Theses and Dissertations
Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Roslyn Doctorow
Committee Member
Jamie Leeder
Committee Member
Kimberly Durham
Keywords
academic achievement, charter schools, disciplinary problems, elementary
Abstract
Many teachers leave the field altogether after a few years of teaching. Research showed that teachers consistently rate the behavior problems of their students as one of the primary reasons for them to quit teaching. Among teachers who have left the field over the past 10 years, some 80% stated that discipline problems caused by students was one of the primary reasons for their departure. Student discipline has been reported as a factor associated with high rates of teachers leaving the teaching profession. Two studies of teacher attrition rates found that problems with students’ discipline issues and classroom management issues were the main reasons that many teachers leave the teaching profession after three years of teaching.
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore charter school elementary teachers’ perception of disciplinary problems on academic achievement in a charter school in the southern part of Louisiana. The research site was a medium size charter school. The school serves about 300 students from grades K through six grades. The majority of students at the school come from low-income families with incomes below 25,000 for a family of four. The school racial makeup consisted of a majority of African American students. The number of teachers at the targeted school consisted of 25 with one principal, one assistant principal, and one school counselor. The study utilized a qualitative approach with open-ended interview questions. The researcher sampled 10 of the 25 teachers at the school of focus in Louisiana.
The findings revealed that many teachers at the charter school faced discipline problems such as students talking out of turn, disrupting others learning in the classroom, talking back to the teacher, using profanity, and out of seat behaviors. Strategies teachers noted to be effective were the Champ Program, PBIS, and Non-violent Crisis Intervention.
NSUWorks Citation
Simone Elloie Shelton. 2018. Elementary Charter School Teachers' Perceptions of Student Discipline on Academic Achievement. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education. (193)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/fse_etd/193.