DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37036
title: Discipline in Context: Suspension, Climate, and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2016-2017
title: Archival Version

description: This study is a collaboration between Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) that examines the intersection of SDP's Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) initiative with schools' suspension and practices. This study aims to generate new evidence about the effects of schools' disciplinary practices on patterns of student suspension in Philadelphia and inform the alignment of policies with the SDP's shift toward PBIS. This study contributes significantly to the knowledge base about implementing PBIS in fiscally challenged urban districts where exclusionary disciplinary practices have long been used.
description: The purpose of this study was to develop a thorough understanding of the range of disciplinary practices schools are using in response to School District of Philadelphia (SDP)'s emphasis on improving climate and reducing suspensions and to identify key barriers and facilitators of schools' alignment with SDP's climate and suspension-reduction goals.
description: This study uses multiple data methodologies. This includes geospatial-data, qualitative data, and quantitative data. Geospatial data: The demographic data used in this study were provided by the United States Census Bureau in the form of the 2011-15 American Community Survey 5-year estimates for census tracts. School discipline profile data were joined to school buildings' census tract shapefiles by building identification codes using the Geographical Information System (GIS) package from ESRI called ArcMap, version 10.2.2. Qualitative data: The qualitative research was conducted between January 2016 and June 2017, and included a series of focus groups and one-on-one interviews with teachers, principals, and other school staff. Quantitative data: This data were collected through online surveys administered to teachers and school administrators in all School District of Philadelphia (SDP) K-5 and K-8 schools during the spring of 2016. Please note that only the Principal and Teacher Survey quantitative data is included in this release.
description: This study includes variables describing current disciplinary practices and the effectiveness of these practices.
description: Not applicable
description: Response Rates: Response rates for the surveys varied by school, respondent, and data-collection instrument. For the School District of Philadelphia (SDP)-administered population teacher survey, the response rate was 57% (this includes schools not included in our study). Of the random stratified subsample (n=1151), responses were received from 74%.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Likert-type Scales
description: The research team used different sampling strategies for each of the data-collection activities in the study. Interview sampling was random from within the population of School District of Philadelphia (SDP) K-5 and K-8 schools NOT implementing Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in 2015-16. The research team also included the population of schools implementing PBIS as part of the SDP initiative. Case study sampling was purposive, with the goal of including a mix of school contexts, student populations, climate characteristics, and a mix of PBIS and non-PBIS schools. Survey data included a set of questions administered to the population of SDP K-8 teachers and principals in 2015-16, and a set administered to a stratified random sample that included one teacher per grade level in each school. SDP demographic, attendance, suspension, and academic achievement data were accessed for all schools with adequate survey data (96.5% of the SDP school population).
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Principal Survey DS2: Teacher Survey
description: Schools serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade in the School District of Philadelphia. Smallest Geographic Unit: District
description: face-to-face interview; web-based surveyResearchers collected qualitative data and geographic information system (GIS) data for this study which are not currently available. The qualitative data and GIS data will be made available at a later date.