archives@tulane.edu / Black boys and girls are disproportionately excluded from classrooms, leading to worse school and justice system outcomes than children of other races. Minimal qualitative research has been conducted on gender specific analysis of disciplinary data, though there has be an increased interest in conducting both qualitative and quantitative research taking gender into account. This study seeks to identify gender specific patterns in office discipline referrals by teachers to better understand how teachers describe discipline worthy behaviors by student gender. A phenomenological qualitative analysis was conducted using one year of office discipline referral data from a U.S. southern urban K-4 public charter elementary school. The data were analyzed separately by gender, using both deductive and inductive coding. Findings suggest teachers perceive male and female students as intentionally behaving in ways which teachers have difficulty managing and which are perceived as disruptive to the classroom environment or disrespectful to the teacher. Girls were found to be referred more for disrespect and boys more for disrupting the class and leaving class without permission. Recommendations include more detailed reporting on all types of exclusionary discipline, including in-school suspensions, operationalization of discipline worthy behaviors and consequences and gaining student perspective on discipline practices. / 1 / Haley Peele

Student achievement is one of the most important aspects of school life. With the rise in current standards and the pace to which teachers and students are expected to conduct their lessons, teachers must find ways to improve student behaviors by nonpunitive discipline techniques. Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a form of classroom management that focuses on the good behavior rather than the bad behavior. A rural school in Mississippi took on such an initiative by implementing PBIS as a schoolwide discipline management plan after the 2011-2012 school year. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of the implementation of PBIS on the number of discipline referrals and conduct trend analysis of the number of discipline referrals after the schoolwide implementation of PBIS. Further, the study sought to determine if there were statistically significant relationships between the number of discipline referrals and English language arts score and the number of discipline referrals and mathematics scores. An existing database from a rural school in Mississippi was compiled and analyzed for the purpose of the study. Data were analyzed for a year before PBIS implementation and seven years following PBIS implementation. The findings of the study indicated there was a statistically significant difference in the number of discipline referrals before PBIS implementation when compared to the first year following full implementation. The trend data indicated that Black males consistently had the highest number of discipline referrals and had the lowest test scores in ELA and mathematics. Further, the findings showed there were consistently negative relationships among the number of discipline referrals and ELA scores and the number of discipline referrals and mathematics scores.

No description available.

Research indicates a connection between student discipline rates and school climate. In a large, urban K-12 public school district, student discipline concerns were increasing while school climate ratings were decreasing during the last few years. Guided by Bandura's social learning theory, the purpose of this ex post facto, causal-comparative study was to identify differences in teachers' perceptions of school climate, as measured by the New Teacher Project (TNTP) Insight Survey, between schools with high student discipline referral rates and schools with low student discipline referral rates in this school district. The study sample included 6,994 new and veteran certified teachers from N = 72 K-12 schools (n = 36 high discipline referral rate schools; n = 36 low discipline referral rate schools). Teachers' TNTP ratings for Spring 2014-2016 on the overall school climate index, learning environment, and school leadership scales were the dependent variables for the analyses. Independent samples t test results indicated significant differences in overall school climate index, as well as the learning environment and school leadership scales for schools with high compared to low discipline referral rates. Findings showed that schools with high student discipline referral rates had more negative climate ratings than schools with low student discipline referral rates across the three TNTP scales for these teachers. These outcomes suggest that school leaders may create positive social change by identifying and implementing effective strategies aimed at improving student behavior and responses to student discipline as one possible means for fostering a more positive school climate which benefits students, teachers, and staff alike.

No description available.

School officials are constantly challenged to perform a myriad of duties in an extremely complex and demanding job with numerous responsibilities. They are expected to work with a variety of students, faculty and parents under difficult circumstances. "Faced with multiple needs, with the necessity of making fast decisions in an atmosphere of fragmented time, administrators are liable for everything they do." School administrators need to understand the rights guaranteed to students by the Fourth Amendment and how it applies to the school setting. This document will provide an overview of student search and seizure in kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12) public schools in a non-traditional dissertation (non-experimental design) format by providing an historical review of the relevant case law. Specifically, based upon legal research, it will review relevant Supreme Court cases, post-New Jersey v. T.L.O. federal, Pennsylvania and other state court cases related to search and seizure in K-12 public schools. The conclusion and summary will provide answers to the guiding questions, provide a conceptual model, outline what is a reasonable search, and provide a short practical school law exercise to test the reader's understanding of search and seizure in public schools. / Ed. D.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 was established to improve student achievement among all public school students. To accomplish this goal, this federal mandate requires each state to establish the seven set priorities under NCLB. In addition, each state is required to establish and report their accomplishments and failures annually. One priority listed under NCLB required that all public schools establish a safe learning environment for students, school staff, and parents (U.S. Government, 2001). Some researchers have identified a high frequency of student discipline incidents, resulting in high suspension and expulsion rates, as a negative constuct that hinders teachers from establishing a nurturing learning environment. As a result, students are unable to develop the skills they need to successfully pass their state-wide assessment test (Howard et. al., 1987; Hernandez & Seem, 2004). Therefore, this study was designed to determined if there is a relationship between incidents of student discipline and student achievement across public school districts in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. For the purpose of this study, a hierarchical clustering analysis was used to create five clusters of school divisions (N=1,108) within the four states according to similiarities. To accomplish this task, a data matrix was created, which contains data of the total number of incidents for disorderly conduct, weapon violations, substance abuse, and violence; the number of students receiving free and reduced lunch; and the number of students by race/ethnicity for each school district within the four states. The findings indicate that there is a relationship between incidents of student discipline and student achievement among the four states. / Ph. D.

Generally in today’s classrooms educators have the responsibility to develop teaching practices that are best suited for a particular group of learners. Since the early days of 1-room schools, various teaching styles have been developed to accommodate a changing world. As the curriculum has broadened through the years, individual student needs have remained the focus as teachers have become more and more accountable for student learning. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate or identify how successful teachers manage their classrooms. It defines key student behavior issues that most teachers experience daily. The study further investigates the hypothesis that lesson planning and productive teaching with overall good student behavior is not a product of good luck or chance; it results from efforts made by caring teachers who aid learning for their student. I attempt to determine what the typical teacher does in efforts to reach the goal of effectively educating students and managing various issues that arise within the classroom setting simultaneously. The study was conducted in a rural community within middle school grade levels. All teachers were interviewed and asked open-ended questions during the 2013-14 school year. Also, the teachers were observed in their actual classrooms. I examined the practices that enable them to teach. The teacher responses offered valuable information about perceptions pertaining to excellent teaching, classroom management, and the relevance of teaching factors that enhance student learning. Exerting extra effort toward minimizing classroom disruptions, while consistently providing a learning environment, requires an assertive approach in planning before the students enter the classroom. This research can provide all educators insight to such of an educational environment that has proven to be productive in today’s complex world. These teaching attributes would better assure students upon their arrival to the classroom each day, a routinely excited, enthused, and caring educator.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of West Florida, 2009. / Submitted to the Division of Teacher Education. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 185 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this study was to determine if character education programs impact the suspension rates of students from regular instructional public elementary schools in Texas. The data was also examined to determine if the number of years since a school's implementation of a character education program has an impact on the effectiveness of the programs as measured by the suspension rates of students from school. Finally, the study sought to determine if the socio-economic status of the schools has an impact on the effectiveness of character education programs as measured by the student suspension rates. A random sample of 135 regular instructional public elementary schools in Texas was collected. The principal of each school completed a questionnaire that was used to sort schools into three groups: schools with "direct" character education programs, schools with "indirect" character education programs, and schools that have implemented no type of character education program. A two-year history of suspensions was obtained for each school. The data was analyzed using one-way and two-way ANOVAs. The results of the analyses indicated that the implementation of character education programs, no matter what type, did not produce statistically significant differences in student suspension rates from school. Furthermore, the data revealed that neither the number of years since the implementation of the character education programs nor the socio-economic status of the schools had an impact on the effectiveness of the character education programs as measured by the student suspension rates from school.