Research has suggested that students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., students of color and those with disabilities) have received higher rates of exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) than their peers who are White and without disability. Various interventions have been implemented to address this…

Addressing racial disparities in school discipline is an urgent and widespread issue facing US schools. One approach to improve racial equity in school discipline practice is to enhance the contextual fit of empirically validated schoolwide practices. Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a widely implemented and…

Addressing racial disparities in school discipline is an urgent and widespread issue facing U.S. schools. One approach to improve racial equity in school discipline practice is to enhance the contextual fit of empirically validated school-wide practices. School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a widely implemented…

There is an overrepresentation of African American males at an increased risk for facing punitive actions that eliminate them from a school's instructional environment (Darensbourg, Perez, & Blake, 2010). Out-of-school suspension should allow students to reflect upon their actions; however, in some instances the suspension causes students to…

The disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in exclusionary discipline practices is a well-documented practice in education. This paper synthesizes current literature that points to a cultural incongruence between students and teachers as an underlying mechanism for disparity in school practices involving…

A review of the literature related to culture and student behavior reveals a number of interesting observations that are not surprising. First, culture is a difficult construct to define and has been defined variably over the years. Second, schools are becoming increasingly diverse, and evidence-based behavior management practices have been…

The authors studied changes in disproportionate exclusion of African American students, compared with their White peers, in relation to implementation of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support using data from 46 schools. They measured (a) exclusion through suspension and expulsion data collected with the Schoolwide Information System; (b) Schoolwide…

Exclusionary policies are practiced widely in schools despite being associated with extremely poor outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students, particularly African American males with and without disabilities. This article discusses zero tolerance policies, the related research questioning their basic assumptions, and the negative…

School discipline has been a subject of national attention both inside and outside the field of education for years. Efforts to improve how schools and communities work together to address student discipline have shown the potential for creative and effective solutions that provide better outcomes for all--students, families, educators, and…

The quantitative study seeks to analyze if School-wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (SWPBIS) model reduces the likelihood that minority students will receive more individualized supports due to behavior problems. In theory, the SWPBIS model should reflect a 3-tier system with tier 1 representing approximately 80%, tier 2 representing…

Teachers report that the behaviors that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis are not typically violent or intense but are frequent and usurp great amounts of instructional time. Office discipline referrals provide a well-established method of tracking student behavior problems across the school, allowing for deeper analysis of contextual…

Disparities in behavioral outcomes for minority students are a decades-old problem. Recently, the systems-level approach of school-wide positive behavior support (SW-PBS) and its growing research base have garnered attention as a possible remedy. Although SW-PBS has been shown to be effective in reducing a school's overall level of office…

This article features Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a systems-based method for improving student behavior. PBIS was developed at the University of Oregon and has been shown to work at all grade levels and be effective in districts with greater concentrations of poverty and higher percentages of "at-risk" students. It has…

This article features Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a systems-based method that offers a schoolwide approach to improving student behavior. PBIS was developed at the University of Oregon and has been shown to work at all grade levels and be effective in districts with greater concentrations of poverty and higher…

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. Initially enacted to counter violent behavior and drug use, zero tolerance…