Dear Parents:

Our school undertook a new discipline process for the 2005-2006 school year. After reviewing many programs and trying others, we have found the Responsible Thinking Process (RTP) to be the most effective way for reducing student disruptions while enhancing their ability to resolve their problems by teaching them how to self-manage responsibly.

Our Discipline Philosophy

We believe that all students are responsible for their own actions and must be taught to respect the rights of others. This means they have to learn how to think of ways to get what they want while, at the same time time, respecting the rights of others in the school. Teachers have a right to teach and students have a right to learn in a safe environment. None of the students has a right to disrupt at school, regardless of where they are, especially if they are preventing other students from learning or are threatening the safety and rights of others.

Classroom Rules

No student is allowed to disrupt in class or anywhere else in school, including the school bus. When they do, they are asked to think about what they are doing and compare their action to the rules or standards of wherever they are. If they persist in breaking the rules, they have lost their right to be where they are and are then assigned to the Responsible Thinking Classroom (RTC), where they stay until they indicate to the teacher that they are willing to follow the rules from wherever they came. They are then taught by the RTC teacher how to work out a plan which they will use to negotiate their return with the person who was in charge of whereever they were disrupting. Students are permitted to go to all other classes and other areas where they've been responsible, such as the library, cafeteria, and recess.

What Statistics Show

In Schools where this process has been successfully adopted, which means the staff has been properly trained and has read and viewed the assigned materials, it has been found that 65% of the students never use the RTC; 25% use it once to three times, make a successful plan, and are rarely seen again; of the 10% left, 6 to 8% use it many times and 2 to 5% are what we call frequent fliers. For this 10% of chronically disruptive students, the intervention process is used. It is made up of a team of educators who've spent time with the student, and who try to determine what is so important to the student that chronic disruption is part of how they try to resolve their problems. Parents are an important part of this process, and are asked to join the staff and determine a way to help to help their child succeed.

Benefits

We have seen this process work in other schools with very positive results. We've seen how students learned to self-manage in a highly responsible way. Because of the reduced number of classroom disruptions and the efficient way the disruptions that do occur are handled, there is a marked increase in classroom learning time.

How Can You Find Out More

This process is based on two books by Ed Ford, Discipline For Home And School, Books One and Two, which grew out of his work in several urban schools in Phoenix, Arizona. These books are available from our school library. There are also intructional videos available. If you are on the internet, you may want to visit the RTP website. It is www.responsiblethinking.com. If you have any questions, please feel free to call the school (565-7474).