Implementation and Evaluation of In-School Suspension Program at the High School Level Research Proposal Paper

“Implementation and Evaluation of In-School Suspension Program at the High School Level“

 

 

Research Aims:

This proposed research attempts to achieve the following objectives:

1.    To determine the nature of the In-School Suspension (ISS) program and the factors affecting its revision in the high school level

2.    To assess the variation of the pre-ISS and post-ISS of discipline referrals implementation

3.    To assess the effects of the pre-ISS and post-ISS in terms of the variation in the total number of ISS suspensions

4.    To assess the result of the pre-ISS and post-ISS in terms of the ISS recidivism rates

5.    To analyze the effects of pre-ISS and post-ISS on faculty attitudes

6.    To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the ISS program in terms of discipline referrals, ISS suspensions, recidivism rates high school students and high school faculty attitudes

 

Research Questions:

In accordance with the research aims of this proposed study, the following will be asked:

1.     What are the factors that led to the amendment of the In-School Suspension (ISS) program?

2.     What is the level of effectiveness of the revised In-School Suspension (ISS) program?  

3.     What is the relationship of the total number of ISS suspensions prior to implementation of the revised In-School Suspension (ISS) program and the total number of ISS suspensions after the revised ISS program has been implemented?

4.     What is the level of effectiveness of the ISS recidivism rates of the revised In-School Suspension program?

5.     What are the attitudes of the faculty toward the In-School Suspension program prior and subsequent to the implementation of the program revisions?

6.     What are the effects of the revised In-School Suspension program in terms of :

a.    Discipline referrals;

b.    ISS suspensions; and

c.    Recidivism rates high school students

 

Introduction

Punitive programs have grown significantly over the past several years.   With the advent of discipline problems confronting school administrators and teachers, suspension has been the primary source of discipline correction implemented by school managements. The concepts of responsibility and obedience are distinguishable by at least three properties: choice, consequence, and need satisfaction (Englander, 1986).

School administrators are in a position to see firsthand the impact of truancy on students. Most school administrators, however, attempt to change truant behavior through punishment, in particular by suspending children from school (Illinois Task Force, 1980 cited in Miller, 1986). Although it is difficult to gauge the psychological and educational damage incurred by suspending children from school, it is clear that suspension inhibits children’s development. Because truant students obviously need guidance and support from teachers and administrators, school personnel should be helping these students understand and modify their behavior through guidance and therapy rather than turning them away by suspending them from school asserts Miller (1986).

It is important to examine the underlying assumptions of punitive programs specifically suspension in In-school Suspension Programs on high school students. Further, the purposes of suspension, how students learn, personal and social goals that can be reached in the context of suspension, and the role of the teacher in facilitating the accomplishment of these goals will be studied. This in turn would have a significant impact on the academic performance by students.

This proposed study will determine the prevailing ISS programs by schools and the need to revise. Factors such as attitudes towards learning and on other students will be analyzed on the basis of their participation and involvement on suspension programs. Moreover, a statistical analysis based on a research-conducted survey will be done to show the correlation of ISS and its effects on the students. The degree or level of its impact will be evaluated to test the hypothesis of this proposed paper.

Conceptual Framework

The chief objective of the school is the promotion of learning and more importantly, the development of students as individuals. All activities of the school are, or should be, related directly or indirectly to this purpose, and the extent to which the school and its personnel have succeeded or failed is reflected in the amount and kind of people these students turn out to be.

This proposed paper shall utilize the layer cake approach theory. Like a chocolate layer cake, Jones arranges the skills of discipline management into four layers. The principles underlying it is as follows:

Classroom Structure: the prevention of discipline problems by arranging the classroom environment so that problems will be relatively unlikely to occur. Classroom Structure includes topics as diverse as room arrangement, working the crowd, procedures for the first day and week of school, classroom rules, classroom chores, and communication with parents.

Limit Setting: the subtle process of meaning business in the classroom by which rule enforcement becomes both relaxed and nearly invisible. Limit setting focuses upon the body language by which the natural teacher signals to the students both a commitment to high standards and a calm resolve to follow through.

Responsibility Training: the implementation of group incentives whereby students learn to internalize responsibility for their own actions. These advanced incentive systems allow patterns of cooperation to be taught to the entire class rapidly and economically.

Backup Systems: the use of nonadversarial negative sanctions to resolve severe or repetitive behavior problems while avoiding the more public, stressful, and self-perpetuating measures that comprise the discipline codes of most

Review of Related Literature

Punitive actions especially on high school students imply difficulty in administering and fostering an environment not only for learning but also the development process of student alike. Since the classroom is perceived to be a potent force in the discipline of every human being, it had been a traditional belief that school administrators must be responsible for the students’ behaves in school. The connection between suspensions and punitive rewards on students has been increasingly explored and examined by scholars and educators. This correlation can be exploited to solve the issue on how to foster a learning environment and ultimately, to improve the discipline among students.

School consultation is a complex process of communication and collaboration, the goal of which is to enhance the quality of education within a school organization. Although school personnel retain ultimate responsibility for the education of students, school consultants share some responsibility for the well-being of children attending the schools within which they work (McMahon and Pruett, 1998).

Miller’s (1986) investigation’s purpose was to answer the following question: In an in-school suspension setting, does a program of therapeutic discipline that involves counseling, bibliotherapy, writing therapy, and contingency contracting result in more positive attitudes toward school attendance, improved attendance, and greater insight into attendance problems among adolescent truants who participate in the program than among adolescent truants who participate in a traditional program of non-therapeutic discipline? When a one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze differences for attitudes and insights and analysis of covariance was used to analyze behavioral differences among 148 subjects in the two programs, Miller (1986) found that therapeutic discipline students (a) held less positive attitudes toward school attendance, (b) had better records of attendance in classes and fewer truant absences, and (c) demonstrated greater insight into attendance problems than did non-therapeutic discipline students.

A critical factor of responsibility is that the individual acts as a free moral agent capable of determining his own act. On the other hand, obedience replaces choice with submission and compliance to the wishes, restraints, control, and command of authority. Such conformity seems to be the antithesis of maturity, of democracy. Included are academic skills, learning skill strategies and learning disabilities (the distinctions among these three will become clear); social and cultural factors; psychosocial development; relational issues; personal and psychological problems; and health and nutritional issues (Griffin, 1988).

Glasser (1981 cited in Englander, 1986) points out that whenever the teacher makes the rules, enforces them, and deals out punishments, the students are denied self monitoring, self-control, and a sense of responsibility (Englander, 1986). If the teacher is doing everything then the student does not have the opportunity to become responsible. At best, the pupil becomes obedient (Englander, 1986). Obedience and responsibility are often thought to be synonymous.

In recent years, students and their families have increasingly begun to challenge the authority of school officials to exercise control over issues, activities, or behaviors they feel are protected under the Constitution of the United States (Ford, Hinely, and Leavell, 2000). This challenge has repeatedly created problematic situations for the school officials who are ultimately charged with maintaining effective operation of the school systems. Ford, Hinely, and Leavell (2000) asserts that while not wanting to discourage involvement on the part of students, administrators nevertheless feel a responsibility to exercise the control necessary to preserve the effectiveness of their schools.

In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier ( 1988) it was ruled that school officials have broad authority to control student expression in official school publications such as the newspaper and yearbook (Ford, Hinely, and Leavell, 2000). In general, recent court rulings have relegated the “burden of proof” to the school district, which must show that it has acted fairly and that its’ actions are necessary for maintaining order in the school or district (Ford, Hinely, and Leavell, 2000). Increased student awareness and activism continue to make this area of conflict one of ongoing concern for school officials. For some districts the response has been to abandon many worthwhile student-centered activities simply to avoid potential problems.

Colton and Sheridan (1998) demonstrated the use of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) as a model to join parents and educators in the shared development and implementation of interventions for students. A behavioral social skills intervention was delivered in the context of CBC to enhance the cooperative peer interactions of young boys diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The benefits of partnerships between parents and educators are clear (Colton and Sheridan, 1998).

Dobson’s A Place for Punishment model clearly finds a place in French and Raven’s Social Bases of Power framework under “coercion.” It finds a home in Wolfgang and Glickman’s Schools of Thought framework as the most extreme “interventionist” strategy. With its emphasis upon the use of punishment, Dobson’s position is aligned with the Skinnerian side of the Skinner-Rogers’ dichotomy although, in reality, Skinner believed that one could more effectively condition animals (including children) solely through the use of rewards. In Lewis’ Keeping It Simple framework, punishment is equated with “control.”

Within the field of discipline, more has been written on the topic of punishment and its variations (especially corporal punishment) than on any other single topic. Much of what has been written says that the use of punishment should be reduced (Tauber, 1999), if not stopped, no matter its goal — retribution, deterrence, or reform. Yet punishment, whether corporal (such as spanking, shaking, choking, excessive exercise, disrobement, or confinement in an uncomfortable place) or nonphysical (such as verbal battlement, neglect, loss of privileges, detention, and suspension), has not stopped, and in some schools, has not been significantly reduced (Tauber, 1999).

Technically, punishment is simply a word used to describe a consequence that, when supplied, reduces behavior. In daily practice, though, the word is emotionally laden. For many adults there is a blur between punishment for the sake of punishment (retribution, eye-for-an-eye) and punishment for the sake of therapy (behavior reduction) (Tauber, 1999).

  Methodology

This chapter will outline the methods to be used in gathering data: the respondents of the study, the sampling technique, the instrument to be used, the validation of the instrument, the administration of the instrument and the statistical treatment of the data that will be gathered, and how this data will be analyzed qualitatively.

 

Method of Research

This proposed study will use the descriptive approach- utilization of interview, observation and questionnaires in the study. The purpose is to describe the situation as observed by the researcher.

The study will determine whether the revised In-School Suspension Program can help resolve issues on academic issues through different means, from the conduct of class discussions, improving student-teacher relationship and societal attitudes of students.

            The primary source of data will come from the research-conducted questionnaire. Secondary data will consist of interviews, published articles from teacher’s and social sciences journals, theses and related studies on the effects of ISS on students behavior.

For this research design, the researcher will gather data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from social science journals, distribute sampling questionnaires; arrange interviews; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material.  Afterwards, the researcher will summarize all the information, make a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provide insightful recommendations on distance learning as a means for improved discipline among students.

 

Conclusions

This proposed study will work on the hypothesis that the revised ISS would significantly affect the general behavior of students in school. Further, the revised ISS have a positive correlation on the behavioral disposition of students.

 

References and Bibliography

Colton, Denise and Sheridan, Susan, Conjoint Behavioral Consultation and       Social Skills Training: Enhancing the Play Behaviors of Boys with      Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,           1998

Englander, Meryl, Strategies for Classroom Discipline, Praeger Publishers, 1986

Ford, Karen, Hinely, Reg and Leavell, Alexandra, Education in Edge City: Cases            for Reflection and Action, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000

Griffin, Robert, Underachievers in Secondary School: Education off the Mark,      Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988

McMahon, Thomas, Pruett, Marsha Kline, On the Proverbial Horns of an Ethical Dilemma: School Consultation, Child Advocacy, and Adversarial            Intervention, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998

Miller, Dan, Effect of a Program of Therapeutic Discipline on the Attitude,  Attendance, and Insight of Truant Adolescents, Heldref Publications, 1986

Tauber, Robert, Classroom Management: Sound Theory and Effective Practice,  Bergin & Garvey, 1999

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com