michigan’s Adrian High School wanted to make a difference in their community, and after six months of strategizing and brainstorming, their effort is paying dividends.

The teens – sophomores Hunter Comstock, Julia Harke, and Carter Merillat; juniors Zac Daniels, Liam DiPietro, Jacob Schwartz, and Trinity Keene; and senior Alexia Ferguson – designed a comprehensive plan to help tackle the student opioid epidemic and presented it to the Adrian board of education in late April, The Toledo Blade reports.

The main feature of the plan involves a tip line to allow students to report suspected drug abuse anonymously, through calls, text, email or an online form. The students also suggested a stronger partnership with juvenile courts, increased education, and a mandatory drug abuse evaluation for teens busted with drugs, which is optional under the current system.

“What’s so impressive about these students is that their goal was to educate and prevent,” student advisor Erin Gilmore told the Blade. “They looked for ways to be less reactionary and more proactive to combat this issue at this school.”

A good indicator of a school’s moral ecology is the degree that students take ownership of its culture. Here students addressed a pressing problem, developed tools for prevention, and gave candid counsel on the value of routine punishment procedures. In each case, it demonstrates their ownership of thick moral culture. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture observed, “The thicker the moral culture of the school, the more coherent it was and the more cohesive an environment it provided for the young. These are the environments within which personal and public virtue is both learned and absorbed; both ‘taught and caught.’”

The students researched student drug suspensions – currently set at 10 days, or seven days with a drug evaluation – and interviewed administrators, concluding that the system in place doesn’t do enough to dissuade repeat offenses. The students advocated for community service on top of the suspension.

“We believe it should be harsher because a lot of students see it as a vacation when really it should be harsher, and they can learn from it,” Schwartz said.

The presentation to the school board earned the group $500 from the Lenawee County Education Foundation to turn the tip line into a reality, as well as recognition from school officials for focusing on an important issue in the school community.

“This is a group of students stepping forward and saying ‘this should be done,’” Adrian Public Schools Superintendent Bob Behnke told the Blade, “and that’s much more powerful as far as implementing and changing our policy compared to a group of administrators.”

Teachers and principals working to strengthen moral and citizenship formation in their students will find information, strategies and teacher lesson plans at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre.

Father complains school officials over-reacted to son’s sketches with guns, knives

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A North Carolina middle school student was suspended for two days after he drew pictures in school that included guns and knives.

James Herring, father of a 13-year-old student at Roseboro Salemburg Middle School, told WRAL he was shocked by the two-day suspension school officials leveled against the boy for expressing himself with stick figure sketches.

The seventh-grader drew what appears to be a person with a rifle, as well as a car with the words “suped up mini-car” above it. Other images included a ninja turtle with swords, and a tower with what appears to be a crossbow.

“I see a guy in a race car souped-up. I see a tower that he built. I see him holding his gun, he’s a deer hunter. I see him with a magician and I see him as a Ninja Turtle … just expressing himself, nothing violent,” Herring said.

Herring told the news site his son is a hunter, but weapons at home are kept under lock and key. He also stressed that the boy isn’t violent, or suffering from emotional issues. Herring believes school officials over-reacted to the sketches, in part because of recent high-profile school shootings.

“When I see that, I see a normal 13-year-old boy,” Herring said. “I drew pictures like this, any other person of his age drew drawings like this. It’s nothing to get expelled from school for.”

Sampson County Schools Superintendent Eric Bracy refused to discuss the situation with WRAL, but said officials are simply following punishments outlined in the student handbook. He also referenced recent incidents of school violence.

“There are some things that list possible threats or things like that,” he said of the student handbook. “We’ve got category one, two, three and four, which sort of grades potential incidents and the level of seriousness.”

“Due to everything happening in the nation, we’re just being extra vigilant about all issues of safety,” Bracy said.

In a context of fear, it is easy for schools to fall back on a rigid application of rules. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture advocate a concern for the broader moral ecology of the school. University of Boston educator Charles Glenn is quoted in The Content of Their Character as saying, “Formal education… presents pictures or maps of reality that reflect, unavoidably, particular choices about what is certain and what in question, what is significant and what unworthy of notice. No aspect of schooling can be truly neutral.” A school’s explicit or implicit moral framework and practices cannot help but influence the outlook and character of children.

Teachers and principals interested in strengthen moral ecology of their school can access information and strategies at the UK’s Jubilee Centre.

 

One middle school brings parents to school in place of suspension

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As school administrators grapple with how to establish school discipline, and avoid excessive use of suspensions, Donaldson Middle School in Louisiana takes an approach that motivates students and parents.

In the fall of 2016 administrators at Donaldson were facing rising suspension numbers and an increasing sense that they weren’t helping the students who needed the most support, reports The Advocate. Assistant Principal Paul Sampson happened upon a solution that he brought to his colleagues: “reverse suspensions.” Essentially, if you’re a kid who is frustrated by school and would rather not be there anyway, suspensions aren’t so bad. Act up, go home for a couple of days, and then come back to school and do the same. A reverse suspension flips this paradigm. When a student doesn’t meet Donaldson’s behavior expectations, administrators contact the parents, who must shift their schedules to come in and spend a large portion of time in class with the student.

“Instead of sending them home with mom and dad, mom and dad come to school with them,” summarized Principal Daryl Comery. The school expected parents to be frustrated with the extra burden, but anecdotal evidence points to the contrary.

Devin Wright, a math teacher, speaking to local news station KLFY, said: “Sometimes, there was a sense of maybe we’re attacking the child or maybe we don’t have the best interest of that child . . . When they see us being intentional about redirecting them and giving them those chances, parents really were able to buy in.” Comery backed this up, saying, “Our parents are our biggest advocates. They’re on our side.” He also added that the new suspensions are an effective deterrent as middle school students are particularly averse to their parents spending time with them in class.

The reverse suspensions were piloted in the 2016–2017 school year, and have been fully implemented this year. “Suspensions fell from 247 at the end of the 2016 fall semester to 156 at the end of the 2017 fall semester,” The Advocate reported.

The approach hasn’t always been easy. It can be difficult to match up parents’ schedules, and sometimes the school has had to figure out a transportation solution, but going the extra mile has strengthened the bonds between Donaldson and its parents.

The School Cultures and Student Formation Project of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture reports in The Content of Their Character that strengthening connections between school and home is important, not just for addressing behavior problems, but also for the long work of building character. Editors James Davison Hunter and Ryan S. Olson write, “There is considerable evidence that strong social support contributes crucially, if not decisively, to [students’] success in school, whether that support comes from parents and family, youth organizations, or religious communities. The thickness of social ties also bears positively on the formation of a stable self-identity and, by extension, a child’s moral character.”

Where those social ties don’t exist, or have broken down, a well-implemented reverse suspension program may help—but not because it is punitive to the parent or child. Wright’s comments on parent buy-in, when they see first-hand the lengths to which the school is going to support their child, echo this.

Assistant Principal Paul Sampson highlighted that after the school instituted its reverse suspensions, “we expected the parents to be upset with us, but actually, they were upset with the kids. We don’t have many repeats.”

Researchers at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy and Duke Law School have published a guide, “Instead of Suspension: Alternative Strategies for Effective School Discipline,” for administrators looking for ways to avoid a zero-tolerance approach to school discipline.

©2017 Advanced Studies in Culture

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