American Educator  Addresses How To Head Off Disruptive Classroom Behavior
One in Five Teachers Reports a Loss of Four or More Hours per Week to Disruptive Behavior

Washington, D.C. – The Winter 2003/2004 issue of the American Federation of Teachers' award-winning quarterly journal, American Educator, focuses on the challenging antisocial behavior in schools and why early intervention is crucial, but rare. In an AFT poll, one in five teachers reports a loss of four or more hours per week to disruptive behavior. Inadequate school discipline is also a major obstacle in reaching the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act.

In several articles and case studies, the magazine explores:

• The causes of antisocial behavior;

• Why early intervention, generally before age 8, is crucial and why it is seldom made available;

• What schools can do to screen disruptive behavior;

• How disruptive students can be turned into well-behaved learners; and

• How intervention programs can be made affordable.

The lead article and accompanying case studies were written by the authors of Antisocial Behavior in School: Evidence-Based Practices. Hill M. Walker is founder and co-director of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior at the University of Oregon; Elizabeth Ramsey is a school counselor in Gig Harbor, Wash.; and Frank M. Gresham is a distinguished professor and director of the School Psychology Program at the University of California-Riverside.

Other articles in the issue include an excerpt from syndicated columnist Matthew Miller's new book, The 2 Percent Solution: Fixing America’s Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love,, which focuses on a proposal for serving students better by making teaching in urban environments more prestigious; and Ask the Cognitive Scientist: Why Students Think They Understand – When They Don’t by Daniel T. Willingham, a cognitive psychologist, which explains why we often overestimate our knowledge and how students can accurately assess their knowledge when they study.

American Educator, the AFT's quarterly professional journal, regularly delves into the most current and thought-provoking issues in education. Its more than 750,000 readers include classroom teachers, leaders in the field of education, policymakers and education personnel from preschool through the university level.

American Educator can be found online. To receive a print copy or to arrange an interview with any of the authors, contact the AFT public affairs department at 202/879-4458.

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The AFT represents more than 1.3 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, paraprofessionals and other school support employees, higher education faculty, nurses and other healthcare workers, and state and local government employees.