TeachME Professional Development

1. In recent years, leaders in education, health, law enforcement, and juvenile justice, as well as student and family groups, advocacy organizations, researchers, and professional associations have begun to examine school disciplinary data to paint a more complete picture of how exclusionary disciplinary policies are implemented in school and districts.

2. Although schools and districts are attempting to address disparities, their work may focus only on symptoms and symbols rather than the underlying causes, which can make it difficult to move toward meaningful action and systemic change.

3. According to the authors, the root causes of disparities in school discipline exist in a range of domains, including each of the following EXCEPT:

4. In order to identify, analyze, and address the root causes of disparities in school discipline, leadership who is committed to fully supporting this work is vital for both an effective process and:

5. When building a team to address school discipline, a school resource officer or other law enforcement personnel should be involved in providing input and in decision making about future discipline practices.

6. At various points in the process, school staff and other stakeholders may need to take time to have difficult conversations about their beliefs regarding behavior, discipline, punishment, and resource allocation as well as attitudes about:

7. Which of the following is NOT one of the recommended strategies used when preparing for the first meeting?

8. Brave exchange is the term used to describe meaningful, productive dialogue that engages and facilitates the discussion of difficult, challenging, or sensitive topics through an open, honest, and strength-based approach.

9. The capacity of an organization and its personnel to communicate effectively and convey information in a manner that is easily understood by diverse audiences, including persons of limited English proficiency, those who have low literacy skills or are illiterate, and individuals with disabilities is referred to as:

10. In addition to disproportionately high suspension and expulsion rates for students of color, English Learners (Els) receive out of school suspensions at much higher rates than the overall student population.

11. When analyzing discipline, it is critical to understand who is being disciplined, the kind and extent of the discipline used, the rationale behind disciplinary actions, and what affect the disciplinary actions have on students.

12. Qualitative data may include information such as that which a school or district collects on how many students are sent out of class and for what reasons, or how many students are suspended from school in a given year.

13. Data may help to answer questions about suspensions and demographics including what the demographic characteristics of the suspended and expelled students are, which demographic groups are at greatest risk of disciplinary action and are being disciplined at higher rates, and what groups are more likely to receive harsher punishments.

14. While the risk ratio can be used to represent the likelihood of a specific or set of disciplinary action(s) for a target demographic group in relation to one or more peer groups, representing the difference in receiving disciplinary action (s) between a target group and a comparison group requires the use of:

15. Data used to calculate impact and consequences of exclusionary discipline may include lost days, the cost to the district associated with lost average daily attendance, the number of students being repeatedly disciplined, and days of lost instruction because of suspension connected to student achievement, dropout rates, and other outcomes.

16. The levels of readiness for change when addressing exclusionary discipline in a sustained manner include each of the following EXCEPT:

17. The causes of disparities, and potential solutions, may be rooted in processes with origins earlier in students’ school history that do not appear to be directly related to discipline, such as lack of access to challenging curricula. engaging extracurricular opportunities and:

18. Climate and learning environment issues that may impact disparity patterns include students being assigned to classes with less experienced teachers, students of color with behavioral and emotional problems having experienced fewer opportunities to engage in class, and students of color not feeling safe, connected, supported, challenged, or engaged.

19. Research suggests that students of color are both under- and over-identified as having educational disabilities that require restrictive placement, and that this process can contribute to diminished learning opportunities, behavior problems, exclusionary discipline, arrest, and:

20. Implicit biases are generally unfavorable, they align with our unconscious beliefs, and they are not likely to be unlearned.

21. The diagnostic tree, which is commonly used in business, health care, and marketing to analyze and identify information in an organized way, guides team members through issues, causes, root causes, and:

22. When looking at root causes of a tardiness issue that resulted in numerous office referrals, one high school team began to look for distance issues, social issues, and relationship issues that were contributing to students being late.

23. The key to an effective action plan is identifying interventions that address the drivers and root causes of disparities in a school or district, and selecting approaches, programs, or practices that a school or district has the capacity to implement effectively that are:

24. Examining discipline data will provide one of the best opportunities to encourage meaningful conversation about the process and to encourage sharing of thoughts and ideas.

25. Long term strategies to address disparities may include changing disciplinary practices, enhancing teachers’ classroom management skills, implementing restorative practices in high schools, or revising codes of conduct.

26. When developing and responding to disparities in school discipline, it is important to move beyond simply reducing numbers, overcome a narrow view of data and root causes, confront bias, and:

27. In order to effectively address root causes, a school district action plan should draw on best practices that a school or district has the capacity to implement and sustain.

28. The two types of training that are generally needed for staff and stakeholders to effectively implement a plan are motivational and reinforcement training.