Understanding and managing a room full of students is often a 鈥渢rial by fire鈥� for less experienced educators, according to Megan Ryan, the mentor coordinator for teacher professional development at the Louisa County, Va., public schools.
鈥淎 lot of new teachers have this slightly romanticized idea about what their classroom is going to look like,鈥� Ryan said. 鈥淭hey were in a wonderfully managed classroom [as student-teachers] with their cooperating teacher, and I don鈥檛 think a lot of them got to see the work in the background that went into that. They just feel like all students are going to listen and be engaged鈥攁nd they don鈥檛.鈥�
That鈥檚 why Louisa County and other districts nationwide are exploring ways to help teachers鈥攁nd particularly novices鈥攂etter understand students鈥� social and behavioral cues. With explicit training on classroom management鈥攁 skill often underdeveloped in teacher-preparation programs鈥攖he thinking goes that teachers will cultivate closer relationships with their students and better manage, or prevent, disruptions that might otherwise result in a student being sent to the office for discipline.
New research suggests teacher training like the program used in Louisa County can significantly improve class climate and reduce disparities that result in students of color being disciplined disproportionately.
Class discipline has proven a thorny problem for schools, particularly amid post-pandemic increases in student behavior problems and disengagement. In an EdWeek Research Center survey last year, 70 percent of educators said students were behaving worse than they did in 2018-19, and 68 percent reported student morale falling during the same period.
But punishments that remove students from class lead to lost instruction and often further disengagement. Black students, for example, can lose more than three times as much instructional time as their white classmates from exclusionary discipline.
Some efforts to reduce racial discipline gaps have focused on training teachers to avoid implicit, or unconscious, bias when gauging student behavior. But studies suggest anti-bias training has limited benefits and in some cases worsens stereotyping of students. That鈥檚 where the classroom management training Louisa County and other districts are working on could prove more effective.
鈥淏y focusing teachers鈥� attention on their interactions with kids and really trying to read kids鈥� cues correctly, essentially you bypass some of the racial biases by focusing just on behavior,鈥� said Robert Pianta, the founding director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia. 鈥淔rom the kids鈥� perspective, you are responding more accurately to their cues.鈥�
Take what Pianta calls a 鈥済arden-variety misbehavior鈥�: a student doodling or staring into space while a teacher is talking. Prior studies have found implicit racial biases can lead teachers to interpret the same behavior more negatively from students of color than from white students, particularly boys.
Teachers with less effective classroom management often interpret the behavior personally and negatively, Pianta said: 鈥淭his kid wants to make life difficult for me.鈥�
More experienced teachers are more likely to interpret the behavior neutrally鈥攖hat the student may be confused or may need more scaffolding to be engaged, for example鈥攁nd are more likely to ask the student questions about the behavior rather than jumping to discipline.
Classroom-management shortcomings worsen discipline gaps
Teachers who refer high numbers of students out of the classroom for discipline are more likely to be early in their careers, and they鈥檙e more likely than other teachers to refer students of color at higher rates than their white peers.
Jing Liu, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and his colleagues for 2,900 K-12 teachers at more than 100 urban California schools from 2016 to 2020. They found that roughly 5 percent of teachers were responsible for nearly 35 percent of office discipline referrals.
These high-referring educators鈥攐verwhelmingly in their first three years in the field鈥攕ent a student to the office for discipline about once every four days, often for subjective misbehavior like defiance, a category found more frequently to be associated with cultural and ethnic bias. By contrast, other teachers on average sent less than one student to the office every other month.
The racial disparities in these high-referring teachers鈥� disciplinary referrals were so staggering that the study estimated providing better classroom-management training for high-referring teachers could halve racial discipline gaps between Black and white students.
(According to the , Black students made up 15 percent of all K-12 public school students but accounted for nearly 27 percent of students without disabilities who had to serve an out-of-school suspension at least once in 2020.)
By focusing teachers' attention on their interactions with kids and really trying to read kids' cues correctly, essentially you bypass some of the racial biases by focusing just on behavior.
Such wide discipline gaps 鈥渂eg the question of the extent to which teacher-preparation programs are addressing issues with aspiring teachers about inequities in the use of discipline strategies in the classroom,鈥� said Heather Peske, the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, which reviews teacher-preparation programs for the classroom-management strategies they teach by examining program materials and syllabi and, in some cases, interviewing students and staff. 鈥淲e know that the consequences of poor classroom management are often far worse for students of color. Better training in classroom management could help teachers head off behavior challenges before they become so problematic that a teacher would need to resort to disciplinary referral.鈥�
Limited classroom-management training
In policy, schools have been attempting to move away from discipline that takes students out of the classroom, but most teachers receive little preparation in implementing more positive and inclusive classroom-management approaches.
Inclusive discipline approaches like restorative justice depend on strong teacher-student relationships, but the National Council on Teacher Quality finds many teachers get little preparation in the best practices for building those relationships.
The council鈥檚 reviews of teacher-prep programs include an analysis of their emphasis on what NCTQ considers to be five key, evidence-based instructional practices, including praising students鈥� good behavior, articulating and applying clear consequences for misbehavior, and engaging students through interesting lessons that provide ample opportunities for participation.
鈥淩einforcing good behavior with praise stands out to us because it鈥檚 the least likely to be taught and the least likely to be practiced in teacher prep, even though it has ,鈥� Peske said.
Only -prep programs required that aspiring teachers learn to reinforce positive classroom behavior, according to NCTQ鈥檚 most recent, 2020 review of classroom management practices in teacher prep programs.
In a nationally representative survey of 953 educators conducted from Jan. 31 to March 4 of this year, 39 percent of K-12 educators told the EdWeek Research Center that they had never received explicit classroom-management instruction in their teacher-preparation program. Another 8 percent of educators said they had never participated in a formal teacher-training program.
Even among educators who told the EdWeek Research Center that they did have classroom management training, its quality and usefulness varied widely.
鈥淲e had one semester of classroom management,鈥� one teacher recalled in an open-ended section of the survey. 鈥淚t felt helpful at the time, but didn鈥檛 much prepare me for an actual classroom.鈥�
One veteran teacher who participated in classroom-management training in the 1990s, said it focused 鈥減rimarily about 鈥榳hat鈥� and not necessarily about 鈥榳hy鈥� or 鈥榟ow,鈥欌�� the teacher recalled. 鈥淲e are now very aware of the importance of creating an inclusive community of learners (the 鈥榳hy鈥�) rooted in behavior modeled by adults (the 鈥榟ow鈥�) for respectful communication, emotional regulation, and active engagement in the learning process.鈥�
Requirements for teacher prep programs vary significantly by state, field of study, and accrediting group, according to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The 鈥榮 2013 model standards for teacher preparation do call for teachers to understand how to create a positive learning environment and suggest a teacher should understand 鈥渉ow personal identity, worldview, and prior experience affect perceptions and expectations,鈥� and recognize 鈥渉ow they may bias behaviors and interactions with others.鈥�
Building teachers鈥� self-reflection
Ryan, the mentor coordinator in Louisa County, located northwest of Richmond, is trying to help teachers understand the how鈥檚 and why鈥檚 behind classroom management.
Since 2018, the district has participated in the My Teaching Partner program, developed at the University of Virginia. Participating teachers learn to record and analyze their own lessons, looking for and analyzing students鈥� social cues and behavioral triggers.
Ryan said new teachers often don鈥檛 take enough time at the start of the school year to get to know their students and explain the purposes behind class procedures and routines.
鈥淭hey may feel like it鈥檚 taking away from instructional time, so we really try to focus on the fact that if they put in that time at the beginning of the year, the benefits and the payoff down the road are going to outweigh losing some instruction time,鈥� she said.
In two-week cycles throughout the year, Ryan records and analyzes lessons with each of her teachers. She seeks three, one-minute clips in which the teacher uses strong, effective, and specific communication with their students, rather than general critiques.
In one clip, Ryan said, a teacher 鈥済ave a little grace鈥� on an assignment after learning that a student was late because he had been caring for six siblings. In reviewing another, Ryan called out a strong content discussion, 鈥渨here the teacher and the student are in a good feedback loop, and they鈥檙e having a really deep conversation with good questioning skills.鈥�
Rachel Post, a 6th grade math teacher at William Wirt Middle School in Prince George鈥檚 County, Md., who participated in the My Teaching Partner training in 2020, said recording her lessons helped her be 鈥渉onest鈥� and catch student reactions she would otherwise miss.
鈥淚 may be working one-on-one with a student or managing some behavior problem, but there鈥檚 so many things that I miss,鈥� she said in one program video. 鈥淭he thing about watching yourself on video is that you see all of that and you can鈥檛 really hide behind excuses.鈥�
After eight of these two-week cycles, a found teachers who participated in the mentoring program were referring fewer students for discipline outside the classroom and had no discipline gaps between Black and white students. Participating teachers鈥� students, across all races and achievement levels, also had higher engagement.
鈥淵ou watch these shifts in the teacher鈥檚 behavior and then you also watch shifts in the kids鈥� behavior,鈥� Pianta said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e paying attention more. They鈥檙e looking like they鈥檙e enjoying the classroom more, participating in the classroom to a greater extent. 鈥� It鈥檚 like the classroom becomes a more active environment.鈥�
