Significant numbers of students are being pushed out of school as a result of "zero tolerance" school discipline policies. While nobody questions the need to keep schools safe, teachers, students, and parents are questioning the methods being used in pursuit of that goal. Zero tolerance policies were initially aimed at making schools safe. The…

Compelling empirical research shows that a positive and sustained school climate promotes students' academic achievement and healthy development. Not surprisingly, a positive school climate also promotes teacher retention, which itself enhances student success. Yet the knowledge of the effects of school climate on learning has not been translated…

For many people, the idea of safety in an educational context brings to mind the problem of school violence and specifically the string of shootings at schools across the US in recent years. Here, the author begins by noting that the coverage of those events has obscured several important facts. For one, he emphasizes that there is a tendency,…

Violence affects one in every five teenagers. Everyday 160,000 students miss school because they fear attack, intimidation, or bullying. While tragedies such as school shootings are rare, many youngsters feel threatened. School officials and administrators take steps to make school safer, yet many teachers remain frustrated. Violence prevention…

This article focuses on the three kinds of school safety: (1) physical; (2) emotional; and (3) intellectual, and details how to determine if a school is safe. Excellence in schools demands that schools be physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe for students, while "good enough" schools are simply physically safe. Here, the…