Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher

Chapters 2 through 5 addressed actions that individual teachers can (and should) take to manage their classrooms. Chapter 6 considered ways to help students take responsibility for their own behavior, and Chapter 7 addressed ways to begin the year so that classroom management gets off to a good start. This chapter addresses those actions that the school can take. Although this might sound like a change of topic, it is not. Schoollevel management and classroom-level management have a symbiotic relationship that is probably best understood if we consider the perspective of an individual student.

Cecilia, a middle school student, attends five classes a day, each taught by different teachers. Each teacher employs specific management techniques, and their management skills will give Cecilia a sense of safety and order in these classes. However, she is not in class the entire school day. She goes to lunch;

she walks through the hallways between classes; she spends time in common areas used by all students, and so on. An effectively managed school from the perspective of Cecilia, then, is not only what she experiences from individual teachers, but what she experiences from the school during those activities and in those places that all students share. If we consider this aspect of effective management in conjunction with the classroom management techniques discussed in Chapters 2 through 7, we see that effective management is a composite of interacting elements. Figure 8.1 illustrates this interaction.

As shown in Figure 8.1, school-level management provides the larger context in which classroom management takes place. This makes intuitive sense because the school establishes the overall environment in which individual classrooms operate. It is the combined impact of the effective management of

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