Schools Have Increased Flexibility to Address Student Discipline
December 2, 2010 - Revisions to school policy and strategies that keep students focused on instruction will provide schools increased flexibility in addressing student discipline.Audio Podcast Listen to Assistant Superintendent Marvin Connelly and Principal John Wall discuss student discipline 18 minute mp3 file |
Assistant Superintendent Marvin Connelly says the work of a Central Services professional learning team studying student behavior is having an impact.
“The Suspension Reduction and Prevention Professional Learning Team looks at the strategies that we can have as a system to improve student behavior, to get students to exhibit appropriate conduct at school and then when students don’t exhibit the appropriate conduct at school, what should those consequences look like,” said Connelly. “We’ve taken a look at short-term, as well as long-term suspensions, how do we prevent them on the front end how do we reduce them.”
Long-term suspension redefined
The Board of Education acted on recommendations from the educators in September to revise the policy that defines long-term suspension and to provide school administrators discretion in setting the length of long-term suspensions, rather than requiring a student be removed for the remainder of the school year.
Connelly said the board action aligns Wake County Board of Education policy with state law and state policy. Under the old WCPSS policy, long term suspension resulted in a student being suspended for the rest of the school year. Effective Jan. 25, 2011, the new definition for long-term suspension is: A long-term suspension is suspension for periods of time in excess of 10 school days, but not exceeding the time remaining in the school year.
The district will provide guidelines that give principals more discretion in setting the length of suspensions. Administrators want disciplinary options and the way the options are applied to be consistent from one school to another.
In implementing the changes, school administrators said it would be critical to (a) utilize a methodical process that includes soliciting feedback from principals, (b) allow sufficient time for school board members to review proposed revisions and provide guidance, (c) train administrators on the new policies and procedures and (d) give reasonable advance notice to parents and students of any major changes.
Ultimate goal is to educate children
North Garner Middle School principal John Wall is a member of the professional learning team discussing student discipline.
“My ultimate goal is to educate children, to help children be as successful as they possibly can be,” said Wall. “With that, you have a two-fold mission. You have to have an academic focus at the school that concentrates on what students should be learning. And you also have to have policies and procedures in place to govern student behavior so that the environment is conducive to learning.”
Wall said schools need an array of services for those students that might need additional help in being successful in their school or in an alternative program without students being long-term suspended for the remainder of a school year.
“Ultimately, if we can put in place some support for kids who are showing behavioral difficulties and get them stabilized to a point where they are effective in school, then we’ve accomplished a great deal,” said Wall. “We’ve kept that student in school. We’ve focused on them being successful behaviorally. Then academically they will have a chance to demonstrate what they know or don’t know, and we can possibly save a child from maybe dropping out of school or making a poor choice that causes problems.”
Wall said the key is to keep a child in school in order to effectively educate them. The professional learning team has been studying strategies to improve student behavior.
“We’re looking at the entire code of conduct for students, taking a look at the character education program. How do we provide additional training for students to ensure they exhibit the proper behavior in school?” said Connelly. “For staff, we’re looking at our positive behavior training which is a way of changing even staff’s behavior in the way they respond to inappropriate behavior.”
“Every school has its share of challenges when it comes to ensuring that kids’ needs are met either academically or behaviorally,” said Wall. “And what we have to do at the school level is look at how we intervene or our response to intervention. “
North Garner Middle School offers a continuum of responses to students who are struggling academically or behaviorally or have attendance issues.
“We put them through that response and intervention approach to try to intervene at the school level before we even look at an alternative setting for them,” said Wall. “We do try every step at the school level first, and we document, document, document. We keep very clear information about whether or not these interventions worked or they didn’t work. If they did not work, at that point we have to look at what alternative options are there for kids and for schools to access.”
System of alternative options
Connelly said the biggest challenge facing the school system is to develop a robust system of alternative options to serve students outside the traditional campuses.
“What we want to do in Wake County is to make sure that a student may be removed from the campus, but never removed from learning,” said Connelly. “He or she may be online virtually or may be in a brick and mortar location.”
Connelly said it’s important to realize that some students need an alternative setting not because of behavioral difficulties, but because the traditional campus may not be a good match for them academically. They may be better served in academies or in Career Technical Education programs.
“As we expand these options, it’s about more than just providing alternatives for students who have been long term suspended, it’s providing a complete array of alternative learning environments,” said Connelly. “Do we eventually have a virtual high school where all of the courses are online and all the students attend online? The teachers teach online. It’s about more than just alternative options for students who have been long-term suspended, but alternative learning completely is what we are looking at.”
Connelly and Wall said the team of educators will continue to study the best ways to serve students and schools.
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