Having Behavioral Expectations For Kids Works
Principal Todd Irving transformed a school with a "Lord of the Flies" environment, writes Paloma Esquivel in the LA Times:

Irving was hired over the summer to keep Spurgeon under control. The 6-foot-1 former college basketball player had two major goals: First, enforce the small rules; second, give the troublemakers some attention.

In the weeks before school began in late August, he asked his vice principals to compile a list of the school's 50 most disruptive students and promised to be responsible for them.

...The second morning of the school year, Irving and his vice principals gathered students into assemblies by grade and took turns explaining a long list of rules and expectations -- pick up your own trash, get to class on time, no fighting, no gangs, no lighters, no stink bombs, no matches.

Students sat quietly, their legs crossed on the floor and pulled at the straps of their backpacks or fiddled with binders.

"No one on this campus will be threatened by other students," Irving told them.

...On a recent morning, before the 8 a.m. bell rang, Irving stood at a busy intersection in front of Spurgeon, greeting students with a handshake, like he does most days.

Principal Todd Irving, left, greets Isaac Martinez, 13, before school starts at Spurgeon Intermediate School in Santa Ana. More photos

Throughout the day, students are in and out of his office. He has frequent conferences with parents, sends administrators and counselors to visit students who don't show up; sometimes he pulls troublemaking students out of class and lets them sit in his office, doing homework or just talking.

So far, suspensions are down -- in the first two months of the year there were 24 days compared with 71 last year, Irving said. All but 12 of the 50 students identified as troublemakers have done well enough that they are no longer required to check in with teachers every period.

...Susan Mercer, the president of the teachers union, who helped file the hostile work environment complaint, said the school was getting better.

"According to what my teachers say, they're really happy. The school has really turned," she said. Teacher John McGuinness agreed.

"This is a pretty easy thing in education," he said. "If you set expectations, tell the students what's going to happen and then actually do it, you usually find that it's effective."

Still, the biggest challenge remains: learning.