title: Evaluating student discipline practices in a public school through behavioral assessment of office referrals.
abstract: Office discipline referrals are a common practice in public schools to address students' problem behaviors. The authors report two descriptive studies in a public elementary-middle school to illustrate frequency of office referrals as an evaluative data source. Study I was a behavioral assessment of office referrals to determine the types of discipline problems confronting school personnel and the distribution of referrals among teachers, students, and grade level. In Study II, a fifth-grade class that had the most office referrals in the school received whole-class and individual-student interventions that produced a decrease in the number of referrals. These findings support use of office referrals as a readily available index by which to identify school discipline problems, design interventions, and evaluate outcome.
authors.affiliation: May Center for Applied Research, May Institute Inc., One Commerce Way, Norwood, MA 02062, USA.
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Putnam
authors.forename: James K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Luiselli
authors.forename: Marcie W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Handler
authors.forename: Gretchen L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Jefferson
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome