Practice Profile: School-Based Interventions to Reduce Exclusion

Evidence Rating for Outcomes

Education | Expulsion/Suspension

Date: This profile was posted on February 05, 2020

School exclusion (more commonly known as suspension and expulsion) is broadly defined as a disciplinary measure imposed in reaction to students’ misbehavior. This practice comprises school-based programs that seek to decrease the prevalence of exclusion and thereby reduce the detrimental effects that suspensions or expulsion from schools may have on students’ learning outcomes and future training or employment opportunities. This practice is rated Effective for reducing school exclusion.

Practice Goals

School exclusion, more commonly known as suspension and expulsion in the United States, is broadly defined as a disciplinary measure imposed in reaction to students’ misbehavior (e.g., violations of school policies or laws). Exclusion may include removing students from regular teaching for a period, during which they are not allowed to be present in classrooms (in-school exclusion or suspension) or on school grounds (out-of-school exclusion or suspension). Fixed-term exclusions consist of a certain number of hours or days that students are temporarily suspended from school (Cornell et al. 2011), whereas permanent exclusion involves students being expelled from school, transferred to a different school, or educated outside of the regular educational system (Spink 2011). The goal of these programs is to decrease the prevalence of students’ exclusion and thereby reduce the detrimental effects (i.e., demotivation regarding academic goals, low grades, dropping out), which multiple suspensions or expulsion may have on their learning outcomes and future training or employment opportunities.

Target Populations

The interventions tend to target students between the ages of 4 and 18 in non-specialized elementary, middle, and high schools. Some interventions target the whole school, others target individual students or teachers.

Practice Components

The interventions focus on changes at the school or teacher level or on changing student skills or behaviors. These interventions are often grouped into the following nine categories:

Enhancement of academic skills to improve academic performance, increase motivation, and promote more adaptive behavior.
After-school programs that provide academic support, paid apprenticeships, or recreational activities.
Mentoring/monitoring programs that involve structured and supportive relationships between a young person and a non-parental adult who serve as role models providing support, supervising academic performance, providing advice, and assisting with academic tasks.
Social skills trainings programs to enhance students' socio-cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavior skills to regulate maladaptive behaviors.
Skills trainings for teachers that help teachers establish clear classroom rules and facilitate mutual respect between teachers and students.
School-wide interventions that involve multiple actors and aim to create positive environments, with clear rules that promote good behavior, learning, and safety.
Violence reduction programs that specifically target increasing self-control and reducing violence in schools.
Counseling and mental health interventions that focus on providing services within schools or through specialized services from community mental health providers.
Other interventions that involve multiple components, including community service, career awareness, character-building and civic engagement.

These school-based interventions are delivered on school premises or supported by schools with at least one component implemented in the school setting. They can be delivered by school staff (with or without assistance from external facilitators), school psychologists or counselors, and police or probation officers. Interventions vary in length and usually range from 12 weeks to 24 weeks, depending on the program.

Meta-Analysis Snapshot
	Literature Coverage Dates	Number of Studies	Number of Study Participants
Meta Analysis 1	1980-2015	37	37895

Meta Analysis 1

Valdebenito and colleagues (2019) conducted a meta-analysis to determine the impact of school-based interventions on exclusion. The comprehensive search strategy included a keyword search of electronic databases (such as Criminal Justice Abstracts, ERIC, and PsycINFO) between September and December 2015. Key authors were also contacted for information on primary studies to be included in the review and lists of references from previous primary studies and reviews related to school-based interventions or exclusion were also assessed. There were no language restrictions placed on the searches, as long as the abstract was written in English. The methodological quality of each included study was evaluated using the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care risk-of-bias tool (Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care 2007).

Literature included in the meta-analysis was drawn from published or unpublished studies from 1980 onward. Only studies with interventions that met the following criteria were included: 1) were randomized controlled trials; 2) targeted students from 4 to 18 years of age, irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, language, and cultural or socioeconomic background (studies involving students with serious mental disabilities or those in need of special schools were excluded); 3) were school-based interventions (delivered on school premises or supported by schools with at least one component implemented in the school setting); 4) encompassed a wide range of theoretical bases (targeting students or the whole school); and 5) addressed school exclusion as an outcome, regardless of whether the exclusion was fixed or permanent, in-school or out-of-school.

A total of 37 randomized controlled studies (reporting 38 effect sizes) of school-based interventions were included in the analysis. Included studies represented interventions carried out between 1980 and December 1, 2015. These studies were roughly equal in terms of being published (51 percent) or unpublished reports (49 percent). All were written in English and primarily represented studies from the United States (89 percent) and United Kingdom (8 percent). The remaining 3 percent represented one study in which the country of the sample was not reported.

In the meta-analysis, the mean age of the sample was 13 years old. The students attended schools with a high percentage of Black (54 percent) and Latino students (20 percent). Approximately two thirds of students were eligible for/receiving free school meals (66 percent). A wide range of school-based interventions were included in the review, organized into the following nine categories: 1) enhancement of academic skills, 2) afterschool programs, 3) mentoring/monitoring programs, 4) social skills training for students, 5) skills training for teachers, 6) schoolwide interventions, 7) violence reduction, 8) counseling and mental health interventions, and 9) other interventions. Broadly, 27 percent of the interventions were focused on changes at the school or teacher level, and 73 percent focused on changing students’ skills/behaviors to affect exclusion rates. School staff (32 percent) or school staff assisted by external facilitators (24 percent) delivered the interventions. Most of those delivering the interventions were school psychologists or counselors (32 percent), and in two studies (5 percent), the intervention was delivered by police or probation officers. Forty percent of the interventions were designed and/or delivered by the same researchers who also evaluated the impact of the intervention. Thirty-eight percent of the interventions were delivered over a period of 12 weeks or less, and an equal percentage were delivered over a period of more than 24 weeks.

In 23 studies, the control group received no treatment, 6 studies reported controls receiving treatment as usual, 4 offered a placebo to the control group, and 4 allocated controls via a waiting list. Regarding the unit of randomization, 70 percent of the studies randomized individuals, and almost 30 percent randomized clusters of students, either as entire schools or classrooms. The measures of exclusion reported in the included studies were mainly based on official records (81 percent) provided by schools or other official institutions.

Using a random effects model, standardized mean differences were calculated to measure program effects between the treatment and control groups. Using a 95-percent confidence interval, mean effect sizes were calculated for all 37 studies. Moderator and meta-regression analyses were also conducted.

Date Created: July 17, 2024

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Practice Snapshot

Age: 4 - 18

Gender: Male, Female

Race/Ethnicity: Black, Hispanic

Targeted Population: Truants/Dropouts

Setting (Delivery): School

Practice Type: Academic Skills Enhancement, Afterschool/Recreation, Classroom Curricula, Leadership and Youth Development, Mentoring, School/Classroom Environment, Truancy Prevention

Unit of Analysis: Persons

Researcher:
Sara Valdebenito
Research Associate
Violence Research Centre at the University of Cambridge

Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue
United States

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Practice Profile: School-Based Interventions to Reduce Exclusion

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Practice Summary

Practice Description

Practice Goals

Target Populations

Practice Components

Meta-Analysis Outcomes

Meta-Analysis Methodology

Cost

Other Information

Evidence-Base (Meta-Analyses Reviewed)

Additional References

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