The article provides an overview of the issues surrounding racial and ethnic disproportionality in school suspensions. It is useful to practitioners that seek to complicate commonly held ideas about the effectiveness of school discipline practices.
Gregory, A., Skiba, R. J., and Noguera, P. A. “The Achievement Gap and the Discipline Gap: Two Sides of the Same Coin?” Educational Researcher, 39(1), 2010: 59-68.
During her keynote presentation, Dr. Nancy Dome explored what equity can look like in schools when implementation is intentional and relationships are at the core.
Much of the time when we look at data it is through a deficit lens, which allows us to separate ourselves from the outcomes and lay the majority of the responsibility on the individual. However, research has demonstrated the connection between building meaningful relationships and student achievement and reduced student discipline. Thus, like any good implementation, effectiveness and success is a product of intentionality and lots of practice. This means we have to begin to invest our resources and time into supporting staff to build their own awareness of self while concurrently shifting the focus from primarily one of content to one of developing social supports to strengthen relationships with students. Relationships are paramount to provide a foundation of support and purpose.
Dr. Dome spoke at the Equity Symposium presented by the State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project that was funded by the California Department of Education, Special Education Division, and co-hosted by Student Involvement and the Chicano and Latino Studies departments at Sonoma State University. The Equity Symposium was held October 18, 2018.
Dome, Nancy. 2018. The Connection between Disproportionality and Relationships. State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project.
The empathic-mindset intervention is an online exercise to refocus middle school teachers on understanding and valuing the perspectives of students and on sustaining positive relationships even when students misbehave. This intervention reduced suspension rates especially for Black and Hispanic students, reduced the racial disparity over the school year by 45%. Significant reductions were also observed students with disabilities and for students with one previous suspension. These reductions persisted through the next year when students interacted with different teachers, suggesting that empathic treatment with even one teacher in a critical period can improve students’ trajectories through school.
Okonofua, Jason, J. Parker Goyer, Constance Lindsay, Johnetta Haugabrook, and Gregory Walton. 2022. “A scalable empathic-mindset intervention reduces group disparities in school suspensions.” Science Advances 8, no. 12, https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.abj0691 (accessed January 30, 2023).
The report offers case studies of four guiding actions in practice of SEL and family partnerships. The report includes these guiding actions for school staff: (1) Begin with family priorities, (2) Transform power dynamics; (3) Build reciprocity and agency; and (4) Undertake change as collective inquiry.
Skoog-Hoffman, A., Coleman, B., Nwafor, E., Lozada, F., Olivo-Castro, S., & Jagers, R. (2023). Building Authentic School-Family Partnerships through the Lens of Social and Emotional Learning. Social and Emotional Learning Innovations Series. In Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
This webinar presents strategies for strengthening relationships, building inclusive classrooms, developing trust, and fostering a sense of psychological safety.
Bindreiff, D. (2023). Fostering Belonging to Heal, Empower, and Educate Kids. Corwin. Accessed March 25, 2024.
Infusing Restorative Approaches to Discipline in Schools: Indicators of Success and High Quality Implementation was presented by Dr. Anne Gregory on June 16, 2015. This webinar is presented to you via the State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project (SPPTAP) and the Napa County Office of Education with funding from the California Department of Education.
Gregory, Anne. 2015. "Infusing Restorative Approaches to Discipline in Schools: Indicators of Success and High Quality Implementation." State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project.
The goal of this project is to improve the quality of information about teaching effectiveness, to help build fair and reliable systems for teacher observation and feedback.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Learning About Teaching: Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project (2013); Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED528388.pdf.
With revisions to the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model, Dr. Greene looks to the etiology of classroom behavior challenges and provides teachers with tools to assist as they help children succeed at school.
Greene, Ross. 2014. Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We can Help Them. New York: Scribner.
In this article, Dr. Bindreiff described the importance of balancing empathy for the challenges children with mental illness, income instability, and racism face with high expectations. The author argues that “warmth paired with high expectations requires we invest in becoming community builders, capable of seeing and developing what lies buried inside each student” and that warmth has a greater impact than competence on our assessment of others.
Bindreiff, D. 2022. Transformative Educators are Warm Demanders. Corwin Connect, https://corwin-connect.com/2022/11/transformative-educators-are-warm-demanders/ (accessed January 30, 2023).
