School Discipline Policies Research Articles

Influence of School Discipline Policies on Students Academic Performance in Rwandan Secondary Schools

The study explores the influence of school discipline policies on students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Rwanda. This research was guided by a broad objective: The research aimed to analyze the impact of school discipline policies on the academic performance of students in selected secondary schools while also directing specific objectives: to examine how the administration of school rules and regulations contributes to students’ academic performance; to examine how the students’ restorative practices and management influence students ‘academic performance; and to interpret the correlation between the secondary school discipline policies and students academic performance. This study was guided by McGregor’s theories x and y. The fundamental concepts in McGregor's Theory X and Y encompass rules and regulations, disciplinary actions, primarily punishments, and time management, particularly in the context of school punishment administration. In applying McGregor’s theory to this study, the main variables were school rules and regulations for efficient management and administration of punishments to students who do not abide by school rules and regulations and time management, which refers to the effective utilization of time allocated to individual activities in an education institution. The study was conducted in secondary schools with a population of 599, including students, teachers, the deputy head in charge of discipline, and head teachers. By using the Slovin formula, a sample size of 239 was used in this study, and stratified sampling was used so that each category would be represented. A descriptive design was used where both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Secondary data were obtained through documentation, library, and internet research. Primary data were collected using a questionnaire, an interview guide, and documentary analysis. Data were presented in tabulation formats and interpreted using the statistical package for social science (SPSS). The major findings of the study revealed that proper administration and management of school rules and regulations positively influence students' academic performance; restorative practices in schools, such as providing punishment, guidance, and counseling, influence students' academic performances. Finally, the study revealed a significant relationship between school discipline policies and students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Rwanda. Therefore, the study took the following as major recommendations: developing common measures for school discipline policies; enhancing the monitoring and evaluation of the rules and regulations' applicability; and establishing guidance and counseling services in schools.

In-School Suspension Through the Lens of Whiteness as Property: Exploring a School District’s Role in Maintaining Educational Inequality

Despite impacting almost three million students annually, and disproportionately impacting Black students, little is known about district policy and central office staff in the use of in-school suspension. The purpose of this study was to understand how districts use in-school suspension over time, with attention to racial disparities, programmatic changes, and central office perspectives. Case study methods were used to examine in-school suspension in one large school district in the Western United States. Data included two district board school discipline policies, quantitative in-school suspension data, and interviews with central office staff. We found a history of on-going racial disparities for Black and Latinx students and that decisions made by central office about in-school suspension had likely sustained these disparities over time. District policy goals of reducing racial disparities were found to be largely rhetorical in the face of an ethos of non-enforcement. Central office administrators believed they lacked the power to hold school principals accountable for implementing school discipline policy with fidelity to redressing racial disparities. Through the concept of Whiteness as Property, we argue these patterns demonstrated central office administrators’ protection of White educational and political propertied interests above those of educational opportunities for Black and Latinx students. This study contributes to the literature on in-school suspension by finding discrepancies between policy and practice and contributes to the field’s understanding of how school autonomy can undermine equity-oriented school discipline policies through racial negligence.

New Suns

New Suns

Assessing the Implementation of School Discipline Policy in Ghanaian Basic Schools

As part of the effort to create safer and more protective learning environments in Ghanaian schools, the Ghana Education Service in 2017 officially banned all forms of corporal punishment and required teachers to adopt a positive discipline toolkit based on a manual prescribed as an alternative to corporal punishment. This study sought to investigate the implementation of the alternative positive discipline policy in the basic schools of Ghana. The study utilized qualitative research approach to gather data from 15 teachers through semi-structured interviews. Based on thematic analysis, the study showed that the teachers used many discipline methods per the policy on school discipline. They included writing lines, manual work, physical punishments, time-out periods, classroom rules, appointment and withdrawal of positions, and counselling to manage students’ behavior. The study, however, found that teachers perceive the positive discipline methods to be ineffective in managing students’ behavior compared to the use of corporal punishment. The implication drawn from the study was that despite the use of some alternative discipline methods by the teachers, they have not abandoned all forms of corporal punishments in schools. The study therefore recommended, among other things, that school leaders and other authorities institute surveillance and monitoring systems to check violators and sanction teachers who refuse to employ the non-violent discipline methods prescribed by the Ghana Education Service.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline and the Limits of Metaphor

A substantial body of literature documenting the “school-to-prison-pipeline” identifies the adverse effects of punitive school discipline policies and how they have increased the contact students have with the juvenile justice system. This literature tends to position school policies and the broader education system as a significant contributor – both directly and indirectly – to incarceration. Relying on data from California, our paper first argues that there is little evidence of a direct “school-to-prison pipeline,” as school discipline policies are rarely directly responsible for juvenile incarceration. Drawing from an extensive secondary literature on mass incarceration and data on incarceration and crime rates, the paper then argues that there is little reason to believe that school policy is a substantive indirect driver of incarceration rates. Finally, we show that activists and policymakers have adopted the STPP framework in ways that incorrectly suggest that changes in school policy are key to addressing incarceration. While the metaphor has proven to be morally evocative and catchy, attracting the attention of activists and politicians across the political spectrum, it ultimately obfuscates the complex realities of what drives punitiveness in schools and in society writ large.

Manajemen Konflik Kebijakan Tata Tertib Sekolah Dalam Penanganan Pelanggaran Siswa Terlambat Masuk Sekolah Di SMA Negeri 1 Tamanan

This research is focused on conflict management of school discipline policies carried out by the school to late students entering school. The background of the research is that there are many violations of the rules, especially in terms of being late for school. The research was conducted with the aim of knowing the factors of being late for school and the implementation of conflict management policies on school discipline in handling students late for school at SMA Negeri 1 Tamanan. The research conducted is descriptive qualitative, namely research that produces data in the form of descriptive or written or unwritten words from sources. Informants in the study were counseling teachers, student teachers, and 5 students who were often late for school at SMA Negeri 1 Tamanan. Data collection techniques using observation and interviews. As for the research results obtained, namely the factor of students entering school late comes from self factors and school discipline policy factors. The application of conflict management policies for school discipline in handling students late for school is by giving points, encouraging motorbikes and reprimands when entering class by the teacher who is teaching.

Realizing the Future in the Present: Parent Organizing as a Practice of Solidarity

Imagining systemic change can be a lot to ask of Black and Latinx families in urban communities in light of long, sometimes intergenerational histories of marginalization and dehumanization in schools. For twenty years, CADRE (Community Asset Development Redefining Education) has been building the power and leadership of Black and Brown families in South Los Angeles “to protect and promote children’s dignity, opportunity to learn, and self-determination, by being at decision-making and policy-making tables and having the tools to monitor accountability in policy implementation.” When the community organizing group first engaged with the Family Leadership Design Collaborative (FLDC), CADRE had already successfully gotten the district to adopt new school discipline policies to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and had continued to monitor implementation (CADRE, 2017). However, the fundamental relationships and interactions between families and teachers in schools continued to reflect racist, dehumanizing ideologies entrenched in inequitable power dynamics. Maisie Chin, the Executive Director of CADRE, facilitated a series of codesign sessions with CADRE parents between 2017 and 2019 to not only surface these dynamics but to re-imagine how parent-teacher conversations and interactions might be different. CADRE co-designers undertook role-playing and collective reflection to intervene in moment-to-moment interactions as a way to change broader systemic dynamics.

Zero Tolerance vs Restorative Justice in the United States

As schools across the United States begin to move away from the harsh Zero Tolerance policies that characterised the better part of the previous three decades, there is an opportunity to change the focus of school discipline. Frequently, school discipline policies are centred on punitive approaches that separate students from their peers. Rather than meeting the needs of these students, schools alienate them from their peers, teachers, and school communities. The goal of the education system is to provide children and adolescents with a quality education that will allow them to grow into productive and participating members of society. Zero Tolerance and school discipline policies were created to protect students, but, in practice, these policies have proven to be harmful and have unintended consequences. Too often, punitive disciplinary action in the school setting puts students on a pathway that leads into the juvenile or criminal justice system. Although the Zero Tolerance policy is a federal initiative, many states are beginning to realise the harmful impacts this policy has on students, especially marginalised students. As a result, states are beginning to pass legislation that veers away from Zero Tolerance, focusing more on alternatives like restorative practices. This article will explore these issues and share information on policies current states are using and the implications of these policies on students, as well as the school-to-prison pipeline.

The Evil of Authoritarian Education: Banality and Compliance in the Neoliberal Era

Education is widely seen as a force for good, associated with hope and optimism about better individual and social futures. By contrast, and controversially, this paper argues that education and education policy in recent decades has been far from benign, as evidenced in the growing alienation of significant numbers of teachers and students and, crucially for our paper, in the growth of authoritarian models of schooling, involving 'zero-tolerance', 'no excuses' disciplinary approaches. Against this background, and drawing on Hannah Arendt and the work of contemporary moral philosophers Elizabeth Minnich and Simona Forti, this paper diagnoses the nature and effects of school discipline policies in the neoliberal era, and in particular practices such as isolation, as a contemporary form of banal, or everyday, evil.

The Plight of Persistently Disciplined Students: Examining Frequent Flyers and the Conversion of Office Discipline Referrals Into Suspensions

Racial inequality in exclusionary discipline is a salient educational equity issue. The implications of educators’ discretion in administering discipline and the complexity of repeated office discipline referrals (ODRs) and suspensions are reflected in school discipline policy debates nationwide. This brief uses New York City to learn more about persistently disciplined students. Black students are more likely to be persistently referred than other students. The disparities in the students who are persistently suspended are not as stark as the disparities in the students who are persistently referred. School characteristics play an essential role in predicting persistently disciplined students and the findings reinforce the value of teachers’ diversity and experience and school climate for reducing racial inequality in school discipline.

“If you want police, we will have them”: Anti-Black Student Discipline in Southern Schools and the Rise of a New Carceral Logic, 1961-1975

This paper examines the southern influence and litigation around carceral logic in public education, as evident in the racialized disciplinary codes and police presence in schools that led to the criminalization of youth during desegregation through the 1960s and into the 1970s. Southern school districts and state legislators worked in tandem with law enforcement to increase discipline and surveillance in newly desegregated spaces, changed laws to swiftly prosecute and remove youth from schools, and increasingly targeted youth with harsh disciplinary policies grounded in racist assumptions categorizing Black students as inherently violent. This form of disciplinary power and control presaged federal legislation including the Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1965 and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, and shaped the foundations of today’s anti-Black school discipline policies and police presence in schools. This article explicates how southern schools contributed to a burgeoning carceral logic that shared commonalities across the nation but at the same time were distinct from other regions.

Out-of-school suspension and school discipline policies: Analyzing change over time in one state

We examined changes in school discipline policies and the odds of suspension for students by race in one state. Consistent with previous research findings, Black students continue to be suspended at higher rates than White students. School district code of conduct policies indicated that many school districts have started to incorporate alternatives to suspension in their codes of conduct; nonetheless, in- and out-of-school suspension continued to be the most prominent consequences found in school district handbooks to respond to student behavioral infractions. We examined these policy changes alongside out-of-school suspension data to discuss the implications this has for school administrators and policy reform at the local, state, and national level.

Student-Principal Racial/Ethnic Match, Geographic Locale, and Student Disciplinary Outcomes

In-school suspensions represent one of the most frequently employed components of school exclusionary discipline systems, and they are also largely left up to the discretion of principals. The purpose of this study is to investigate in-school suspension disparities across student racial/ethnic groups, with a focus on differences between school geographic locales. We also examine the extent to which student to leader racial/ethnic matching is associated with the attenuation of in-school suspension outcomes for students of color. Drawing on state wide administrative data from Texas, representing over 24 million unique student-year observations, we use descriptive statistics and regression modeling to understand the relationship between student race/ethnicity and in-school suspension outcomes. The findings represent evidence of persistent in-school suspension disparities, specifically for Black students in non-urban school locales. Our findings also demonstrate a small but meaningful reduction in the likelihood of in-school suspension for a Black student in an urban school with a Black leader. We conclude with implications for educational leadership and policy, including a discussion of school leader hiring practices, culturally relevant school leadership, and the structuring of school disciplinary policies towards more equitable student outcomes.

A Gap in Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Coverage? A Critical Policy Analysis of States’ School Discipline Policies

A signature item that beleaguers most teachers is classroom management. Recognizing the futility of punitive classroom management within school discipline practices, Weinstein and colleagues forged culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM). While nearly 20 years of scholarship highlights the importance of teachers employing CRCM to reduce their reliance on punitive discipline approaches, which are disproportionally skewed against students of color, there exists a gap between educational research and educational policies concerning the use of CRCM in schools. We employed a critical policy analysis to determine the existence of CRCM in student code-of-conduct policies, across all 50 states. Our findings highlight an absence of CRCM in states’ policies, and limited support for the incorporation of CRCM in schools and school districts. Ultimately, an opportunity awaits stakeholders (teachers, school districts, education preparation programs, and policymakers) to reform educational policies and the tools teachers can employ to affirm and sustain students’ learning environments.

The roles of suspensions for minor infractions and school climate in predicting academic performance among adolescents.

African American adolescents are grossly overrepresented in rates of school suspensions for minor disciplinary infractions; however, the consequences associated with this disciplinary practice are unknown. African American adolescents who were suspended for minor infractions may perceive school rules and adults as unfair and illegitimate, and these poor perceptions toward school may compromise their social and interpersonal resources necessary for academic success. The present study investigates: (a) whether suspensions for minor infractions predict lower school grades longitudinally, and (b) whether poor school climate perceptions mediate the longitudinal link between suspensions for minor infractions and school grades. Based on 3 years of school records and social survey data from 2,381 adolescents (35% African American, 65% White), results illustrated that more African American adolescents were suspended for minor infractions than their White peers who committed similar infractions. In addition, African American adolescents suspended for minor infractions also had lower grades 1 and 2 years later. The longitudinal relation between suspensions for minor infractions and subsequent grades was partially mediated by African American adolescents' school climate perceptions. Implications are discussed in relation to racial biases and developmentally appropriate, equitable disciplinary practices. Public Significance Statement: The present study shows that more African American youth are suspended for minor infractions than White youth. In addition, these suspensions predicted poor school grades and school climate perceptions for African American youth. These findings raise concerns about school adults' discretion in using punitive school discipline policies and practices, as they may be contributing to academic disparities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Reining in Punitive Discipline: Recent Trends in Exclusionary School Discipline Disparities

Concerns around disparities in suspensions and expulsions from schools in the United States have resulted in a concerted effort to reduce the use of exclusionary school discipline. In this article, the authors describe trends in the use of exclusionary discipline in Indiana and Oregon, two U.S. states with different school discipline policy climates. The findings point to a substantial decline in the use of suspensions and other forms of exclusionary discipline in both states. The authors further find that racial and socioeconomic disparities have recently narrowed in both states, though Black students and students who were identified as economically disadvantaged remain likely to be disproportionately exposed to exclusionary discipline. These trends, and their timing, illustrate the broad-based change in disciplinary norms that has occurred in the U.S. over the past decade.

Urban Students’ Critical Race–Class Narratives: An Examination of the Relationship Between Race and Class Within the Context of Punitive School Discipline

Background/Context: In the wake of the 1994 national call for zero tolerance and the growth of school policing programs in the United States throughout the 1990s and 2000s, an abundance of research has demonstrated that Black and Latinx students are disproportionately targeted for suspension and expulsion from school, and students of color, particularly those attending racially segregated schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, are substantially more likely to be subjected to daily policing and arrests. In addition, there is a significant body of critical scholarly work that examines the larger social–historical context of punitive school discipline and policing. Such studies illuminate the historical and structural underpinnings that give rise to punitive school discipline and reveal how school discipline policies have become an extension of the societal project of mass incarceration and aggressive policing in high poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods in the United States and elsewhere. Existing critical studies of school discipline and policing generally acknowledge both the race and class dimensions of punitive discipline. However, most critical studies tend to situate punitive school discipline and policing in either a political economic or a critical race analysis, so they do not necessarily provide insight into the specific ways students’ class positions and racial identities work together to shape their experiences of punitive discipline, schooling, and a racialized political economy. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This article offers an analysis of ways that students in a racially segregated urban high school with punitive disciplinary practices narrate their understandings of the impact of race and political economy on their experiences of schooling, the labor market, and policing in and out of school. The author, building on the political economic analyses of Jean Anyon, argues that the students’ “critical race–class narratives” offer important theoretical and practical insights into the ways social class and race intersect to shape students’ experiences of schooling and policing in urban schools. Research Design: This analysis draws on a previously published critical ethnographic study of school policing in a racially segregated high school in a high-poverty Bronx, New York, neighborhood. The larger study examined students’ lived experiences of school policing and the ways that order-maintenance-style street-policing tactics inside the school worked to funnel students into the criminal justice system, often for minor school infractions. The investigation also revealed a disinvestment in educational interventions and counseling services in favor of a social-control approach in the school. For this study, the author revisits the interview data with four key research participants to gain insight into the interconnectedness of race and class oppression within the students’ lived experience of schooling, policing, and the labor market. In addition, drawing on critical (Marxian) education theory, critical race theory, and historical analyses in the Black radical tradition, the author analyzes the students’ critical race–class narratives with the aim of contributing to a more integrated theory of race and political economy in educational research. Findings: The author identifies two interrelated narrative strategies used by the students as they discussed their experiences of racial oppression and economic exclusion. Specifically, students provided an integrated critical race–class analysis through the use of a collective frame and the use of spatial terms to describe their experiences. As they spoke in collective and spatialized terms about their local and immediate lived experiences of education, discipline, and the labor market, the students’ conceptualizations of race and class became fused. Their use of the word “ghetto,” for example, signified both a racialized and a social class experience. The author argues that the students’ narrative strategies reflect historical analyses within the Black radical tradition that reveal how race and racism are constructed to support the rise of capitalism. Conclusion: First, the critical race–class narratives of young people living in ghettoized neighborhoods and attending racially segregated schools can serve as an important starting point for examinations of contemporary mechanisms of social reproduction as well as the resistance practices, resilience, cultural resources, and lived experiences of students of color in urban schools. The narratives can hold urban education scholars who tend to dismiss the centrality of race or skirt around the dire impact of neoliberal capitalist political economy accountable to the lived realities of the students they study. Second, critical urban education researchers must recognize the tremendous significance of penal control and what it signifies in the lives of racialized youth in urban areas.

The inequitable consequences of school disciplinary policies on Black girls in Ohio

Studies have examined the effects of school disciplinary policies and practices on Black boys. Much of this research highlights the degree to which many of these disciplinary policies and practices have affected Black boys in P-12 contexts in negative ways. A small and emerging body of scholarship has begun to investigate the effects of school discipline policies and practices in P-12 contexts on Black girls. The focus of this study was to investigate the effects of disciplinary policies on Black girls in comparison to girls from other races in the 15 largest school districts in Ohio. Drawing from recent out-of-school suspension data from the Office for Civil Rights Data Collection, we examined the degree to which Black girls were suspended out of school in the 15 largest school districts in Ohio. More specifically, out-of-school suspension rates (1 or more suspensions combined) for Black girls in relation to the suspension rates of girls from other racial backgrounds was analyzed. Findings indicated that Black girls were suspended at disproportionately higher rates in the majority of the districts in this study. Recommendations for practice are discussed.

Development of Black to Success: A Culturally Enriched Social Skills Program for Black Adolescent Males

Within schools across the nation, disproportionality in school discipline policies and practices continues to impact many racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) students. To combat the detrimental implications of discipline disproportionality, systemic changes to policies, practices, and accountability for teachers and school staff are required. Additionally, more culturally responsive social–emotional learning programs and interventions intended for Black males are needed to teach and promote culturally relevant prosocial behaviors. The current study sought to collect evidence from leading experts regarding the cultural validity of a culturally enriched social skills program for Black male adolescents titled Black to Success (B2S). Feedback from experts was integrated into the B2S curriculum to foster effectiveness and appropriateness for Black male participants. Results suggest that experts agreed or strongly agreed that the ten social skills and instructional strategies within B2S were important and culturally relevant, and included activities that promote positive racial/ethnic identity development of Black adolescent males.Impact Statement Feedback from school psychologist with expertise in social skills, racial/ethnic identity development, and culturally responsive adaptations to interventions for Black male adolescents enabled modifications to improve the cultural relevance and effectiveness of a culturally enriched social skills program for Black male adolescents. Such interventions are needed for Black adolescent males to promote culturally appropriate prosocial behavior and help Black males navigate the systemic barriers such as discipline disproportionality found within schools. Impact Statement Feedback from school psychologist with expertise in social skills, racial/ethnic identity development, and culturally responsive adaptations to interventions for Black male adolescents enabled modifications to improve the cultural relevance and effectiveness of a culturally enriched social skills program for Black male adolescents. Such interventions are needed for Black adolescent males to promote culturally appropriate prosocial behavior and help Black males navigate the systemic barriers such as discipline disproportionality found within schools.

The banality of education policy: Discipline as extensive evil in the neoliberal era

Education is usually considered a force for good, associated with hope and optimism about better individual and social futures. Yet a case can be made that education and education policy in recent decades, far from being a force for good, has had nefarious effects at multiple levels. This can be seen in the growing alienation of significant numbers of teachers and students in disparate global contexts and in the growth of authoritarian models of schooling, involving ‘zero-tolerance’, ‘no excuses’ disciplinary approaches, that have undermined notions of the common school as a public good. Against this background, and drawing on philosophical literature and our own empirical research, this study interrogates the practice in schools in England of placing students in ‘isolation’. In considering this practice as an instance of banal education policy, our study makes obvious reference to Hannah Arendt’s characterization of evil in her account of Adolf Eichmann’s trial. But it also draws on the work of moral philosophers, Elizabeth Minnich and Simona Forti, in relation to the distinction between intensive and extensive evil, in order to analyse the nature and effects of school discipline policies and practices such as isolation in the neoliberal era as a contemporary form of evil.