Assessing Recent Efforts to Reduce Student Behavior a Problems

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 231 440 EA 015 862 AUTHOR Duke, Daniel L.; Jones, Vernon F. TITLE Assessing Recent Efforts to Reduce Student Behavior A Problems. PUB DATE 83 NOTE 55p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Montreal, Quebec, Canada, April 11-15, 1983). PUB TYPE Lpformation Analyses (070) Speeches/Conference P4pers (150) Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Behavior-Problems;-*Classroom Techniques; *Discipline Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; Inservice Teacher Education; *Student Behavior; Suspension; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Supply and Demand; Theories; Violence ABSTRACT The theory, research, and prescription done during 9the 1970's in the areas of classroom management and school discipline are reviewedcin this analysis, and the effects of this work on student behavior problems is assessed. An analysis of the 'sociopolitical context in which scholarly models, research paradigms, and systems for running schools were created is followed by a review 'of this scholarship, which concludes that ho consensus exists on the best method of handling or studying behavior problems. A section inquiring'whether schools have improved synthesizes literature on the level ot concern of various groups responding to behavior problems, changes in student behavior, changes in educators, and changes in schools.\The conclusion is that improvements in students' and educators' behaviors have not been demonstrated, but changes in school organization include formalization of disciplinary codes, the growth of alternative schoolsl the introduction of material dealing with student behavior into the curriculum, the development of alternatives to suspension, and increased community involvment. A discussion\of future prospects anticipates the impact of teacher shortages and declining resources in the 1980's. Conclusions are sunmarized, and policy makers are urged to assess school environments systematically, to make schoolwide plans for improvement, to offer more comprehensive staff development programs, and to integrate various models, paradigms, and systems. (MJL) ****************************************$.****************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * *********************************************************************** 0 tr\ U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS tr\ NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY CV EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERICI Xihisdocument has been reproduced as received Ppm the person or orgaffization LJJ originarmg it Minor changes have been made to mprove reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this docu TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ment du not necessarily represent official NIE INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." positionOfpolicy ASSESSING RECENT EFFORTS TO REDUCE STUDENT BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS Daniel L. Duke and Vernon F. Jones Lewis and Clark College 1983 nERA 195'3 Few concerns during the history of American public education have spawned, over such a brief period of time, so much program development, staff training, \ scholarly inquiry, press coverage, policymaking, and intense feelingson the part of parents and professionals as the contemporary student discipline "crisis." What surfaced during the mid-sixties as student unrest and alienation had grown by I the seventies into a nationwide rejection by large numbers of young people of the rules and conventions by which schools and homes had been run for over a century. On campuses throughout the United States reports abounded of truancy, class dis- turbances, vandalism, alcohol and drug abuse, and criminal assault. The very roots of the school as an instrument of social control appeared to have been shaken. In response to these alarming developments, a variety of actions by educators, public agencies, and citizen groups were taken. To date, however, no systematic effort has been made to comprehend the magnitude or impact or these attempts to regain control of the schools. This paper derives from our desire to inventory and assess what was dcae between 1970 and 1980 to deal with student behavior problems. We also try to identify some unresolved issues facing researchers and speculate on what the future holds for educators. While various terms were used over the last decade to describe our area of inquiry, tom in particular seemed to enjoy widespread popularity. Classroom management emerged a, the most common general label for teacher efforts to control student behavior in class. The other term school discipline - subsumed classroom management as well as provisions for handling student behavior outside of class - in corridors and cafeterias, before and after school, on school busses and in unsupervised parts of campuses. o In our quixotic quest to understand the current state of classroom management -2- and school discipline, we depart somewhat from standard practice. First, no effort is made to systematically review empirical research.A number of competent reviews already exist and we draw on them where appropriate (Brophy, 1982;Brophy and Putnam, 1979; Duke and Seidman, 1982; Feldhusen, 1979; Jcles, 1982; O'Leary and O'Leary, 1976). Ourconcern lies less with comparing and contrasting the results of assorted studies than with comprehending- in an historical sense - what happens when the attention and skills of researchers and practitfoners alike and theresources of school systems, governments, and private foundations are traineLon a pervasive social concern such as student behavior. We hope this somewhat unusual focus will make the following analysis useful to policymakers as well as educators and educational researchers. A second way in which we depart from convention involves our status as "partic- ipant observers." Rather than writing as if we were outside the world of classroom management and school discipline, we openly acknowledge and draw on our practical experience. We have had the benefit over the past decade of looking at student behavior from an assortment of perspectives - classroom teacher, special educator, school administrator, clinical psychologist, researcher, program developer, staff trainer, consultant, teacher educator, administrator educator, and parPnit. We have worked with thousands of teachers, administrators, and concerned laymen across the country in hundreds of workshops and courses. We have conducted studies of troubled schools and developed systems for reducing behavior problems. We do not claim that our experiences make us the best persons to undertake a "state of the art" piece, only that they have generated a sufficient number of unanswered questions and unresolved issues to warrant our"taking stock." -3- Taking Stock In 1970 the publication of Jacob Kounin's Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms inaugerated a decade rich in scholarly models to direct professional practice, paradigms to guide research, and systems for running schools. Before inventorying these academic enterprises in the following section, it may be helpful to describe some aspects of the socio-political context in whichthey occurred. Probably no event did more to rivet public and professional attention to student behavior than the annual Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes toward Public Educction. Since its inception in 1969 this poll, supported by Phi Delta Kappa and published each fall in its journal, has foundschool discipline to be the public's number one educational concern in every year but one. The 1982 Poll (Gallup, 1982) indicated that 27% of those sampled (4% more than in1981) felt that "lack of discipline" was the biggest problem facinglocal schools. Further, seven out of every ten respondentsregarded discipline problems in their local schools as either "very" or "fairly" serious. When respondents were asked to indicate what they meant by the term "discipline,"however, answers covered a range of possibilities - obeying rules, teacher control, respectfor teachers, student un- willingness to learn, fighting, and so on. In response to this widespread butsomewhat ill-defined concern over the behavior of the young, actions have been taken on avariety of fronts. At the federal level, for example, the Senate Subcommittee toInvestigate Juvenile Delinquency, headed by Birch Bayh, conducted numeroushearings in the early seventies. A nationwide survey of 757 school systems -commissioned by the group - resulted in publication of Our Nation'sSchools - A Report Card: 'A' In School Violence student behavior problems prompted and Vandalism. Alarm over reported increases in Prevention Bayh to sponsor an amendment tothe Juvenile Justice and Delinquency in the Schools Act, the amendment Act (1974). Entitled the Juvenile Delinquency -4- dramatized the fact that the locus of youthful crime was rapidly shifting from the streets to the schools. Other studies followed in the wake of the Subcommittee's deliberations. Among the most influential was The Safe School Study Report to the Congress - Violent Schools Safe Schools -. carried out by the National Institute of Education (NIE). and the Research Triangle Institute and published in 1978. Based on a mail survey of 4,000 elementary and secondary schools, the study found that eight percent of the nation's schools were characterized as having "serious" behavior problems. NIE also formed a Student,Suspension Committee t6 coordinate the reevaluation of federal efforts to reduce

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