Abstract
Given the potential lifelong implications of exclusionary discipline sanctions on students’ educational outcomes (Skiba & Rausch, 2006), it is critical for those who are responsible for student discipline, mainly assistant principals, to reflect on their role as disciplinarians. The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine how second-year assistant principals use exclusionary discipline practices in high poverty elementary schools. Participants for this study included five assistant principals from high poverty elementary schools from a school district in the Southeastern part of the United States. Data for this qualitative study were triangulated from three sources: one-on-one interviews, Student Discipline Matrices, and a focus group discussion. A total of 23 themes emerged. Overall, participants’ roles as disciplinarians were influenced by their experiences with discipline prior to becoming assistant principals. Additionally, participants identified a variety of factors and practices that influenced students’ recidivism in exclusionary discipline. Although the effectiveness of exclusionary discipline practices varied based on each individual student, all of the participants strove to help develop students’ moral reasoning, especially as it related to their behavior choices. Findings from this study support the efforts of administrators who prefer non-exclusionary discipline sanctions over exclusionary discipline sanctions for students who exhibit problem behaviors.