Safe Schools, Sound Schools - Learning in a Non-Disruptive Environment

• NCJ Number: 99768
• Author(s): D Schriro
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 114 pages
• Corporate Author: New York City Office of the Mayor
• Sale Source: Eric Document Reproduction Service
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study uses research on effective programs in education and juvenile justice to present a typology of safe and sound programs in both areas as well as to develop an organizational change strategy for school improvement.

Abstract

The typology includes four categories of schools: 'maverick' (academically sound and physically safe), 'problem' (fail to educate and socialize students), 'opportunistic' (report good test scores, but are unsafe), and 'ritualistic' (safe but instructionally ineffective). An overview of disciplinary practices, some of which are more likely to promote problems and others to promote learning, classifies them either by their tendency to change individual student behavior or their tendency to change the school's structuring of education and socialization. The Instructionally Effective Schools literature and delinquency prevention research are the resources used to analyze current school practices that are academically sound as well as safe and orderly. These practices are incorporated into an organizational change strategy for school improvement. The strategy focuses on 10 organizational structure variables and 4 interactive process variables. The study provides an administrative assessment instrument for use in planning building-based school change and improvement projects. 111 references.