Effects of a Behavior-Changing Treatment Upon In-School Suspension Reassignments

The problem: What components should be part of an in-school suspension (ISS) program for the the program to be an effective and successful disciplinary tool? Procedure: During a six-week period, half of the students assigned to ISS in Fort Dodge, Iowa, received an academic treatment and worked on academic assignments while in ISS. The others received the academic treatment, plus a behavior-changing treatment that focused upon self-assessment of students' behavior choices and explored alternate behavior choices. An analysis of reassignments to ISS was made to determine if the combined treatments resulted in fewer ISS reassignments than the academic treatment alone. Findings: Out of 60 students who received both treatments, 11 were reassigned to ISS, while 13 of the 62 who received only the academic treatment were reassigned. The behavior-changing treatment was not significant in reducing ISS reassignments. Conclusions: The results of this study provide no evidence that the addition of the behavior-changing component to the Fort Dodge ISS program affected student reassignments to ISS. Recommendations: If conducted over a full academic year, different results might be obtained. Also, a more comprehensive program, providing follow-up guidance after ISS to reinforce the behavior-changing concepts, might be more effective.

Grantor dc:publisher

Drake University

Year dc:date.issued

1988

Author dc:creator

• Dick, Earl Marvin

• School discipline--Effectiveness
• Student suspension
• Behavior modification
• School children--Discipline

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

1988 .D52

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:escholarshare.drake.edu:2092/431