Drop in Discipline Referrals for ALL Students: Multiple Strategies Produce Results

Post date: Feb 03, 2011 4:40:19 PM

At Alton Middle School, Alton CUSD 11, ODRs are decreasing for all students, including African American (AA) students. Through sharing and examining discipline data by categories of behavior (i.e., “subjective” categories such as defiance and disrespect), staff were able to decrease subjective referrals by 37% for both AA and White students from 2006-07 to 2008-09. In addition to the use of data to guide discussions about interventions, implementation of a social/emotional learning curriculum, restorative justice practices, and resiliency-building strategies are credited for the decrease in behavior problems for all students. The development of high-quality relationships among staff and students while building proactive tiered systems of support have resulted in zero expulsions for two and a half years.