IU professor goes before Congress

Russell Skiba, IU associate professor in educational psychology, testified before the U.S. Congress recently to discuss his efforts to help improve discipline and safety in area schools. Skiba, director of the federally funded Safe and Responsive Schools Project, worked with five schools in the Richland-Bean Blossom (RBB) and Spencer-Owen School Corporations. They have just completed a three-year project that, according to the figures reported in the testimony, has dramatically reduced suspensions and expulsions in the schools. \nJim Rubush, assistant superintendent of the RBB School Corporation, said Skiba approached the schools and told them of the possibility they could receive a federal grant. The building administrators for the schools in RBB and Edgewood junior and senior high schools, met with Skiba to lay out a plan of action, including the use of surveys, for improving the relations between teachers and students and between the students themselves, Rubush said. \n"The biggest thing from the survey was respect," Rubush said. He said there has been an improvement when dealing with people in both Edgewood junior and senior high schools. \nSkiba acted mainly as a motivator for change in the schools and let them make their choices individually.\n"Our role was helping out with the process to help the schools to identify their own problems and develop plans to meet their own needs," Skiba said. \nSkiba mentioned his trip to Congress was made possible by the improvements the schools actually made. \n"I was in some ways just the messenger," he said. "If the schools hadn't done such great work, I wouldn't have had much to talk about when I got there." \nBased on preliminary data, Owen Valley High School was able to reduce the number of suspensions by 56.9 percent in one year, Skiba testified. The number of expulsions was reduced by 74 percent and the average length of an expulsion was reduced by over 37 days. \nBefore the Safe and Responsive Schools Project worked with Owen Valley High School, they had a line of chairs outside the school office for students to wait to meet with an administrator for discipline. Now, OVHS implemented a program called the "intervention room" where staff members talk to disruptive students in order to solve the problem before a referral to the school office becomes necessary. \n"The intervention room did a marvelous job of addressing that problem," Skiba said. \nSkiba said he promotes disciplinary programs that effectively change disruptive or violent behavior. \n"We want to do what works for kids and avoid what doesn't," Skiba said. He joked about the irony of suspending a student for truancy and noted there is a high rate of repeat offenders for students that have been suspended or expelled. \n"Prevention has a positive impact, and kicking kids out of schools seems to have a negative impact," Skiba said. \nThe House Education Reform Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and the Workforce are reviewing provisions about school discipline before reauthorizing the Individuals with Education Disabilities Act. \n"I was there in part to say, in fact the system of discipline can be made to work without changing the law," Skiba said. \nLawrence C. Gloeckler of the New York State Education Department testified with Skiba and had similar things to report. \n"Prevention and intervention services must be established and aligned so everyone in need has access to them," Gloeckler said in his testimony.\nSkiba was happy to be of service to the legislators. \n"It's an honor to be part of a national process of dialogue on a national issue," he said.