This article originally appeared in The conversation.
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Schools in Ohio, like others across the country, are struggling to reduce chronic absenteeism, which has skyrocketed during the pandemic. But Ohio may have a head start on tackling the problem thanks to a 2018 state law that promotes a positive discipline approach.
Six years ago, the Ohio legislature passed House Bill 318. The law, known as the Supporting Alternatives for Fair Education Act, was a comprehensive approach to discipline. It set standards for school safety officers and limited the use of suspensions for children in the early grades. It also encouraged districts to use what it called “positive behavior interventions and supports.”
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This positive approach seeks to improve student behavior and the school environment by prioritizing prevention over punishment. The idea is to prevent problems before they occur, reward good behavior, and provide extra help to students who need it most. At its simplest, an intervention might involve a teacher using proximity to students to keep them on task, or praising students who behave well. A small number of students may need more comprehensive support, such as counseling and contact with the student’s family.
Studies have shown that school-wide use of these positive interventions can improve children’s concentration, increase student achievement, and increase student engagement.
The 2018 law requires the Ohio Board of Education to set standards for implementing the positive discipline approach. These standards, in turn, must be included in teacher training for grades K-5. The law also requires training for teachers and administrators on how to use the positive approach as part of their professional development and continuing education. Districts that implement the positive discipline method will receive additional points on their report card from the state.
Positive approach, fewer absences
According to an unpublished report by a team of researchers at Miami University, the state’s efforts to look on the bright side of discipline had a happy side effect. Chronic absenteeism – when students miss 10% or more of school days, regardless of the reason – was more than 4 percentage points lower in schools that implemented the positive behavior approach than in schools that did not. A 4% difference can equate to hundreds of thousands of children nationwide.
Repeated absences can lead to poorer academic performance and lower graduation rates.
As a professor and researcher who has studied the use of positive behavior interventions, I co-led the Miami University research team whose efforts demonstrated that policy changes combined with practical help implementing the new program can lead to better outcomes for students. Our analysis shows that Ohio’s approach can also serve as a model for states struggling with school attendance.
Our research, funded by a School Climate Transformation Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, was designed to determine whether the positive approach reduced chronic school absenteeism, one of eight areas where the state expected improvements. To do so, we examined the grant’s impact during school years from 2018 to 2023, collecting data directly from school staff who participated in training on positive behavior practices. We also reviewed data from Ohio’s Education Management Information System, a repository of elementary and secondary education statistics.
In Ohio’s schools that implemented a positive discipline approach, student absence rates were lower than those that did not in three out of four school years—except for the 2021-22 school year. According to data from the 2022-23 school year, the average chronic absentee rate in schools that implemented positive discipline was 27.93%. In the same year, schools that did not use the positive discipline approach reported a rate of 33.33%. While 5.38% may not sound like much, this discrepancy equates to thousands of children, which has significant implications for Ohio cities.
Chronic absenteeism was a persistent problem among Ohio’s K-12 student body even before the pandemic. Months of online instruction and repeated disruptions to in-person classes caused rates to skyrocket. In the 2018-19 school year, the baseline year, schools that had implemented positive discipline had a chronic absentee rate of just 16.67%, the Miami University team reported. By 2022-23, that rate had risen to 27.93%, a 68% increase. Schools that had not implemented this approach saw their chronic absentee rate rise from an average of 19.52% in 2018-19 to 33.33% in 2022-23, a 71% increase.
Positive discipline is only part of the solution
From the 2021-22 school year to the following school year, Ohio’s overall chronic absenteeism rate declined slightly, averaging 26.8% statewide, but it remains a critical problem.
Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, the Ohio Department of Education has stepped up efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism in schools and districts in 2022-23. The initiative, the Chronic Absenteeism Improvement Indicator, compares a district’s rate of chronic absenteeism to benchmarks established for annual improvement. This is all part of the new star rating system.
The passage of the SAFE Act in Ohio and a positive approach to managing student behavior are first steps toward its goal of improving the learning environment and increasing student engagement in school.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
