School Violence Intervention: A Practical Handbook

This work offers effective intervention strategies for managing school violence. Opening with a range of perspectives on student aggression, it provides a comprehensive view on practical interventions at the student, school, and systems levels. Practioners present empirically-grounded strategies for an array of school settings and situations, seeking to help readers make informed decisions about the approaches that would be most effective in their own environments.; The first part of the text presents information on the nature and prevalence of youth violence today, and outlines strategies geared toward making the school physically safer, establishing clear behaviour standards, providing adequate adult presence, enforcing rules fairly and sanctioning offenders, and creating partnerships with outside agencies.; The chapters that follow describe a range of interventions directed toward aggresive students themselves which have proved highly effective in outcome evaluation research. These approaches include behavioural classroom management, crises- and gang- orientated interventions, and preventative pre-school programmes. In addition, it details school-orientated strategies such as academic and curriculum interventions, vandalism control, and effective security policy. Exploring the complex relationship among school behaviour, family life, and community, chapters also consider avenues toward effecting change in the larger context of the students' lives.; A hands-on manual for dealing with some of the most intractable problems education professionals face, this book offers extensive information for school psychologists and researchers.

Table of Contents:

I. Introduction
1. Student Aggression: Current Status, Arnold P. Goldstein and Jane Close Conoley
II. Practitioners' Perspectives
2. The Low-Aggression Classroom: A Teacher's View, Susan H. Striepling-Goldstein
3. Creating Safe Schools: A Practitioner's Perspective, Sheldon Braaten
4. The State Department of Education's Role in Creating Safe Schools, Marilyn L. Grady, Jean M. Haar, and Mary Ann Losh
III. Student-Oriented Interventions
5. Preschool Interventions, Karen T. Carey
6. Classroom-Based Approaches, Harold R. Keller and Renee C. Tapasak
7. School Crisis Teams, Scott Poland
8. Interventions for Aggressive Students in a Public School Day Treatment Program, Jerry Oestmann
9. Gang-Oriented Interventions, Donald W. Kodluboy
IV. School-Oriented Interventions
10. Academic and Curriculum Interventions, Jeremy R. Sullivan and Jane Close Conoley
11. The Safe School: Integrating the School Reform Agenda to Prevent Disruption and Violence at School, Gale M. Morrison, Michael J. Furlong, Barbara D'Incau, and Richard L. Morrison
12. Security Policy, Personnel, and Operations, Kenneth S. Trump
13. Controlling Vandalism: The Person-Environment Duet, Arnold P. Goldstein
V. System-Oriented Interventions
14. Families with Aggressive Children and Adolescents, Sandra L. Christenson, Amy R. Anderson, and Julie A. Hirsch
15. Coping with the Consequences of School Violence, James Garbarino and Ellen deLara
16. The Real World: Good Ideas Are Never Enough, Jane Close Conoley and Jeremy R. Sullivan
VI. Special Topics
17. School Violence and Cultural Sensitivity, Gwen Cartledge and Carolyn Talbert Johnson
18. Victims and Victimizers: The Two Faces of Violence, Irwin Hyman, Matthew Mahon, Ian Cohen, Pamela Snook, Gretchen Britton, and Louisa Lurkis
19. Law and School Safety, Michael E. Rozalski and Mitchell L. Yell
VII. Summary and Challenges for the Future
20. The Known, Unknown, and Future of Violence Reduction, Jane Close Conoley and Arnold P. Goldstein

Jane Close Conoley, PhD, is Dean of Education and Human Development and Professor of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Conoley has served as a consultant to mental health and educational agencies around the world, working to increase safety and academic achievement for children and resilience and job satisfaction for adults in those settings. Her research has centered on change processes that are related to increasing the acceptability of behavioral and mental health interventions in complex organizations.

Arnold P. Goldstein, PhD (1933-2002), was Professor of Special Education at Syracuse University, Director of the New York State Task Force on Juvenile Gangs, a member of the American Psychological Association Commission on Youth Violence, and a member of the Council of Representatives of the International Society for Research on Aggression. Dr. Goldstein developed three influential approaches to prosocial skills training: skillstreaming, aggression replacement training, and the Prepare Curriculum. Reflecting his role as Director of the Syracuse University Center for Research on Aggression, much of his research and teaching centered on helping youngsters replace antisocial, aggressive behaviors with constructive, alternative means of seeking life satisfaction and effectiveness.