Development of Effective Discipline Practices of a Rural Georgia Elementary School

For U. S. schools, never had there been a crisis on the scale of what happened at the Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, when two students killed 12 students and one teacher, and injured 21 others before committing suicide (Barrios, 2001). Violence, or the threat of violence, has a direct impact on the quality of education provided and on the way teachers and students work together in the classroom (Winett, 1998). Welldisciplined, effective schools are not a product of chance; it takes administrators, teachers, students, and parents working together to provide an environment conducive to learning (Marzano & Pickering, 2002). Developments in recent years indicate there is a need to change the way discipline is addressed. It is no longer enough to preserve the past's narrow perception of the role of discipline. School administrators are just beginning to learn and understand that discipline includes much more than handing down punishment. This qualitative study focused on perceptions of administrators, teachers and parents in terms of effective discipline practices. Schools are discovering that the most effective means of reducing discipline referrals is to become proactive with school discipline. Collaborative development of school-wide rules that are clear, all 2 encompassing and seen as fair must be communicated to the school community and consistently followed. Consequences must be reasonable for the offense and combined with the teaching of strategies that address the behavior. It is recommended that future research include students since they are the ultimate factor in school discipline issues.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Year dc:date.available

2007

Author dc:creator

• Lewis, Laurie Hale

Contributors dc:contributor

• Marilyn Berrong
• Paul M. Brinson

• ETD
• School discipline
• Aggressive behavior
• Violence
• Conflict management

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/254

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1254