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In late December, 2018, the Trump administration rescinded Obama-era guidance on school discipline that has helped improve school safety and student achievement across the country. In advance of that decision, Linda Darling-Hammond and Chris Edley cautioned against this move in a commentary in The Hill. They explained that after states adopted the guidance, suspensions and expulsions—which are given at much higher rates to students of color—were reduced significantly as were school-based firearms incidents.
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Thanks to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are beginning to develop accountability systems that are focused on multiple measures of student success, including one key driver of inequity—the overuse of suspension, particularly for students of color, as a discipline tactic.
Stephen KostyoJessica CardichonLinda Darling-Hammond
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Suspensions from school can disrupt student learning and inhibit students’ success. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides opportunities for states to address suspension rates and other non-academic indicators that affect student success. This brief describes how states can use data on suspensions, what some states are doing, and policies to reduce suspension rates. It is part of the report Making ESSA’s Equity Promise Real: State Strategies to Close the Opportunity Gap.
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Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity—experiences that can affect attention, learning, and behavior. This report looks at neuroscience, science of learning, and child development research on whole child approaches to education that improve learning for all students, especially those living with trauma.
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Students living with the toxic stress and trauma of poverty and crime can struggle to learn. Research on science of learning and development shows that these struggles can be addressed through whole child and positive school climate approaches that support academic, physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development—systems that put students’ healthy growth and development at the center of the classroom.
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A new study identifies policy and practice strategies that foster strong academic, social, and emotional learning, based on the science of learning and development.
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As the US looks for ways to reduce school shootings, research shows that initiatives that reduce suspension, expulsion, and intervention from law enforcement and that focus on inclusion and social emotional learning show promise that arming teachers and expelling students do not.
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School discipline can be a lose-lose proposition for both students and teachers but “empathic discipline,” a strategy combining discipline with rapport, can be used to good effect. Researchers are investigating how teachers can be supported in their use of this strategy and how it can be used to improve outcomes for "troubled" students.
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Since our November 8th election, educators across the country have been stunned by the increase in racial slurs, bullying, and graffiti featuring swastikas and hate speech on campuses, emulating what children saw and heard in the presidential campaign. While deeply disturbing, the explicitness and widespread public eruption of hate speech of all kinds gives us a direct opportunity to create a curriculum of civility and caring, and to unseat the tacit bigotry that is often under the surface in schools.
Effective school design can support the whole child by providing high-quality academic learning, promoting strong interpersonal relationships, and offering authentic and culturally sustaining instruction.
