Historically, public schools have often used shaming techniques to discipline students, even though researchers have found shaming to be not just an ineffective means of curtailing misbehavior, but, more important, psychologically harmful to children. The author reviewed policy documents from nine leading charter management organizations and found…

The author presents the concept of natality for consideration in terms of pastoral care and educational purpose. The discussion identifies significant threats to the future for pastoral care in schools, including the Global Educational Reform Movement and the increasing emphasis on teachers taking charge of discipline in the classroom, at the…

The purpose of this mixed-method case study was to determine the effectiveness of the progressive discipline matrix in high schools in one Tennessee school district. The further intent was to investigate how discipline practices influenced the perceptions of teachers and administrators. Findings from quantitative data stated that progressive…

I examine parent, student, and teacher reactions in a rural Moroccan village to a national ban on corporal punishment in schools. I argue that although the ban has largely been ignored in the local primary school, talk about acts of corporal punishment are used to make claims about the relationship between rural citizen and state as represented by…

In this study, 7 items were used to define a composite variable that measures the perceived effectiveness of student conduct systems. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to test the relationship between perceived level of system effectiveness and self-reported student learning. In the analyses, 49% of the variance in reported…

Disparate impact is the dubious approach to civil rights enforcement that claims that an entirely neutral policy that does not discriminate on its face, is not intended to discriminate, and does not actually treat individuals differently based on their race still constitutes illegal racial discrimination if it has a "disproportionate"…

The reasons minority students are subject to exclusionary discipline more often than others are varied, but many experts agree that they often have little to do with the students themselves. Large rates of suspensions and expulsions tend to result from discipline policies in need of revision that are exacerbated by numerous administrators and…

Access to quality education for all children is a common mantra for countless national and world organizations, such as the UN and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper examines the struggle within two nations who continue to move beyond the impact of racial segregation in the United States (US) and "apartheid" in South…

The disproportionate discipline of Black male students is a pervasive problem in U.S. schools. To examine the role of stereotypes in disciplinary disproportionality, pre-service teachers were randomly assigned to read a vignette about a defiant student. Those who read a vignette about a Black student believed that the student was more likely to…

In December 2018, the Trump administration rescinded the Department of Education's 2014 "Dear Colleague Letter" (DCL), thus returning to local school districts and boards their traditional authority to set discipline policy. Although it was frequently described as "nonbinding guidance," the DCL was anything but. Instead, the…

The prevalence of preschool expulsion, coupled with racial disparities in expulsion rates and the potential long term negative effects of challenging behaviors in the early years, has created an urgent need to build early childhood systems to address these issues. The teaching and guidance policy essentials checklist (TAG-PEC) has been developed…

Zero tolerance policies have contributed to suspension and expulsion becoming common methods of addressing problem behaviors in schools. If suspension and expulsion are being used as forms of punishment, they should theoretically result in a reduction of problem behavior after their administration. In reality, exclusionary disciplinary practices…

Race and gender disparities in school discipline and associated harms have been well documented for decades. Suspension from school can reduce instructional time and impede academic progress for students who may already be lagging in their achievement. This chapter offers a research-based framework for increasing equity in school discipline. The…

In order for an educator to properly restrain or seclude a child, they should be made aware of the statutes, court cases, governmental policies, and terminologies that shape the legality of restraints and seclusions. This paper means to nurture that awareness. The paper is in an order that shows an evolution of the policies and laws about…

What evidence supports the call for discipline reform? How might alternative strategies affect students and schools? In this article, the authors describe the critiques of exclusionary discipline and then examine the research base on which discipline policy reform rests. They also describe the alternative approaches that are gaining traction in…