Randy Sprick's Safe & Civil Schools – Practical Solutions, Positive Results!

Safe & Civil Schools Series Overview

The Safe & Civil Schools Series is a collection of practical materials designed to help school staff improve safety and civility across all school settings. By so doing, school personnel lay a foundation to engage students and enhance learning.

The goal of all materials in the series is to empower school staff with techniques to help all students behave responsibly and respectfully. The materials are full of specific "how-to" information. Though each resource stands alone, all are integrated and share some basic processes and beliefs.

The beliefs include:

  1. All students must be treated with dignity and respect.
  2. Students should be taught the skills and behaviors necessary for success.
  3. Motivation and responsibility should be encouraged through positive interactions and building relationships with students.
  4. Student misbehavior represents a teaching opportunity.

The processes include:

  1. Using data. Objective information about behavior is more reliable than labels, conclusions, or stereotypes.
  2. Structuring for success. All school settings should be organized to promote successful behavior from students.
  3. Collaboration. Helping students behave responsibly is the shared responsibility of all school staff.
  4. Self-reflection. If student behavior is irresponsible, school staff should reflect on what they can do to help students.

These processes and beliefs form a structure for procedures that help prevent students from "falling through the cracks" into school failure.

Procedures can be categorized into three levels:

The graphic on the left shows the three levels as an inverted triangle with schoolwide procedures at the top.

The rationale is:

IF...

THEN...

large numbers of students are misbehaving across school settings,

modifying schoolwide procedures is the best intervention.

large numbers of students are having trouble in their classrooms,

targeting classroom procedures is indicated.

students need extra support in the classroom,

develop individualized plans as necessary.

large numbers of students are requiring individualized plans,

staff need to focus more time, effort, and energy on schoolwide and classroom procedures.

The Safe & Civil Schools series includes materials and resources that encompass all levels depicted in the triangle—schoolwide, classroom, and individual student.

Safe & Civil Schools Series Schoolwide Resources

The following resources are available through our publishing partner Ancora Publishing.


Safe & Civil Schools Series Classroom Resources


Safe & Civil Schools Series Resources for Dealing with Individual Students

Inverted Pyramid Graphic