Ideas for Reducing Suspensions
Durham Public Schools have been trying to reduce suspensions, but they recently reported that in the 2016-17 school year, short-term suspensions (which are shorter than 10 school days) increased system-wise by 42%. Greg Childress of the Durham Herald-Sun noted on Dec. 13 that high schools saw the most significant, and troubling, increases: Northern High School alone gave out 621 short-term suspensions for a 207% increase over the previous year, and affecting 18% of the student body. Southern High School of Energy and Sustainability suspended a whopping 24% of students. Childress’s article also mentions a civil-rights lawsuit by a children’s advocacy group against DPS and a 47-member task force that has been attempting to reduce suspensions by rewriting discipline guidelines.
Suspensions are an important tool for ensuring the safety of students and teachers, but it’s extremely unlikely that they’re an effective tool for educating students in appropriate behavior, self-control, and anger management. What are some practices that principals and teachers can adopt to try to set students on the right path?
Restorative Practices
McDougle Middle School in Chapel Hill has had some pretty remarkable success in reducing discipline issues with the addition of “restorative conversations” to help students resolve conflicts peacefully. The Herald-Sun reports that McDougle has been using these techniques for four years, and that in the first year, the school saw discipline referral reports drop by 75%. Through group discussions of conflicts, the focus shifts from punishment to restoring or preserving relationships and airing opinions to maintain a healthy atmosphere and avoid conflicts altogether.
More info here:
https://www.iirp.edu/what-we-do/what-is-restorative-practices
Meditation and Other Mindfulness Practices
Jefferson County Public Schools, in Kentucky, are participating in a large-scale study of the effectiveness of a curriculum that uses yoga and meditation techniques to teach students self-control and self-awareness. The Hechinger Report describes the curriculum as a “multipurpose approach” that “seeks to integrate the development of a student’s mind and body, combining fitness with health education, social and emotional learning and support for academic achievement.” The curriculum was developed by The Compassionate Schools Project, a six-year research project that seeks to develop “a 21st century health and wellness curriculum.”
More info here:
Planning Centers
“Planning centers” are one method of reducing conflict in schools. They provide students, with the help of instructional aides and guidance counselors, “an opportunity to cool down, learn coping strategies, and get back in the classroom as soon as possible.” Planning center staff members work closely with students at risk of expulsion to review the incidents that led to a discipline referral and listen to students’ ideas about how such incidents can be prevented in the future. As a result, as EdWeek reports, “[i]n-school suspensions and detentions, often a first option to deal with behavioral issues in the past, are now a last resort at Ginn Academy and elsewhere in the Cleveland school system.”
More info here: http://www.clevelandmetroschools.org/Page/398