Abstract
School exclusion as a disciplinary measure remains a controversial issue. In spite of numerous attempts to reduce this practice, no solutions with documented effectiveness exist. This article reports results of a cluster-randomized controlled field trial carried out in 36 schools across London. The trial is an independent evaluation of a 12-week-long intervention, Engage in Education-London (EiE-L), delivered by Catch22. The intervention was aimed at students in secondary school who are most at risk of school exclusion. It targeted their social communication and broader social skills with the aim of reducing school exclusions and problem behaviors. The study employed a multi-informant design that included students and teacher reports as well as official records for exclusions and arrests. Data were analyzed through intent-to-treat analyses based on self-reports from 644 students and 685 teacher reports for students who were nominated for the study and for whom data was available at baseline or post-intervention. At baseline data collection the students ranged in age from 12.85 to 15.03, with M = 14.03; 71 % were male and included a number of ethnic minorities, the largest of which was black African/black Caribbean comprising 40 % of the sample. The results suggested a small but statistically significant negative effect on the primary outcome of exclusion and null effects for the secondary outcomes that measured behavioral and socio-emotional outcomes. The study’s findings are discussed in terms of the possible reasons for the null effects and negative (iatrogenic) effect.
Highlights
Fixed period and permanent exclusions are used in schools in the United Kingdom as a method of tackling the more severe forms of student misbehavior, such as physical violence, or persistent disruptive behavior
While the primary focus of these meta-analyses was to assess the effects of these programs on externalizing behaviors in adolescence, they identified positive effects of socialskills based programs on school exclusion, as well as positive outcomes, such as social and communication skills, interpersonal relationships, and school performance. Together these findings suggest that an intervention focusing on building interpersonal communication skills as well as more general social skills may be an efficacious approach to reducing problem behavior and related outcomes, such as school exclusion
We focused on understanding whether the intervention would affect the likelihood of being Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) once the children complete compulsory schooling
Summary
Fixed period and permanent exclusions are used in schools in the United Kingdom as a method of tackling the more severe forms of student misbehavior, such as physical violence, or persistent disruptive behavior. A recent study by Perry and Morris (2014) found that students attending schools that exclude more frequently than other schools appear to suffer academically, whether or not those students are excluded. This is in contradiction to an often cited justification for exclusion as a policy, namely that the disruption caused to other children is unfair and risks their educational achievement (e.g., Noguera 2003; Perry and Morris 2014)
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