Keeping on-track
to High School Graduation
Through
School Engagement
Dr. Ken Seeley
A Focus on
Zero Tolerance
Alternatives
Santa Clara
County
May 2011
What is NCSE?
The National Center for School
Engagement
• The theory of Change is based on the
interaction of Attendance, Attachment,
and Achievement
• Promoting truancy and dropout
prevention and recovery to achieve high
school graduation
• Provide training, evaluation and
technical assistance
• Engagement implies student, parent and
community engagement in schools
Engage Youth
and Parents
Youth
Success
Increased
Teacher
Involvement
Coordinate &
Integrate programs
The Elements of
Change
Will
Methods
Resources
Change Need Not Be an
Additive Process
Discipline Principles and School
Engagement
• Never withhold learning as
punishment- learning continues
• There is NO silver bullet or
omnibus solution to discipline
for all high risk students
• Every student who is excluded
from school should have a plan
to return and continue learning
while out of school
Five Myths About Zero
Tolerance
School violence is at a crisis level and is
increasing necessitating no-nonsense strategies.
Zero tolerance increases the consistency of school
discipline and therefore the clarity of the
disciplinary message to students.
Removal of students who violate school rules will
create a climate more conducive for learning for
those students who remain.
Swift and certain punishment of zero tolerance
have a deterrent effect and improve overall
behavior and discipline
Parents overwhelmingly support zero tolerance
and students feel safer.
Are Zero Tolerance Policies
Effective in the Schools?
(American Psychological Association, 2008)
[See Handout P. 853-854]
Group Activity: Answer the Question Above
from your experience and the following:
•What is the goal of zero tolerance and is it
successful in achieving that goal?
•When and where should zero tolerance be
used?
•How predominant are punitive and
exclusionary practices in the schools and for
what types of student behaviors are they
generally used?
Reforming Zero
Tolerance
• Group Activity from Handout
[Pgs.858-859]
• Review the three A-2 policies
and determine which are
actionable in your schools and if
not why not.
• Review the Alternatives to Zero
Tolerance; B1 Practices; and
determine which are actionable.
Restorative Justice
Strategies for Schools
“ Restorative justice is a method of bringing
together the parties who identify as
stakeholders in a communal, nonhierarchical dialogue about the
consequences of a harm, providing them an
opportunity to discuss what to be done to
repair the situation .”(Braithewaite, 2002)
The main objectives are for the community
to:
• Hold the offenders accountable,
• Repair harm to victims,
• Provide support to the offenders to
encourage their reintegration into the
community
Planning & Measuring
(report by age, grade, gender, race
ethnicity)
#
suspensions
per 100
# out of
school
suspensions/
100
# in- school # # law
Expulsions/ Enf orcement
100
referrals/100
# school
detentions/
1 00
# excused
absences/
semester
#unexcuse # truancies/
d absences/ semester
semester
Dropout
rate
Graduation # Ds and
rate
Fs per
semester
# teacher
office
referrals/
semester
Major RJ Strategies
• The facilitated conference with
offender, victim, supporters to
identify the harm and the repair
• Informal classroom meetings or
circles about the effects on the
class from bad behaviors
• Use of RTI and PBIS pyramid
model to combine RJ
alternatives with traditional
discipline rules and
consequences
Discipline Alternatives
• Group Activity- different
student scenario at each table• For each situation present 2
punitive/ exclusionary
responses and 2 restorative or
engaging responses
• How possible would it be to do
the restorative responses and
still meet the discipline “rules”
The NCSE Policy and Practice
Assessment
Absences Class
Levels
Enrollme Student
nt,
Activities
Transfers,
Credits
Academic Discipline Grading
Support
Practices
and
Support
Services
Teachers
Bullying
Transition
Support
Disengage School
d Students Climate
Driver Diagram for SEIP
Drivers
School has welcoming
or inviting culture and
environment
School
Engagement
with High
attendance and
Academic
Success
Positive Relationships
amongst students,
parents, teachers, and
administrators
Variation in learning,
education, health, and
social needs of
children
Family and home
environments vary in
their ability to provide
supportive structures
and processes
Indicators that predict
level of engagement
and attendance are
acted on
Productive school
protocols, systems, and
processes
Conceptual
Design
Create learning and high expectation culture in
the classroom and other school settings
Promote and reward pro-social peer to peer
relationships, that enhances school safety
Create a Caring School Community by
implementing the characteristics of a welcoming
school climate (NCSE)
Targeted processes to identify and track at risk
students and their families and focus efforts on
“At Risk” students having positive transitions
Timely personalized, positive intervention with
absent students
Increase Use of Community Resources/Services
(like mental and physical health) by improving
linkage and coordination
Promote and foster parenting skills to develop
home environments that support children as
students (NCSE)
Achieve high levels of parental and community
involvement which includes (NCPIE) Parents in
School Decisions and Develops Parent Leaders
and Representatives (NCSE)
Establish regular and meaningful two-way
communication between home and school
(NCSE)
SEIP Handout: The Change Package
•Creating testable ideas for each change
concept
•Assign RTI tiers ratings to show level of
implementation
•Use the PDSA cycle to test the ideas and
measure success and modify as needed
•Plan for “spread” moving the prototype to
wider use in the school
Johns Hopkins Grad
Nation Model
Dropout Early Warning
System
A= Attendance- More than half of
HS dropouts missed 20 or more days in the
9th grade
B= Behavior- Defined by suspensions
with 53% of those ninth graders with 4 or
more suspensions dropped out.
C= Course Failure- One or more
semester failures in a course as early s 6th
grade predicts high school dropout Just 1 F
in Ninth grade predicts an 88% dropout
rate
At Each Transition Point
Consider Both Academic
and Social Needs
• Middle Grades-Intermediate
Academic Skills (reading
comprehension and fluency,
transition from arithmetic to
mathematics) and a need for
adventure and camaraderie
• High School-Transition to Adult
Behaviors and Mind Set and a path
to college and career readiness, as
well as the right extra help for
students with below grade level
skills and caring adults
No Cost and Low Cost
Alternatives to Punitive
Discipline
• School Based Teen/Youth Court
• School-Community Review Boards
• Service Learning -Community Service
Consequences
• Teach a class on anger mgmt during
lunch detention
• Use Americorp and City Year
volunteers to mentor
National Standards for
School Climate
• Research based standards and
indicators
• Useful as an assessment of
existing measures of school
climate and for parent messaging
• Useful as a base for policy
creation and implementation of
student conduct rules, RJ
strategies, bullying, PBIS
implementation, professional
development needs
NCSE as Resource
• National Conference October
26-28
• Policy and Practice Assessment
• Evaluate truancy programs with
TRAIN
• Truancy and dropout online
course
• Website:
www.schoolengagement.org