Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Robert Arnold

Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Leadership & Policy Studies

Committee Chair

Charisse Gulosino

Committee Member

Dustin Hornbeck

Committee Member

Nikki Wright

Abstract

This study explores how the use of proactive and reactive discipline strategies, as contained in schools’ student handbooks and codes of conduct, are related to school and neighborhood characteristics. The neighborhood and school level characteristics consist of urbanicity, socioeconomic need, racial composition, attendance rates, suspension rates, and academic performance. The total sample consists of 93 middle and high schools in the Shelby County School District (the most populous urban district in Tennessee) and its surrounding suburban municipal districts of Bartlett, Millington, Collierville, Arlington, Lakeland and Germantown. The geospatial analysis and logistic regression analysis reveal that proactive discipline approaches and alternatives to zero tolerance policies are limited in schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods with high urbanicity, socioeconomic needs index, and percentages of minority students. The findings of this study represent the complexity and richness of understanding for the adoption of non-punitive and proactive school discipline strategies as seen through the lens of the ecological systems theory.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.”

Notes

Open Access

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