Over the past 25 years, Gallup polls have consistently reported that disruptive behavior and discipline problems are some of the top concerns of school staff and community members. In fact, problems with classroom management are among the most common reasons that teachers leave their jobs. In response, many schools are turning to more formal…

Mediation is a process for resolving disputes and conflicts in which a neutral third party acts as a moderator. Assisted negotiation help students work out their differences constructively and nonviolently. In this article, the author, who is a middle and elementary school teacher and principal for 15 years, believes in mediation as the safest way…

For many people, the idea of safety in an educational context brings to mind the problem of school violence and specifically the string of shootings at schools across the US in recent years. Here, the author begins by noting that the coverage of those events has obscured several important facts. For one, he emphasizes that there is a tendency,…

Most schools have a code of conduct, pledge, or behavioral standards, set by the district or school board with the school community. In this article, the author features some schools that created a new vision of instilling code of conducts to students based on work quality, respect, safety and courtesy. She suggests that communicating the code…

Some classroom-management techniques actually undermine establishment of an orderly classroom and impair an otherwise competent teacher's ability to win changing behavior. Instead of changing behavior, all teachers achieve with these heavy-handed techniques is minimal compliance, beneath which lies deep resentment, a breeding ground for…

In this article, the author iterates how over the years he had sensed that student misbehavior was on the rise: rudeness, lateness, loudness, distractedness, and the myriad small sins that irritate teachers. It was not as if these young louts were protesting a war or engaging in civil disobedience; they were just plain rude. But, although the…

In the current climate of school improvement, no one feels more pressure than a high school principal. A principal bears responsibility not just for the organization's daily functioning but for the performance of its students in high school and beyond. However, high school students perceive principals as individuals who held the lion's share of…

The author argues that the "children's rights" movement is an attack on the authority of parents and teachers and that it is undermining school discipline and traditional family roles. Condensed from "American Educator," Spring 1981, pp30-33. (SJL)

In this article, the author discusses the effects of zero-tolerance policies in schools and depicts how the policies no longer make schools safe, even though many educators see them as the backbone of school discipline. A 2000 study by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) confirms that stringent zero-tolerance policies, though…

This article talks about how a middle school handled discipline, the consequences for students not living up to the school's behavioral expectations. Lack of a visible school response is interpreted by students as a moral void, a silence in which good and bad behavior have equal worth. To make the school's response to misbehavior visible to all…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires the states to test their students every year to determine how many of them have achieved proficiency in, among other areas, math, science, and reading. The law also requires that the states participate yearly in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which calls itself "the Nation's…