NCJ Number
116092
Journal
Urban Education Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: (April 1988) Pages: 12-23
Date Published
1988
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the extent to which the Chicago Uniform Discipline Code (UDC) has solved problems of efficiency and effectiveness in regulating school misbehavior.
Abstract
Data were collected from 118 teachers and 530 students at 4 public elementary schools during the 1985-1986 school year. Interviews also were conducted with principals and the central office administrator. The UDC emphasizes creating classroom conditions conducive to students' behaving in prescribed ways that are conducive to learning and development. The need for consistent enforcement of rules is emphasized as well. Principals viewed the UDC as an administrative convenience that provided a guide or justification for disciplinary decisions. While 69 percent of teachers indicated staff familiarity with the UDC, 51 percent of students were unfamiliar with the UDC and its rules and sanctions. Attitudes of both groups toward the fairness, firmness, and equality of discipline administration were positive. Archival data from three of the schools for 1983 to 1986 reveals an uneven enforcement of rules, with the percentage of cases in which no action was taken being in the reverse order of offense seriousness. Results suggest that for disciplinary policies to work, they must be strongly supported by principals, and they must be consistently enforced. 1 table, 1 note, and 4 references.