What Mindfulness Does for Urban Kids

A district-wide approach called PBIS, or positive behavior and instructional support model that focuses on counseling rather than punishment, has curbed behavioral issues at many Jackson public schools, and has even turned many into model sites of positive behavior reinforcement. It has also proven to keep youth from getting stuck in the vicious school-to-prison pipeline.

A decrease in arrests in Chicago public schools is a result of the district moving away from a zero-tolerance policy for discipline and acting in favor of more instructional intervention. This approach has allowed for kids experiencing trauma and lashing out to receive better care and direction than is provided by punitive action.

Disciplining schoolchildren has led many students down the “school-to-prison-pipeline” because teachers have focused on controlling students rather than instilling problem solving skills. Ross Greene has developed Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), which is a method that trains staff at schools to develop relationships with disruptive kids and help them problem solve. With the CPS method in practice in 2012, Central School has reported fewer students sent to the principal’s office and no suspensions.

Turnaround for Children, an organization founded to address mental health issues and their repercussions in the classroom, focuses on preparing teachers and schools to structure classroom environments in a constructive way. They create opportunities for learning in rigorous ways with high expectations so that children thrive and are well cared for, helping them to thrive both academically and emotionally.

Since Ascend Charter Schools switched from the popular "No Excuses" model to a Responsive Classroom philosophy, test scores have steadily risen, suspension rates have dropped dramatically, and the racial achievement gap has all but disappeared. While traces of the former structures, such as repeated routines, still exist today, the school has also incorporated trauma-informed elements and social-emotional learning curricula.

Despite strong evidence that school-based physical activity improves children’s cognitive skills, concentration, and behavior, schools under pressure to produce quantitative results and decrease bullying have drastically cut back on recess in recent years. An Oakland-based nonprofit organization called Playworks is working to make healthy play accessible for more children and show schools how productive recess can be to the whole academic world.

A Ukrainian community transformed a rural high school biology classroom into a fully-equipped research lab with field stations and youth training programs, enabling students to conduct real scientific experiments and inspiring career choices in environmental fields. The broader community's relationship with nature has also shifted from resource extraction to ecosystem stewardship.

Behavioral management programs such as Behavioral Leadership, the Crisis Prevention Institute, and Empathic Instruction train teachers how to incentivize appropriate behaviors and lead with empathy rather than relying on punitive discipline such as suspensions. These approaches have been shown to reduce in-school suspensions and reduce disciplinary disparities for marginalized students.

Originally developed to help students succeed academically during the pandemic, learning pods in a Rhode Island community continue to help students through in-person school. The pods create job opportunities for community members and give students a place for one-on-one help.

Paul Quinn, a historically Black college, developed an exhaustive program that supports students’ mental health as a way to encourage academic success. All incoming students have a mental health assessment with a counselor and have free access to therapy and support groups throughout their education. Professors, coaches, and academic advisers also offer support or can direct students to campus resources.