Detention works -- for go-with-the-flow students

The age-old punishment of after-school detention is out of fashion, writes David Didau on Learning Spy. Detentions are not the answer, say critics, because punitive sanctions “don’t address the underlying cause.”

Detentions don't always work for misbehaving student, he argues. They just keep on acting up. But enforcing sanctions for misbehavior works for the vast majority of students, he argues.. And they work for teachers.

It could be worse. U.S. students aren't torching their schools. Photo: Jean-Francois Badias/AP

Social and cultural norms are powerful, writes Didau. If rules are enforced, most students will go along. If enforcement is inconsistent, students get the message that the rules don't really matter.

A 2002 study tracked disciplinary referrals for students from low-income families at a British school, he writes. One group that received detentions in the fall had shaped up by the end of the year, receiving no more referrals than those never sanctioned by the spring. A second group of students, who'd started out no worse than the first group, behaved worse.

Apparently, detentions work for some students, but not hard-core rule breakers, Didau concludes. Using this group "to judge whether detention deters students in general is like evaluating the effectiveness of speed cameras by only interviewing drivers who’ve been caught speeding."

There's plenty of evidence that seeing offenders sanctioned affects perceptions about what's acceptable, Didau writes. Observers decide: "That’s not what we do round here."

When people see one norm violated, they're more likely to violate other norms, concludes a 2008 paper, The Spreading of Disorder. In one experiment, researchers "attached advertising flyers to parked bicycles. When the surrounding area was clean, people took the flyer with them rather than dropping it on the ground. But when the walls were covered in graffiti, despite signs explicitly prohibiting it, substantially more people littered."

When "students perceive rules to be clear, discipline to be fair and adults to enforce expectations consistently," they behave better.

Detentions work for go-with-the-flow students, writes Didau. And they enable schools to create a safe, respectful climate that makes learning possible.

If suspensions and expulsions rise, that doesn't mean students are behaving worse, writes Tom Bennett, a behavior consultant for English schools. It could mean that the system is working. (If arrests for burglaries rise, he writes, "it could just mean that police were getting better at catching burglars.")

Many expulsions are for very dangerous behavior, such as bringing a weapon to school, he writes. Keeping these students on campus "leads to chaotic and unsafe classrooms where no one benefits -- least of all the most vulnerable."

"Persistent disorder harms academic achievement, disrupts teachers’ ability to teach, and hurts students who depend on schools as a pathway to upward mobility," writes Neetu Arnold. States should enact "a strong teachers’ bill of rights" to "clarify teachers’ authority to remove students."

Teachers say they get "little to no support from administrators when dealing with fights, consistent disruptive behavior, and even threats," she writes. "A common scenario is that a teacher will send a disruptive student to the principal’s office, only for that student to return quickly to class, undermining the teacher’s authority."

Teachers are told to build relationships, look for "root causes" and "unmet needs" and use positive reinforcement. Many are fed up with the chaos. They quit the classroom or move to a more orderly school, and the school hires an inexperienced teacher who doesn't have better choices.