A Training Program for Teachers, Parents and



A Training Program for Teachers, Parents and

Students: Dealing with Bullying in Schools

Student Name

HRD 5750

Summer, 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Proposal Summary 2

Problem Statement and Literature Review 3-5

Proposal Objectives 6

Proposal Methodology 7-9

Time Line 10-11

Evaluation Format 12

Implications for Future Research 13

Budget 14

References 15

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PROPOSAL SUMMARY

Research Questions – Can a Training Program for Parents, School Administrators, Teachers and Students have a positive impact on the way children handle conflict (specifically bullying)?

Research Goal – To teach skills that will decrease bullying behavior within schools

Research Focus – Enhancing classroom management skills, parenting skills and student interpersonal and social conflict skills.

Research Subjects (Units of Analysis)– Teachers, School Administrators, Parents and Students in 5 elementary schools in Albuquerque, NM

Expected Outcomes – a decrease in bullying behavior in the schools receiving the training.

Methodology – Administer a questionnaire to the school community and compile and graph the resulting information. Conduct Focus Groups comprised of members of the school community to discuss perceptions and findings. From discussion, develop and implement a discipline policy for bullying behavior. Train adult members of school community to improve skills in handling bullying perpetrators and victims. Conduct weekly lessons in classrooms to teach students social-emotional skills and effective conflict resolution skills. Focus groups and an additional questionnaire will be administered to determine needs and effectiveness.

Cost and Duration - 1 year program with follow-up ongoing afterward. The cost will be $90,000.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Bullying behavior within our schools has increased dramatically within the last two decades. In fact, it has even led to some devastating consequences such as the deadly incident in Colorado at Columbine High School. This type of shocking occurrence has not been limited to a high school setting. Children as young as six have been reported with guns in schools. School violence and bullying behavior can happen anywhere, not just in schools considered to be in ‘bad neighborhoods’. “Schools such as Columbine High School, Heritage High School and Pearl High School are all very nice schools in nice neighborhoods……They are also schools where there was perhaps little perceived risk and there were not adequate measures in place to safeguard the children in them” (Dorn, 2003,p.26).

Our schools need to take a proactive approach on teaching children about respect and nonviolence and it needs to start at the elementary school level. Today’s teachers are so worried about teaching the required competencies that they neglect education about social skills, conflict resolution, anger management, and character education ( Veenstra, 2005). These are life skills that should be part of school curricula as well. People who work with children need to be made aware of the correlation between the environment and resulting behaviors. “Although teachers perceive themselves as intervening often against bullying, research shows that teachers intercede in only 15% to 18% of classroom bullying episodes.” (Frey, 2005, p.2). Often teachers, school administrators and parents minimize the effects of

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bullying and as a result victims may take discipline of the abusers into their own hands. Dorn says that if “we allow bullying and low-level violence in our schools, we should not be surprised when a shooting, stabbing or other weapons assault takes place” (Dorn, 2003,p.29).

The school should not be the only responsible party for insuring safety for our children. It is important that parents are aware of these issues and play a role in creating a safe environment (Bonds, 2000). The school environment is not the only environment that parents need to take into consideration. “Teachers emphasize that cyberspace is an extension of our community 24/7. The school community doesn’t begin and end at the door” (Lisante, 2005, p.5). A sixth grader in Fairfax County, Virginia set up a web site where students voted for their least favorite classmates. When the school brought it to the cyber bully’s parents, they were shocked (Lumsden, 2002).They had no idea what their child had been doing. Teaching effective life skills and conflict resolution should be a joint effort between parents and school personnel. “Research shows that the success of any school program is 60% grounded in whether the same kinds of approaches are used at home” (ERIC Digest, 2002, p.5). A child who has the necessary ‘life tools’ is less likely to be bullied or to bully others.

Statistics show that one in four children who bully will have a criminal record before the age of 30. “Bullying is often dismissed as part of growing up, but it’s actually an early form of aggressive, violent behavior” (National Crime Prevention Council Brochure, 2005). Programs are desperately needed to educate teachers,

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administrators, parents and students in effective ways of detecting and handling

bullying behavior. This proposal will introduce a plan to identify the problems, establish anti-bullying policies, and to integrate these skills to decrease bullying behavior in elementary age children.

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PROPOSAL OBJECTIVES

1. To provide teacher and school administrator education to assist them in dealing with bullying and low-violence behavior with students in schools.

2. To provide parent education to assist them in dealing with bullying and low-violence behavior with their children in school and in life.

3. To provide education for students to assist them in handling conflict, bullying and low-level violence in school and in life.

4. To provide a program in which teachers, administrators, parents and students work cooperatively to increase positive conflict resolution skills and to better handle incidences of bullying behavior.

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PROPOSAL METHODOLOGY

Initially, all members of the school community will be sent letters explaining the program the schools will be undertaking and will be invited to attend orientation meetings about the training involved. We would like, of course, to have 100% participation in the program from parents, but realistically expect that 60% to 70% will actively participate. The training will be required for teachers, school administrators and students.

The first step in this program is to understand the perceptions of teachers, school administrators, parents and students in regard to low-level violence, bullying behavior, conflict resolution, existing discipline policies, and parent, teacher and administrator discipline skills and styles. This information will be gathered through the use of questionnaires. The findings will be compared across the 4 groups which will establish our baseline data. The research will take place simultaneously in 5 Albuquerque, N.M. Elementary Schools with 4th grade students, parents and teachers and school administrators. Albuquerque elementary schools include grades K through 5. The fourth grade was chosen because the students will have another year after the program training has been completed for evaluation in respect to lasting effects of behavior and perception modification.

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The second step will be to conduct focus groups to discuss results of the questionnaires, and discipline and bullying in general. Ideas for an effective discipline policy should emerge from the focus groups. The first phase of focus groups will be conducted separately with at least 5 groups of 15 for each of the 4 groups. In the second phase of focus groups at least 5 focus groups of 15 particpants, with all four groups of subjects represented in each, will be conducted.

In step 3 of the program Teachers will be given in-service training related to behavior management skills and bullying behavior. This staff training will include a workshop by Mike Ashcraft who is the Co-founder and CEO of Children’s Choice. Children’s Choice is a local organization established to help educators and administrators learn the necessary tools to have a better behavior management system in place to prevent undesirable behavior and encourage positive discipline. The training program will also offer a bully prevention program titled “Bully Proofing Your School” which includes strategies for climate change, skills and strategies for avoiding victimization and development of a caring majority. To ensure teacher accountability, the teachers and administrators will meet once monthly to discuss what works, doesn’t work and implementation of their anti-bullying program.

In the Step 4, all parents of the schools will be invited to attend a seminar conducted by John Rosemond on effective parenting skills. The parents will receive John Rosemond’s book, Family Building: The Five Foundations of Effective

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Parenting. Parents participating in the program will be required to read one chapter of this book a month and then attend meetings to discuss the chapter and share ideas and experiences. Parents will be given incentives for continued participation in the program such as Restaurant and Health Food Store coupons, Book and Media coupons, Movie tickets, Spa days etc.

In Step 5, classroom teachers will provide weekly lessons on peaceful conflict resolution using the resource Bully Proofing Your School by Marla Bonds. By having an effective behavior management plan and training in these skills in place as well as the weekly lesson, we expect to continually reduce bullying behavior during the year.

At the end of one year, follow-up questionnaires will be administered to all participants. Additional follow-up focus groups will also be conducted.

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TIME LINE

July – Data collection instruments (questionnaires) will be designed, reviewed and printed.

Mid-July -Teachers and administrators will be required to attend training presented by Mike Ashcraft of Children’s Choice. This training will be “Getting along: Facilitating the Development of Social Competencies”. This training focuses on the intentional teaching of interpersonal and intra-personal social skills such as confidence, control, coping, curiosity, communication, conflict resolution, and community building.

Early August – Teachers and administrators will be required to attend a second training presented by Children’s Choice. The title of the training is “Behavior Management Power Tools”. This training will teach the educator how to design an environment and implement a curriculum that promotes desirable behavior.

Early August – An anti –bullying resource guide titled Bully Proofing Your School by Marla Bonds will be distributed to all teachers.

August – May – One lesson will be taught weekly using the resource guide.

August – May – Focus groups of teachers, administrators, parents and students will be conducted to assess perceptions. Weekly Administrator/Teacher meetings will be ongoing.

Early August – Parents will be invited to attend a program orientation and a seminar by John Rosemond on effective parenting skills. His current publication Family Building will be distributed to each family.

Mid August – (First week of school) Administer questionnaires on perceptions of teachers, administrators, parents and students on discipline and bullying behavior in schools and elsewhere.

Late August – Send completed questionnaires to data analyst and receive reports within two weeks.

September – Results of the questionnaires will be distributed to the School

Community.

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Mid September – Focus groups conducted to discuss the results of questionnaires and to finalize a discipline and anti-bullying policy.

Early October – Policy will be distributed to school community and implemented.

October – May – On going focus groups to discuss the effectiveness of the program.

May – End of year questionnaire will be administered to all participants to assist with evaluation of the program

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EVALUATION FORMAT

This program will be evaluated in several ways. Baseline data will be gathered in the form of a questionnaire which will be distributed to all of the participants and compared with an end of the program questionnaire completed by the same people. On going observation, focus groups and personal interviews will provide additional information for evaluating the training program. Statistics will be gathered on incidents of bullying behavior and low-level violence throughout the year in which the training is provided and compared with similar statistics for previous years. Additional statistics will be gathered throughout the 5th grade year and comparisons made.

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IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

A case study could be done with children chosen at random who participated in the initial training program. We would hope to find children with more emotional and social intelligence than before the program began.

If the program is successful, as we expect it will be, then the program would continue with 4th graders in these elementary schools indefinitely. In addition, this program could be expanded to all elementary schools in Albuquerque and eventually to all elementary schools in the State of N.M.

It would also be interesting to see long lasting effects of the training on teachers. Observation and interviews could be conducted yearly with teachers no longer being trained to assess the lasting effects of their training. After the pilot year, teachers and administrators, no longer actively participating in the actual training program, should be given additional in-service training with Children’s Choice once a year.

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PROGRAM BUDGET

$ 5,000 - Supplies, printing, mailing, phone

$25,000 - Salary for 1 part-time Director of Training Program

$30,000 - Salary for two part-time research Coordinators

$ 3,500 - Professional 90 minute seminar with John Rosemond.

$ 6,000 - Professional Teacher Training conducted by Mike Ashcraft with

Children’s choice

$ 2,000 - Professional resources for teachers

$ 1,500 - Refreshments to be served during focus groups

$ 3,000 - Statistical and research assistance

$ 5,000 - Dell Lap top computer, software and internet connection.

$ Office space donated by the schools.

$ 1,000 Transportation for parents without it for meetings, focus groups etc.

$ 8,000 For incentives for parents to participate

$90,000 Total Expenses

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REFERENCES

_______________ A Serious Problem for Kids. National Crime Prevention Counsel Brochure, 2005.

Ashcraft, Mike. ‘Behavior Management Toolbox’. Children’s Choice,

. 2006.

Bonds, Marla & Stocker, Sally. Bully Proofing Your School. Sopris West,

Longmont, Colorado, 2000.

Dorn, Michael. ‘Weakfish: Bullying through the Eyes of a Child’. Safe

Havens International, Canada, 2003.

Frey,K., Hirschstein M., Snell, J. ‘Reducing Playground Bullying and

Supporting Beliefs: An Experimental Trail of the Steps to Respect

Program’. Developmental Pyschology, Vol.41(3),

. May, 2005.

________________ ‘Group Rules and Expectations’, Science Net Links.



Lisante, Joan E. ‘Cyber Bullying: No Muscles Needed’. Connect for Kids.

, 2006.

Lumsden, Linda. “Preventing Bullying’. ERIC Clearinghouse on

Educational Management. ED463563,

http:web27..library, 2002.

Miller, Amy ‘Bullying Victim Denied Transfer’. Albuquerque Journal,

pp.A 9, A10, February 3, 2006.

Rosemond, John. ‘Affirmative Parenting’. . 2006.

Veenstra, R. ‘Bullying and victimization in Elementary Schools: A Comparison of Bullies and Victims, Bully/Victim and Uninvolved Preadolescents. Developmental Psychology. Vol.41(4), . July, 2005.

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