DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710310841

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education 

SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   42 lines

DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS RISING AT MOST NORFOLK SCHOOLS THE DISTRICT TRACKS DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR, WHICH INCREASED AT MIDDLE AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN 1996-97 BUT DECLINE AT HIGH SCHOOLS.

About 10 years ago, Norfolk became the first K-12 school district in the country to use the School Management and Resource Team, or SMART, computer system to track student discipline problems.

Every incident of student behavior - from profanity and attendance, to crimes including sexual offenses and theft - is reported. School officials can use the information, such as who commits the most offenses and what time of day certain crimes are most likely to occur, to allocate money and manpower to target problem areas.

In 1990, for example, Norview High School officials examined the school's data and realized a high number of reports that students weren't following orders. The school started a crusade to improve relations between teachers and students, with school officials implementing a ``mutual respect'' day. By the next spring, reported incidents of insubordination had dropped by 80 percent.

Each school has a SMART team of administrators and teachers who track the students most frequently in trouble and design behavior-management plans for them.

Norfolk has been able to monitor district-wide trends, such as an improvement in attendance and a drop in guns found on school property. ILLUSTRATION: Virginian-Pilot photo illustration by Michael Hall

Graphic

Numbers of incidents among all students

For complete copy, see microfilm

Graphic

Proactive Initiatives

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS SMART PROGRAM DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu