How schools are undermining student success without even realizing it

Increasingly, we’re hearing from teachers—especially on social media—that student morale and engagement are concerningly low while misbehavior is on the rise.

“What do you do if your students are just blatantly refusing to do any work, not putting in any effort and they’re not even hiding it?” begins a video by TikTok creator and instructional coach Dan Lewer. “This is becoming surprisingly common in a lot of classes, which is horrifying.”

But is this perception even accurate?

In a 2023 report by EdWeek Research Center, “41% of secondary educators said their students were ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ unmotivated” to do their best in school—but interestingly, only 14% of students surveyed reported that they don’t feel motivated. 

In addition to this perception of student disengagement, teachers are reporting an increase in classroom misbehavior. In that same 2023 EdWeek report, a third of teachers surveyed said students have been misbehaving “a lot more” compared to Fall 2019, before the pandemic. 

Are some of the more harsh, traditional approaches to classroom management actually making student engagement and behavior worse? For example, what happens when a teacher is expected to confront a student about their behavior in front of their peers, give them a failing grade because they have been absent, or confiscate their phone? 

Addressing misbehavior and disengagement in ways like these can escalate situations, leading to even bigger disruptions. And even worse, these traditional methods of classroom management, which reinforce toxic power struggles, can negatively impact a school’s overall culture and the morale of both its students and staff. 

But there is an alternative approach—one that helps promote a non-hierarchical dynamic between students and teachers.

“We’re not having power struggles around behaviors inside of school, because that’s counterproductive,” explains Rachel Babcock, Co-Founder & Co-Director of Map Academy, an alternative high school. “We’re not going to fight over phone [use], task completion, where the student sits, whether they’re wearing their hood, if their head is on their desk, or whether or not they’re swearing. Those battles tend to be the things that cause the disruptions.” 

Instead of policing and punishing these student behaviors, the staff at Map Academy intentionally doesn’t escalate situations that can lead to disengaged, dysregulated, or disempowered students. 

“It’s really important to think about the bigger picture,” explains Maxanne Wordell, Map’s Wraparound Coordinator. “What is the bigger harm of the situation and the power struggle?” 

Instead, when a student does something distracting or disruptive, Map’s team of teachers and support staff work with them to try to redirect them towards a more productive decision.

“A lot of it is really validating and redirecting, then offering a student an opportunity to make a different choice,” Maxanne says.

This doesn’t mean more problematic, disrespectful, or potentially harmful behaviors aren’t addressed in more serious ways when needed. When these sorts of  problems do arise in the classroom, Map staff are able to rely on their strong relationships with their students and team of colleagues (which includes social workers like Maxanne) to diffuse the situation, separate students, and stabilize the environment as quickly as possible. But what makes Map’s approach unique from many other schools is that staff then “go through the process of the natural consequence” with their students, Maxanne says.

“It is disciplinary, but it’s the most positive version of it as possible,” she continues. “It’s really important for individuals to be able to take responsibility for their actions, because that’s part of healing and owning your role in something … We’re trying to help them see that they could possibly make a different choice so they can take that skill into the real world.”

Preparing students for the “real world,” both socially and academically, is a key component of Map’s unique approach. At Map, things like late assignments, tardiness, or falling off task don’t result in failing grades. Instead, students learn when they’re ready to learn and face the natural, realistic consequences of a lack of effort, like making slower progress toward graduation.

“I think a big part of this school is natural consequences,” explains Jaclyn Leitao, Math Teacher at Map. “I always tell students… ‘If you are getting into social conflicts with people and you’re choosing to spend your time doing that, you just have to do those academics later. They’re not going anywhere. The list remains the same unless you start chipping away at it.’”

Eventually, after experiencing these natural consequences—and with support from staff—students begin to make the “right” choices on their own. This includes choices around phone use at school, which Map doesn’t police.

“[Students] have to grapple with … ‘Is that two hours spent on your phone really worth pushing your graduation date down the line?’” explains Math Teacher Joe Colangeli. “Here, the system that we have with that asynchronous nature pushes students to realize, ‘Okay, what’s more valuable?’ They start to realize that social media will be there when you get home … They start to put that value back into school, or start to see it at least.”

At Map, staff understands that many defiant and apathetic behaviors in the classroom stem from students’ existing personal issues.

“With depression or anxiety, students are not wanting to believe in themselves,” explains Wraparound Coordinator Maxanne. “They’re not able to verbalize that, so it comes across as, ‘I don’t want to do the work today.’”

In addition to depression and anxiety, students at Map are often facing struggles like housing insecurity, trauma, and substance misuse. Since Map was specifically created to serve students with these challenges, their staff is well-equipped to help learners work around and through them—a process that co-founder Rachel says begins before a new student has their first day at Map.

“​​That starts with a really robust intake process, in which we’re immediately [talking to] students and their adult supporters to understand their history,” she explains. “It starts with a really careful review of students’ files—which, often, have a ton of information about behaviors, disciplinary history, and academic history.”

From that point on, Rachel says, the staff at Map remains in close communication with each other to track each students’ progress and struggles. This helps ensure they’re doing everything they can to help their learners overcome any barriers they may be facing.

“We have a core leadership team of people that hold a tremendous amount of information and are paying attention and are part of the school—the leaders here are not removed from the students,” she says. “There are a lot of structures in place in which information flows our way. That makes sure that we know what’s going on.”

Because Map’s co-founders started in traditional learning environments, where they saw students falling through the cracks, they understand firsthand how the “typical” high school system focuses on compliance to the detriment of the overall learning experience, young people’s agency, and student engagement.

“A lot of the student behaviors in those schools are based on students trying to escape a system where they feel unseen, unheard, and unvalidated,” Rachel explains. “Traditional high schools are hierarchical, and they are focused on compliance and maintaining the status quo.”

While she acknowledges that disrupting this often toxic status quo can be difficult in a traditional environment, Rachel says there are steps educators can take to build more equitable power dynamics between staff and students.

“I think there’s definitely a lot leaders can do. If someone is a decision-maker, if someone is hiring and evaluating and firing, then they have the power to change things. You can message what is important to you and can empower those people that you’re hiring and evaluating.”

But even for educators who aren’t in a position of authority, Rachel says a non-hierarchical and student-centered culture can start in an individual classroom.

“Whatever the variables, however small the ecosystem, you can do a lot of good,” she explains. ”In every single system or school, there are people who are bucking that authority [and] treating students with compassion and grace.” 

Ultimately, treating students with that compassion and grace means understanding they often arrive at school with struggles that can disrupt their learning, and that micromanaging the behaviors that can result from those struggles is only going to make them more disengaged from school.

“A lot of the kids that come here, they have enough barriers to learning. We don’t need to add extras,” Math Teacher Jaclyn says, “and if we can remove some of the unnecessary ones, we might as well.”