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Improving School Engagement through Reduced Punishment

On September 21st, 2012, the state of California signed into law AB 1729. Effective as of January 2013, this law aims to protect student’s rights against automatic and immediate expulsions and suspensions. The implementation of AB 1729 marks a significant shift from automatically punishing students for misbehaving[i]. Instead, AB 1729 requires that school officials first pursue alternative measures to punishment before turning to suspension and expulsions as a last effort. This shift has increased student participation and attendance by improving the social climate of schools through reduced conflict and behavioral issues.

The Previous Nature of Suspensions and Expulsions

Before the implementation of AB 1729, California Education Code 48900 gave the power of expulsions and suspensions to school officials. Code 48900 stated that pupils could be suspended or expelled simply if a superintendent or principle determined that a student committed a specific, non-violent act[ii].

Such non-violent acts included class disruptions and willful defiance[iii]. Under the previous Code 48900, school officials were allowed to turn to alternatives to expulsion and suspension for these non-violent acts. Prior to AB 1729, however, these school officials were not mandated to pursue alternative methods before resorting to suspension or expulsion.

Penalty Alternatives Under AB 1729

The 2013 implementation of AB 1729 transformed Code 48900 by requiring that principals and superintendents first use non-punishment methods before turning to suspension and expulsion. Schools are required to thoroughly prove and document these alternative means of correcting student behavior. All alternative measures taken must be documented on a student’s official record. These alternatives must be both age appropriate and personally designed to address the student’s specific behavioral problems[iv]. As outlined by AB 1729, these specific other means of correction include:

  • Programs that teach positive behavior
  • Conferences between school personnel, parents, and students
  • Participation in restorative justice programs
  • After school curriculum that targets behavioral issues with positive skills development
  • Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs

Punishment alternatives, such as these, were mandated in 2013 to reduce expulsion and suspensions, but just how successful have these policies been?

Reduced Punishment Drives Attendance and Engagement

Between 1970 and 2013, suspension rates in the United States more than doubled – from 3.7% to 7.5%. In 2012, when AB 1729 was signed, up to 400,000 students were suspended from school at least once per year. To track the impact of AB 1729, the California Department of Education began a series of case studies on select California school districts. One of these school districts with the greatest increase in attendance under AB 1729 was Tuolumne County[v].

In the 2011-2012 Tuolumne school year, 640 students were suspended and 46 pupils were expelled. By 2014-2015, only 373 students were suspended and a mere 15 were expelled. The Los Angeles Unified School District additionally experienced a similar phenomenon under AB 1729. Since the law’s 2013 implementation, LA Unified has experienced a 24% decline in suspensions and a 31% decline in expulsions[vi].

California school districts have seen these drastic drops in suspension and expulsion rates through turning to policies that teach and reinforce positive social behaviors and skills. When fighting, bickering, and disruptions occur in the classroom, schools no longer automatically punish students. Instead, schools have issued school-wide positive behavior, intervention, and SEL programs to correct negative behaviors and implicit biases that cause conflict[vii].

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process of teaching students to acquire and apply positive behavior skills and attitudes. These skills and attitudes include managing emotions, establishing positive relationships, and handling challenging social situations. SEL programs implemented in California under AB 1729 have reduced:

  • Disruptive behavior by 64%
  • Physically aggressive behavior by 45%
  • Discipline referrals by 43%

These declines in negative interactions and behaviors are due to schools using alternatives to expulsion and suspensions. These reduced punishments keep students in school and increase attendance by eliminating penalties that remove pupils from the classroom. By introducing practices that encourage positive behavior instead of punishing negative behavior, schools create a more engaging environment. Pupils in a positive social environment are less likely to act out in school and more likely to be excited about learning.

The SEL and positive alternative approaches to punishment that AB 1729 has introduced have not only driven suspension and expulsion rates down, but have created positive social environments where kids are excited to come to school and engaged in their learning.

About CoolSchool Central

CoolSchool Central aims to facilitate the transformation that Changes Futures by using SEL and video modeling. With CoolSchool Central, schools have the opportunity to save funding that can be invested back into the system to continually work towards positive behavioral development for students. Good for schools, good for students. Let’s help make this positive change together!

CoolSchool Central’s mission is to Change Futures by helping public schools create a safe, enjoyable environment where kids are excited about education. Studies show that the two key reasons why children don’t go to school are being afraid of being bullied at school and finding school to be boring. Using animated interactive programs, CoolSchool Central delivers SEL in an easy and engaging way to teach kids how to manage and navigate social interactions – creating truly CoolSchools.

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Addressing Teacher Turnover in Public Schools

Teacher Turnover rates are at an all-time high in public schools, and they are disproportionately impacting kids from low-income households.

“When I applied for my job there were 70 applicants; when we advertised for new teaching positions last year there were three. The drop in numbers is scary – maths and English are struggling to recruit…” remarks Jonathan, teacher and head of his department for five years. Yes, it is getting harder and harder to recruit teachers for our public schools.

Here is what the Federal data tells us:

  • Over 17% of new teachers leave their jobs within four years. Over a quarter of these teachers leave involuntarily due to budget constraints or performance levels.
  • Teachers are more likely to leave if they are over the age of thirty and in their second career.
  • Male teachers are also more likely to leave their careers, as well as Alternative Certification Program teachers. For example, in the year 2011-2012, twenty-one percent of the Alternative Certification Programs teachers left their careers verses the sixteen percent of traditionally certified teachers.
  • Teachers with their first year in a high-poverty area are also more likely to quit or transfer to a more affluent area.

One of the problems that new teachers encounter is the stark contrast between what they envisioned their lives would be as a teacher verses the reality of actually teaching in our public schools. New teachers become overwhelmed by the basic fundamentals of the education system including standards, formal assessments, benchmark tests, collection of data & analysis, phone calls to parents, variability within student comprehension & ability, and advance curriculum planning.

To the new teachers, there seems to be an improper balance between time spent teaching, paperwork, and personal time—creating disillusionment, particularly for new teachers.

Gaby Proctor, 22, former teacher-in-training who quit after three months in the program says, “Now I’m going to work, doing my work and working hard, and I can go home and I don’t have to worry about it at home. There was no downtime with teaching. You have to take it home with you, you don’t have a choice. I have mental health issues anyway, with depression and anxiety disorders, and I found it made them so much worse. The pressure, it’s crazy.”

The Tragedy of Poverty

The real problem, however, is lack of funding, which is especially apparent in poorer areas.

“Low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed, but in far too many places, policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it,” says former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The highest teacher turnover rates happen in the very areas that need good teachers—high-poverty areas in inner cities and rural districts.

For example, one reason well-funded schools attract highly qualified teachers is better work conditions. The schools are cleaner, well maintained, and well-provisioned with teaching supplies.

In the Teachers College Record Study of Teaching Conditions in Massachusetts Schools, it was found that 53% of the teachers in more affluent areas believed that their school is “a good place to work and learn,” while only 32% of teachers in the areas with the highest degree of poverty believed the same.

Unfortunately, far too often, socio-economic conditions become reliable predictors of student success.

Experienced Teachers are Leaving

Many teachers within high-poverty districts are leaving these schools. Often, these teachers relocate to school districts in more affluent areas, with better performing students, and less ethnic diversity. In 2013, The American Educational Research Journal stated that this “…results in organizational instability and concentration of less experienced, lower performing teachers, both of which hurt student achievement.”

Low Salary

The “Public School Teacher Attrition and Mobility in the Five Years,” study focused on new teachers that began their careers in 2007-2008. A growing percentage of the teachers did not choose to continue their careers: 10% of teachers did not continue teaching in 2008-2009. This increased to 12% in 2009-2010, then 15%in 2010-2011, and 17% in 2011-2012.

A big reason for the turnover was salary. The study observed that 97% of teachers whose salary their first year was $40,000 or more continued teaching in 2008-2009. Furthermore, 89% of these teachers continued teaching into 2011-2012.

By contrast, only 89% of teachers whose salary their first year was less then $40,000 continued teaching in 2008-2009. This number dropped further to 80% of teachers who continued teaching into 2011-2012.

Wealthier schools with proper funding were able to afford to provide higher salaries. Therefore, they were able to attract and retain more qualified teachers. This further translated to better stability and moral, eventually resulting in more successful students – a sharp contrast to their cohorts in poorer areas.

The Vicious Cycle of Lack of Funding

Lack of funding creates a vicious cycle for schools in lower-income districts:

  • Because of the way schools are funded through local property taxes, these schools already start with less funding when compared with their counterparts in more affluent suburbs.
  • As a result, they have difficulty providing the salary or the working conditions necessary to attract high-quality teachers, or retain them once hired.
  • This high turnover of teachers only exacerbates the truancy rates that these schools already experience. The higher truancy now costs these schools sorely needed Federal funding.
  • With still lower funding, these schools continue to struggle, and lose teachers
  • This results in classroom disruptions, bullying and harassment, further leading to penalties and more truancy.

And the vicious cycle spirals down.

A Solution with a Catch

What can our public schools do to reverse this trend, and attract and retain high-quality teachers?

We know mentoring by seasoned older teachers helps. It is not unusual for new teachers to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do each day, without seeming to make any apparent impact.

“If I was having a problem with a child, someone would come into the room to observe and give me advice. I felt like they had my back,” says Jennifer Scoggins, 32, a teacher in New York, who is also on her way towards getting her Ph.D.

There is research evidence to support that mentoring programs work. In 2008-2009, 92% of teachers with mentors continued teaching into their second year compared to 84% without mentorship. In 2011-2012, these numbers 86% compared to 71% without a mentor. The results of this study induced the Federal Government to invest $21 million to create twenty-eight teacher-residency programs that provide prospective teachers with hands-on experience.

However, there is catch here. An increasing number of experienced teachers are leaving their teaching careers, resulting in a shortage of mentors for the programs.

“I can’t see myself doing this until the current retirement age. I can see teachers, working early mornings, late nights, demanding days, at 68 years old… I can see teachers dying in the classroom, I really can,” says Graham, 30, teacher and assistant head of her school.

So, what now?

Changing the Social Climate

As discussed above, schools in poorer areas have especially hard time recruiting and retaining high quality teachers. We also showed that this creates a vicious cycle that only deteriorates with time. So, how can these schools turn this situation around?

We know the answer lies in better funding, which would help create a better environment for both students and teachers. However, clearly there is not much that schools can do about  state and local funding. That formula is out of their control.

These schools, however, can do something about Federal Funding–if they can reduce their truancy and bullying rates. In California, public schools lose over $1 billion in funding each year to truancy alone. The vast majority of the schools that lose such funds are in low-income areas. Keeping this funding would go a long way in creating the climate that is conducive to high quality education.

The key is to create a positive social climate that is attractive to both teachers and students. But, how do we do that?

What if we get these kids to want to come to school and stay in class without disrupting? How can we make learning more accessible and more fun?

One way this can be done is through an emerging concept called Interactive Learning, which is more engaging and more effective than traditional teaching methods. Through the use of interactive animations and video modeling, students are able to grasp complex concepts and place them in real world situations, building strong cognitive skills. With interactive learning, real-life concepts become balanced and aligned with a thriving classroom atmosphere that includes teamwork and positive behavior, improving the educational climate for teachers and students.

This is why interactive learning has been proven to be an effective mechanism for delivering Social Emotional Learning (SEL), which can ultimately change behavior within the student population, leading to a reduction in bullying, classroom disruption, and absenteeism. Improve absenteeism and reduce bullying, and funding will begin to improve.

About Us

CoolSchool develops video based interactive lessons for teaching Social Emotional Learning, reducing bullying and absenteeism in public elementary schools.

Contact us today for a demo of the suite of products that significantly reduce both absenteeism and bullying.

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Interactive Learning Is Here

cute elementary schoolboy using a tablet computer in classroom

Recent advancement in teaching methodology has created a new phenomenon called “interactive learning.”

Although, traditional teaching methods have generally claimed the foreground of the education system, there is a visible notion of change that has created a pathway for “interactive learning” to develop and expand.

Beginning at a young age, students are encouraged to use physical practices of memorization.

“Copy each word five times.”

Often, students are assigned to draft a set of words and definitions a particular number of times. If you’re familiar with the American School System, you probably remember doing this yourself. There is, in fact, no beneficial agenda behind this mundane, repetitive work. The theory remains that the physical movement (writing) enhances recollection, as it begins to include not only your brain but your body, as well.

Although this practice has been in place for countless years, critics of this theory still remain at large.

Interactive learning is more effective than traditional learning. Recent studies and reports support this claim.

An article by Richard E. Mayer[1], “Multimedia learning: Are we asking the right questions?” observes and explores the idea of effective interactive learning. Mayer examines the best way to explain “cause-and-effect systems” to University students – for example: “how a pump works, how the human respiratory system works, or how lightning storms develop.” One idea that he draws upon is “multimedia presentation of explanations in visual and verbal formats.” Mayer illustrates this concept by explaining how a pump works through both visual and verbal representations. He goes on to collect data to support the use of this technique.

In support of the effectiveness of his technique, Mayer finds that students who were shown visual and verbal formats produced “75% more creative solutions on problem-solving transfer tests than did students who received verbal explanations alone”. His next review, including 10 studies, showed a result of “50% more creative solutions to transfer problems when verbal and visual explanations were coordinated (integrated group) than when they were not coordinated (separated group).” His last review also supports these findings, but additionally finds that these effects were most significant on students with “low prior knowledge and high spatial ability”. Mayer’s studies prove that the best way  to explain cause-and-effect to students is through verbal and visual multimedia combination.

Another research study[2], “Boys’ and Girls’ Use of Cognitive Strategy When Learning to Play Video Games” by Fran C. Blumberg and Lori M. Sokol, proposes that children also use a significant amount of cognitive strategies when they interact with media, for example video games. In this study 2nd & 5th grade students were asked what they did to learn the video game that they were provided with. Their responses were recorded as either “external” or “internal,” regarding whether they looked within themselves for answers or sought out other sources for help “(i.e., reading a manual vs. asking for help, respectively)”. Children who played these games more often, as well as older children in general, became more likely to use internal problem-solving skills, supporting the idea that video learning promotes self-sufficiency.

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