On a Friday. At Kennedy Middle School, it's the new reality. Highlighted as a model school in the U.S. Education and Justice departments' first annual report on school safety, Kennedy has seen discipline referrals to the school office plunge from 100 a month to 30. Developed at the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior at the University of Oregon's School of Education, PEP draws upon current research to identify best practices for reducing school violence and then spreads the word. Currently, PEP is collaborating with the education service districts and schools in western Oregon from Eugene to Roseburg.
PEP helps schools create a profile of discipline patterns to better target their efforts.
Nor do schools typically know how effective current discipline methods are. With a PEP data profile, a school may see that a majority of referrals stem from, say, afternoon playground fights. The school can then provide lessons in appropriate playground behavior and step up the adult presence at afternoon recess. The EBS team, a group of teachers who work with the PEP program coordinator, finds and tailors solutions for specific problem areas at their school. In the example above, the EBS team might have decided on appropriate interventions to address the playground problems.