Amplifying empathy in teachers can help prevent student suspensions, researchers find

School suspension rates have risen in recent years.

And since the punishment is linked to more severe problems later in life, such as dropping out of school or ending up in prison, researchers at Stanford University have been looking for ways to prevent it.

Researchers asked one group of math teachers to complete a 45-minute online activity about how important it is to respect and humanize students. Meanwhile, another group of math teachers read about how to use technology in the classroom.

By the end of the school year, suspension rates were 50 percent lower for the empathy-trained teachers compared to the control group — at 4.8 percent instead of 9.6 percent.

To read the full article by Ann Hoffman, click here.