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- While the contemporary challenges that schools face have increased, the expectation to do more with fewer resources continues to grow.
- School-wide discipline plans predominantly consist of reprimands, loss of privileges, detention, suspension, or expulsion, and are still the primary focus of school-wide discipline as educators attempt to "get tougher" on problem behavior.
- The implementation of punishment, especially when it is used inconsistently and in the absence of other positive strategies, is ineffective.
- This has led to a definition of school-wide discipline as "the steps or actions teachers, administrators, parents, and students follow to enhance student academic and social behavior success."
- Without a systems perspective, the adoption of positive behavioral support strategies may be ineffective due to inconsistent implementation and a lack of long-term planning.
- Successful schools are characterized by close partnerships with the communities they serve and have higher levels of parental involvement in school functions.
- Expected outcomes in positive behavioral support strategies go beyond the reduction of problem behavior and include increases in the quality of life for students and everyone within the students' social network.
- School-wide discipline is a continuum of support containing three levels: primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention.
- To provide the continuum of support necessary for an effective school-wide discipline plan, a system is needed that encourages school staff to work together in a collaborative manner.
- One way to accomplish this collaborative atmosphere is to incorporate school-wide discipline planning into already existing staff development systems.
- A strong administrative presence ensures that the professionals who are responsible for finding additional resources or making changes in policies and procedures will understand the importance of the requests being made.
- The information gathered during the assessment planning phase will be compared to data gathered later during the implementation of a school-wide discipline plan.
- One measure that is commonly used to assess school-wide discipline includes analyzing the number and types of student office referrals that are made.
- A number of other sources of information can be used as assessment measures.
- Both qualitative and quantitative data provide important assessment information that can be used later during the implementation and ongoing evaluation of the school-wide discipline approach.
- The assessment process should result in a clear long-term plan of action with short-term objectives.
- It is very important for each individual participating in change efforts to receive feedback on their progress on a regular basis in order for an innovation to be successfully embedded within a school culture.
- Schools must work collaboratively, suspend their assumptions, and consider solutions that may not be immediately apparent.
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