Data Analysis- grades and discipline

This week I’ve been organizing and analyzing my grades and discipline from last year. The grades are important to my inquiry because I felt that in the classes with a better environment the grades were higher, and I wanted to see if that was really consistent. Since then I’ve also seen that research shows that students who feel connected to school generally do better academically, which fits with my guess that class environment and achievement are connected. The discipline data is important because it has such an impact on the atmosphere of the class. Part of my wondering was about how my role as a White teacher affects my interactions with my diverse students, so I examined the data  based on classes, but then separated it and looked at it on the basis of race and gender also.

The grades matched with my expectations. There was a 10 point difference between the average grades in my two Spanish One classes. The class with the best environment (in my opinion) had a class average of 88%, and the class with the worst class environment, which was also the class with by far the most discipline referrals, had a class average of 78%. In my Spanish Two classes, the difference between the grades wasn’t as great, but the two classes with less stable class environment, and more discipline problems, had a class average of 80%, and the class with a much better environment and only a few discipline problems for the whole year had a class average of 84%. These findings support other studies on the relation between grades, discipline, and class environment.

I also broke my grades down by race and gender, out of curiosity to see how my data fits with data on the “achievement gap.” I found that my data doesn’t match with findings that show that White students tend to outperform Black students. I looked at grades based on race and gender, and in every class a different group had the highest class average, and when I averaged all classes together by category, there was less than 2% difference between any group.

The discipline findings gave me some interesting feedback as well. My school uses the PBIS system, so expectations are very clear in our school/ my class. The staff voted on behaviors that they believe should be teacher handled, and those things qualify as a “minor discipline referral” (MIR.) When a teacher gives this referral, he or she briefly documents the incident as well as the follow up, whether that be a meeting with the student, a phone call to a parent, referral to a guidance counselor, etc. The action taken by the teacher is the only consequence, but the incident is documented. If a student receives three minor referrals for the same thing, it becomes a “office discipline referral” (ODR) and is handled by an administrator. Other things that become direct major referrals are cell phone use and dress code, as well as things like major disrespect, as decided by the staff. Consequences for these incidents are handled by an administrator and usually begin with a day or period in an alternative learning environment (ALE.) Every 4 weeks there is a school-wide reward (ice cream social, cookout in the stadium, popcorn and games in the gym) that only students who haven’t received an ODR can attend.

Something interesting for me was examining what most of my referrals were for. Although the referrals are documented and entered into a computer database, the teachers don’t have access to that database, so, while I had a vague idea of which things were happening most, analyzing the data in this way was enlightening.

The majority (43%) of my minor referrals were for inappropriate language. This meant swearing in many cases, but sometimes it was non-profane disrespectful language, or comments that were generally inappropriate for school. The fact that I documented so many instances of this shows me how important it is to me, and I don’t think this is something I really emphasized at the beginning of the year last year. One problem I had with this area is that there were a lot of repeat offenders. A handful of students had more than 3 MIRs for this same thing, which means it should have become an ODR and been dealt with on a higher level. Because it wasn’t, students didn’t take the “warning” MIR seriously, and calls home and student-teacher-conferences were ineffective.

The most common ODR (57%) was for electronic devices. Since this was named as a major issue, there are no warnings. I wonder if that’s the best way to handle this particular issue, as a student texting, while detrimental to that student’s learning, doesn’t really interrupt the flow of the class in the same way other major issues do. It’s really unfair then, in my opinion that the punishment for texting in class is the same as the punishment for causing a major disturbance, threatening a student or teacher, or showing major insubordination or disrespect.

I find that it’s easier for me to remember the negative experiences than the positive sometimes. Many of the first things that come to mind when I think about my teaching experience last year are the (relatively few) instances of extremely bad behavior in my classes. It was reassuring to see that the majority of my referrals was for electronic devices, not aggressive student behavior or defiance.

Looking at my data in this way also helped me to remember how many of my students were doing the right thing all the time! 70% of my students never even had an MIR, or a “warning” referral, and 57% of all total referrals came from just seven (7%) students.

I found that the majority (92%) of all referrals were for black students (who make up 59% of my students), but there was no relation between racial makeup of a class as a whole and the number of referrals within the class. While I’m concerned by the disproportional number of referrals for Black students (especially males), 7 individuals received referrals for most of those cases, meaning the majority of students had zero discipline referrals. I’m still working on what that means, and have decided to focus my inquiry more on this particular part of my question than I had intended.