ERIC ED430279: District-Wide Administrator Assistance: Decreasing Suspension Rates through Clear Reporting and Utilization of Discipline Alternatives.

202 Pages·1999·2.5 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
EA 029 801
ED 430 279
Neeld, Robin R.
AUTHOR
District-Wide Administrator Assistance: Decreasing
TITLE
Suspension Rates through Clear Reporting and Utilization of
Discipline Alternatives.
1999-00-00
PUB DATE
210p.; Ed.D. Practicum, Nova Southeastern University.
NOTE
Practicum Papers (043)
Dissertations/Theses
PUB TYPE
Evaluative
Reports
Numerical/Quantitative Data (110)
(142)
MF01/PC09 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Discipline; *Discipline Policy; Elementary Secondary
DESCRIPTORS
Education; *Program Descriptions; Program Effectiveness;
*Punishment; *Recordkeeping; Rural Schools; School
Districts; Suspension; Tables (Data); Violence
Florida
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This paper describes a program that was developed and
implemented to define better the incidents used by a rural school district to
report school violence to the state. The program was also designed to
decrease the use of out-of-school suspension by 90 school administrators in
this Florida district. Some of the strategies used for the program included
inservices to instruct principals, assistant principals, and deans in
accurate incident reporting and alternative actions to out-of-school
suspensions. The levels of success for the program were measured by the
pretest and posttest of the common base of knowledge of administrators and
through direct comparison of data provided by earlier tests. Discipline
action reports for each of the 35 schools under consideration were used for
comparison. Results show that program objectives were met in all of the
elementary and middle schools and in five of the six high schools. Eleven of
the 18 elementary schools decreased their aggregate discipline rate by 1.5
percent or more; all 10 middle schools decreased their aggregate discipline
rate by 8.1 percent or MOre; and 5 out of 6 high schools decreased their
aggregate discipline rate by 9.7 percent or more. All three of the targeted
schools showed a dramatic improvement in all areas. (Contains 21 appendices.)
(RJM)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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District-wide Administrator Assistance:
Decreasing Suspension Rates Through
Clear Reporting and Utilization of
Discipline Alternatives
By
Robin R. Neeld
A Final Report submitted to the Faculty of the Fischler
Center for the Advancement of Education of Nova
Southeastern University in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Educational Leadership.
Educational Specialist
An abstract of this report may be placed in the
University database for reference.
December 26, 1998
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
iUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS
CENTER (ERIC)
BEEN GRANTED BY
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it.
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
0 Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
official OERI position or policy.
1
Table of Contents
Page
Abstract
i
Authorship Statement
ii
Project Verification
iii
Principal Competency #8
iv
Principal Competency #5
v
List of Tables
Needs Prevention Profile
Table 1:
4
Elementary SESIR 1994-95
Table 2:
7
Table 3: 1g Semester 1997-98 Discipline Action Summary
8
Elementary School Vital Signs 1994-95
Table 4:
9
Middle School Vital Signs 1994-95
Table 5:
10
High School Vital Signs 1994-95
Table 6:
11
lst Semester 1998-99 Discipline Action Summary
Table 7:
80
Chapters
Purpose
I.
1
Research Solution & Strategy
II.
18
Method
III.
53
Results
IV.
77
Recommendations
V.
85
3
101
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
GTEP PRACTICUM INTERNSHIP
Practicum Cover Sheet
1Pc6i n R. t\..Lee
I A
NAME OF SITE
Practicum Student
Bradenton
`i 7 5 3
Home Phone 04 35 7
S.S.#
Daytona
Ft. Lauderdale
-P-ottiri
2-(?2-i
Home Address
Ft. Myers
c)
Gainesville
3 2.7
10Y1
0,...,5. 41-s
c.,
Las Vegas
Melbourne
Practicum Facility:
Miami
Orlando
Position
Phoenix
Tampa
Address
West Palm Beach
Work Phone (
)
C-c.,
\.,2,
TYPE OF DOCUMENT
Name of Mentor
r L.4
si
A -e-y.
Position at practicum facility
Proposal
TN.
Home Phone (
Final Report
)
crs
AS5 S
;Lc
4-0
Practicum Title
CHECK DEGREE
i2.64-e-r-,
S
V..-121
M.S.
-1.--)%sc,
YN.12.--
TIMING INFOR
TION:
Ed.S.
41Ig fclg
Date of practicum registration
DEGREE MAJOR
6/i
S /93
Practicum implementation start-up date
2-/ 2(437
Practicum implementation ending date
A) rex
PRINT ADVISOR'S NAME
ADVISOR'S SIGNATURE
date
FOR OFFICE USE
date
Practicum Office Administrator
11/95
Final Grade:
Course Number:
4
Reference List
89
Appendixes
93
Appendix A: School Environmental Incident Report
94
Appendix B: SESIR Incident Codes
96
Appendix C: Informal Survey of Administrators
98
Appendix D: SESIR Discipline Action Codes
100
Appendix E: Administrator Needs Assessment Survey
102
Appendix F: Administrator Needs Assessment Survey Results
104
Appendix G: 1997-98 Discipline Incident & Action Data
107
Appendix H: District-wide Administrator Agenda Day I & II
115
Attendance/Truancy
Appendix I:
118
Managing Discipline
Appendix J:
125
Appendix K: Alternative Disciplinary Program
139
Appendix L: Administrative Placement Due to Felony Charges.
141
Appendix M: Adolescent Substance Abuse Education Program
146
149
Appendix N: Tobacco Education Program
Appendix 0: Expulsion Procedures
154
Appendix P: DAA Pre/Post Test
159
Appendix Q: SESIR Summary Overheads
161
Appendix R: Alternatives to Suspension
165
5
Appendix S: 1998-99 SESIR Summary
172
1St Semester 1998-99 Suspension Summary
Appendix T:
182
Appendix U: DAA Pre/Post Test Results
184
6
Abstract
District-wide Administrator Assistance: Decreasing
Suspension Rates Through Clear Reporting an
Utilization of Discipline Alternatives.
Nee Id, Robin R., 1998. Practicum Report, Nova
Southeastern University, Fisch ler Center for the
Advancement of Education.
Descriptors: Discipline/Administration of Discipline/
Alternative Disciplinary Programs/Dropout Prevention/
At-Risk Learners/Discipline Incident Reporting
This program was developed and implemented to increase the
consistency of defining the incidents used to report school
violence to the state and decrease the use of out-of-school
suspension by ninety school administrators in a rural school
district. Strategies included inservice for principals, assistant
principals, and deans on accurate incident reporting, alternative
actions, and procedures for placement into alternative
disciplinary programs. Levels of success were measured by the
pre-test and post-test of common base of knowledge of
administrators with the SESIR and direct comparison of the data
provided by the fall 1997 and the fall 1998 SESIR with an
emphasis on the decrease in the out-of-school suspension rate.
Program objectives were met with the elementary and middle
All program objectives
schools and in five of the six high schools.
the three targeted schools showed a dramatic improvement in all
areas. Appendixes include procedures for placement in
alternative programs, recommendation for expulsion and
administrative placement due to felony charges, strategies for
managing discipline, pre/posttest, SESIR Reference handbook,
forms for alternative to suspension.
7
Authorship Statement
I hereby testify
that this
paper and the work it
reports are entirely
been
my own. When it has
necessary to draw from the
work of others,
published or unpublished,
such work in
I have acknowledged
accordance with
accepted scholarly
and editorial
practice. I give this
freely, out of
testimony
respect for the scholarship
of others in the
field and in the
hope that
presented here, will
my own work,
earn similar respect.
st
ent's signature
Document Release
Permission is hereby
given to Nova
Southeastern University
applied research
to distribute copies
project on
of this
request from interested
parties. It is
my understanding that
Southeastern University
Nova
will not charge
for this dissemination
other than to
duplicating, handling,
cover the costs of
and mailing of
the materials.
stu ent's signature
/2-A.Y1cd
date
r-N
iv
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
GTEP PRINCIPAL COMPETENCY RECORD
DATE SUBMITTED 6/11/98
Robin R. Nee Id
NAME
Managing Interaction
8
TITLE:
COMPETENCY:#
Target Population
Facility
Selling:
knantary
Admini
stta
44.40446i
Teachers
Parents
Ptseoñdary
Staff
District Personnel
Other Dist:let
Community members
Other
Area of Impact
Topic
arget of the problem.-
Program
41.00*-i*
Department
Grade level
Curriculum
gAi&A
Program
DiAtict
Teaching
Other
Other
Baseline statistics that confirm the problem: 1994-1997 SESIR
June 2-3, 1998
Date Administered:
PRE & POST Test
Evaluation Tool:
Post-Test Average = 99
Scores: Pre-Test Average = 65%
A
on .
ch
Briefly describe the part of practicum implementation when she draws upon recognized leaders
among the goup members.
I was to develop an inservice for all level administrators regarding the use of discipline incident
practices.
codes and defmitions by dividing the activities among administrators with school based effective
These administrators were to be selected_ explained how they were chosen and asked to participate. They
discuss
were encouraged to prepare handouts and then meet with the Assistant Superintendent to
procedures. Each was given a 15 minute time limit and told that staying on task was essential to time
_Results:
Explain the outcomes.
The day long inservice was named the "District-wide Administrator Assistance"
and was compressed into a 31/2 hour session. Each of the 14 administrators presented
interventions, strategies, and alternatives utilized at their school site to implement the
SESIR effectively and most importantly consistently. By utilizing peer administrators,
the information was received in a much more open forum. When a presenter went
within
beyond the allotted time, other administrators shortened their presentations to stay
the allotted time. Two speakers were from outside agencies and were invited to future
principal meetings. Evaluations were extremely high on validity and usefulness of
information.
I confirm that this activity took lace as stated.
Date
Professor's Signature
BESTCOPYAVAILABLE
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
GTEP PRINCIPAL COMPETENCY RECORD
DATE SUBMITTED October 7., 1998
Robin R. Nee Id
NAME
Information Search & Analysis
5.3
II1LE:
COMPETENCY:#
Target Population
Facility
Setting:
Administrators
Elementary
Teachers
Middle grades
Parents
Secondary
Staff
Post secondary
District Office
Other
District Personnel
Community members
Other
Area of Impact
Topic
arget qf the problem:
Achievement
Progra m
Department
Behavior
Grade level
Curriculum
School
Progiam
District
Teaching
Otha
Other
Baseline statistics that confirm the problem:
Evaluation Tool: School Environmental Incident Reportino (SESER) Date administered: 1997-98
Action:
Briefly describe the part of the competency that involves gathering and analysis
of data from multiple sources before arriving at an understanding of an event or problem.
I was responsible for pulling SESIR action summary data for the 1997 school year
and then comparine the use of certain categ.ories by school level (elementary, middle,
I noticed that certain schools had noticeably higher rates of out of school
high school).
I compared the SESIR incident summaries for LHS to the truancy referrals
suspension.
I scheduled a meeting with the Deputy
at LHS and compared the GPA of those students.
Superintendent to discuss the overuse of out of school suspension and the inconsistent
communicate this
use of certain incident codes at specific codes. I developed a system to
information to the school administrators.
Explain the outcomes.
Results:
I showed the data collection to the LHS principal to discuss the need for alternatives
to stop the overwhelming truancy issues that face the school. This data collection
showed that 75% of the discipline referrals were for truancy/tardiness issues. Of the 516
students averaeed
cases of truancy at LHS between August 11, 1997 and March 31, 1998,
inservice and training to
a 1.396 GPA. The principal was encouraged to arrange summer
create new alternatives and solutions to halt the alarming trend of truancy.
Inservice, peer and faculty mentoring, creation of ISS, hiring a Behavior Specialist,
and a truancy clerk were all outcomes of bringing this information to light.
/oh A
Date
Professor's Signature
BESTCOPYAVAILABLE
10