Julie Causton, Kate MacLeod, and Kristie Pretti-Frontczak work with administrators all over the world who believe in supporting students with compassion and leading schools with love. But these administrators report incredible challenges they face in ditching traditional behavior-management practices like punitive or public discipline tactics.…

Author and educator Owen Griffith shares how leaders can infuse small acts of gratitude to energize their schools and create a positive, thriving culture. Leaders must begin by practicing gratitude personally, then slowly introducing the practice to their faculty and eventually students. With the right attitude and creativity, the acts of…

In these unprecedented times, educators need to infuse equity and justice into their discipline practices. Whether operating in-person or remotely, the schools that succeed this year will be the ones that put mental health at the center of all policies and practices, says Micere Keels, director of the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices…

At a Monday evening monthly meeting of school administrators, discussion ensued about how to improve the administrators' schools. Ideas such as increasing student achievement, energizing teachers, and engaging parents were offered. One principal suggested focus should be turned to the students' restrooms, "because lots of problems emerge…

James is 14 years old. Tall, handsome, funny, athletic, attuned to others, he is one of the popular, high-status students in his large freshman class. He can also be remarkably caring and attentive with his close friends. But James has a dark side. Sometimes he uses his social skills to manipulate others, and he draws a bright line between those…

The US Department of Education designated T. C. Cherry Elementary School in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as a Blue Ribbon School, an honor awarded to only few schools across the nation. The same became possible because they changed the culture of the school from rowdy to calm, from irresponsible to responsible, from noncooperative to cooperative, from…

Brief examples of the use of rules defining expectations in two high schools demonstrate the effectiveness of this method and that it is a useful and practical strategy for administrators. (MLF)

The formal curriculum has a counterpart "hidden curriculum" of values and behavior, which is taught implicitly by the social systems of the school. Recent ecological studies have revealed the operations of school social systems in sufficient detail to suggest implications for the socialization of students and academic learning.…

The brain needs energy, oxygen, and water to operate. Access to the bathroom pass can become a major conflict between teachers and students and has great potential for disrupting classes. The classroom can be humanized by granting more bathroom passes and allowing water bottles. (MLH)

The organization of space profoundly affects learning. Students feel better connected to a building that anticipates their needs and respects them as individuals. Built in 1971, Crow Island School, in Winnetka, Illinois, is a prize-winning facility that has provided generations of children with windowed classrooms, skylights, adjacent workrooms,…

The goal of the Peer Helping Program in the Bayonne (New Jersey) Public Schools is to develop in students a high degree of self-respect, respect for each other, and respect for their school environment. (Author)

Research indicates that good discipline is a melting pot of positive factors including, among other things, high rates of student success and strong principal leadership. (Author/JM)

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: The research summarized here suggests that: Children learn more than academic content from their school experiences, especially how to behave in nonfamily groups. Congruence between the school and community can contribute significantly to a sense of community among both adults and youth, but at some…

Many urban schools are providing high-quality education and are producing high-achieving students, despite facing high student poverty and mobility rates, large number of English language learners and unsafe neighborhood. Positive behavioral supports, caring connections, and social and emotional learning are very essential in creating positive…

South Africa and Namibia, two countries building young democracies, face the task of transforming their public education systems to support the values articulated in their new constitutions. This article describes a project designed to incorporate these values into schools. A group of 50 Namibian teachers, who were enrolled in the author's…