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National and state surveys over the past several decades have concluded that school social workers, despite an awareness of and training in macro level practice strategies, are highly individualistic in their practice focus. Although clinical skills are necessary, they are insufficient for effective school social work practice in the 21st century. No studies have moved beyond asking what tasks school social workers perform to asking what predicts these tasks. The purpose of this study was to explore which factors appear to shape and influence school social work practice in Tennessee. The authors found no evidence that school social workers' characteristics (for example, gender, race, education, grade levels served) affect their choice of interventions, but they did find evidence that organizational and systemic sociocultural factors affect the types of interventions that school social workers perform. The authors discuss the implications for practice and organizational change.

The transition from elementary to middle school is difficult for many students. However, the association between such transitions and changes in the types and frequencies of student discipline problems has not been adequately investigated. Using data from two school years, infractions and dispositions for all 5th-grade students (N = 4,196) from one school district are followed from the final year of elementary school through the first year of middle school. Results show a substantial increase in reported student discipline problems and the use of in-school suspension in middle school. This increase is most dramatic for subjectively defined infractions like "class disturbance" and "failure to follow rules" compared to more concrete, objective infractions. Implications for educators and school administrators are discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)

In many U.S. school districts, there has been a near epidemic of out-of-school suspensions (OSSs) for relatively minor or vaguely defined student offenses. Suspension provides temporary relief to frustrated teachers and administrators and may result in more parental involvement. However, for a large number of at-risk youths, it appears that being suspended leads to significant problems outside of school, increases the likelihood of receiving additional OSSs, and may result in dropping out of school. As a result, school social workers need to be made aware of programs that focus on the elimination of students' problematic behaviors rather than the elimination of students themselves. This article summarizes recent research on individual and school factors that have been shown to be associated with and predictive of OSSs. On the basis of these findings, the authors present a set of practice guidelines for reducing OSSs and identify and describe promising and proven programs within each practice guideline. They conclude with a discussion of challenges facing school social workers seeking to implement alternatives based on these practice guidelines.

Although corporal punishment has been banned in 29 states, more than a million cases of corporal punishment in U.S. schools continue to be reported annually, with states located in the southeastern and southwestern United States accounting for the vast majority of instances of corporal punishment. This article provides an overview of corporal punishment in U.S. public schools and includes a discussion of the influence of cultural and religious attitudes on the use of corporal punishment as a means of disciplining students. It offers several strategies designed to reduce the frequency of corporal punishment in general as well as strategies that specifically target those communities where strongly held religious and cultural beliefs reinforce the routine use of corporal punishment, and it calls on school social workers to advocate for effective alternatives to corporal punishment and to work to ban corporal punishment in those 21 states where it remains legal.

Students need a strong, positive relationship with caring adults in school. Although the vast majority of adults in authority interact respectfully with students, some adults physically and psychologically bully students. This article examines the extent to which 50 alternative education students reported being victimized by teachers or other adults during their school career. Of respondents, 86% reported at least one incident of adult physical maltreatment in school and 88% reported at least one incident of adult psychological maltreatment in school. Almost twice as many students reported that an adult, rather than a peer, was involved in their worst school experience (64.4%), with several students indicating that their worst school experience involved being physically mistreated by an adult; half reported being upset by the experience "a lot." These findings indicate that students are being bullied by teachers to a surprising degree and in a wide range of destructive and harmful ways. (Contains 3 tables.)

Reducing violence in schools is a major concern of educators, parents, and legislators. Violence manifests itself in numerous ways, and there is growing evidence that low-level or underlying forms of violence have a profound effect on the learning environment of the school. Bullying is the most prevalent form of low-level violence in schools today and, if left unchecked, can lead to more serious forms of violence. Consequently, an essential aspect of school violence prevention is the identification and implementation of interventions and strategies designed to prevent or reduce bullying in schools. The authors discuss various forms of bullying in schools, prevalence rates, and the consequences of bullying for the bully, the victim, and the school community. Practical bullying prevention strategies that target multiple levels (that is, individual, classroom, and school) are provided, and best practices guidelines for implementing bullying prevention programs in schools are discussed.

The need for school social workers and other mental health providers to move away from specialist oriented services to comprehensive general programmatic approaches has been gaining increasing support among leaders in education and mental health. The "clinical quadrant" highlighted in this article is offered to better conceptualize the complex and varied tasks and interventions required of school social workers and other mental health providers in the changing landscape of education reform. The proposed conceptualization takes into account ecological aspects of the complex clinical knowledge and skills necessary for effective school social work practice in the 21st century. The clinical quadrant provided here allows for a wide range of multilevel interventions and allows school social work to differentiate itself from other student support service disciplines and become a key player in school reform efforts. Several barriers and challenges that school social workers face in carrying out a broader approach to practice are discussed, and recommendations are made for school social work practice and education.

Examines the extent of low-level violence in public schools and its impact on school performance, asserting that the way to reduce such violence is to create a more positive school culture and climate. Guidelines for preventing or minimizing such violence at school are presented. (SM)

A number of case studies and legal briefs describe very troubling incidents faced by secondary school students because of their minority religious group affiliation. The purpose of the study described in this article was to understand the lived experiences of minority religious youths who attend public schools in an area of the United States where the majority of students are affiliated with one dominant religious tradition. Semistructured focus groups were conducted with 50 adolescents (in grades 6 to 12) affiliated with religious minority groups (11 students were Jewish, 11 Muslim, 18 Catholic, and 10 Universalist Unitarian). Analysis was conducted using grounded theory methodology, and a method of constant comparative analysis was applied. The data yielded four major themes: (1) minority status, (2) precursors, (3) teacher and adult roles, and (4) perception of peer intent. Several of the incidents described by the participants were congruent with the definition of hate crime or bullying; other experiences were representative of the concept of microaggression. One of the most unanticipated findings from this study was participants' reports of teachers as perpetrators in several incidents. Findings from this study point to the need for the implementation of strategies designed to increase religious tolerance in our increasingly diverse public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors address the evaluation mandate component of Race to the Top grants to U.S. states and its implications for school social work. They offer a summary of the results under the reporting category "Improving Teacher and Principal Effectiveness Based on Performance." They say that half of the states aimed to start the full implementation phase from 2011 to 2012 after the first year of the grant. Student growth and achievement are determined by change in state test scores.

The article discusses a rationale for the creation of a national school social work model. It cites the increase in the prevalence rates of students who are not deriving maximum benefits from schooling. It describes steps to refine the model using an iterative process. The authors believe that the draft presented in the article is a good starting point to develop such a model.

It has been predicted that the number of students who do not complete a high school education will continue to increase. Of particular concern is the disproportionate number of poor and minority students who fail to complete high school. While the vast majority of the literature on school dropouts focuses on individual and family factors, a body of research has recently begun to examine how school factors contribute to the dropout problem. One of the most overlooked school factors is the quality of the relationship between teachers and students, especially at-risk students and the powerful impact of teacher attitudes and beliefs on student success. This article addresses how schools contribute to students' decisions to drop out of school and stresses the importance of selecting interventions aimed to improve the relationships between school personnel and students. Innovative programs designed to enhance strong student-teacher relationships are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out-of-school suspension is the most widely administered form of punitive school discipline in public schools in the United States. There is evidence that students who are repeatedly suspended fro in school suffer academically and are more likely to drop out of school. Although it has been suggested that school social workers play an important role in developing and implementing alternatives to suspensions their involvement in such activities has not been systematically evaluated. The study described in this article sought to determine the importance school social workers attach to these activities, the extent to which they were currently involved in such strategies, and harriers to their involvement. The school social workers viewed their involvement in alternatives to suspension as very important. However, their actual involvement in these activities was relatively low. The implications of these findings for school social work practitioner, and educators are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]