LEADERSHIP COACHING: ADDRESSING STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Ask any teacher what they believe to be one of the biggest classroom challenges facing them in their work today with students and chances are they will bring up managing student discipline. Ask any administrator and you are likely to get the same response. Last week I received an email from a teacher disgruntled with what she described as a lack of support from administration regarding issues of student discipline. In her words, “students were not being held accountable for their behavior and were allowed to do whatever they wanted because they knew there wouldn’t be any consequences.” I certainly understood her frustration. After all, it’s not the first time I’ve heard such concerns raised. Not surprising, I’ve been privy to hundreds of similar conversations with administrators regarding their frustrations with staff who they felt either ignored inappropriate student behavior or in their words, “just wanted the students punished.”

So, this teacher’s email got me thinking, where is the disconnect?  How can we begin to reflect on our practices to cultivate a school climate/culture where both staff and administration work together to carry the banner for one another in a positive way when it comes to addressing student behavior, acknowledging it is a challenging part of our work?

Consistency and clarity from administration is critical here. Staff have to be clear of our expectations of them and for ourselves regarding student discipline. If a lack of clarity exists on how issues are expected to be handled from the viewpoint of staff, this is sure to cause consternation among both staff and administration, not to mention potentially for student and families as well.

Here are four suggestions for administration to begin to address some of the common issues that are often shared with me when I am working with schools conducting cultural assessments.

a.    Develop clear, well-defined expectations and procedures for student discipline, including progressive, restorative discipline steps and role of staff and administration in addressing student behaviors. It is best if these can be created by both administration and staff (building leadership team) together.

b.    Avoid delayed consequences. Administrative team must work together to ensure that student referrals are addressed in a timely manner. This needs to be consistent among all members of the administrative team. When staff issues a behavioral referral and does not receive communication back from administration before student returns to class, this can create resentment among even your strongest teachers.

c.     Circling back with student concerns is imperative in order to gain support from staff. Most staff understand matters of confidentiality, but it’s also appropriate to share as much information as possible without violating confidentiality so staff can empathize and support administration. The more they know the more they typically are willing to bend a little. They don’t need to know all of the details, but having some general information can be beneficial and send a strong message that it takes a team approach to work with our most challenging students.

d.    Everyone is responsible for all students. We can recognize the challenges that come with trying to discipline students who we don’t know well or who staff have never had in class.  However, we should expect staff, at a minimum, to see all students as their students. In doing so, they don’t need to intervene in every negative student behavior, but at the very least, there needs to be an expectation to acknowledge inappropriate behavior and language when they encounter it. This begins to set the tone that certain behaviors are not acceptable and that staff is in alignment with what is appropriate and not appropriate.

Every two weeks, I share out 1 Reflection, 2 Ideas, and 1 Resource for you to consider that I hope will encourage you to explore new and better practices in your daily work. My aspirations are to support you in developing your skills and shifting your thinking so you will invest in your own development and maybe, just maybe, I can inspire you to want to live your excellence so you can bring your best self to school every day!

 Live your excellence…

Jimmy

ADDRESSING STUDENT DISCIPLINE: 121

1 REFLECTION

On the days when you are supervising students, try to avoid defining it as hallway duty or lunchroom duty, playground duty, or bus duty. Instead, begin to see all of these as relationship opportunities. Shift your thinking from duties to opportunities. – Live Your Excellence: Bring Your Best Self to School Every Day.

2 IDEAS

The way we communicate concerns or expectations can create negative undercurrents in the culture of schools. Staff often express concerns about the way information is communicated by administration, causing them to feel as though they are not doing enough and need to do more. This is often elevated by referral systems that are managed electronically. Whether this actually happens or not, if it is the perception among some staff, it is enough to create issues among more staff if they express this feeling privately to their colleagues. To minimize miscommunication, consider managing all conversations regarding student discipline face to face for a period of time. This would require administration to walk students back to class or connect with staff members during a non-instructional time to discuss the resolution of the referral. By having the conversation face to face with students present, students will see staff and administration working together and in turn, reduces chances of miscommunication regarding expectations moving forward. When we bring all parties together, we begin to create a process that leads to a higher standard of how we manage student discipline and build healthier relationships among students, staff and administration.

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 The high number of student referrals being generated continues to be a major concern for many schools. Teachers often communicate to me they feel pressured to manage their own classroom discipline issues for fear of being labeled as weak or incapable of managing student behavior. Others state they feel administration doesn’t do enough to support them with more serious student breaches of discipline, including classroom disruption, refusal to comply, verbal disrespect, swearing, aggressive and/or threatening verbal of physical behavior. From administration’s perspective, they often share with me that staff elevates certain misbehaviors, leading to a more severe consequence for students, such as ISS or out-of-school suspensions. In my work with schools, we have found evidence of this.

One process that school administration can use to begin to alleviate such concerns is to bring a group of staff together to facilitate a discussion and a review of all office referrals. This should only be done with the intent to see if there is a concern and if so, to determine the cause of it. This should not be done to determine names of individuals who may have been culpable. Confidence in the integrity of the process is of crucial importance in order to develop a supportive culture that isn’t looking for a “gotcha moment”, but rather an “I’ve got you moment.” Gather a set of referrals from a certain time period and/or demographic population (ie: month, quarter, semester, grade level, floor, male/female, regular education/special education, ethnicity, etc.). Conceal the name of students and staff members and focus on the overall description of the incident, and ask the team to look for any common themes (ie: time of incident, how did it begin, level of initial severity, who was involved, what was said by student, response by adult, length of incident from beginning to end, etc.) that may give them insight to how the situation ended up in a referral to the office and in some cases, a more severe consequence. When an analysis is done with the sole purpose of supporting staff and administration to help better manage student behaviors, not only do both groups benefit, but more importantly, students also benefit from a school culture that focuses on relationship opportunities.

1 RESOURCE

Every Kid Needs a Champion – Rita Pierson (Always timely, never gets old)

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