EMS #1 is Disciplinary Action Rate. Does this mean it was found to be of first-order importance, or was it just first in terms of alphabetical order? The description of the success measure says that *frequency* of disciplinary action is a strong indicator of academic success -- do they mean school wide or per student? Either way, this supports the idea of some sort of POSITIVE behavioral system (like a beefed up or consistently implemented PBIS) being put into action. Right now, we don't have this on a consistent basis at our site, and it's frustrating. Plus, there is inconsistency with the application of punitive disciplinary actions as well -- also frustrating.
I don't think it matters if it is school wide or per student. Either way, if a student needs disciplinary action, their behavior has affected not only their learning, espcially if they end up being removed from the classroom, but their behavior has disrupted the educational environment in the classroom. It is a lose-lose situation for everyone in terms of lost instructional time. We do have a process in our school for handling discipline, and when followed, usually works well. There are some students for whom this doesn't work, but again, if everyone in the building follows the estabished protocols, it reduces the time lost from disruptive behaviors. I think that while computers will help with student motivation and may help reduce incidents as students want to be on the computers, all schools need to have established procedures for dealing with discipine prior to having the computers in the classroom.