Since its first meeting in April, the Student Behavior and School Climate Task Force has spent the past six months listening to educators, teachers and various stakeholders to come up with ways to address student behavioral issues across Delaware classrooms.
The final report offers nine different categories for state leaders to consider, including sections on data-driven practices, behavioral interventions and supports, parent and community engagement and legislative policy and framework.
Task Force Chair Bryan Townsend says some of the most productive conversations the task force had centered around implementing or strengthening in-school programs that effectively address behavioral needs, like Social Emotional Learning programs, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and general restorative practices.
“The question is, how effective are those programs - apparently very effective by certain measures. And so figuring out the totality of what the programs involve and what they are doing well or could do a better job of while also bolstering their funding is a pretty important item,” Townsend said.
He also feels particularly strongly about finding a way to implement more teaching methods based on exploration and discovery for young learners.
“Play-based learning, play-based curriculum, can be something that we have not done enough of over the years, maybe got too focused on testing or older learner style teaching that really doesn’t reach our youngest learners.”
Townsend says he plans to reconvene the task force this upcoming legislative session and begin looking at ways to make curriculum-based changes to throw more support behind early childhood learners and look for over-arching legislative changes that can be made without a fiscal note as a starting point.
