Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education and Organizational Leadership Development
Committee Chair/Advisor
Brandi Hinnant-Crawford
Committee Member
Edwin Bonney
Committee Member
Alex Chisholm
Committee Member
Noelle Paufler
Abstract
I begin this dissertation with an introduction to a problem of practice that affects many schools in America- inequity in school discipline. After reviewing literature that explains why this is an important research topic, I share information about the research site, Mountain View High School (MVHS). It was seen that majority of the discipline referrals written over the school year was from ninth-grade students. When looking closer at the ninth-grade students, it also was determined that Black/ African American students were also receiving a disproportionate amount of discipline referrals compared to their White peers. After introducing the problem of practice and research site, I share my research question and the intervention that I chose to try to help solve this problem. Mountain View High School already has a MTSS process in place for academics. I decided to build upon this with the behavioral side of MTSS, in an attempt to teach the behaviors that discipline referral data and teacher input decided needed to be addressed.
Through a mixed-methods study, I conducted the intervention and collected data through student discipline referrals and teacher written discipline referrals and surveys in order to determine the effectiveness of using a behavioral MTSS system to decrease student discipline referrals among Black ninth-grade students at MVHS.
I then describe the findings of the study which suggest that there was no statistical difference in student discipline referrals before and after the intervention. However, there was some statistical difference in the number of referrals from teachers that participated in the study and those teachers that taught ninth-grade students but chose not to participate in the study. In the end, the intervention could be successful if it was implemented with a whole school approach and implemented with fidelity.
In the end, I describe why this research was important for our school, community, and other schools in America. In addition, I describe what I would change about the intervention in order to make it more successful in all areas of data collection.
Recommended Citation
Merck, Lauren L., "Using Tier 1 Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for Student Behavior to Decrease Discipline Referrals Among Black Ninth-Grade Students" (2025). All Dissertations. 4043.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4043