The school had a reputation for being the most dangerous in the district, writes Zach Groshell on Education Rickshaw. Students roamed the trash-strewn halls, banged on classroom windows and used their phones to organize fights. "It wasn’t until a child brought an airsoft gun to school and started shooting up the halls that teachers threatened a walkout, and the district was forced to intervene."
Fifteen district honchos, armed with radios, patrolled every hall, stairwell and bathroom entrance, ordering students to get to class or face immediate suspension, he writes. "Seating charts were implemented and enforced, and junkfood and phones were banned: If we see it, we take it."
“The days of this school being unsafe and chaotic are over," the principal told students after two weeks. "Welcome to your new school.” The principal got a "standing ovation from the students," writes Groshell.
Standardized test scores rose, and staff turnover "practically disappeared," he recalls. Teachers were able to teach, free from constant disruptions and threats.
Even when the 15 enforcers left, the school was able to maintain the new system -- for awhile. Teachers started each lesson immediately with a "do now" and taught from bell to bell using explicit teaching to "increase student participation and keep the pace of the lesson brisk and lively." An administrator was a call away to remove disruptive students immediately.
Hallways were "swept" of out-of-class students. Administrators implemented a system of merits and demerits.
But, over time, constant vigilance became exhausting. Teachers said monitoring hallways wasn't their job. Administrators found the behavior system too time-consuming. Chaos returned.
"Our greatest embarrassment in education is that we allow the schools plagued by the worst behavior and academic performance, which also tend to serve our most impoverished communities, to languish in failure," writes Groshell. "We know how to turn these schools around."
Groshell is the author of Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.
Parents and teachers in Arlington, Texas say the behavior management system isn't working, reports KERA's Drew Shaw.
When the system was rolled out in 2014, teachers would teach behavioral norms explicitly, says Stephanie Phillips, a recently retired teacher. There were incentives for well-behaved students.
But, over time, documenting students' misbehavior required too much time-consuming paperwork, teachers complain. In a recent survey, they said administrators don't support teachers as they deal with an increase in behavior issues.
Teachers were trained to view "class disruptions through a trauma-informed lens," encouraging them to "react to the root causes of misbehaviors."