Trauma-Sensitivity Lowers Discipline Rates: Raises Graduation Rates

All ninth-graders take a trauma-informed class at Metropolitan, where they discuss and decide behavior rules they will try to follow. Photo: Meredith Kolodner

Meredith Kolodner writes about high schools which are successfully decreasing suspensions and expulsions through trauma sensitive practices that address the reasons for a student’s behavior.

In her article, “How Schools Can Lower Suspension Rates and Raise Graduation Rates”,  Kolodner writes, “A growing body of research shows that nearly half of all children in the United States have experienced a traumatic event tied to poverty or family dysfunction, and repeated exposure to high stress can literally rewire the brain. This calls into question the so-called ‘zero-tolerance’ school discipline systems that many states have adopted in the past decade in response to pressure to improve graduation rates and test scores.”

Please continue reading “How Schools Can Lower Suspension Rates and Raise Graduation Rates” on The Hechinger Report.

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