Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Karen B. Kamin
Committee Member
Lucille Beisner
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
administrators, affirmative results, applied dissertation, Chicago, classroom discipline, classroom management, classroom observations, class climate, counseling, data analysis, detentions, disciplinary problems, discipline referrals, discipline strategies, eighth grade, evaluators, first grade, fourth grade, Head Start, inner-city schools, intervention strategies, kindergarten, Laura Ward Elementary School, middle schools, misbehavior, parental involvement, prekindergarten, proactive approach, role modeling, school discipline, second grade, sixth grade, staff development, student cluster groups, student conferences, student-teacher conferences, student-teacher-parent-administrator conferences, student-teacher-parent conferences, students, suspensions, teacher evaluation, teachers, third grade, workshops
Abstract
This applied dissertation scrutinized the discipline factors in the middle school level over a 3- year period (2000-2003) at the Laura Ward Elementary School located in the inner-city area of Chicago. The school serves students in prekindergarten through the eighth grade. The peak population is approximately 870 students. There are approximately 60 children in the Head Start program, 90 children in kindergarten, 90 children in first grade, 120 children in second grade, 150 children in third grade, 60 children in fourth grade, 90 children in sixth grade, 60 children in seventh grade, and 60 children in eighth grade. Approximately 25% on the total student population is in the middle school.
There was a significant increase in the number of discipline referrals in the 2002-2003 school year. Discipline referrals over the 2 preceding years were somewhat less frequent. Strategies implemented to solve this dilemma consisted of staff development on classroom management and workshops for students, parents, teachers, and administrators regarding discipline.
The major goal of this applied dissertation was to reduce the number of discipline referrals at the middle school level by 35%. The writer believed that affirmative results would occur through sustained implementation of the solution strategies. Implementing these same strategies in the earlier grades would be a proactive approach and would very likely improve student discipline.
From January 2000 to June 2002, the following intervention strategies were employed to improve discipline in the three 6th-grade classrooms: (a) student-teacher conferences, (b) student-teacher-parent conferences, (c) student-teacher-parent-administrator conferences, (d) detentions, (e) suspensions, (f) counseling, (g) student cluster groups, and (h) role modeling. During the period July 2002 through June 2003, the intervention strategies in place were continued by the writer. The intervention strategies continued to yield some degree of success.
Despite the assistance given to the three 6th-grade teachers, disciplinary problems continued at or about the same level. The data on classroom management were compared with the data gathered at the beginning of the applied dissertation. Small improvement was noted. Conferencing before and after classroom observations further substantiated that improvement was in progress, showing that the three teachers had made some improvement in the areas previously identified as weaknesses. The writer, who was also the evaluator, was able to watch the teachers in action, how they related to the students, their reporting of incidents of misbehavior, their mode of instruction, the class climate, and, in general, their overall classroom management.