The reality is that kids who are misbehaving in school need more attention, not less. When students don’t get that extra attention and are instead removed from class, this contributes to an expanding achievement gap that increases the likelihood of dropping out.
California has made great strides in its efforts to reform punitive student discipline practices. Thanks in large part to the implementation of research-based strategies like restorative justice and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports in school districts throughout the state, suspension rates in California have fallen 33 percent over the past three years.
Most of this progress involves relatively minor misbehavior: three-quarters of the decline in suspensions statewide was the result of fewer suspensions issued specifically for “disruption or willful defiance”—a broad category used to describe less serious and non-violent misbehavior.
[For more of this story, written by Michael Meehan, go to http://edsource.org/2016/calif...ipline-reform/561956]
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