Point of View Archives - Sound Discipline

15Mar 2021 by Mary Power

The COVID One-Year Mark: Let’s not go back

Brain Science, Connection and love, In the News, Point of View, Resilience

We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.

— Sonya Renee Taylor

On March 5 of last year, Sound Discipline’s leadership team met to make a COVID contingency plan. A 2-week school closure had just been announced. We drew all over a whiteboard, planning for three scenarios; 1) …

12Feb 2021 by Mary Power

Black History and Belonging in School

Point of View, Racial Justice

When we say, “what if every child knew they belonged?”, what exactly do we mean?

Recently, I explored this question over Zoom with Dr. DeLeon Gray, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Education Equity at North Carolina State University and a leading researcher on the intersection of race, belonging, and motivation in school.

I learned about Dr. Gray’s work from Education Trust Research Associate Nancy Duchesneau. When Nancy and I talked about Sound Discipline’s investigation into belonging, she said, “Well then, you have to talk with DeLeon Gray. He is pretty much the leading voice on belonging.”

To learn …

12Jan 2021 by Mary Power

Who is Sound Discipline’s New Leader?

Point of View

On December 3rd, Sound Discipline hired Andrea John-Smith to serve as our new Executive Director. Andrea succeeds our Founding Executive Director, Dr. Jody McVittie. In January of 2020, to facilitate Jody’s transition to the full-time role of Director of Strategic Partnerships, the Board brought Andrea on as our Transition ED. Not long after, COVID hit. Andrea went above and beyond her transition scope to help navigate and respond to rapid change. When it came time to resume our ED search in August, Andrea became a candidate for the permanent ED role. Following a rigorous and inclusive selection process, the Board’s …

09Nov 2020 by Allison Carney

Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity

Connection and love, Featured, Feelings and emotions, Point of View

“Inclusion is not an intellectual thing. It has to be visceral. Words like diversity, equity, inclusion have no meaning at all unless we make it personal, unless we connect these themes to our life story and operationalize them in the actions of our daily lives.” – Jonathan Joseph, Sound Discipline Board of Directors.

In July, Sound Discipline Board Members Jonathan Joseph and Debbie Symonds worked together to design an equity curriculum for the Sound Discipline Board around a year-long study of the book Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation by Floyd Cobb and John …

09Oct 2020 by Pase Garrett

Sound Discipline Data Teams: Addressing Disproportionality in Discipline

Featured, In the News, Point of View

Sound Discipline school data teams are representatives from the school community who share leadership and meet regularly to review disciplinary referral data with a trauma informed, solution focused lens. As day-to-day situations come up, the data helps place those incidents in a broader context, revealing patterns and pointing to deeper systemic issues — processes, policies, practices, and mindset — often the upstream causes of problems in the classroom.

Ms. Thompson’s 4th grade classroom was a stark example of the kinds of issues data teams can uncover. When Ms. Thompson saw her disciplinary referral numbers, she was shocked. All of the …