As usual, Joe Coletti is on target. Out of school suspensions are rewards not punishments. But it should be emphasized that school-based solutions to persistent student discipline problems DO NOT REQUIRE special programs, additional resource officers, more counselors, or smaller class sizes.
Schools already have the resources to deal with student discipline, so says a well-known scholar on the subject:
Denise G. Gottfredson, “Developing Effective Organizations to Reduce School Disorder.” In Strategies to Reduce Student Misbehavior, edited by Oliver C. Moles. Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 1989.
Earlier this year, a less well known scholar, me, took a brief look at the 44 worst performing high schools in North Carolina and found that they spend more per student, have smaller class sizes, and have teacher characteristics (experience, turnover, etc.) consistent with state averages. As expected, they issue out of school suspensions far above the district average.
One problem is that school leaders do not rely on research-based strategies to deal with student discipline. Instead, they are content to tell students to not let the door hit them on the way out. In this context, it is ironic that they want to be considered “instructional leaders.”
