Classroom management coaching as a means to transform inequitable school wide discipline practices: perspectives of school administration, coaches, and teachers

African American students are suspended and expelled from school at frightening rates. In many instances, they are disciplined for actions that could be addressed with measures other than exclusionary discipline practices. Punitive discipline practices place students on a path to incarceration and does not actually correct student behavior. This sequence is known as the School to Prison Pipeline. This research study focuses on classroom management coaching and ongoing teacher development as a strategy for reducing teacher dependency on punitive discipline by teaching proactive measures of student behavior management. Qualitative research methods are used to examine the perspectives of administrators, coaches, and teachers regarding the costs and benefits of coaching and ongoing teacher development in an urban school district. Administrators, coaches, and teachers agree that the benefits of coaching and ongoing teacher coaching outweigh the costs. Student discipline referrals and out of school suspension rates declined significantly over the years that classroom management coaching was implemented. While classroom management coaching and ongoing teacher development are effective practices to improve school wide behavior, there remains a need to provide development in the areas of culturally relevant approaches to student engagement. Color blind approaches to student behavior management do not address racism as the root of disproportionate discipline practices. Therefore, the problem with using excessive discipline for African American students is not being rectified.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Watson, Kimberly

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anderson, James
• Dash, Leon
• Pak, Yoon
• Trent, William

• Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
• classroom management coaching
• student behavior management

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Kimberly Watson

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90904

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90904