ED-WATCH: STATE REPORT LINKS DISCIPLINE TO LOW TEST SCORES

(10/14/2014)
Report links discipline to test scores in W.Va.

By Mackenzie Mays, Staff Writer for the Charleston Gazette

The more that students in West Virginia are disciplined in school, the more likely they are to do poorly in academics, a new report shows.

"A growing body of research provides evidence of a link between school discipline practices — especially the use of suspensions — with lower academic achievement," Andy Whisman, assistant director of research and evaluation for the West Virginia Department of Education, told state school board members last week.

As discipline referrals increase in West Virginia schools, so do the odds of poor standardized test scores, and students are even more at risk of low achievement when they are given some form of out-of-class punishment, according to the report prepared by department's office of research.

More than 60 percent of documented school disciplinary action in West Virginia forces students out of class, even though the majority of all cases are classified as "minimally disruptive behavior," meaning students did not pose a danger to themselves or others. Some students were even expelled for minimally disruptive behavior, according to the report ...

Report links discipline to test scores in W.Va.   By Mackenzie Mays, Staff Writer for the Charleston Gazette