Teacher and Staff Training

Staff Training

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Teachers see the negative and positive sides of student behavior and attitudes long before school boards, central administrators, or the community become alarmed and decide to act. They know the symptoms of incipient violence long before the metal detectors, security guards, or random searches become part of the school environment. Teachers see signs of disruptive, even violent, behavior as early as preschool and elementary school.

Yet, teachers are often unprepared to address the needs of disruptive, often violent, youth. Therefore, teachers and building-level administrators must receive intensive training and sustained staff development for dealing with violence. At the same time, teachers and their professional organizations, student services personnel, school district officials, and community leaders must work together to develop programs to reduce and prevent violence in schools. These programs must include strategies for working with families and community groups because schools cannot do the job alone. In addition, school districts should inform teachers and administrators about social services available in the community and how they can be accessed (Futrell, in press).

Unfortunately, teachers often do not know how best to help young people who are having problems. Thus, teacher and administrator preparation programs in schools of education must include the following types of training, with master teachers, if possible: how to create and maintain a well-managed and well-organized classroom, how to deal with student disruptions, how to work effectively with parents so that their children meet academic and behaviorial expectations, how to work effectively with an ethnically and economically diverse student body, and how to find community health and social services and link families to them.