Identifier

etd-06242010-163803

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

School discipline plays an important role in maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment for students. Disruptive behavior in the classroom interferes with classroom learning time making it difficult to accomplish academic goals. A common method of handling discipline problems within schools is removing the disruptive student from their classroom (e.g. suspension or expulsion). There is a great need to study and understand the differences between school disciplinary practices and to allow research findings to guide the way in which discipline is administered. The current study examined a large database for the entire state of Louisiana to determine the relationship between discipline practices and academic achievement for students receiving exclusionary discipline sanctions through the use of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Analyses also examined which student and school level variables predict discipline through the use of logistic regression (LR). The LR analysis showed that students identified as male, African American, and Emotionally Disturbed significantly increased their odds of being disciplined. A student identified as Gifted, Mild Mentally Retarded, and Special Education-Other significantly decreased their odds of being disciplined. Results of the HLM analyses showed all discipline variables had significant negative effects on both English Language Arts and Mathematics achievement test scores.

Date

2010

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Noell, George H.

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.1543

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Psychology Commons

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