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mariacallous · 2 years ago

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Editor's Note: This blog is part of the "School Discipline in America" series. In this series, experts from Brookings and RAND explore how U.S. public schools approach student discipline and educators' perspectives on disciplinary approaches and challenges, providing key insights into contemporary debates over student discipline practices and policies.

Teachers and principals have long struggled to find effective ways to address and reduce student misbehavior—a challenge that has become more acute since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools across the country are reportingincreasedlevels ofmisbehavior, including fights and more serious acts of violence. Educators largely attribute these increases in misbehavior to the negative effects the pandemic had on students’ learning, socioemotional development, and mental health.

We know that student misbehavior can have negative consequences for student learning, school climate, and teachers’ well-being. Thus, in the context of continued pandemic recovery efforts, figuring out how to reduce and prevent student misbehavior is imperative.

In this post, we highlight two things principals say their schools need to reduce student misbehavior: better teacher preparation and more resources. We present data from three nationally representative sources as evidence. Specifically, we leverage data from a November 2021 survey conducted via the RAND Corporation’s American School Leader Panel (ASLP); surveys conducted in May and November 2022 via the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) School Pulse Panel (SPP); and NCES’ biennial School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). Taken together, these data represent the perspectives of thousands of principals across the United States. Here’s what we found.

Only one third of principals believe their teachers have been adequately trained to deal with student misbehavior and discipline

In November 2021, only 36% of principals believed the teachers at their school were adequately trained by their teacher preparation programs to handle misbehavior and discipline (Figure 1). Principals’ perceptions of adequate teacher training varied by their school context. Principals in schools serving mostly Black students were less likely than their counterparts in mostly white schools to feel that their teachers received adequate training to deal with student misbehavior, particularly at the elementary level.

Federal data tell a similar story. In November 2022, three in five principals said inadequate teacher training in classroom management limits, in major or minor ways, efforts to reduce or prevent disruptive behavioral issues (Figure 2). This is a notable uptick from pre-pandemic surveys in which only two in five principals identified inadequate teacher training as a limiting factor. While some of this increase may be related to a broadening of the survey question wording, it also likely reflects principals’ overwhelming perception that the pandemic negatively impacted student behavior and that teachers may be ill-prepared to help students catch up both academically, and socially and emotionally.[1]

Importantly, large shares of teachers also agree that teacher training programs need to better prepare teachers to effectively manage student behavior. Roughly two thirds (68%) of teachers in a March 2022 nationally representative survey said their preparation programs should have spent more time on how to manage student behavior. Notably, more time on managing student behavior was teachers’ top recommendation for their training program. More teachers identified learning how to manage student behavior as a deficiency in their preparation program than all other activities asked on the survey, including things like learning how to engage students, culturally responsive pedagogy, and discussion of controversial issues.

Beyond better teacher training, a majority of principals say they need additional resources to reduce student misbehaviors—and they have been saying so for at least the last decade

As of November 2021, over half of U.S. public school principals (54%) agreed or strongly agreed their schools need additional resources to increase their capacity to reduce student misbehavior (Figure 3). Principals of elementary schools serving mostly Black students were especially likely to indicate a need for additional resources to prevent or reduce misbehavior; although we emphasize that across school contexts, roughly half (or more) of principals indicated they needed more resources to address troublesome behaviors.

Federal data confirm that principals’ belief that more resources are needed to address troublesome student behaviors isn’t new. For at least the last decade, nearly two thirds of principals have said that inadequate resources are a minor or major factor limiting their schools’ ability to reduce or prevent crime and other disruptive behaviors (Figure 4). In fact, principals consistently ranked inadequate funding as the biggest barrier they face, behind only lack of alternative placements for disruptive students.

A natural next question is: what would principals purchase with additional funding? Federal data suggest that principals have several programs, trainings, and staff in mind. When asked in May 2022 what their schools need to better support student behavior and socioemotional development, principals indicated need for support for student and/or staff mental health (79%), training on supporting students’ socioemotional development (70%), hiring of more teachers and/or other staff (60%), and training on classroom management strategies (51%). All told, these results suggest educators need a more comprehensive approach—including more effective trainings, more staff, and more mental health supports—to adequately support their students.

In summary, educators need more support to reduce student misbehavior

Data from multiple nationally representative surveys suggest schools do not have the training or funds they need to effectively reduce and prevent student misbehavior.

Principals have been telling us for at least the last decade that they need more resources to remedy student misbehavior. In the short-term, federal pandemic recovery funds may help schools fill in some gaps. Analyses of districts’ spending plans suggest many are investing in staffing (including hiring more psychologists and counselors), socioemotional learning curriculums and trainings, and other behavioral and mental health services. However, many districts have been hesitant to use federal recovery funds to hire more staff given leaders’ fears of a “fiscal cliff,” or an inability to afford higher-than-normal staffing levels when funds abruptly end next year. Furthermore, schools’ need for more staff and training—particularly in the area of mental health supports—continues to lag behind needed levels due to barriers like hiring challenges and increased mental health needs among students. Thus, while pandemic recovery funds may help some schools begin to invest in much-needed supports, a one-time infusion of funds will almost certainly be insufficient to support students’ long-term needs.

Principals also identified teacher preparation programs as a possible intervention point—a sentiment shared by most teachers. State policymakers and administrators should work to ensure that teacher preparation programs in their state place increased emphasis on learning how to manage student behavior and support students’ socioemotional development. State leaders should also assess the extent to which teacher preparation programs have kept pace with districts’ changing expectations about managing student behavior and best practices for discipline in schools.

Effectively managing student behavior is difficult and important work. It is critical for supporting students’ academic and socioemotional recovery after several years of pandemic-related disruptions to schooling. If we want to help schools create positive school climates and reduce student misbehavior, perhaps we should listen to what educators have been telling us they need.

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johnhardinsawyer · 11 months ago

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Permanent Perspective

John Sawyer

Bedford Presbyterian Church

2 / 11 / 24 – Transfiguration Sunday

Psalm 27:1-4

Mark 9:2-10

“Permanent Perspective”

(Transfiguring Our Perceptions)

At this very moment – in an old stone chapel in Halberstadt, Germany – there is a pipe organ, similar to our own pipe organ, that is playing a piece of music. The piece was written by a composer named John Cage and is called “Organ 2 / ASLP” – with “ASLP” meaning “As Slow As Possible.” Now, this might sound crazy, but this particular performance in Halberstadt began on September 5, 2001 and it is still going. When you have a pipe organ that is well-maintained and backup energy to run it even if the electricity cuts out, you can place small sandbags on the keys to hold them down and then go out and get a bite to eat and come back because the dissonant chord being played can last for months or years before the next chord needs to be played. As of Monday of this past week, a new chord is being played – a chord that will last for months, if not longer, until it’s time for the next chord to be played. The folks in Halberstadt hope to keep things going like this for about 639 years. The piece will end in the year 2640 – a looong time from now.[1] You know, it takes a lot of faith and hope – and a lot of perspective – to be part of something that you know will outlast you. Even if “Organ 2 / ASLP” makes it all the way to 2640, it will one day come to an end – just like how most things will come to an end.

I wonder, in the year 2640, if anyone will be talking about “Organ 2 / ASLP,” or whether or not Taylor Swift made it from her Tokyo concert to Las Vegas for the Superbowl, or whether or not Patrick Mahomes – the quarterback for the Chiefs – will be immortalized with a Superbowl win. Just as an aside, this past week, there were some sports commentators and prognosticators on ESPN asking whether Patrick Mahomes would become immortal after tonight’s Superbowl – not in the sense that Patrick Mahomes will never die, but in the sense that he might always be known as one of the greatest to play the game – in the pantheon of great quarterbacks, along with Tom Brady and his baby blue eyes and chiseled chin.

But in the year 2640, will anyone still be playing football, much less talking about it? Or will people be riding around in their hover chairs – activating the Apple Vision Pro VR computer chips in their brains – and not paying attention to anything that we might think is important in the world right now. And the year 2640 is only 616 years away – far longer than a TikTok video, but still a blip, a blink in the long arc of history. There have been roughly 5,000 years of recorded history and roughly tens of thousands of years of humans being around (billions of years since the earth was formed). Will Taylor Swift make it to the Superbowl? I hope she does, but, in the big scheme of things, how much will it really matter?

We can be so busy, caught up in the day-to-day concerns that are right in front of our eyes that it can be so hard to have perspective – a kind of long-term thinking and awareness.

As people of faith who are seeking understanding, we will often wrestle with having an eternal and holy perspective in the face of all that concerns us in the here-and-now. In the history of the church, there is this idea that God’s time and our time do not run at the same speed. The holy and eternal kairos of God’s time requires us to have a holy and eternal perspective even though we all live in the chronos of our own time.

In today’s story from the Gospel of Mark, we find three of Jesus’ disciples wrestling with kairos time in light of their own short-term chronos way of thinking. Now, you should know that just about a week before today’s story, Jesus says that “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31)

Prior to this moment, Jesus’ message, and his actions, and his very person were just so compelling that Jesus attracted crowds wherever he went. Jesus was healing the sick, calming storms, casting out evil spirits, and feeding thousands. But when Jesus says this thing about undergoing great suffering and dying, things change. His bright and hopeful good news message is now tinged with a shadow of pain and death. It would seem that Jesus had come to do more than heal and teach. There is more to Jesus than happy miracles and following him isn’t going to be full of joy and wonder and awe all the time.

And yet, in today’s story, the disciples catch a glimpse of wonder and awe – their perspective changes because they catch a glimpse of who Jesus truly is. They come to see him in another light, entirely – as God’s Beloved Son. Truth be told, some of them had thought of Jesus in this way – and even said it out loud – but now their wonderings and imaginings are confirmed.

You heard the story, earlier. Jesus goes up a “high mountain” (Mark 9:2) and takes three friends –Peter, James, and John – with him. Peter, James, and John were the first disciples that Jesus called. He has known them the longest and they have been with him through a lot, already.

The story moves quickly. In one verse, they go up the mountain apart, by themselves, and, in the next moment, Jesus is “transfigured” before them. In the original language, Jesus undergoes a metemorphothe – a metamorphosis or “transformation or change in form,” from one form to another.[2] In this case, Jesus goes from looking like – well, the Jesus that Peter, James, and John just climbed the mountain with – to looking like a heavenly being. His close become dazzling white. Again, in the original language, Jesus becomes “exceedingly (very) radiant, shining brightly”[3] The slightly winded, likely sweaty, just-hiked-up-a-mountain Jesus becomes an intensely bright and powerful Jesus right before their eyes. He is transfigured from the human to the divine.

This is one of the most curious things about Jesus – something that has puzzled people for two thousand years. How could Jesus be both human and divine, finite and infinite, in a certain set moment in time and also eternal? How does that work, anyway? The early church wrestled with this. Some folks got really passionate about how it supposedly works. Some folks still do get passionate about it. In the end, it’s all a big mystery. And one of the key aspects of faith in God is coming to accept a certain amount of mystery. We can’t explain everything about God. This takes some perspective on our part.

In the moment on that mountaintop when Peter sees Jesus in this new and Holy light, he doesn’t have much perspective, aside from living in the present moment. Here is Jesus, shining brightly, and miraculously appearing with Moses and Elijah – two figures from the distant past. And so Peter speaks up and says, “It is good for us to be here.” [Duh, Peter! Or, should we call you “Captain Obvious”?] “Let us make three dwellings,” Peter says, “one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (9:5) In the original language, Peter says that these dwellings will be “tents”[4] – temporary structures.

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time in Scouts, camping in tents. And even though some of these tents were quite sturdy. They were not meant to be permanent. Nothing that you and I can see is truly permanent in the big scheme of things.

Clearly, Peter is not thinking about this in the moment. The Bible tells us that he and James and John are too terrified to think clearly. Their terror is complete when a cloud overshadows them and they hear a voice saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (9:7) And then, when the disciples look around, they see that no one is with them anymore, but only Jesus.

In this very short story – a glimpse of the eternal lasts just a few short verses, a few moments – and then there is Jesus, who looks very much the same as the friend they climbed up the mountain with. You should know that when this story is told in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his friends in this moment, “. . . do not be afraid.” (Matthew 17:7). But in Mark’s Gospel, there is no reassurance. There is just the disciples trying to come to terms with what they have seen and heard.

I am willing to guess that most of you have not seen Jesus shining brightly on a mountain or heard a loud booming voice out of a cloud that says, “Listen to Jesus!” If you had, chances are you might be like the disciples and not say much to anyone because everyone who heard such a story might think you’re crazy.

So, what are we to do with today’s story? It is a curious thing – to have some sense of the enormity and holiness and power of God but to live in the here-and-now with short-term thinking and limited perspective.

The thing that keeps me going and grabs my attention in today’s story is not necessarily the heavenly vision part of it – though this is a powerful image – but the part in which the disciples have experienced the incomprehensible and then they look around and see only Jesus, their friend and teacher, the One whom they know who has shown them a new way to live.

We might go our whole lives and never see some grand vision of who God is, apart from what we might read in the Bible or hear about in church. And we might go our whole lives – with the dissonance of the world ringing in our ears – worried about a lot of things that don’t amount to much in the scope of the eternal. But Jesus is still with us, planting seeds of the eternal, showing us a new way to live, all-the-while giving us glimpses of something beyond ourselves and the troubled world we know. It is Jesus who makes every moment – no matter how small and fleeting – Holy, if we are open to seeing things this way.

You know, it takes a lot of faith and hope – and a lot of perspective – to be part of something that you know is bigger than yourself. We are temporary beings, concerned with temporary things, but we are loved by an eternal God who invites us into a way of seeing and hearing and living that is bigger than just us.

There is a song called “Look Long” by The Indigo Girls, one of my favorite groups. The song is waaaay shorter than 640 years and the lyrics are all about trying to think deeply about the eternal and our place in it. The last verse of the song goes like this:

Me and Marsha went walking up in northern Minnesota On a night so freezing cold the earth stood still She talked about the prophecies and the future generations And said will you keep the faith I said I will, I will, I will So we argue and we wrestle and we claim conviction But we might as well be flipping coins More would be revealed if we'd adjust the focus On the shortest distance between two points Because these aren't the best of times and they're not the worst Just like the edge of the earth is an illusion God bless our brave little hearts and our inherent limitations And our short-sighted plans and our collusion Look long, look long, look long Look long, look long, look long[5]

May God grant us the vision to look long – to change our perspective to what is permanent as we live in the present, trusting that Jesus – who lived, and suffered, and died, and rose again – is still with us in every small, but Holy, moment.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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[1] https://www.npr.org/2024/02/06/1229217832/germany-john-cage-slow-organ-2-aslsp.

[2] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) 511.

[3] Bauer, 768 and 473.

[4] Bauer, 754.

[5] Saliers, Emily and Ray, Amy, “Look Long,” 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=576_tVWHi-Y.

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