Recently, much public attention has been focused on racial inequalities in who is subjected to exclusionary school disciplinary policies, and consequently, forced to miss hours of instruction. Over the past two decades, researchers have documented the disparate impacts that zero-tolerance policies have had on students of color, low-income…

Restorative practices emerged on the scene within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) as of recent. In 2006, CPS revamped their Student Code of Misconduct handbook from a strict and stern "zero-tolerance" voice to a more sensitive and subtle "restorative talk" approach. With this transition in effect, the school's culture and…

Using a mixed-methods approach in a predominantly African-American school district, a set of qualitative studies were conducted to establish priority areas for school-based interventions to curtail the use of exclusionary practices with African-American students exhibiting disruptive behavior. Study 1 employed concept-mapping methodology with a…

Educational leaders are faced with multiple ethical decisions every day. This article presents the Values-Issue-Action (VIA) Model as a tool for developing ethical decisions in K-12 schools. The model is presented with three scenarios from K-12 education to practice using the model into practice. The model can be used by current school leaders and…

Restorative justice is an alternative disciplinary approach to the traditional, punitive approach to discipline. This case study focused on exploring the implementation of restorative justice discipline practices within a middle school. Participants included students, teachers, and an administrator. Five themes emerged from the data: (a) different…

This article introduces our "Sector Guidance" to "Address Staff Sexual Misconduct in UK Higher Education." The problem that the guidance seeks to address is that existing student complaints and staff disciplinary procedures relating to student complaints in this area fail to offer similar protections and privileges to the…

Restorative Justice Practices (RJP) offer a positive approach to discipline while also providing middle school students opportunities to develop social-emotional skills (conflict resolution and self-management). RJP contrasts sharply with traditional, punitive, zero-tolerance discipline models which perpetuate systemic inequity in schools,…

This research uses both quantitative and qualitative methodology in a mixed methods research model to explore the implementation of a policy to integrate iPads as an instructional tool through the experiences of classroom teachers and students. The study's participants consist of classroom teachers and students involved in an iPad implementation…

Positive perceptions of school climate are associated with improved academic and behavioral outcomes, such as lower bullying victimization experience and higher student engagement. The present study evaluated the consistency of these relations across racial/ethnic student groups using the Authoritative School Climate (ASC) model which defines…

Exclusionary discipline -- suspensions or expulsions that remove students from the learning environment -- can have long-lasting, negative impacts on a student's trajectory. Research suggests that students who are suspended or expelled suffer academically and are more likely to drop out and be involved in the criminal justice system later in life.…

This study explored how children of lower primary school grades perceive due process in schools' disciplinary procedures. While many studies have explored how adolescents perceive school discipline, only a few studies have examined the perceptions of primary school pupils, and no study has investigated lower primary school grades. The qualitative…

Do school district central offices and school principals have the same level of influence on school decisions? What does the district-principal power relationship look like? These two questions are discussed but are rarely examined in the literature. Based on a nationally representative sample from the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey data,…

African American students are retained at a higher rate compared to Hispanic and White students (National Center of Education Statistics, 2015). While there are many causative variables identified as explanations for racial disparities in grade retention practices, school counselors are encouraged to facilitate efforts to bridge existing gaps.…

Schools are increasingly turning towards restorative practices as a pathway to building schools with stronger relationships, justice, and equity. While effectiveness studies are increasing, too little attention is focused on evaluating implementation. This resources is for audiences who evaluate implementation of whole school restorative practices…

Much recent literature has highlighted the stressful nature of teaching and its relations with teacher and student wellbeing. The present study extended this literature to focus on special education teachers. We first conducted a latent class analysis to characterize patterns of stress and coping among special education teachers (N = 404).…