The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration and Student Discipline Outcomes in New York City High Schools

• In Event: Policy, Programmatic, and Practical Alternatives to Exclusionary School Discipline

Abstract

Teacher collaboration, essential to school climate, has been understood as a way for teachers to improve student achievement outcomes. School climate determines, among other school level patterns, use of exclusionary discipline. We posit that, through collaboration, school leaders, teachers, and staff within schools set norms informed by agreed upon values, which precede student experiences. We aim to expand upon James Coleman’s theory of functional communities, to argue that functional communities are upheld within schools, not only within the communities surrounding schools (1987). With data from the NYCDOE 2016-2017 School Survey, we use regression to find that teachers’ perception of opportunities to collaborate significantly predicts student disciplinary outcomes, suggesting the importance of considering how teachers can collaborate to combat exclusionary discipline.

Authors

• Briana Bostic, Johns Hopkins University

• Ashley Anne Grant, Johns Hopkins University