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Session 2010-11

Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

Memorandum submitted by Pearson

1. Summary

Pearson has found that increasing learner engagement, improved tracking of the progress of individual learners and early intervention is critical to tackling poor behaviour and discipline.

Technology is a powerful and often under-utilised tool in increasing learner engagement, allowing for more personalised and interactive approaches to learning. Technology can also be used to spot problems early, helping teachers to identify and support the learners that are most at need before problems become serious. For those learners that have already been excluded from school, alternative learning provision can help re-engage them with learning.

Two Pearson solutions which draw on this technology, Fronter and Prevent, have been shown to produce impressive results when addressing behaviour and discipline issues.

2. Introduction and context

Pearson UK is part of the global media and education group Pearson. For more than a hundred years we have provided teachers with many of the tools they need – books, learning resources, and teacher support packages, through brands including Edexcel, Longman and Heinemann. Working in over 60 countries, Pearson has built an international reach that enables us to support teachers and learners to reach their potential and progress in their lives. The scale and range which come from operating both a publishing/technology business and an assessment business mean that Pearson is uniquely placed to provide joined-up support to improve outcomes and learning.

3. Pearson believe that challenging behaviour and problems with discipline are often caused by pupils becoming disinterested in and then disengaged from their learning experience. Consequently, one of the ways to manage this is to support teachers in ensuring that the learning experience is personalised and as fit-for-purpose as possible. Over time, Pearson are aiming to separate the content of our resources from assessments, enabling all of our products and resources to become truly personalised, therefore cutting the risks of disengagement. This personalised approach has been used successfully in our sponsored academies although it is still too early for the evidence to be definitive as students have only been in the academies for a single year.

4. Pearson offer two behaviour and discipline solutions that are used internationally to address those students who are at risk of dropping out of school; Fronter (http://uk.fronter.info/) and Prevent (http://www.preventdropout.com/).

5. Pearson solution one: Fronter

Fronter is a learning platform used by millions of teachers and learners around the world. The platform is made up of almost 100 easy to use web-based tools which can be customised according to the needs and vision of each school. For example adjustments can be made to suit the school’s pedagogical methods, learner age group and subject areas. The following case study shows how Fronter is used to help teachers manage behaviour at Hallingby Skole, in Norway. Frode Sømme, the Head Master says:

6. We use Fronter every day to document behaviour among our pupils. We are using the Absence tool in Fronter. We have at our school what we call "prosperity rules"(well being). We have five of these rules, which are:

· We expect all pupils to respect one another and speak with politeness, without using bad language or improper behaviour like violence or bullying.

· Pupils and teachers shall be in the classroom when the teaching session begins.

· We expect an atmosphere of law and order. We do not accept disturbances from pupils.

· No drugs, alcohol or smoking is allowed at school.

· Mobile phones are not allowed inside the classroom.

If pupils break these rules, they get a mark in Fronter where is recorded what happened. Every month a report is sent to the parents who sign these papers. If pupils have ten marks in half a year, they will drop a grade in behaviour. Another ten, and they drop to the lowest grade. Each pupil starts with zero marks at the beginning of each semester (two in a year). Fronter makes teacher’s lives easier because it is so simple to use and is a great tool for documentation.

7. For those students who have been excluded and are studying at Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), becoming re-motivated and re-engaged with learning can be a major challenge. Fronter is already being used successfully by teachers in UK PRUs, for example in Newhaven.

8. Teachers working with challenging pupils at Newhaven PRU are benefiting in a number of ways from Fronter:

· Class Templates: Lessons are being designed with a standard format across subjects, using templates. This makes lesson content easier to access, especially for pupils who do not attend regularly.

· New resources: New resources have been researched and developed, including weblinks, for each subject that are regularly updated and loaded into Fronter. This enables teachers to offer more variety in their lessons, and pupils to be more engaged in their learning.

· Improved learning continuity during absence: Pupils who are absent for whatever reason are able to access lessons online from home.

· Reinforcement of learning objectives: Pupils can repeat any lesson they wish to at any point, if they need to remind themselves of the content.

· Flexible learning: Virtual pupils, who are not able to attend the PRU in person for any reason, can take part in lessons remotely at their convenience.

· Resource variety: Mixed lesson resources are held in a single place, so that they can be accessed together on demand.

Further details at: http://fronter.info/downloads/uk/Fronter_Case_study_Newhaven_PRU.pdf

9. Pearson solution two: Prevent

Pearson also offers Prevent, a product used mainly in the US where it is estimated that 1.2 million students drop out every year, that’s 7,200 a day or one every 26 seconds. Prevent was founded by Gary Hensley, a former school Assistant Principal who developed the system with Dr Trish Hatch, a Professor at San Diego State University. The system is designed to identify as early as possible those students most at risk of dropping out of school, allowing limited resources to be efficiently targeted at those with the greatest need.

10. By using existing student information, Prevent enables school teachers to quickly assess and compare the performance of individual learners and to pro-actively use a dropout prevention program where necessary. Prevent collects student attendance data, course failure rate, grade point average, behaviour and disciplinary data, tests scores, and demographic data that includes gender, ethnicity, race, grade level, and poverty level. All this information is securely imported to Prevent then analysed against proven algorithms. The resulting benchmarked information allows Prevent to generate something called the Pearson Index, which is based on and validated by the work of our industry-leading psychometric team. Proven to be effective, this index compares the elements that research has shown to be the most likely indicators of students dropping out, weighted according to the most predictive values for each of the factors.

11. Prevent features an easy to use internet browser-based dashboard with simple, "at-a-glance" reporting so that school teachers and other staff can quickly spot at-risk students and take action to help.

12. Using Prevent allows school staff to direct their limited time and resources most effectively - one of the issues facing schools in the US is that staff responsible for the pastoral care of students can have up to 500 students to monitor. Its success demonstrates that behaviour and discipline problems can be avoided before they begin when systems are put in place to identify those at risk earlier with staff resources focused on putting interventions and support into place.

September 2010
©Parliamentary copyright
Prepared 8th November 2010