9. There are well understood processes in place to fairly adjudicate school rules, perceived inequities and interpersonal conflict.
10. Disciplinary policies and actions remove students from learning opportunities only as a last resort.
Maintaining safe and orderly opportunities for all students to learn is critically important and many teachers struggle with classroom management and how to deal with what they see as disorderly and disruptive behavior. How teachers meet these challenges can, however, needlessly reduce student motivation and opportunities to learn.
Students of color may be more distrustful of authority and respond defensively to criticism and disciplinary action (Cohen, 2008; Noguera, 2008; Carter, 2008). This makes it very important that rules governing student behavior be understood and openly discussed and that any disciplinary action process be characterized by fairness and transparency.
Research is clear that students of color are much more likely than their white peers to be disciplined. The best way to deal with the potential of disruptive behavior is, of course, to prevent it through strategies such as positive behavioral supports.
Explore this set of resources first...
Learn about school-wide strategies of "positive behavioral support."
Pedro Noguera explains the importance of using disciplinary policy and practices to foster student learning.
Racially Disproportionate Disciplinary Practices
Read about how to deal with racial disproportion in disciplinary practices.
Geneva Gay points out that differences in culture often "grate" on one another and can lead to misbehavior or to the way misbehavior is defined.
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Working with Troubled Students
Learn how to respond to students who “act out” in class
