Good article. I'll confess, I didn't read the whole thing it's pretty long and I don't that the time to devote to it, but I was sold after the first narrative with the principal.
The first statistic was kind of useless, I mean since one of the first outcomes is to not dish out suspensions, it's not too surprising that the number of suspensions went down. The number of expulsions, while not a huge numeric difference, was pretty indicative of some substantive change, 20 fewer kids that didn't need to be kicked out of school is significant.
It reminds me of how special our school is because I don't think they've forgotten that every student is special..
I'd be interested in knowing other things about the environmental changes, are students happier, do they feel safer, are teachers happier/more satisfied in the classroom? I suspect so. those stories would mean more than the numbers to me.
I'm sure it takes a culture shift to get teacher buy-in and earlier intervention (so some issues are dealt with in the classroom, before they even become administrative issues.)
I do wonder about the one's who don't respond well to this. I mean when the principal says he may open with "wow, this doesn't seem like you, what happened?"....well, what about the kid they were totqally expecting something like this from? What about the kid who's been down this road 10 times this year alone? I wonder how they approach those situations positively. Which is not to negate the other good, I'm just wondering how they approach more difficult situations...."Wow, you fired a .38 slug past the lunch lady's head...that doesn't seem like you (9mm is usually your caliber of choice...) okay I jest, but you see the question, There must be a line, and I see how it can be a manageable line, rather than a codified on, where we can no longer "talk" about behavior...but then we're getting into different territory, punishment of the career criminal, vs. early intervention and changing someone's path.
Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.