About Effective Schoolwide Discipline

Schools throughout Virginia are striving to ensure that schools offer a safe and effective instructional environment in which all students are successful learners. The Virginia Department of Education is working closely with education personnel to accomplish that goal by means of Effective Schoolwide Discipline (ESD).

As part of that effort Effective Schoolwide Discipline supports priority projects throughout the Commonwealth and works in a collaborative partnership with Virginia Department of Education Training and Technical Assistance Centers. The ESD project is headquartered at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia, with ODU serving as the fiscal agent and providing logistical support and resources.

The major purpose of Effective Schoolwide Discipline is to build the capacity of schools to develop, implement, and sustain schoolwide, classroom-level, and pupil-specific research supported strategies and procedures. In introducing Effective Schoolwide Discipline, administers, general educators, special educators, and support personnel—along with school staff, are able to increase educational achievement and promote social skills that allow students to access academic content. At the same time, Effective Schoolwide Discipline decreases or eliminates the vast majority of behavior problems that impede the teaching and learning process.

School personnel spend less time on discipline and more time on instruction. With Effective Schoolwide Discipline, schools throughout VA are able to incorporate a Response-to-Intervention approach so that education personnel are highly qualified to respond positively to every student by matching the level and intensity of intervention to each student’s academic and social skills needs.

Regions Utilizing Effective Schoolwide Discipline