Community schools, not corporal punishment, provide more effective solution for students

Recently there has been much discussion about corporal punishment in the schools. While a large body of research has shown that corporal punishment is harmful in terms of student development, behavior, and academic achievement (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8386132/), my purpose in this op-ed is not to repeat what others have already pointed out about its problems; but rather, to suggest there are more effective ways to deal with the issues-specifically, full-service schools.

The concept of a full-service community school is well-researched and there are many examples of how they work to improve student discipline and achievement (https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/Community%20Schools%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf).

In the mid-Nineties I was part of a group that created a “Community Schools Project” in two local schools that were characterized by very high student turnover, discipline problems and low levels of student achievement. We created a variety of partnerships and programs: after-school on-site activities (with the Boys and Girls Clubs, Springfield Police Department and others), evening activities (game and movie nights two or three times a week), in-school incentive programs (school stores), a program with MSU Social Work Department to have Masters level social workers in the schools 20+ hours a week, visits by a nurse practitioner, academic support (e.g., tutoring and homework aides), summer camps and much more.

The results over a three-year period included a dramatic reduction of disciplinary issues from frequent occurrences to rare events. There was much more to this success than just having the projects; strong leadership by the school principals, buy-in from teachers and parents, and partners who were able to use their resources in a flexible manner to help reach the goals of the project (and here I must mention the late Bill Stalnaker from the Boys & Girls Clubs as a model institutional partner).

More recently Kevin Huffman and his staff at Robberson Elementary implemented a similar project which also could claim positive results in reducing discipline problems. (Unfortunately, Robberson was recently closed.)

This is a brief overview as for each of these and other actions and factors for success space precludes an elaborate explanation of what the details were and how each element functions.

All of this is not to say community schools are an easy answer. In Springfield in the Nineties there was a state program called Caring Communities which although based on many aspects of community school theory was not a success for reasons I again don’t have the space to explain. The lesson is, however, a community school program doesn’t automatically succeed, it requires careful and cogent application; not always an easy task.

So please put away the paddles. Although significantly less expensive and simplistic, they are not effective and according to the research are harmful. Instead, I would encourage the school board and school leaders to take a careful look at full-service schools.

Ira Edelman, PhD, lives in Springfield.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Community schools better for Springfield than corporal punishment