Non Punitive School Discipline

When educators are challenged to address problem student behaviors, the question in their minds should never be “What’s the right punishment?” Instead, this book describes the benefits to both teachers and students of using a relational discipline approach. The author draws on deep experiences as a teacher, coach, and school principal to show how discipline done right can help students to grow in self-management and responsibility. Listening to students and getting to know them are key to helping them to see consequences and make good choices. The author includes sample teacher–student dialogs with actual words to use to deflect power struggles, develop positive relationships, and keep kids accountable without fostering resentment. Frank shares guidelines that have already helped hundreds of grateful teachers to avoid the frustration and discouragement that often occur when working with student misbehavior. Featuring enlightening stories and situation-specific strategies, Non-Punitive School Discipline will help K–12 teachers, school administrators, and support staff experience the joy and satisfaction that can come when students grow in positive ways. Book Features: Provides guidance for how to handle minor and major misbehaviors. Promotes discipline that includes accountability, within a non-punitive, restorative, and relational approach. Shows how schools can foster relationships that lead to positive growth for every student, even those who present problem behaviors.Ready-to-use forms and practical strategies to aid in implementation.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

Answers the calls of grassroots communities pressing for integration and increased education funding with a complete rethinking of school discipline In the era of zero tolerance, we are flooded with stories about schools issuing draconian punishments for relatively innocent behavior. One student was suspended for chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. Another was expelled for cursing on social media from home. Suspension and expulsion rates have doubled over the past three decades as zero tolerance policies have become the normal response to a host of minor infractions that extend well beyond just drugs and weapons. Students from all demographic groups have suffered, but minority and special needs students have suffered the most. On average, middle and high schools suspend one out of four African American students at least once a year. The effects of these policies are devastating. Just one suspension in the ninth grade doubles the likelihood that a student will drop out. Fifty percent of students who drop out are subsequently unemployed. Eighty percent of prisoners are high school drop outs. The risks associated with suspension and expulsion are so high that, as a practical matter, they amount to educational death penalties, not behavioral correction tools. Most important, punitive discipline policies undermine the quality of education that innocent bystanders receive as well—the exact opposite of what schools intend. Derek Black, a former attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, weaves stories about individual students, lessons from social science, and the outcomes of courts cases to unearth a shockingly irrational system of punishment. While schools and legislatures have proven unable and unwilling to amend their failing policies, Ending Zero Tolerance argues for constitutional protections to check abuses in school discipline and lays out theories by which courts should re-engage to enforce students’ rights and support broader reforms.

Discipline that you and your child will feel good about! Spanking and time-outs do NOT work. At last, a positive discipline book that is full of practical tips, strategies, skills, and ideas for parents of babies through teenagers, and tells you EXACTLY what to do "in the moment" for every type of behaviour, from whining to web surfing. Includes 50 pages of handy charts of the most common behaviour problems and the tools to handle them respectfully! Parents and children today face very different challenges from the previous generation. Today's children play not only in the sandbox down the street, but also in the world wide web, which is too big and complex for parents to control and supervise. As young as aged four, your child can contact the world and the world can contact them. A strong bond between you and your child is critical in order for your child to regard you as their trusted advisor. Traditional discipline methods no longer work with today's children and they destroy your ability to influence your increasingly vulnerable children who need you as their lifeline! You need new discipline tools!

Discover the Power of Positive Time-Out Time-out is one of the most popular disciplinary techniques used in homes and schools today. But instead of being the positive, motivating, experience it should be for children, it is often punitive, counterproductive, and damaging to their gentle psyches. In this book, bestselling parenting author Jane Nelsen shows you how to make time-out a positive learning experience for children. Inside, you'll discover how positive time-out can teach children the art of self-discipline and instill such invaluable qualities as self-confidence and problem-solving skills. You'll also learn how to: ·Make time-out an encouraging experience ·Develop an attitude and action plan to avoid power struggles with children ·Empower children by involving them in the behavior changing process ·Understand the mistaken goals of negative behavior "Gives parents and teachers the encouragement and tools they need to help children handle their own behavior."—Sheryl Hausinger, M.D., Texas Children's Pediatric Associates and mother of three "Offers more than 50 ways that parents can set limits while still encouraging their kids. It should be in every doctor's waiting room."—Jody McVittie, M.D., family physician

This second edition offers positive, insightful advice to teachers looking for new ways to manage behavior in the early childhood classroom. Includes reproducibles and real-life examples for activities. (Available now)

As the incomes of affluent and poor families have diverged over the past three decades, so too has the educational performance of their children. But how exactly do the forces of rising inequality affect the educational attainment and life chances of low-income children? In Whither Opportunity? a distinguished team of economists, sociologists, and experts in social and education policy examines the corrosive effects of unequal family resources, disadvantaged neighborhoods, insecure labor markets, and worsening school conditions on K-12 education. This groundbreaking book illuminates the ways rising inequality is undermining one of the most important goals of public education—the ability of schools to provide children with an equal chance at academic and economic success. The most ambitious study of educational inequality to date, Whither Opportunity? analyzes how social and economic conditions surrounding schools affect school performance and children’s educational achievement. The book shows that from earliest childhood, parental investments in children’s learning affect reading, math, and other attainments later in life. Contributor Meredith Phillip finds that between birth and age six, wealthier children will have spent as many as 1,300 more hours than poor children on child enrichment activities such as music lessons, travel, and summer camp. Greg Duncan, George Farkas, and Katherine Magnuson demonstrate that a child from a poor family is two to four times as likely as a child from an affluent family to have classmates with low skills and behavior problems – attributes which have a negative effect on the learning of their fellow students. As a result of such disparities, contributor Sean Reardon finds that the gap between rich and poor children’s math and reading achievement scores is now much larger than it was fifty years ago. And such income-based gaps persist across the school years, as Martha Bailey and Sue Dynarski document in their chapter on the growing income-based gap in college completion. Whither Opportunity? also reveals the profound impact of environmental factors on children’s educational progress and schools’ functioning. Elizabeth Ananat, Anna Gassman-Pines, and Christina Gibson-Davis show that local job losses such as those caused by plant closings can lower the test scores of students with low socioeconomic status, even students whose parents have not lost their jobs. They find that community-wide stress is most likely the culprit. Analyzing the math achievement of elementary school children, Stephen Raudenbush, Marshall Jean, and Emily Art find that students learn less if they attend schools with high student turnover during the school year – a common occurrence in poor schools. And David Kirk and Robert Sampson show that teacher commitment, parental involvement, and student achievement in schools in high-crime neighborhoods all tend to be low. For generations of Americans, public education provided the springboard to upward mobility. This pioneering volume casts a stark light on the ways rising inequality may now be compromising schools’ functioning, and with it the promise of equal opportunity in America.

Nelsen's popular Positive Discipline philosophy is used in hundreds of schools as a foundation for fostering cooperation, problem-solving skills, and mutual respect in children. In this latest edition, teachers learn how to create and maintain an atmosphere where learning can take place--and where students and teachers can work together to solve problems.