Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
EdD Program for Educational Leaders
Advisor
Anne Joslin
Committee Member
Claudia Santin
Keywords
assertive discipline, Atlanta, class meetings, conflict resolution, discipline referrals, elementary schools, effective discipline, in-school suspension, interviews, kindergarten, metropolitan areas, observations, planning rooms, positive discipline, proactive supervision, recidivism, repeat offenders, school climate, small communities, staff development, student behavior, teacher training
Abstract
Will a staff-development program that includes an emphasis on conflict resolution, positive-discipline approaches, and proactive supervision lead to a reduction in discipline referrals for the school? In addition, will the development of the planning-room concept as a replacement for in-school suspension lead to fewer repeat offenders? Those were the research questions that guided this study. The school climate was measured through the discipline referral reviews and administrative observation.
The setting for this applied dissertation implementation was an elementary school serving 700 students in kindergarten through 5th grade. The school is located in a small community that is included in the metropolitan Atlanta area but continues to retain much of the small-town culture.
The focus for this applied dissertation was selected because of high rates of discipline referrals from several teachers. In addition to these referrals, there was a high rate of recidivism among those referred for discipline reasons causing the school climate to suffer.
The intervention consisted of a staff-development program for effective discipline that focused on conflict resolution and assertive discipline training for teachers. In addition, the school used a planning-room concept in an attempt to reduce the recidivism rate.
The results of the applied dissertation did not show a decrease in the total discipline referrals. However, there were decreases by a majority of the identified staff members and a decrease in the recidivism rate by those students tracked over the last 3 years. Observations and interviews indicated that class meetings did help in avoiding a number of referral situations, even though there was not a decrease in referrals schoolwide.