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Yet Another Reason Why Standardized Tests are Faulty

On May 20, 2014 / Learning

I’ve long been an opponent of using standardized tests for student and teacher evaluations. In fact, if you search “standardized tests” on my blog, you’ll find many entries as to my reasoning. In short, standardized tests do not correlate with most school curriculums, these tests are biased toward higher economic communities, and they are not valid because they were not developed to assess if what has been taught has been learned.

Recently, I learned of another major problem with using standardized tests to assess schooling, and it has to do with the technology many schools are using to administer the tests.

Apparently, the Los Angeles City Schools are being plagued with problems regarding testing for student progress. According to the … >>>

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Focus on Students, Not Numbers

On May 15, 2014 / Learning, Responsibility

I recently read an article in the USA Today entitled “Education Goals are Getting Resegregated” (May 8, 2014). The article explains that “Only 7% of black high school seniors are proficient in math, compared with 33% of white students, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores released Wednesday. The reading gap is larger.”

The article then goes on to detail many state’s goals for educational achievement, highlighting how “more than half the states have given up on race-blind standards, setting different goals for different groups of students.” For example, in the District of Columbia, the goal is for 94% proficiency in math for white students while only 71% for black students.

Unfortunately, in many educational bureaucracies the exercise … >>>

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How to Really Appreciate Teachers

On May 8, 2014 / Effectiveness, Learning

Teacher Appreciation Week is in full swing, and on teachers’ desks across the country you’ll see trinkets and baskets and other items that parents, students, and even administrators have given them to show them some thanks.

While I certainly believe in appreciating others, and all the tokens given are indeed welcome, I have another suggestion for showing our nations’ teachers some appreciation: Pay them what they’re worth, end industrialized testing and teaching, and invest in providing teachers with the necessary supplies, resources, and tools they need to actually teach. That’s how we show that we appreciate teachers.

What do you think? How should we really show teachers our appreciation and acknowledge how vital they are to our country?… >>>

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Positivity Tips that Reduce the Need for Discipline

On May 6, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

For many people, mastering the first principle of Discipline Without Stress—positivity—is a challenge. After all, how do you keep positive in a discipline situation when a student is doing something he/she shouldn’t be doing and quite possibly testing your nerves?

It’s important to think, speak, and act with positivity in order to be most effective when you implement the Discipline Without Stress system. Even when a situation might be perceived as negative, as in a case where discipline is necessary, it is possible to phrase communications with students in positive rather than negative ways.

Why is this so vital? Because people do best when they feel better about themselves, as opposed to when they feel worse. Additionally, student cooperation … >>>

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Does Less Play Mean More Discipline?

On May 1, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

More and more kindergarten teachers tell me each year, “This is the worst group of kids I’ve ever had.”

Does this ring true for you too?

The reason teachers have this perception is that young children do not have the social skills that children developed in prior years. In many communities and schools today, kids are deprived of opportunities to engage in play activities that prompt both creativity and successful social relationships. Instead, they are engaged in developing academic skills (many boys of whom have not yet developed cognitively enough to be successful).

This push for academics at an early age (some children are being pushed to read by age 3!) is at the expense of promoting empowering self-images and … >>>

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Bring Discipline Without Stress to Your School … for Free

On April 29, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

Did you know that any school in the United States can receive free materials of the Discipline Without Stress approach? Simply go to http://disciplinewithoutstress.org/ and complete the application.

This highly successful discipline and learning system uses an approach that does not prompt counterwill. In fact, this approach achieves what every teacher desires but rarely accomplishes: separating the act from the actor, the deed from the doer, a good kid from inappropriate behavior. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that counterwill, the natural human tendency to resist coercion, is totally bypassed.

The second is that it also bypasses the natural tendency to defend oneself. Whenever a behavior is directly addressed, the natural tendency is to protect oneself. With … >>>

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Evidence that the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model Works

On April 24, 2014 / Learning, Responsibility

This past Sunday (April 20, 2014), the highly-rated 60 Minutes TV program highlighted the Excellent Boys Charter School in Brooklyn, New York. This school uses a similar approach to what Marva Collins developed in Chicago. Both schools have high expectations, empower their students, and do not allow victimhood thinking—exactly what I will show teachers how to accomplish next week when I present in Chicago. This is yet another indication of how successful the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model can be.

I often receive letters from teachers and administrators about the Discipline Without Stress model. Here is one I received recently from a school in Bronx, New York:

“I highly recommend taking advantage of working with Dr. Marvin Marshall. He provides

… >>> READ MORE >>> →

Is a Treat the Same as a Reward?

On April 22, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

Many teachers and parents who read and implement Discipline Without Stress and Parenting Without Stress often ask if giving children a treat once in a while is the same as giving them a reward.

Here’s a useful distinction to keep in mind: Rewards are always tied to some condition, whereas treats are given unconditionally. In other words, if you simply give a child a cupcake or a small toy, that’s not a reward. But if you say to the child, “If you do X, I’ll give you a cupcake,” then that’s a reward.

Realize too that the nature of the actual item being offered has no bearing on whether it can be considered a reward or a treat. A glittery … >>>

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Key Points about theLevels of Development

On April 15, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

Before implementing Discipline Without Stress in their classroom, many teachers ask me, “What are the most important things I should know or review before getting started?”

Keeping the four-part Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model in mind, here are some critical understandings with regard to the Levels of Development:

Levels A and B are always unacceptable. Choosing to act (either consciously or non-consciously) at these levels will result in the use of authority by the teacher.
Don’t quibble with a student over determining whether a certain unacceptable action was at Level B or Level A. It doesn’t matter—both levels are unacceptable.
Don’t get derailed trying to figure out WHY a student chose to do something that was unacceptable. Harsh

… >>> READ MORE >>> →

More Wasted Education Reform Money in Los Angeles Schools

On April 10, 2014 / Relationships

The front page of the Los Angeles Times on April 9, 2014 featured a huge photo of 375 empty student desks, which represented the 375 students who drop out of the district’s schools each and every week. To reduce this drop-out rate, the superintendent of the district is asking for $837 million for a number of projects, including:

More tutoring and greater access to counselors and other services for 11,600 foster youth.
More instructional coaches and training materials for teachers of 154,110 students learning English.
More assistant principals, counselors, social workers, special education workers and other support for students at 37 schools with low-performing students and high teacher turnover.
192 library aides and 15 middle school librarians.
130 new

… >>> READ MORE >>> →

What to Do When Students Expect Rewards

On April 8, 2014 / Discipline, Responsibility

In many classrooms across the country, teachers utilize the “colored card,” “stickers,” or “treasure chest” method of classroom discipline. Those who want to implement the Discipline Without Stress methodology wonder if it’s possible when the children are used to being rewarded so much.

Sound familiar?

The good news is that you can implement Discipline Without Stress effectively even if the other staff members at your school don’t follow a similar philosophy. Here’s how.

First, there’s no need to announce to your students that you don’t give rewards for expected behavior and learning—unless they bring it up. If they are conditioned to being rewarded heavily, it’s quite likely that they will! If and when they do ask for a reward, you … >>>

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Does Discipline Without Stress Really Reduce Stress?

On April 3, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

People often ask, “Does the Discipline Without Stress model really reduce stress? How is this possible?”

Here’s my usual reply:

None of the three phases of this discipline approach—teaching, asking, or eliciting—prompts stress on the part of the teacher (or the student).

When a student misbehaves, the USUAL discipline approach is to tell, threaten, and/or punish. Each of these approaches is coercive and often results in some resistance. When a student does not obey, stress and aggravation escalate.

Discipline Without Stress is proactive in that four levels of social development are TAUGHT. This automatically sets the teacher up to use simple cognitive learning theory: teaching (first phase) and then checking for understanding (second phase).

Reference is always made to the … >>>

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The 3 Practices of Successful Teachers

On April 1, 2014 / Discipline, Learning

Successful teachers have acquired certain habits that enable them to be more effective with their students. By doing so, the teacher gains more influence with their students, which results in the students making better decisions and choices all on their own, thus reducing discipline issues.

Here are the 3 practices of successful teachers, which is from Part Two of the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model:

1. Word everything in a positive way. This isn’t about simply being cheery. Being positive in this discipline approach means that in a negative situation, the teacher learns to get in the habit of wording what they want to say in a positive way. Just a very simple example: Instead of saying “Stop running!” … >>>

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How to Turn Praise into Acknowledgment

On March 27, 2014 / Effectiveness, Responsibility

Most people were raised hearing praise statements, and now that they are adults they give praise to their children and students today. However, as is discussed in Discipline Without Stress and Parenting Without Stress, acknowledgments are far better than praise. But how do you turn off the urge to praise? How do you turn praise into productive comments that encourage and acknowledge all who are choosing to do the right thing? After all, sometimes, it seems to be an automatic reaction to say “Good job!” just for the sake of saying something.

Realize that changing praise into an acknowledgement is nothing more than a ‘twist’ in thinking, a small adjustment in how you phrase things. Instead of heaping on … >>>

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A Calm Approach to Discipline

On March 25, 2014 / Effectiveness, Relationships

I recently read a story about a woman whose job is to help difficult teens in the foster care system “settle down” so they can successfully function in a regular family. She has a unique method of working with the teens that, as others say, seems to “work miracles” with these difficult youths. I was amazed at how similar her approach is to the Discipline Without Stress methodology. Here’s what she does:

She said that in her mind, she chooses to think of these disturbed young people as “aliens” who have come from another planet. She pictures them as beings newly arrived on earth—with no idea of how this world works. She treats them as she would treat any foreign … >>>

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Discipline Positively

On March 20, 2014 / Discipline

Positivity—thinking and communicating in positive terms—works wonders in drawing others toward us and having them do what we would like them to do. This is as true today and it was generations ago. In fact, I recently read an interesting story that depicts an ancient form of what I would call “discipline positivity.”

In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused. Then each person in the tribe, regardless of age, begins to talk out loud to the accused, one at a time, … >>>

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How to Tell Others that You Don’t Use Rewards

On March 18, 2014 / Discipline, Effectiveness

Teachers often ask me how they can explain to their peers that they are not using rewards in the classroom any longer. Some are even fearful of the conversation. After all, it seems that so many teachers and parents rely on rewards and punishments as their preferred discipline methods.

If you’re experiencing this concern, here’s how one teacher overcame it. Her experience is very insightful and may inspire you to do the same.

A Teacher’s Experience:

Sometimes it just helps to know you’re not alone in your thinking. In my case, once I had read enough on the topic and had developed a strong sense within myself that I personally no longer wanted to rely on rewards to discipline, I … >>>

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