ZeroIntelligence.net

Schools learn to laud the good

Some Carolina schools are looking at themselves and their neighbors and are beginning to realize that zero tolerance and concentration on punitive measures doesn’t work very well.

Kids suffer academically when suspended from school, [Russell Skiba, an Indiana University education professor] said. Even factoring in issues such as poverty and race, Indiana schools with higher suspension rates saw 49 percent of their students pass state exams — compared with 58 percent of the kids at schools with lower suspension rates.

“You put kids out of school, those kids come back, and they haven’t learned anything,” said Skiba, who wrote a report called “Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence.” “You just get into an endless loop.”

Studies show schools write more than half their office referrals for only about 6 percent of the students. If that kind of discipline worked, some argue, the same kids wouldn’t continue to misbehave. Getting tough is more likely to create anger and resentment, said Diann Irwin, of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, who coordinates the state’s positive behavior program.

They have begun implementing a system used by parents the world over - rewarding good behavior to encourage more good behavior.

Positive behavior plans are now used in dozens of states. In the past five years, a third of North Carolina’s 115 school districts have begun spotlighting good deeds instead of emphasizing bad behavior. And even the state’s schools for juvenile delinquents — now called youth development centers — use the strategy.

Some already report results like those across Maryland. Twelve of that state’s elementary and middle schools started using the positive behavior approach in 2002, said Lewis, the Missouri professor working with CMS. The next year, the number of times students were ordered to the office dropped by more than 5,600. Principals dealing with fewer troublemakers saved an estimated 11 percent of their time, and the students spent an extra 32 percent of their time in class.

It is working at phenomenally successful levels. Cleveland County’s Township Three Elementary School had 35 office referrals during the first month of school this year. Compare that to 125 referrals in the same span in 2001, before the positive behavior plan was implemented. More than 50 South Carolina schools have started using the plan in the past two years. They have experienced 20 to 60 percent drops in their numbers of office referrals. Warlick is Gaston County’s alternative school and deals with children with severe behavior problems. Suspensions are down by a third and these troubled students are taking more semester credits.

Susan DuRant, state director for the South Carolina education department’s office of exceptional children would like to see the positive behavior plan implemented statewide. The benefits to the students and the school system itself are obvious and the data accumulated thus far is overwhelmingly positive. I wish Susan DuRant the best of luck in getting this adopted statewide and sincerely hope that other states will take notice and follow the example.

Isn’t it nice to read some good news for a change?