Following a randomized controlled trial that showed effectiveness of an equity-centered positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) professional development intervention on student discipline in elementary schools, we studied the extent to which the intervention had differential effects on individual teachers' use of exclusionary…

School discipline has been a site of contention and reform. In this study, we draw from 17 interviews with traditional and charter school principals in one mid-sized urban school district to examine how principals use discipline as a tool to both maintain control and demonstrate care. Our study calls attention to different strategies principals…

Disparities in school discipline across lines of race and disability status represent one of the most pressing issues in the field of education today. While there are many factors that perpetuate these disparities, teachers and their approaches to classroom management likely play a role. As evidence emerges on the relationship between race,…

Aims: Maintaining order is a fundamental task for teachers in the classroom. Historically, some form of punishment has been the common response to undesirable behaviour. However, over the past two and a half decades, a different approach to classroom management, sometimes labelled 'positive discipline', is being increasingly adopted by schools.…

Addressing racial disparities in school discipline is an urgent and widespread issue facing US schools. One approach to improve racial equity in school discipline practice is to enhance the contextual fit of empirically validated schoolwide practices. Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a widely implemented and…

In a multicase qualitative study, inclusive school leaders attempted to move their schools from the excessive use of suspension; they employed positive behavioral intervention and support (PBIS) as an alternative they thought would be therapeutic rather than punitive. However, the PBIS system traded a disciplinary system of control for a…

A full canon of empirical literature shows that students who are African American, Latinx, or American Indian/Alaskan Native, and students who are male, diagnosed with disabilities, or from low socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to experience exclusionary discipline practices in U.S. schools. Though there is a growing commitment to…

A shift from reactive and punitive practices in secure juvenile facilities has prompted facilities in the United States to adopt multitiered systems of support such as facility-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (FW-PBIS) to address climate and culture concerns. To date, most implementation efforts have focused on defining adult…

This article recounts an autoethnographic study of a White elementary school principal's efforts to confront White supremacy in punitive discipline. This principal applied transformative leadership precepts and antiracist pedagogy to conduct a school turnaround effort. The district had committed to neoliberal reform and neoliberal mandates in…

Addressing racial disparities in school discipline is an urgent and widespread issue facing U.S. schools. One approach to improve racial equity in school discipline practice is to enhance the contextual fit of empirically validated school-wide practices. School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a widely implemented…

School-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) frameworks have been suggested as a promising approach to reducing disproportionality in school discipline practices; however, few studies have tested this potential, and findings have been mixed. In our sample of 27 urban schools and approximately 15,000 students, risk difference…

The purpose of this "From the Field" article is to share the tentative results of community-engaged research investigating the impact of Restorative Justice Discipline Practices on persistent discipline gaps in terms of race, gender, and special education identification.

Existing literature underscores the over disciplining of students of Color. Research indicates programs like Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) are successful in decreasing disproportionate discipline for minority students in urban schools. No studies have addressed how urban school leaders make sense of PBIS within the racialized…

As interventions show promise for reducing school discipline disparities, it is important to understand what variables increase educators' commitment toward addressing racial equity in schools. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 15 educators asked to describe pivotal events that shifted their own or others' active…

Extension of retribution- and incapacitation-based criminal justice policies and practices to schools has exacerbated racial and ethnic disproportionality in school discipline, a serious and unsolved threat to equity in education and social opportunity. Common approaches implemented to reduce discipline disproportionality have not been shown to be…