School Discipline

Think kicking kids out of school so they can bone up on Flintstone’s reruns is a good idea?  Take a look at this article from WTHR:

Indiana’s schools should come up with new ways to solve discipline issues instead of relying on strict rules that punish all students the same way, an Indiana University report says.

The university’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy said recently that many schools use rules like zero tolerance policies or one-day suspensions that may not change student behavior.

“We’re all reinforced by different things, and we’re all punished by different things,” said Sandy Washburn, one of the authors of the CEEP report.

Disciplinary issues are statistically worse in Indiana than elsewhere, the report found. During the 2005-06 school year, there were 6,324 expulsions and 313,322 suspensions in Indiana, according to the Department of Education. More than 600 schools that year reported a rate of 10 or more suspensions per 100 students.

IU researchers suggested a three-tiered system called Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports. The system includes schoolwide initiatives, group interventions for those with common disciplinary problems and individual interventions.

Some Indiana schools are already using the model and have had good results so far, the researchers said.

Sam Elder, a member of the Vanderburgh County Taxpayers Association, said the rates of suspension and expulsion in the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp. are too high.

“The last couple of years it has inched up, and the worst problems we have are at our high schools,” Elder said.