"School Connectedness"

Promoting School Connectedness: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

After reading a recent news release by The Associated Press suggesting teen-agers feel safer and more at home in smaller schools with evenhanded discipline policies and teachers who can maintain control, many educators wanted to find out more about this concept called "school connectedness." AP Newswire

The AP article, along with many other reports in newspapers, was based upon a study reported in the Journal of School Health by Clea A. McNeely, James Nonnemaker and Robert Blum. The complete article, Promoting School Connectiveness can be found at the website supported by The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

The findings are developed from the Add Health data set. Add Health is a congressionally mandated, federally funded survey examining the health-related behaviors of adolescents in the United States. The study was conducted by investigators from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in three phases:

• 90,000 students from grades 7-12 at 145 U.S. schools answered brief questionnaires about themselves and their lives;
• 20,000 students and their parents were interviewed in the students' homes;
• At-home interviews were repeated with the students one year later.

Blum and his colleagues conclude that "Students who feel connected to school...also report higher levels of emotional well-being." Since we know there to be a positive correlation between "emotional well-being" and success in school, we are quickly led to ask "how do we achieve this?"

One of the stated goals of the study was to "explore the association between attributes of schools and school connectedness to identify potential ways schools can improve student well being." Improved student well being will undoubtedly be beneficial to not only your school's environment, but also to your students' success.

Their findings:

• Improve Classroom Management Techniques
• Look carefully at your Expulsion Policy
• School size may contribute to "connectedness"
• School connectedness may be impacted by the degree of racial and ethnic segregation
• Participation in extracurricular activities increases "connectedness."

One of the most relevant statements made concerned a practical outcome of their work: The authors stated that "a classroom management program that increased school connectedness and promoted self-discipline found that after one year, 30%- 100% fewer students were sent to the principal's office for acting out in class, fighting, or assault."

30%- 100% fewer students were sent to the principal's office! What school wouldn't be interested?

How does one "Improve Classroom Management Techniques?" Where does one start in revamping or creating a "classroom management program?"

Two places to help:

A resource list for further inquiry into creating a safe school environment.

Discipline Learning Packets from the Advantage Press.

Having the right tools to help students understand "right from wrong" is obviously important. But students make mistakes. As educators, our job is to help those students learn from those mistakes and become better "connected" to their school. Our discipline learning packets serve that role.

These packets are designed to provide constructive, positive learning experiences for students who have violated a school behavior standard. Although the primary purpose of our packets and lessons is to serve as the consequence for an unacceptable behavior, we have de-emphasized the punitive aspect and stressed the positive learning experience that comes from understanding and reflecting on one's actions. We want the student to think about WHY it is wrong to talk back to the teacher, or hit someone, and to understand how others feel when they are the subject of disrespect or have been knocked down by someone running or otherwise being careless.

By emphasizing the feelings and rights of others, we attempt to lead students to a more empathetic and social understanding of the effects of their actions and the fact that this behavior impacts on the whole school community.

You can read more about our philosophy behind the Discipline Learning Packet Program at this website: Advantage Press - Philosophy

Do these Packets really work? We asked that questions to schools using our Learning Packets. The results were most positive! Examine the survey results at our website.

We have now made it even easier to use our packets. If you don't want to purchase the whole program you can download individual discipline packets from our website. Over one hundred different packets for middle school and high school students are now available for immediate download for as little as $4.00 (US) each. Additional packets are being added every month.

Start teaching appropriate behavior today: