Background: Suspensions can have negative effects on students' immediate academic and long-run outcomes, including increasing their likelihood of being arrested and incarcerated as an adult (Bacher-Hicks, Billings, Deming, 2019). School discipline practices have become a concern of families and policymakers and there have been increasing local,…

The prevalence of racial disparities in discipline outcomes continues despite a prominence of new strategies and research. When implemented with fidelity, PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) is shown to contribute to reductions in school suspension, expulsion, and other positive educational outcomes. Despite its promise for making…

This program evaluation evaluated the effectiveness of the Positive Intervention and Supports Program in reducing the number of Office Referrals, In School Suspensions, and Out of School Suspensions when implemented with fidelity in a metro Atlanta Area Middle School. Archival data was used to determine if there had been any significant change in…

Charter schools and four other types of school organization were compared on (a) student crime at school, (b) academic performance indices, and (c) short-term student suspensions. The data originated with all the public schools in one state during the 2015-2016 school year: charter schools (n = 157), traditional schools (n =1,838), and public…

Disciplinary exclusions, particularly out-of-school suspension and expulsions, are a pressing concern for schools, as research demonstrates that they are associated with myriad deleterious outcomes such as increased risk for poor academic achievement, school dropout, and contact with juvenile justice. Research suggests that School-Wide Positive…

This quantitative ex post facto study investigated the relationship between the number of Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs) that result in out-of-school suspensions and levels of positive behavior intervention and support (PBIS) in elementary, middle, and high schools in three school districts in the Southeastern United States. Many public…

This study examined the use of a Positive Behavioral Intervention System (PBIS) to promote a positive school culture. PBIS focuses on promoting a positive school culture through behavioral interventions specific to the school, and providing feedback to students to reinforce positive behaviors (Contractor & Staats, 2014). The study focuses on…

This study examined the use of a Positive Behavioral Intervention System (PBIS) to promote a positive school culture. PBIS focuses on promoting a positive school culture through behavioral interventions specific to the school, and providing feedback to students to reinforce positive behaviors (Contractor & Staats, 2014). The study focuses on…

The present study reports findings from a school-level randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Double Check cultural responsivity and student engagement model. Consistent with the focus of this special issue on the conceptual and methodological advances for understanding contextual, identity, and cultural effects in intervention research, we…

Research demonstrates harmful effects of disparate discipline practices on outcomes for students of color. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR), under the Obama administration, significantly increased investigations under the mandate of Title VI. In this study, we examine OCR's investigation of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to establish the…

Student engagement is a multidimensional construct influenced by complex student, classroom, and school factors. Although prior research has examined various dimensions of student engagement, few studies have adopted a multilevel approach to simultaneously incorporate observational measures of classroom practices with student and school factors.…

Increasingly, district leaders are turning to a community-based alternative to suspension called restorative practices (RP's). While they correlate with lower suspension rates, Black, Latinx, and Native students continue to be more frequently and harshly disciplined than their White peers (Office of Civil Rights, 2014). The Kirwan Institute (2015)…

It is the purpose of this study to determine the extent to which the implementation of the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) model and its focus on data-driven behaviour management has impacted on exclusion rates in Queensland public schools and, as such, the commitment of Queensland public schools to reintegration of students with behavioural…

Positive behavioral interventions and support (PBIS) is a multitiered framework for behavioral support that is being increasingly implemented in schools. Although research has linked PBIS to improved student outcomes, less research is longitudinal and considers both academic and behavioral outcomes. This study examined the relationships between…

Enny Elementary School (This is an actual school with a different name to protect the identity of all stakeholders. All data is real, and any names used are pseudonyms.) is in South Florida and operates under the auspices of The Palm Beach County School District. The school serves over seven hundred students with forty-three teachers and…