Student At-Risk Factors

Not all students live in healthy home environments and come to school ready to learn. Some students are from dysfunctional families and experience daily problems that affect their lives and schooling. In the 21st century, there are a number of social factors that place students at risk for social maladjustment and/or academic failure. In fact, a significant number of students enrolled in U.S. public school systems today are impacted by such factors with one third of high school students dropping out prior to graduation. It is therefore very important for future teachers to increase their understanding of the issues that put students at risk if they are to successfully promote their social and academic development.

WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL FACTORS THAT PUT STUDENTS AT RISK?

Some of the factors that interfere with the social adjustment and academic performance of some students are changing family patterns, poverty, stress in the family, lack of supervision, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide, and school violence/crime.

Changing Family Patterns

Over the years, U.S. families have become more diverse. They no longer are solely comprised of nuclear families with a mother, father, and children. 68% of today's school-age children live in families with two parents and 32% are raised by single parents, grandparents, or other guardians. Increasing diversity among U.S. families is primarily linked to higher rates of divorce and increasing numbers of women who are staying single and having children.

Compared to the past, today's families also tend to be smaller in size with only one or two children and to be characterized by socioeconomic differences. By and large, single-parent families, especially those comprised of single mothers, tend to have lower incomes than two-parent families. In fact, the income of families with a single mother is approximately 43% of that of two-parent families. According to research, students who grow up with a single parent or step-parent tend to attain lower levels of education than students who grow up in nuclear families and they are less likely to graduate from high school. This is primarily attributed to the fact that single-parent households have less financial resources than two-parent families.

Poverty

Children who live in poverty make up a large segment of the U.S. population. Approximately 20% live in families that earn less than $14,000 a year and over one million children are actually homeless. These children typically do not receive the proper nutrition, medical care, and child care that they need to experience normal cognitive growth and be able to concentrate in school. Poverty also impacts the level of resources that students have at home (e.g., developmental toys, books, computers with Internet access), amount of intellectual stimulation that they receive, and level of academic preparedness that they bring to school.

Stress in the Family

Some children and youth are exposed to stressful conditions at home (e.g., conflict and violence) which prevent them from concentrating in school and eventually end up arresting their academic development. For example, in the year 2000, over 850,000 children were the victims of child abuse. The leading cause of child abuse is substance abuse among parents. There are 4 types of child abuse: physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Abused children tend to develop low self-esteem, to become withdrawn, and to experience problems in school.

Lack of Supervision

Because today's families include a rising number of working mothers and single parents, more and more children and youth are unsupervised after school and do not spend sufficient quality time with their parent/s. This leads some youth to hang out on the streets and undergo negative peer pressure, and/or to develop emotional problems (e.g., insecurity and a troubled sense of self).

Substance Abuse

Over the years, teenagers' abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs has increased and negatively impacted their life and performance in school. It is estimated that over 50% of students try drugs before graduating from high school and approximately 80% try alcohol. Substance abuse is also linked to other problems and risks including car accidents, depression, suicide, sexual activity, and crime. Substance abuse is more common among teenage males than females.

Teenage Pregnancy

Although teenage pregnancy has decreased in recent years due to increased use of contraception among teenagers and/or increased sex education in U.S. schools, one in every 9 teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 becomes pregnant. Teenage pregnancy is the number one cause for school dropout among girls and it increases the odds of poverty and even homelessness among those who drop out of school.

Suicide

There are more than 4000 teenage suicides in this country every year. Suicide is the 3rd cause of death among teenagers between 15 and 24. Currently, the number of teenage males who commit suicide is six times that of teenage females and gay and lesbian youth account for 30% of all suicides.

School Violence and Crime

Violence and crime have also become more visible in the world of school. Each year, there are approximately 2.5 million crimes committed in U.S. schools, including thefts, rapes, and aggravated assaults. Some of these crimes are gang-related. Although gangs are widespread in the United States, the percentage of teenagers who join gangs is actually low. Teenagers who become gang members typically choose to do so for financial gains, status, and power, and/or to satisfy the need for identity and belonging which abusive, absent, or inadequate parents cannot fulfill. In the past decade, some instances of school violence (e.g., shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech) were so horrific and shocking that schools across the nation have implemented a variety of security measures to reduce the occurrence of violent acts. School violence and crime are attributed to violence on television, video games, and music, as well as to teenagers' easy access to weapons. It can also result from past bullying. Bullying is a form of harassment that involves verbal, physical, and/or emotional abuse and is perpetrated by youth who feel that they have physical or social power over their victims. Nowadays, bullying can also take place online. It is called cyberbullying.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL FACTORS

In order for students to perform and behave well in school, it is necessary for teachers to establish an orderly classroom environment where students are actively engaged in their learning process and instances of misbehavior are minimized. It is also necessary for teachers to establish a supportive classroom environment that can counteract the external forces (e.g., poverty and family conflict) that students experience outside of school. 

THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF SOCIAL FACTORS ON STUDENT BEHAVIOR

Oftentimes, students will bring issues and problems to school that are impacting their lives outside of school and may, as a result, engage in misbehavior. Although student misbehavior can be brought about by a teacher's inability to effectively involve students in learning activities that are interesting to students and address their particular needs (e.g., learning style and forms of intelligence), sometimes misbehavior is rooted in students' home environment and/or developmental changes and personal needs. According to Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), all students have basic needs that must be met before they can experience any personal development or fulfilment. In particular, students have:

• physiological needs (i.e., the need for food and water)
• safety needs (i.e., the need for a home and physical security)
• love and belonging needs (i.e., the need for affection and belonging)
• achievement needs (i.e., the need to be competent and respected)
• self-actualization needs (i.e., the need to be self-fulfilled through personal talents)

When students' lower-level needs are not fulfilled at home (e.g., physiological, safety, and belonging needs), students may experience frustration and lack motivation in meeting their higher-level needs (i.e., needs for esteem and self-actualization). Unfortunately, many children today live in poverty or in dysfunctional homes where child-rearing practices and parental supervision are unsuitable, family unity and affection are lacking, and neglect and physical abuse may even take place. Furthermore, today's students are regularly exposed to inappropriate values, as well as violence on television and in video games and music.This has been linked to increased aggressive behavior in children and teenagers.

Beyond causes in the home environment, student misbehavior can also be influenced by students' social cliques and their "norms". For example, some students will misbehave in front of their peers and friends just to "fit in" with their group. By and large, though, most student misbehavior is self-serving to students. Misbehavior serves 4 main purposes: it allows students to get attention, seek power, take revenge, and/or avoid failure and subsequently fulfill needs that are lacking in their lives outside of school.

Attention-Getting

Some students crave attention and will engage in a wide variety of inappropriate behaviors to get attention (e.g., teasing peers, being talkative, disrespectful, uncooperative, and disruptive). According to researchers, 90% of all inappropriate behavior is an attempt for attention. When students are unable to receive the attention that they want, they will typically engage in increasingly more disruptive behaviors and seek power.

Power-Seeking

Some students want to be in control and will misbehave to achieve this goal by being disrespectful, uncooperative, argumentative, disruptive, or even confrontational. Oftentimes, these students will act out in front of the whole class.

Revenge-Taking

Sometimes students will lash out to get even with other students and/or their teacher(s). Revenge is often manifested through physical or psychological acts (e.g., bullying and cyberbullying).

Failure Avoidance

Some students will also engage in misbehavior because they do not want to appear inadequate in front of their peers. For example, if students believe that classroom assignments are too difficult, they may act out to avoid completing the assignments and appearing inferior in front of the class.

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES AIMED AT AT-RISK STUDENTS

 

The public expects U.S. schools to teach prosocial vales and to address the social problems that affect the lives of today's students. This places additional challenges on educators to not only foster academic development among students, but also their social development. How are schools addressing the issues that put students at risk? 

To address the factors that place students at risk, schools have implemented a variety of initiatives and intervention such as student-to-student peer counseling, compensatory education, full-service schools, alternative schools, before- and after-school programs, and school-community partnerships.

Student-to-Student Peer Counseling

Student-to-student peer counseling is an alternative to professional counseling. It allows students to talk out their academic and personal problems with peer counselors who listen, help explore feelings, and sort out problems. Read more about peer counseling.

Compensatory Education

Compensatory education is a program of supplemental instruction for elementary and secondary students who perform below level, are not exceptional learners, and need extra help to achieve their educational potential. Title I is an example of compensatory education in reading, writing, and math.

Full-Service Schools

Beyond educational services, full-service schools offer a wide array of services to students and their families such as health care and mental health services, and before- and after-school child care services. This alleviates some of the problems that families may experience (e.g., lack of health insurance and transportation). An example of a full-service school in New York is the Salome Urena Middle Academy (SUMA).

Alternative Schools

Alternative schools are schools that provide specialized curricula and/or flexible programs of study, including remedial education, counseling, and vocational training, to at-risk students. They typically deliver instruction in classrooms with low student-teacher ratios. Read more about alternative schooling at the Alternative Schools Network.

Before- and After-School Programs

These programs deliver pre- and after-school activities (e.g., homework help, literacy development, and recreation) to children and youth whose home situations require supervision before and after school. The programs typically run from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, as well as on early-release days. Read about how before- and after-care programs benefit students.

School-Community Partnerships

School-community partnerships aim at improving learning among at-risk students through the provision of funds, educational resources, professional development, and specialized programs such as mentoring programs that pair at-risk students with professionals from the community. Read more about school-community partnerships.

DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIORS & INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

Daily life in the classroom often entails instances of inappropriate student behaviors. Most of the time, fortunately, student misbehavior predominantly involves common behaviors that can be easily addressed by teachers in the classroom. Occasionally, there will be instances in the classroom when a student will continually misbehave. In this unit, we will examine common and chronic student behaviors, and how they can be addressed. 

WHAT ARE SOME COMMON AND CHRONIC BEHAVIORS EXHIBITED BY STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM?

In the classroom, some of the common behaviors that students have a tendency to engage in include interrupting class (e.g., talking with a classmate); being off-task (e.g., not working on an assigned academic task to engage in an unrelated activity); passing notes to classmates; walking around the classroom; and/or being disrespectful (e.g., using bad language or talking back to the teacher). These behaviors are considered "common" because they arise from the normal patterns of development of students.

In contrast, examples of chronic student behavior include constant talking with classmates; regular off-task behavior; regular disruptive behavior; pronounced disrespect for the teacher; and attempts to coerce other students into misbehaving. These behaviors are considered chronic because they differ from normal patterns of student behavior and do not respond to basic intervention strategies. Oftentimes, students who exhibit chronic misbehavior in the classroom have issues that extend beyond school, including dysfunctional families, lack of positive role models, and low self-esteem and -confidence.

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR CHANGING COMMON STUDENT BEHAVIORS

Non-Verbal Intervention Strategies

To address common student behaviors, teachers can intervene non-verbally by:

• Using a technique called overlapping whereby the teacher continues to do what he/she was doing (e.g., teach or facilitate a discussion) while addressing the behavior (e.g., by making eye contact with the student who is misbehaving and signaling him/her to stop)
• Using a technique called withitness whereby the teacher makes it clear to the class that he/she knows what is going on in the class at all times and is able to redirect students back to task by using, for example, eye contact or hand signals
• Planning lessons that involve a variety of classroom activities that will be interesting and motivating to students and appropriate for their attention span
• Taking away items that are distracting to students until the end of class
• Showing interest in what a student or students are doing (both individually or in groups) to ensure that they stay on task
• Asking a student or students to do something related to the day's academic tasks (e.g., answering a question) and providing feedback (i.e., if the answer is correct, providing praise; if it is not, asking the question in a different way or calling on another student)
• Asking a student to help out with a chore or errand when it is clear that the student is frustrated
• Using cues to remind students about how they are supposed to be acting (e.g., clapping hands to remind students that they are being too loud)

Sometimes, however, despite teachers' interventions, some students will continue to engage in misbehavior. When this is the case, teachers will need to develop a plan of action for minimizing disruptive student behaviors by 1) clearly communicating disapproval to students, 2) privately directing a student's attention to his/her misbehavior, and 3) promoting self-control among students. Teachers can achieve this by resorting to the following four techniques:

1. Ignoring a behavior. When a student misbehaves, the teacher chooses to ignore the behavior in order not to reinforce its occurrence (e.g., when a student answers a question without raising a hand). This technique can be effective if the teacher has never reinforced the disruptive behavior before and if students in the class also ignore the behavior). If the behavior persists, the teacher will have to use technique #2.
2. Signaling a student. When a student misbehaves, the teacher signals the student to stop (e.g., by using a hand signal or establishing eye contact with a stern facial expression). If misbehavior continues, the teacher will move on to intervention technique #3.
3. Standing close to a student. When a student misbehaves, the teacher looks at the student and stands close to him/her to get him/her back on task. If the misbehavior continues, the teacher will use intervention technique #4.
4. Making physical contact with the student. When a student misbehaves, the teacher will make physical contact with the student to get him/her back on task and communicate disapproval (e.g., by touching a student's shoulder or walking the student back to his/her seat). This technique may not work with students who are prone to aggression.

At the end of every class period, teachers should always remember to praise students who refrained from misbehaving or stopped engaging in disruptive behaviors after an intervention technique was used.

Verbal Intervention Strategies

When teachers are not successful at addressing common student behaviors via non-verbal intervention strategies, they should use verbal intervention strategies. When resorting to verbal intervention strategies, teachers should always remember to have a private conversation with the disruptive student regarding the particular misbehavior that he/she is exhibiting and how he/she can resume behaving appropriately. Teachers should never put down or be sarcastic with students.

There are three verbal intervention strategies that teachers can use to address misbehavior. They are hinting, questioning, and making requests.

Hinting

Teachers can use hints to make students aware of their inappropriate behavior(s). Hints can be provided to misbehaving students when teachers reinforce well-behaved students (e.g., provide praise), call on misbehaving students to answer a question, or use humor to defuse the situation.

Questioning

Questions can be used by teachers to ascertain whether or not students are aware of how their behavior impacts the class.

Making Requests

Teachers can also request that a student stop misbehaving by directly appealing to him/her; letting the class know about the positive outcomes of good behavior; reminding students of classroom rules; and explicitly redirecting students.

Teachers should also implement logical consequences for misbehavior(s). First, teachers should stress the fact that misbehaving students need to improve/change their behavior, that students have a choice in the matter, and that if students do not improve/change their behavior, they will face consequences. 

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR CHANGING CHRONIC STUDENT BEHAVIORS

Chronic student behaviors cannot be eliminated by simply referring students to the principal or assistant principal(s). Removing a student from class to speak with an administrator will only escalate misbehavior because the student will likely seek revenge or further gaining of attention through continued misbehavior upon return to class. Researchers also believe that removing students from class conveys the message that 1) the teacher cannot control his/her class and 2) that the teacher has failed to establish a safe and stable learning environment where students are part of a permanent learning community.

Chronic student behaviors should be addressed by teachers in the classroom. To this end, teachers should:

• work on developing a trusting and supportive relationship with students who exhibit chronic misbehavior. This requires teachers to overcome any negative attitudes that they may harbor towards misbehaving students; to focus on students' qualities versus disruptive behaviors; to constantly act as caring teachers; to think about the reasons why students are misbehaving; to be forgiving; to identify potential intervention strategies; and to keep their own classroom behavior in check, specifically what they are communicating to students and how it impacts them.
• strive to improve disruptive students' self-esteem and experiences with academic success. Chronic misbehavior oftentimes results from a lack of self-esteem and academic success. Disruptive students tend to receive a lot of negative attention (e.g., punishment) from teachers. This does not fulfill their needs for belonging and feeling competent. Teachers should regularly encourage students who are at risk for misbehaving and use cooperative learning activities so that students can interact with other students and feel that they belong in a group.
• regularly talk with disruptive students about their classroom behavior and how to improve it. This will allow teachers to understand the causes of misbehavior and to discuss solutions with the student.
• ask students to monitor their own behavior using a self-evaluation instrument.
• keep a journal of how a disruptive student is behaving on a daily basis; discussing the student's behavior with the student; and requiring the student to sign the journal entry every day until behavior improves.
• conduct a functional behavior assessment (FBA) to identify the roots of the behavioral problem and implement a plan for changing the behavior.
• write a behavior contract and require the student to sign it. The contract should outline the behaviors to be improved and provide a reward to the student for successfully correcting the behavior. A behavior contract requires teachers to monitor student behavior on a daily basis.

SCHOOL SAFETY AND BULLYING

School violence has been on the rise in the United States over the past decade. What are the issues related to school safety and bullying? 

In U.S. schools, acts of aggression, shootings (e.g., at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School), and bullying have increased over the years. Bullying is a form of violence that uses threat or physical force to abuse or intimidate others. It also includes cyberbullying (i.e., bullying using digital devices).

According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 6000 students were expelled from U.S. schools during the late 1990s for possessing firearms. In addition, during the 2000s, the number of homicides committed by adolescents increased dramatically while 85% of U.S. public schools reported acts of violence. Specifically, during the late 2000s, 1.5 million acts of violence took place in school and 1.1 million students experienced violence in or outside of school. More recently, in 2014, some 8% of students reported being cyberbullied.

School violence has been linked to a number of factors, including easy access to weapons, mental health problems, gang activity, and ongoing abuse by peers. 

REFERENCES

Gollnick, D. & Chinn, P. (2017). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Ormrod, J. & Jones, B. (2018). Essentials of educational psychology: Big ideas to guide effective teaching (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Parkay, F. (2020). Becoming a teacher (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Sadker, D. & Zittelman, K. (2018). Teachers, schools, and society: A brief introduction to education (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.