Thanks to Cara Jackson, I learned about a new study titled Strictly Speaking: Examining Teacher Use of Punishment and Student Outcomes, and written by Stephen B. Holt, Katie Vinopal, Heasun Choi, Lucy C. Sorensen.

It’s NOT behind a paywall, it’s written with accessible language, and it’s very thorough explaining the actual study and lots of other background on the topic.

Unfortunately for those of us who teach in secondary classrooms, however, it’s entirely focused on the elementary level. I do believe, however, that we can extrapolate at least of their findings to our situations.

Here’s a lengthier excerpt from their abstract:

We use administrative data from North Carolina elementary schools to examine the extent to which teachers vary in their use of referrals and investigate the impact of more punitive teachers on student attendance and achievement. We also estimate the effect of teachers’ racial bias in the use of referrals on student outcomes.

We find more punitive teachers increase student absenteeism and reduce student achievement. Moreover, more punitive teachers negatively affect the achievement of students who do not receive disciplinary sanctions from the teacher. Similarly, while teachers with a racial bias in the use of referrals do not negatively affect academic outcomes for White students, they significantly increase absenteeism and reduce achievement for Black students.

The results suggest punitive disciplinary measures do not aid teachers in productively managing classrooms; rather, teachers taking more punitive stances may undermine student engagement and learning. Moreover, bias in teachers’ referral usage contributes to inequities in student outcomes.

 

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos Explaining Why Punishment Is Often Not The Best Classroom Strategy.

You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES EXPLORING THE USE OF PRAISE IN THE CLASSROOM.