Discover how Westdale Middle School reduced suspensions and truancy in one year by implementing LiveSchool.
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On your first morning in the fall semester, you’re greeted with bustling hallways filled with eager learners, and a vibe in the air that is straight out of a novel. You picture teachers and staff working together to prepare a group of engaged students to go out and take on the world.
Sounds pretty nice, but for most first-time principals it’s pretty unrealistic. For most of us, that first opportunity likely comes right in the middle of the fray. A mid-year transition, behavior concerns all over the building, and teacher morale waning.
When Ramona Remble was named the interim Principal of Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the middle of the spring semester she didn’t get the keys to the idyllic setting we all dreamed of.
When she surveyed her campus she found that teachers felt that student discipline was a major problem leading to teacher burnout. That’s not all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the students felt the same way!
Westdale didn’t just need a culture change, they were ready for it.
When Ramona was officially named as the Principal a few months later, she was told to choose a few areas of improvement, give it time, and in three years they’d be on the right track. However, when Ramona looked into the data she knew the situation was much more urgent.
“We didn’t have three years, we needed a total transformation, and it needed to happen in the 8 weeks of summer break.” -Principal Ramona Remble
On your first morning in the fall semester, you’re greeted with bustling hallways filled with eager learners, and a vibe in the air that is straight out of a novel. You picture teachers and staff working together to prepare a group of engaged students to go out and take on the world.
Sounds pretty nice, but for most first-time principals it’s pretty unrealistic. For most of us, that first opportunity likely comes right in the middle of the fray. A mid-year transition, behavior concerns all over the building, and teacher morale waning.
When Ramona Remble was named the interim Principal of Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the middle of the spring semester she didn’t get the keys to the idyllic setting we all dreamed of.
When she surveyed her campus she found that teachers felt that student discipline was a major problem leading to teacher burnout. That’s not all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the students felt the same way!
Westdale didn’t just need a culture change, they were ready for it.
When Ramona was officially named as the Principal a few months later, she was told to choose a few areas of improvement, give it time, and in three years they’d be on the right track. However, when Ramona looked into the data she knew the situation was much more urgent.
“We didn’t have three years, we needed a total transformation, and it needed to happen in the 8 weeks of summer break.” -Principal Ramona Remble
The thing our staff says they are the most proud of is that we do what we say we’re going to do.
Let’s take a closer look at the data Principal Remble and her team were concerned about. Student attendance was low, and truancy was becoming a real problem. They had a significant amount of students held back due to low attendance.
This was compounded by the fact that 523 students were suspended during the 22-23 school year for behavior infractions. That’s over 50 per month. These weren’t trivial discipline referrals either, in the ‘22 fall semester Westdale documented 45 fights.
For teachers trying to create engaging lessons, this was a tough environment to succeed in. Students are out of class all the time, whether it is absent or suspended, and when they are in class they are often at different places in the curriculum due to the missed coursework.
When students are behind in class they get bored and distracted…leading to more behavior problems. Those behavior problems escalate, leading to more distractions for others and potentially more time out of class. This turns into a vicious cycle pretty quickly.
Referrals became so common that the administrative staff couldn’t possibly process them all. This leads to distrust and frustration among teachers and many behavior incidents go undocumented as a result. Which only further reinforces negative behavior.
This became such a problem that in the 22-23 year alone, Westdale lost 15 teachers during the school year to resignation. That’s why Ramona knew they didn’t have three years. They needed to spark a change, and it needed to happen now.
When Ramona and her team met to coordinate a plan they knew they needed to find a system that would address the ABCs of any school: Attendance, Behavior, and Course Performance.
That started with a shift in mindset from disciplining negative behavior to rewarding positive behavior. Ramona’s previous school had a PBIS program that was based on the ABCs.
The team decided that was exactly what Westdale needed, and they chose LiveSchool to help them implement the system. LiveSchool is a positive behavior platform that schools can use to streamline their PBIS efforts with points tracking, a digital rewards store, parent recaps, and House System management.
Let’s take a look at the system that Ramona and her team built with LiveSchool.
At Westdale, students used to be concerned that they were losing privileges even when they did the right things due to the poor behavior of their classmates.
Not anymore. Now with LiveSchool, the staff at Westdale are constantly awarding students for meeting and exceeding expectations. This creates a positive feedback loop where other students notice the recognition and want to do better themselves!
In developing the house system, the school aimed to reflect the diversity of its campus, which boasts various programs and student populations.
With a mix including a foreign language immersion magnet program, gifted tracks, as well as support for exceptional student services (ESS) and intellectually and developmentally impaired (IDI) populations. Inclusivity was key.
They decided on six Houses that would mix students from different grades alongside a diverse group of teachers. This approach ensured that each House represented the school's varied student body, fostering a sense of belonging for all.
Each House has a color. Aside from that, students and staff in their respective Houses have been given the freedom to create the vision for their respective Houses. This might be handshakes, mottos, mascots, or even dedicated House dances.
Westdale has House competitions where students aim to earn points for their Houses, this develops a sense of pride and ownership that was a real game-changer.
Not only that but to address the truancy problem, Westdale even started to have House attendance challenges. They award the winning group with a House party that students have grown to look forward to.
“The number one most asked question from students to me is, ‘When’s our next House party?’”-Principal Ramona Remble
In addition to the full group House rewards, the students at Westdale can spend their points on individual items.
They have the choice of using those immediately on smaller items like concession stand snacks or saving their points for larger rewards like dress-up or dress-down days.
But those individual rewards aren’t the most popular. Nope. The students at Westdale love to purchase the reward they affectionately call “House Shout-Outs”.
With a “House Shout-Out”, students can get Principal Remble to give their House some love over the PA during school announcements.
This is when you know you have the culture going in the right direction. A “We before me” attitude is the foundation for the best teams and the best schools.
To address what is probably the biggest issue that every school is facing these days, Ramona and her team decided to take a stance on cellphone use in class. At Westdale, students now relinquish cell phones at the beginning of every class.
The worry for a policy like this is generally that students will be so combative that the policy leads to more discipline issues, not less. But that hasn’t been the case at Westdale.
The students here are motivated to comply and do the right thing because they know they will be recognized and rewarded for doing so.
This also plays into the ownership concept we discussed above, students know that if they don’t comply they are negatively affecting their House and their school.
Teacher burnout and attrition were a real concern for WMS. That worry was at the heart of their new approach to discipline as well. Without the staff on board, all of these ideas were going to fall apart.
When you decide to focus all of your efforts on recognizing positive behavior it can be a bit of a leap of faith for some. Will negative behavior decrease? Will students care? Will this be “just another thing”?
To address this, Ramona and her team decided to include adults in the fun. Every staff member was assigned a House and the House selections were announced on the first day of school during a pep rally.
This approach helped to increase the buy-in from staff until the new program had a chance to prove itself.
“At first, everyone wasn’t sold on the idea that if we shifted our focus to positive behavior and incentives it would address these negative behaviors, not everybody was on it. But over time, the data spoke for itself.”- Principal Remble
The data really has spoken for itself at Westdale. All of those efforts toward making WMS a more inclusive building have paid off. Truancy is down 32% from last year! That’s led to more students in class, more often. That means more students are in class, more often.
They aren’t just coming to school more, they are engaged in learning and meeting behavior expectations while they’re there. Student suspensions are down 44%!
The administrative team at WMS is now able to utilize the TOR (Time Out Room) as a viable intervention for most behaviors. That’s because the behaviors that are being processed are less severe than they were a year ago.
There are now fewer incidents of aggressive behavior towards staff and peers. Student fights have decreased by 40%! That decrease is directly tied to the new approach by the staff at WMS. But there is an indirect reason as well. The culture is now more inclusive and positive.
Because of this, students have stronger relationships with the staff at Westdale. Those connections are stronger, which means students now feel more comfortable coming to staff when they have problems with a peer or they know an altercation is likely.
The school performance score has already risen from a D to a C. All of those improvements have created an atmosphere at Westdale that is being noticed by the community.
When visitors come to campus and walk the halls during class they often comment “Where’s the kids?” Well, now they’re in class and not walking the halls because they have bought into the expectations.
“When we come here it just feels different.” - Westdale Middle School Parent
When you decide to make a big change like Westdale did, the first thing you need to do is earn trust. Principal Remble earned her staff and students' trust by doing something very simple. She listened to them. Then she acted on what she learned from them.
The next piece, the one that is critical for school change, is follow-through. When Principal Remble and her team decided to utilize LiveSchool and focus on positive behavior they were deliberate and consistent with their implementation.
That level of follow-through has become a part of the fabric at WMS and it’s what is going to keep fueling the positive school culture that they’ve built.
“The thing our staff says they are the most proud of is that we do what we say we’re going to do.” -Principal Ramona Remble
You know what they teamwork makes the dream work. These articles have been written by the wonderful members of our team.
On your first morning in the fall semester, you’re greeted with bustling hallways filled with eager learners, and a vibe in the air that is straight out of a novel. You picture teachers and staff working together to prepare a group of engaged students to go out and take on the world.
Sounds pretty nice, but for most first-time principals it’s pretty unrealistic. For most of us, that first opportunity likely comes right in the middle of the fray. A mid-year transition, behavior concerns all over the building, and teacher morale waning.
When Ramona Remble was named the interim Principal of Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the middle of the spring semester she didn’t get the keys to the idyllic setting we all dreamed of.
When she surveyed her campus she found that teachers felt that student discipline was a major problem leading to teacher burnout. That’s not all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the students felt the same way!
Westdale didn’t just need a culture change, they were ready for it.
When Ramona was officially named as the Principal a few months later, she was told to choose a few areas of improvement, give it time, and in three years they’d be on the right track. However, when Ramona looked into the data she knew the situation was much more urgent.
“We didn’t have three years, we needed a total transformation, and it needed to happen in the 8 weeks of summer break.” -Principal Ramona Remble
On your first morning in the fall semester, you’re greeted with bustling hallways filled with eager learners, and a vibe in the air that is straight out of a novel. You picture teachers and staff working together to prepare a group of engaged students to go out and take on the world.
Sounds pretty nice, but for most first-time principals it’s pretty unrealistic. For most of us, that first opportunity likely comes right in the middle of the fray. A mid-year transition, behavior concerns all over the building, and teacher morale waning.
When Ramona Remble was named the interim Principal of Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the middle of the spring semester she didn’t get the keys to the idyllic setting we all dreamed of.
When she surveyed her campus she found that teachers felt that student discipline was a major problem leading to teacher burnout. That’s not all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the students felt the same way!
Westdale didn’t just need a culture change, they were ready for it.
When Ramona was officially named as the Principal a few months later, she was told to choose a few areas of improvement, give it time, and in three years they’d be on the right track. However, when Ramona looked into the data she knew the situation was much more urgent.
“We didn’t have three years, we needed a total transformation, and it needed to happen in the 8 weeks of summer break.” -Principal Ramona Remble
When you envision what it’ll be like when you become a principal, your mind’s eye probably pictures some sort of learning utopia.
On your first morning in the fall semester, you’re greeted with bustling hallways filled with eager learners, and a vibe in the air that is straight out of a novel. You picture teachers and staff working together to prepare a group of engaged students to go out and take on the world.
Sounds pretty nice, but for most first-time principals it’s pretty unrealistic. For most of us, that first opportunity likely comes right in the middle of the fray. A mid-year transition, behavior concerns all over the building, and teacher morale waning.
When Ramona Remble was named the interim Principal of Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the middle of the spring semester she didn’t get the keys to the idyllic setting we all dreamed of.
When she surveyed her campus she found that teachers felt that student discipline was a major problem leading to teacher burnout. That’s not all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the students felt the same way!
Westdale didn’t just need a culture change, they were ready for it.
When Ramona was officially named as the Principal a few months later, she was told to choose a few areas of improvement, give it time, and in three years they’d be on the right track. However, when Ramona looked into the data she knew the situation was much more urgent.
“We didn’t have three years, we needed a total transformation, and it needed to happen in the 8 weeks of summer break.” -Principal Ramona Remble
When you envision what it’ll be like when you become a principal, your mind’s eye probably pictures some sort of learning utopia.
On your first morning in the fall semester, you’re greeted with bustling hallways filled with eager learners, and a vibe in the air that is straight out of a novel. You picture teachers and staff working together to prepare a group of engaged students to go out and take on the world.
Sounds pretty nice, but for most first-time principals it’s pretty unrealistic. For most of us, that first opportunity likely comes right in the middle of the fray. A mid-year transition, behavior concerns all over the building, and teacher morale waning.
When Ramona Remble was named the interim Principal of Westdale Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the middle of the spring semester she didn’t get the keys to the idyllic setting we all dreamed of.
When she surveyed her campus she found that teachers felt that student discipline was a major problem leading to teacher burnout. That’s not all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the students felt the same way!
Westdale didn’t just need a culture change, they were ready for it.
When Ramona was officially named as the Principal a few months later, she was told to choose a few areas of improvement, give it time, and in three years they’d be on the right track. However, when Ramona looked into the data she knew the situation was much more urgent.
“We didn’t have three years, we needed a total transformation, and it needed to happen in the 8 weeks of summer break.” -Principal Ramona Remble
Every day, the LiveSchool Vision becomes reality.
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