Kicking. Yelling. Throwing school supplies across the room. Physical violence. Teachers report experiencing these every day. And when class sizes bloat, or teachers don’t feel supported by their administrators, dealing with student misbehavior becomes even harder.
In a nationally representative survey of more than 5,800 teachers by the EdWeek Research Center, part of Education Week’s The State of Teaching Project, 35% said their students’ behavior was “a lot worse” than last year. Reports of improvement were scant. Student misbehavior was also cited as one of the top contributors to low teacher morale, which dipped slightly on the Teacher Morale Index from last year, from a score of +18 to +13 on a scale of -100 to +100.
Students have become apathetic toward school rules and feel emboldened to disrespect or clearly ignore their teachers, they said in open-ended responses to the survey.
Several teachers also shared that their administrators relied too heavily on rewards-based policies rather than consequences to discipline students, which meant there are often no serious repercussions for students when they misbehave.
But the one, overarching, unambiguous reason teachers identify for misbehavior? Parents.
“Behavior challenges stem from the lack of preparation for school-aged students before they enter school,” said a teacher from South Dakota. “Some children are not taught by their parents how to behave, how to be respectful, how to be kind, and how to listen to instructions. … [They] lack coping skills, toughness, intrinsic motivation, a desire to do their best, and accountability and responsibility.”
Asked as part of the EdWeek survey what could have a “major positive impact” on student behavior, over half of respondents wanted limits on how much parents can undermine the consequences for their kids for bad behavior.
Parents often shield their kids from being disciplined, for instance, by pulling them out of school on the day they’re supposed receive detention. Or they strongly disagree with teachers and principals on the type of punishment, and lobby for changes. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said parents themselves need instruction on how to teach their kids to behave appropriately in a school setting (though, of course, schools typically don’t control parent education.)
Just how bad is it for teachers? We’ve curated a few teacher voices from hundreds of responses nationwide. The respondents are a mix of new and veteran teachers, but the sentiment across the board is common: Student behavior needs to improve.
Teachers want parents to be accountable
Involved parents can be a boon to a school—they can help improve academic performance and have positive impacts on a student’s social-emotional skills. But not all parent involvement is welcome. When parents interfere with punishments when their kids misbehave, it sets a bad precedent, teachers said. They also blame parents for not teaching their kids “basic” manners, skills, and communication etiquette.
Parents no longer teach or parent their children in the basics and expect educators to do it all. No accountability for poor attendance and students are moved from one grade to the next without having mastery over anything.
I love teaching, but the lack of help from parents in both discipline and lack of support is making the entire education experience almost impossible!
Too much screen time for both students and their adult caregivers. Even if I give the families ideas and materials to help their child, they don’t do it.
Students and parents have a misguided sense of entitlement, a gross lack of respect for authority, and often believe that institutional rules, norms, and policies don't apply to them. This misguided belief system is the genesis of most classroom and hallway disruption.
“Social media and video games have become the parents for many of these students. Then these children come to school without basic etiquette and social skills to function in a classroom with 20-30 other students. The teacher has to take time out of their already busy schedule to teach these social skills.”
Behavior is out of control. Parents still blame teachers for students' misbehavior, disrespect towards peers and adults, and lack of awareness of their ability to display self-control, self-discipline and resilience when faced by both emotional peer and academic challenges.
Much of school discipline stems from parents' negative views of educators. Their kids see and hear the disrespect and bring it to school. Administrators are afraid of parents. Disrespected teachers are now unsupported. The cycle overwhelms already drowning teachers.
Teachers seek more support from their school leaders
School leaders can often find themselves caught between parents and teachers when it comes to disciplining students. In the survey responses, teachers said their administrators often “side with parents,” or don’t want to mete out punishments harsher than in-school suspension or missing recess.
Teachers link the lack of administrator support with a higher burden of outsize expectations falling on them: They feel they’re asked to do more with fewer resources.
Student disruptions are becoming more challenging. At the same time, we are limited in our discipline approaches to misbehavior. As a result, student behaviors tend to escalate.
I feel that today's students are crying for help with emotional regulation. … Sometimes they are given relaxed rules/deadlines/consequences to address the emotional issue. I feel we need to focus more on teaching students how to deal with these emotional issues, instead of babying them along.
Most school administration don't discipline, they talk to [students], give them candy and return them to class. Teachers have become punching bags ... school districts are afraid to tell parents that they are [not creating] upstanding citizens. Gentle parenting doesn't work and neither does gentle discipline.
Teachers need more support in the classroom with behaviors and students with learning disabilities. They need more time to plan for instruction and to do all the things expected by the state and local school board.
Restorative practices are not the enemy, but when they are not enacted correctly it can look like students are being rewarded for bad behavior and the student never grows beyond them. A disruptive student last year was talked to in the classroom he was disrupting and offered rewards for not misbehaving.
I recently resigned from a teaching position because a 6-year-old was allowed to hit, punch, kick students and staff with hardly any consequences besides ISS. This has gone on for over a year.
I feel like teachers are 'encouraged' to become punching bags for students. When we speak up, we are told not to let it stress us and ignore the disrespectful and violent behavior. Every day I am hit, insulted, or bullied by certain students. When I ask for help, I am told to ignore the behavior.
We talk so much about keeping students emotionally regulated, but teachers are not taught this for themselves. It is a huge part of classroom management. Preservice teachers are not adequately prepared for how to manage a classroom. It is one of the reasons why teachers often quit within the first five years. This needs to change if we are going to retain teachers.
Separating students based on their behavior
Some teachers are clear about what their schools need to do: remove students who misbehave, disrupt class, or are violent toward teachers or other students. Students who struggle to regulate themselves need a separate—potentially self-contained—environment, teachers said.
In the EdWeek Research Center survey, 44% of respondents said that placing more students with “behavioral challenges in a separate class or school” would have a major positive impact on how they manage their classrooms. But those ideas also conflict with the ideals of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which governs education for students with disabilities, including those with behavioral disabilities. The law prioritizes inclusion and educating students in the “least restrictive environment” possible.
There are times when certain kids need to just not be allowed in the classroom. I love teaching … but I've contemplated quitting many times, and it's always because of one student. … Other kids can't learn because the behavior of the one kid is incredibly disruptive, in addition to constantly hurting other children, destroying school property, stealing, etc. There are virtually no consequences. … Certain kids should not be allowed in general classrooms.
Students that are disruptive should not be allowed to hurt staff and other students. They need to be sent to a separate school/class so other students can learn and feel safe while learning.
Students who create difficulties for teachers EVERY CLASS need to be removed from the group. I could teach 75 motivated and polite 7th graders, but one difficult student in a room of 20 is sometimes unmanageable!
We need to get rid of the laws/regulations that limit which students can be suspended and what they can be suspended for.
There are a lot of big behaviors and when one student trashes a classroom, I don't think it's fair that the other 18 kids have to evacuate the room. The student causing the harm should be the one removed.
There needs to be more support for students with violent or extremely disruptive tendencies. The push is always to have 'full inclusion' because it's cheaper or 'better for the student' but those views need to be reexamined.