Schools remain one of the safest environments for children. However, in far too many schools, a lack of respect for the authority of teachers and other school employees, as well as for the rights of other students, is undermining the ability of schools to provide students with a quality education.

Even in the best schools, employees often experience frustration and feel abandoned in their efforts to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment. Many teachers can relate personal stories of administrators undermining their attempts to maintain order by letting student offenders get away with disruptive behavior.

Solving school violence and discipline problems isn't easy, but it can be done. Ultimately, it requires a districtwide commitment to safe, orderly schools, including a real effort by district officials to stand behind school employees with the support they need-and a commitment by administrators to forge a cooperative effort with school employees aimed at educating students, parents and members of the community about the need for tough but fair discipline policies.

Many behavior problems can be prevented or corrected using effective behavior-management strategies. There are many practices-based on research and demonstrated to work-that are effective for preventing and correcting this behavior.

Techniques for managing the aggressive behavior of students include prevention and intervention. Prevention strategies focus on stopping the behavior before it gets started; intervention techniques focus on stopping the behavior after it gets started.

Use these research-based strategies to help you monitor student behavior, reward appropriate actions and apply appropriate intervention for disruptive behavior.

Prevention:

• Reward Positive Behavior
• Create a Structured Environment
• Monitor Student Behavior
• Characteristics of Bullies and Victims of Bullying

Intervention:

• Sanction Inappropriate Behavior
• Hierarchy of Consequences
• Should a Student Be Removed From the Classroom?
• Ladder of Consequences
• Common Mistakes
• Social Skills Training
• Anger-Management Training
• Interventions for Bullying

Additional Resources:

• Teacher Tips: Before the Year Begins (pdf)
• Teacher Tips: Behavior-Management Techniques for Safe Schools (pdf)
• Defining Consequences for Behavior Guide (pdf)
• Fact Sheet: Bullying Prevention, from the Consortium to Prevent School Violence (pdf)
• Fact Sheet: Overview of School Violence Prevention, from the Consortium to Prevent School Violence (pdf)