The Council of State Governments Justice Center released a new report on school discipline across the nation. Their School Discipline Consensus Report is the result of more than 700 interviews spanning three years.
The report found a wide disparity in discipline rates among student populations. Black, Hispanic, and Native American students were suspended at higher rates than their white peers. This report is the culmination of efforts that began in 2011 following the release of the Breaking School Rules study, which found nearly 60 percent of secondary school students in Texas had been suspended or expelled at least once.
The School Discipline Consensus Report concluded that administrators and teachers should set about improving the basic learning environment inside their schools—instead of focusing only on the way different types of misconduct and how discipline problems are handled. The report provides a detailed checklist of strategies and recommendations designed to assess a school’s current learning environment and then to shift from reactive disciplinary responses to prevention.
The Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model shows how to implement exactly what the School Discipline Consensus Report recommends, namely, to improve the learning environment and move to a proactive, rather than a reactive approach.
