Greetings,
My chosen research of Classroom Referrals and its effect on student achievement is opening up more complex questions for me rather than developing a conclusion. Each and everytime I think that my data points in one direction, my topic seems to become unfocused.
For example, the wondering is easy enough in itself. The original question is when we give a student an office referral and they are removed from the classroom for any length of time, is classroom achievement minimized for that student? The data certainly points in that direction as TAKS scores are directly related to the attached referrals. However, new questions then arise. Why is the student misbehaving? What are the alternatives for punishment? Do teacher behaviors support the campus vision? Are staff members and PARENTS willing to accept responsibility for student behavior? Are teachers allowed control inside their classroom? Is there consistency in enforcing discipline? And, these are just a few that come to mind.
This is where I get off task and find my mind wondering and rambling. One colleague of mine made a very good analogy. One of my biggest concerns with the research was to be very careful and try to avoid any conflict among my colleagues as conflict resolution is not my strong suit. I was really worried about throwing a stone in the calm pond and causing ripples. But, as my friend stated, "Calm and still waters become stagnant"! This was very interesting and did make complete sense as change and progress are often married to disagreements and opposite trains of thought.
Now back to how we can decrease teacher office referrals and increase student performance. I am open for suggestions because I do need some input as I don't have a clue at this point on possible remedies. I suppose you could just make it a rule to never punish a student with an "outside the classroom" consequence, however, is this acceptable? I am starting to see a trend in my study that indicates a good majority of teachers simply want the undesired behavior to cease rather than a punishment phase. On the other hand, opposite research shows that a few of our colleagues desire a public display of ultimate punishment. I just finished reading What Great Teachers Do Differently by Todd Whitaker and it was simply amazing and has helped me a great deal with this inquiry.
The time is rapidly approaching that I must start determining direction and sustaining improvement or else the project has been taskless. I do have a roadmap and just hope that I can stay within the navigational beacons.
Ricky
Ricky, I am very interested in knowing what direction your action research will take. Many teachers just want to get rid of the student for a brief period and to show them that there are consequences. Others just want to get rid of them because they annoy them; and others just don't know what to do. In all three opinions, the student still leaves the classroom. This is a very sticky situation because it depends the kind of disruption the student is causing. Some behaviors can be ignored, others however, do impede learning not only for the student, but for other students. Does the student need to visit the counselor instead of the office? In either case they are leaving the classroom, but with a different reason. I think all avenues are to be utilized before sending the student to the office. You are right in that one question leads to many others. Personally if my child were to be sent to the office I would like to know the following:
ReplyDelete1. What other avenues were used before the referral?
2. How long will he be there and what benefit will that entail?
3. Was he given time to cool down? Sometimes kids just need to be heard.
4. What is he going to be doing while in the office?
5. What does he have to do to gain entry back to the class? Write an apology letter? Speak with the referring teacher to come to an agreement on how to better handle himself? What about the teacher, will he/she try something different the next time?
I will be visiting your post again to see what new insights you have.