Classroom Management Guide: Strategies, Classroom Rules and Routines, PBIS, Restorative Practices and De-escalation for K-12 Schools

Classroom management is the work a teacher does to create and keep a classroom where students can learn: arranging the room and the schedule, teaching expectations and routines, keeping students engaged, building relationships, and responding to behavior when it goes wrong. It is one of the most studied parts of teaching and one of the most stressful. In RAND’s 2026 State of the American Teacher survey, managing student behavior was the most cited source of job-related stress, named by 52 percent of K–12 public school teachers (RAND, June 8, 2026). In the federal National Teacher and Principal Survey for 2020–21, 32 percent of public school teachers agreed that student misbehavior interfered with their teaching, down from 43 percent in 2015–16 (National Center for Education Statistics, Condition of Education, September 2023). The research gives reason for confidence: a 2025 update of the largest recent meta-analysis, covering 76 controlled studies of classroom management interventions in primary schools, found a small but significant average effect on students’ academic, behavioral, social-emotional and motivational outcomes (Hedges’ g = 0.23) (Korpershoek, de Boer and Mouw, Review of Educational Research). When management breaks down, students bear costs too: about 2.5 million students, 5 percent of K–12 enrollment, received at least one out-of-school suspension in 2023–24 (U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, September 2026).

This guide to classroom management explains what the term covers, what research shows works, how to set classroom rules and routines, which classroom management strategies and techniques have the strongest evidence, how teacher-student relationships fit in, how to respond to misbehavior and de-escalate, how to write a classroom management plan, what schoolwide frameworks such as PBIS and restorative practices have and have not been shown to do, what federal data show about exclusionary discipline, and what new teachers need. It is written for K–12 teachers, new and experienced, instructional coaches, and school and district leaders, with a section for families. It covers U.S. public schools, drawing on international research where it is the best available. Each section links to edCircuit’s more detailed coverage.

Updated October 2026.

In this guide

• The basics: What classroom management is · What the research shows
• In the classroom: Classroom rules and routines · Strategies and techniques · The Good Behavior Game · Teacher-student relationships
• When behavior goes wrong: Responding to misbehavior · De-escalation strategies · A classroom management plan
• Schoolwide: PBIS · Restorative practices · Suspensions and exclusionary discipline
• Teachers and context: Classroom management for new teachers · Culturally responsive classroom management · Phones
• People: Families · Questions to ask

What is classroom management?

Classroom management is everything a teacher does to organize a classroom so that students can concentrate on learning, which includes far more than discipline. The major sources read for this guide divide it in similar ways:

• Four areas of focus. The 2016 meta-analysis by Hanke Korpershoek and colleagues at the University of Groningen coded programs by whether they focused on the teacher’s behavior, on student behavior, on students’ social-emotional development or on teacher-student relationships (Korpershoek et al., 2016).
• Prevention first, then response. The federal practice guide Reducing Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom begins with what teachers can do in their own classrooms, such as changing the environment and teaching new skills, then moves to working with colleagues and families and to schoolwide programs (Institute of Education Sciences, NCEE 2008-012, September 2008).
• Five core skills. The National Council on Teacher Quality, which rates teacher preparation programs, names five areas it judges to have strong research support: establishing and maintaining standards of behavior; maximizing the time students are engaged in learning; using meaningful praise and other positive reinforcement; using unobtrusive means to prevent and manage minor disruption; and addressing more serious misbehavior (NCTQ, A Closer Look at Classroom Management, 2017).

Behavior management in the classroom, meaning how a teacher encourages and responds to behavior, is one part of classroom management, alongside instruction, routines and relationships. The goal is not simply compliance; several effective approaches work by making students better able to manage themselves. edCircuit’s conversations on the subject:

• Must-Have Insights to Run an Effective Classroom, an interview with Tom Bennett on teaching behavior rather than telling it
• Running the Room with Tom Bennett
• The Culture of Your Class Remains the Same

What does research say works in classroom management?

Research consistently finds that well-designed classroom management improves student behavior and, to a smaller degree, learning; the average effects are modest, and the best-supported practices are proactive ones teachers use every day. The main syntheses, in order of publication:

• The federal practice guide, 2008. A panel chaired by Michael Epstein of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln made five recommendations for elementary teachers. Two were rated strong: modifying the classroom learning environment to decrease problem behavior, and teaching and reinforcing new skills to increase appropriate behavior. Three were rated moderate: identifying the specifics of a problem behavior and the conditions that prompt and reinforce it; drawing on colleagues and families; and assessing whether schoolwide problems warrant a schoolwide program.
• Simonsen and colleagues, 2008. Brandi Simonsen, George Sugai and three colleagues conducted a systematic literature search and identified 20 classroom management practices that, “in general,” had sufficient evidence to be considered for classroom adoption, while noting the need for more research, and proposed a self-assessment tool for teachers (Education and Treatment of Children, 2008).
• Korpershoek and colleagues, 2016. Across 54 random and nonrandom controlled studies published from 2003 to 2013 in primary education, interventions had small but significant effects (average g = 0.22) on academic, behavioral and social-emotional outcomes, but not on motivation. Programs that focused on students’ social-emotional development contributed most to effectiveness, with a tentative finding that teacher-focused programs helped academic outcomes.
• The 2025 update. Korpershoek, Hester de Boer and Jolien Mouw added 22 studies, for 76 published from 2003 to 2022. The summary effect was again small and significant (g = 0.23, or 0.22 with a more conservative method). Recent studies emphasized teacher-student relationships more, and interventions that addressed all four categories at once had lower effects, which the authors read tentatively as a sign that “a too-broad focus” is less effective than a targeted one (published online September 11, 2025).

An average effect of about 0.2 standard deviations is modest, and it is an average across programs of very different quality; the Korpershoek reviews also cover primary schools only. It supports a practical order of work: the environment, routines and instruction first; then teaching and acknowledging expected behavior; relationships throughout; and a small number of targeted strategies rather than everything at once. edCircuit’s coverage of research and practice:

• Finding the ‘Just Right’ Research-Based Teaching Approaches
• Making Research a Helpful Resource in Every Classroom

How should teachers set classroom rules and routines?

Teachers should set a few positively stated classroom rules, teach them and the routines that put them into practice as explicitly as academic content, and revisit both through the year; this has the longest research record of any classroom management practice. The 2008 federal panel wrote that consistently implementing and reinforcing well-defined rules is associated with positive behavior in the classroom and in places such as playgrounds and hallways, and recommended that teachers show students “clearly what to do and what not to do.”

Classroom rules. The Center on PBIS’s April 2025 practice guide recommends that teachers co-develop, define, post and explicitly teach “a few (3-5)” positive classroom expectations, aligned with schoolwide expectations where they exist, and show what each looks like in each routine (Center on PBIS, Supporting and Responding to Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Needs, Version 2, April 2025). A positively stated rule (“walk in the hallway”) tells students what to do; a list of prohibitions does not.

Classroom routines. The federal panel listed the situations for which students need concrete guidelines: arriving and leaving; distributing materials and turning in work; asking for help; moving between activities or settings; interruptions such as fire drills or substitute teachers; working independently and in groups; and returning from recess or another class. For the primary grades, it suggested practicing expectations daily for the first few weeks, then reserving about 10 minutes a week, or more when new expectations arise or students lapse. Once routines are learned, teachers can reduce prompts, let routines start from ordinary signals such as the bell, and replace artificial rewards such as tokens with natural ones.

The emphasis on the start of the year rests on older observational research. A 1989 review summarized classroom studies from the 1970s and 1980s, including work by Emmer, Evertson and Anderson, as finding that effective teachers planned thoroughly for the first days and set clear rules, routines and expectations at the very beginning, after which their classrooms ran smoothly with little managerial attention (Fink and Siedentop, Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 1989). Those studies were correlational.

Not every educator agrees with spending the first day on rules; edCircuit’s The Importance of the First Day of School argues for opening with an engaging activity instead. The research does not force a choice: a routine can be taught inside an engaging first task, and the panel’s point is that expectations are taught, practiced and reinforced rather than announced. edCircuit’s coverage of the start of the year:

• Connecting with Kids: New School Year Excitement
• Top 5 Strategies for Motivating Students, which discusses teaching expectations and routines for group work

Which classroom management strategies and techniques have the best evidence?

The classroom management strategies with the best evidence are proactive: keeping students engaged with frequent opportunities to respond, supervising actively and prompting before problems occur, and acknowledging appropriate behavior with specific praise. Each is inexpensive and can be used the next day.

Opportunities to respond. An opportunity to respond is any prompt that asks students to answer, aloud, in writing, on a response card or with a gesture. The 2008 panel cited single-case research showing that more opportunities to respond increased engaged time and reduced inappropriate behavior, and that lessons delivered in small steps, at the right difficulty and with ample practice produced more on-task behavior. A 2019 review by Eric Common, Kathleen Lynne Lane and colleagues of 21 studies of whole-group instruction classified response cards, on which every student shows an answer at once, as a “potentially evidence-based practice” under Council for Exceptional Children standards (Common et al., Behavioral Disorders, 2019). The PBIS guide recommends mixing spoken, written and nonverbal responses.

Active supervision and precorrection. The PBIS guide recommends reminding students of key expectations before they are needed, such as at the start of an activity, and moving, scanning and interacting during every routine. Its non-examples include waiting until a student errs to remind others, reminding students only of what not to do, and using proximity “to intimidate or escalate situations.”

Behavior-specific praise. Praise is behavior-specific when it names what the student did (“You checked your work against the rubric”) rather than offering a general “Great job.” A 2019 systematic review by David Royer and colleagues found six K–12 studies meeting its quality criteria; teacher-delivered specific praise increased time on task, decreased inappropriate behavior and reduced tardiness, and the authors classed it as a potentially evidence-based practice (Royer et al., Remedial and Special Education). The PBIS guide recommends at least five praise statements for every correction, and a higher ratio, such as 9:1, for students at behavioral risk.

The ratio deserves a caution. Using three years of observations from 151 classrooms in 19 elementary schools in three states, Paul Caldarella and colleagues found no threshold, such as 3:1 or 4:1, at which on-task behavior improved dramatically; the relationship was linear, with more praise relative to reprimands associated with more on-task behavior (Caldarella et al., Educational Psychology, January 2020). The study was observational. The practical reading is that more specific praise relative to correction is better, and 5:1 is a useful target, not a proven boundary.

Choice and instructional fit. The panel cited single-case studies in which offering choices of task, materials or order of activities decreased inappropriate behavior, and recommended matching pace and difficulty to students. Much misbehavior begins as a mismatch between a task and a student, which is why instruction belongs in classroom management. edCircuit’s coverage of classroom management techniques and teaching strategies:

• Connecting with Kids: Proactive Behavior Management Strategies
• Insights and Advice: Doug Lemov, Feedback and ‘Cold Calling’
• Motivated, Memorable Teaching with Peps Mccrea
• Achieving Classroom Mastery Through Responsive Teaching
• Academic Discourse: 4 Key Aspects
• Rigor in the Differentiated Classroom

What is the Good Behavior Game, and does it work?

The Good Behavior Game is a classwide team game in which students earn rewards together for following a few classroom rules during a set period of ordinary instruction; it has some of the strongest long-term evidence of any classroom management program in the United States, but a large recent trial in England found no benefit. The federal panel cited group contingency programs modeled on it as effective “when implemented in well managed classrooms.”

• Baltimore, long-term follow-up (2008). In a trial that began in 19 Baltimore City public schools in 1985–86, schools and then classrooms were randomly assigned, and the game was played in first and second grade. Sheppard Kellam and colleagues followed the children to ages 19 to 21. In the first cohort, 12 percent of those in game classrooms had a lifetime drug abuse or dependence disorder, compared with 21 percent in control classrooms; for males, 19 and 38 percent. The largest effects were among boys who had been highly aggressive and disruptive in first grade: 29 percent developed drug abuse or dependence, compared with 83 percent of similar boys in control classrooms. Girls showed no significant effects on these outcomes, and a second cohort, whose teachers received less mentoring, showed weaker results (Kellam et al., Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2008). The authors noted the small number of classrooms and the many outcomes tested.
• A review of school studies (2014). Andrea Flower and colleagues reviewed 22 peer-reviewed articles and found moderate to large, immediate effects on challenging behaviors, most often disruption, off-task behavior, aggression, talking out and leaving seats, mainly in general education elementary classrooms; correct use of the reward procedures mattered (Flower et al., Review of Educational Research, 2014).
• England (2022). In a cluster-randomized trial in 77 primary schools in 23 local authorities, with 3,084 children aged 7 to 8, Neil Humphrey and colleagues at the University of Manchester found “no evidence” that two years of the game, with training and coaching, improved any outcome, including conduct problems. At-risk boys in game schools reported more bullying, the game was not judged good value for money, and the authors concluded that it “cannot be recommended based on the findings reported here,” asking how distinct it was from the behavior management English schools already used (Humphrey et al., Public Health Research, May 2022).

The conflicting results have a plausible explanation that the English authors raised themselves: a game that adds clear rules, team monitoring and reinforcement may help most where those practices are missing and add little where they are already in place. Teachers who use it should keep the rules few, deliver rewards as promised, and watch that no student is singled out by teammates.

How do teacher-student relationships affect classroom management?

Positive teacher-student relationships are increasingly treated as part of classroom management rather than a separate goal, and small randomized studies suggest that deliberate relationship routines improve engagement and reduce disruption. The 2025 Korpershoek update found that recent studies focused on relationships more than older ones. Two 2018 studies by Clayton Cook and colleagues tested specific routines:

• Positive greetings at the door. Middle school teachers were randomly assigned to greet students positively as they entered or to an attention-control condition. Observers found significant gains in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior in the greeting classrooms, and teachers rated the strategy feasible (Cook et al., Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2018).
• Establish, maintain, restore. The method trains teachers to build a relationship with each student deliberately at the start of the year, maintain it with regular positive contact, and repair it after conflict or a reprimand. In a matched randomized study with fourth- and fifth-grade teachers, it improved teacher-reported relationships and observed engagement and disruptive behavior (Cook et al., School Psychology Review, September 2018).

Both studies were small and short; the authors called the second a preliminary evaluation. Their value is practical: they turn “build relationships” into routines a teacher can schedule, such as a greeting at the door and a repair conversation after a reprimand. edCircuit’s coverage of relationships:

• Connecting the Dots of Educator-Student Relationships
• Connecting with Kids: How to Reach Reluctant Learners
• Mark Rogers on Bringing Humanity into the Classroom
• What Kids Really Need From A Teacher

How should teachers respond to misbehavior?

Teachers should respond to misbehavior along a continuum, beginning with the least intrusive response likely to work, delivered calmly and privately where possible, and keep formal consequences and referrals for behavior that persists or is serious. NCTQ treats the unobtrusive management of minor disruption and the handling of serious misbehavior as separate skills, and the PBIS guide describes a continuum of responses.

Sources: Center on PBIS, April 2025; IES, 2008. The levels are a reading aid, not an official scale.

Finding the reason. When a behavior persists despite classwide prevention, the federal panel recommends observing the specific conditions in which it does and does not occur, its “antecedents” and “consequences,” and tailoring the response. A student who disrupts to escape a task that is too hard needs a different response from one seeking classmates’ attention, and the wrong response can reward the behavior. The panel suggested giving an intervention four to six weeks, with a consultant’s support, before judging whether it works.

Working with families. The panel recommended building positive relationships with families before problems arise and, when a problem persists, approaching parents as partners: naming one to three of the child’s strengths, describing one or two specific behaviors with documentation, explaining what has been tried, and asking what works at home. edCircuit’s coverage of responding to behavior through social-emotional skills:

• Connecting with Kids: Step Back, Look Around, and Lean In
• Connecting with Kids: Making Learners, Not Assumptions
• Connecting with Kids: A New Approach to SEL
• Social-Emotional Learning Guide

What de-escalation strategies help when behavior escalates?

De-escalation strategies work best when matched to how far a student has escalated and planned and practiced in advance by students and adults; the framework most used in schools describes four phases: prevention, escalation, crisis, and recovery and restoration. The Center on PBIS’s September 2022 practice brief by M. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen and six colleagues adapts the phases from Colvin and Scott’s work on the acting-out cycle, notes that students do not always move through them in order, and defines de-escalation as “the process of preventing a challenging situation from becoming worse” (Center on PBIS, Strategies for De-escalating Student Behavior in the Classroom, September 2022). Its strategies by phase:

• Prevention. Teach and practice regulation strategies with the whole class while students are calm, such as deep breathing, taking a break in the classroom or rating feelings on a 0 to 10 “feelings thermometer,” so a teacher can later prompt a strategy the student already knows. Adults practice their own calming routines too.
• Agitation. When behavior is slightly elevated, offer a choice of two or three acceptable options, a brief neutral redirection, co-regulation that names the student’s emotion, or a prompt to use a practiced routine.
• Acceleration. When behavior intensifies, for example swearing or tearing up work, give brief reminders, give space while still supervising, offer a break space, and use fewer words.
• Crisis. At the peak, the goal is safety: follow the district’s crisis protocol, call for support, move other students if needed, remove objects that could cause harm, use minimal words and demands, and stay calm. The brief advises that this “is not the time to present consequences.”
• Recovery and restoration. Welcome the student back without reviewing the incident at once, return to normal routines, and only when everyone is calm hold a debrief on what led to the escalation. Restoration may include meaningful repair, and staff review their own responses.

The brief states that its strategies do not replace training in crisis prevention and response. That matters because the far end of the continuum is where students are most often hurt or removed. In 2023–24, about 129,700 students were physically or mechanically restrained or secluded at school; students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act made up 15 percent of enrollment but 73 percent of students physically restrained and 68 percent of those secluded, and Black students made up 15 percent of enrollment but 29 percent of students physically restrained and 46 percent of those mechanically restrained (Office for Civil Rights, 2023–24 First Look). For a student with a disability whose behavior repeatedly escalates, the individualized education program team is where behavioral supports are planned; edCircuit’s Special Education Guide explains that process, and Connecting with Kids: 10 Minutes to Mindfulness describes a classroom calming routine.

What goes into a classroom management plan?

A classroom management plan is a short written description of how a teacher will organize the classroom, teach and acknowledge expected behavior, and respond to problems, so that the teacher acts consistently and can explain the approach to students, families, colleagues and substitutes. The PBIS guide’s four steps make a workable outline: create a positive learning environment, actively promote students’ social, emotional and behavioral growth, check whether the plan is being carried out, and check student outcomes to decide what to change. A plan drawn from the sources in this guide covers:

• The room and schedule: seating, traffic patterns, where materials live, and a predictable daily schedule.
• Expectations: three to five positively stated expectations, with what each looks like in each routine.
• Routines: arrival, transitions, materials, asking for help, group and independent work, and interruptions, with dates to teach and reteach them.
• Engagement: how lessons give every student frequent chances to respond, and how work is matched to students.
• Acknowledgment: specific praise at a target ratio, and any classwide system and how it will be taught.
• Responses: a continuum from brief private corrections to the school’s procedures for serious behavior, including when families and administrators are contacted.
• Relationships: routines for greeting, regular positive contact and repair after conflict.
• Data: what the teacher will track, such as praise and correction counts or referrals, and when the plan will be reviewed.

The last item is the one most often left out. The PBIS guide’s action plan shows a teacher setting a 5:1 praise goal, counting praise and corrections in a lesson, and reviewing progress with a mentor. A plan checked against what happens in the room every few weeks is a tool; one that is never checked is a statement of intentions. edCircuit’s coverage of planning:

• Educational Goals Without Plans are Just Wishes
• Design Lesson Plans to Engage Students

What is PBIS, and what does the evidence show?

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a schoolwide framework in which a school teaches and acknowledges a small set of expectations for everyone and adds targeted and intensive support for students who need it; randomized trials in elementary schools found fewer office referrals and suspensions and better behavior. The Center on PBIS, which is funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant, defines it as “an evidence-based, tiered framework for supporting students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health.” Its three tiers, as the center describes them:

• Tier 1, universal: systems, data and practices for every student and adult in every setting, which the center expects to let 80 percent or more of students succeed.
• Tier 2, targeted: more focused support for the roughly 10 to 15 percent of students who need it.
• Tier 3, intensive: individualized support for the 1 to 5 percent of students for whom the first two tiers are not enough.

Classroom and schoolwide practice are meant to fit together; the PBIS classroom guide says its practices work best within a schoolwide framework. The best-known evidence comes from a group-randomized trial in 37 Maryland elementary schools led by Catherine Bradshaw of Johns Hopkins University:

• Schools trained in schoolwide PBIS implemented it with high fidelity and saw significant reductions in suspensions and office discipline referrals over the five-year trial (Bradshaw, Mitchell and Leaf, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2009).
• Analyses of 12,344 children over four school years found significant effects on teacher-rated behavior problems, concentration problems, social-emotional functioning and prosocial behavior; children in PBIS schools were 33 percent less likely to receive an office discipline referral, with the strongest effects for children first exposed in kindergarten (Bradshaw, Waasdorp and Leaf, Pediatrics, October 2012).
• Children in PBIS schools also had lower rates of teacher-reported bullying and peer rejection (Waasdorp and colleagues, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2012).

The limits are worth stating. The strongest trials were in elementary schools; several outcomes were rated by teachers who knew their school used PBIS; and referrals are recorded by the same staff trying to reduce them. Use is widespread: the Pediatrics authors put it at more than 16,000 schools in 2012, and in a November 2022 federal School Pulse Panel survey 93 percent of public schools reported using “positive behavioral intervention strategies,” as reported by The 74. Wide use means quality varies. edCircuit’s School Safety Guide and Social-Emotional Learning Guide cover related schoolwide work.

What are restorative practices, and what does the evidence show?

Restorative practices are approaches, from everyday affective statements and community-building circles to formal conferences after harm, meant to build relationships and help students repair harm instead of relying on exclusion; the evidence is mixed, with one randomized trial showing fewer suspensions, mainly in elementary schools, but worse middle-grade achievement, and another showing no effects. Three studies frame it:

• Pittsburgh, randomized (RAND, 2018). Catherine Augustine and colleagues studied a program built on the International Institute for Restorative Practices’ SaferSanerSchools model in 44 Pittsburgh public schools, half randomly assigned to it, over two school years ending in June 2017. Days lost to suspension fell 36 percent in program schools, against 18 percent elsewhere in the district; 13 percent of program-school students were suspended in 2016–17, against 15 percent in other schools; disparities by race and income narrowed; and teachers rated school climate higher. But academic outcomes did not improve, and in grades 6 through 8 they “actually worsened in the treatment schools.” Suspensions did not fall in the middle grades, for male students, for students with individualized education programs or for violent incidents, and arrests did not fall. The authors called the practices promising, “particularly for elementary schools” (RAND RR-2840).
• Maine, randomized (2019). In a two-year cluster-randomized trial in 14 Maine middle schools, 13 of which remained, with 2,771 students at baseline, Joie Acosta and colleagues at RAND found that the intervention “did not yield significant changes in the treatment schools” on any of 11 outcomes. Only a minority of students in program schools reported experiencing restorative practices to a great extent, and control-school students reported similar exposure. Students who reported more restorative experiences also reported better climate and less bullying, a correlational finding (Acosta et al., Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2019).
• California, observational (2023). Using six years of student surveys and state data from 485 middle schools, Sean Darling-Hammond found exposure to restorative practices associated with higher achievement and lower suspension rates and disparities, with Black and Latino students benefiting most (Learning Policy Institute, May 2023). The study was not randomized.

Together, the studies suggest that restorative practices can reduce suspensions and improve relationships as staff see them, especially in elementary schools, but do not automatically improve learning or serious behavior, are hard to implement fully, and have uncertain results in the middle grades. RAND found time to be the barrier staff cited most, and recommended practices woven into the school day, such as affective statements while teaching and circles that also carry academic content. Schools adopting them should measure achievement and student experience as well as suspensions.

The two are not alternatives; many districts use restorative practices within a tiered framework. edCircuit’s How Schools Can Build Student Agency Every Day covers related work on school culture.

How common are suspensions and other exclusionary discipline?

Exclusionary discipline, removing a student from class or school through suspension or expulsion, remains common, falls unevenly on Black students and students with disabilities, and is linked to worse long-term outcomes. The federal Civil Rights Data Collection, a mandatory survey of public school districts, covered more than 17,000 districts and 97,000 schools in 2023–24:

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2023–24 A First Look: The Civil Rights Data Collection, September 2026; public-use data were released in August 2026 at civilrightsdata.ed.gov. The figures count students, not incidents, and differences in representation do not by themselves show why they occur.

What suspension does. Suspended students differ from others in many ways, so the most informative studies isolate the effect of a school’s discipline. Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Stephen Billings and David Deming used a sudden school boundary change in a large district and found that students assigned to a school with a suspension rate one standard deviation higher were 15 to 20 percent more likely to be arrested and incarcerated as adults, with negative effects on educational attainment that were largest for male and minority students (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 26257, September 2019). The authors weighed the possibility that strict discipline deters misbehavior that harms classmates; the net long-run effect in their data was negative.

Federal policy. Federal guidance has changed repeatedly. The Departments of Education and Justice issued a joint “Dear Colleague” letter on school discipline in January 2014; it was rescinded after a federal commission’s report of December 18, 2018; the departments issued new guidance in 2023; and on April 23, 2025, Executive Order 14280, “Reinstating Common Sense School Discipline Policies,” directed the Secretary of Education, with the Attorney General, to issue new guidance on schools’ obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act within 30 days and to report on discipline practices within 120 days (Executive Order 14280). State law and district codes of conduct, which differ widely, remain the rules most schools work under, and leaders should read their own directly.

What should new teachers know about classroom management?

New teachers are more likely than experienced ones to say misbehavior interferes with their teaching, and many were not coached on key classroom management skills during preparation, so the first years are when mentoring, coaching and a simple plan matter most. In 2020–21, 36 percent of public school teachers with three or fewer years of experience agreed that misbehavior interfered with their teaching, compared with 30 percent of those with 20 or more years; by school level, the share was highest in middle schools, at 37 percent (NCES, September 2023).

Preparation gaps. NCTQ examined the forms supervisors use to give feedback to student teachers. In 536 undergraduate secondary programs, 44 percent gave feedback on all or nearly all of its five key areas. Most gave feedback on establishing standards of behavior (77 percent) and maximizing learning time (70 percent), but only 27 percent addressed the use of praise and other positive reinforcement (NCTQ, updated 2017). NCTQ is an advocacy group, and its method measures what programs give feedback on rather than what candidates can do, but the gap on praise matches the research emphasis on acknowledgment. School leaders report a gap as well: in the November 2022 School Pulse Panel, 60 percent of public schools said insufficient teacher training in classroom management limited their efforts to address misbehavior, as reported by The 74 (January 12, 2023).

Where to start. The evidence in this guide suggests a short list for a first-year teacher:

• Write a one-page plan before the year begins and share it with a mentor.
• Teach and practice routines daily in the first weeks, and plan to reteach them after breaks.
• Plan lessons with frequent opportunities for every student to respond.
• Count praise and corrections in one lesson a week, aiming for more specific praise than correction.
• Greet students at the door and repair relationships deliberately after reprimands.
• Ask for observation and feedback early, and bring data on a problem behavior to colleagues.

Stress and leaving. In RAND’s 2026 survey, fielded in January and February 2026, 55 percent of teachers reported frequent job-related stress, compared with 34 percent of similar working adults; managing student behavior was the most cited stressor; and 18 percent of teachers said they were likely to leave their current job by the end of 2025–26. The survey shows that behavior is a leading stressor; it does not show how much training would reduce stress or turnover. edCircuit’s coverage for new teachers and coaches:

• Can You Call Yourself a Teacher After 2 Years?
• Every Picture Tells a Story: Instructional Coaching Artfully Defined
• Why Effectiveness Coaching Matters in Education
• 5 Reflections to Support Teachers This Fall

What is culturally responsive classroom management?

Culturally responsive classroom management is classroom management practiced with awareness that definitions of appropriate behavior are shaped by culture, so that teachers do not misread students whose backgrounds differ from their own; coaching built on the idea showed promising short-term results in one randomized trial and no sustained effects in a later one. Carol Weinstein, Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke and Mary Curran of Rutgers University proposed the concept in 2004, arguing that conflicts are likely when teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds. They named five components: recognizing one’s own ethnocentrism; knowing students’ cultural backgrounds; understanding the broader social, economic and political context; being able and willing to use culturally appropriate management strategies; and committing to building caring classrooms (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke and Curran, Journal of Teacher Education, 2004).

Evidence on putting the idea into practice comes mainly from Double Check, a coaching and professional development model:

• 2018 trial. In a randomized trial with 158 elementary and middle school teachers, all of whom received schoolwide professional development, observers recorded more proactive behavior management, more student cooperation and fewer disruptive behaviors in classrooms of teachers who were also coached. The authors described the “potential promise” of the approach, including possibly reducing office referrals among Black students (Bradshaw et al., School Psychology Review, 2018).
• 2025 follow-up. A study in 41 middle schools with 332 teachers found no sustained effects through a follow-up year without coaching, though coaches’ use of motivational interviewing was related to gains in teacher efficacy and lower stress. The estimated cost was $757.33 per teacher in 2023 (Bradshaw et al., Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, November 2025).

The research supports treating it as observable classroom practice, developed through continuing coaching and checked with observation and discipline data, rather than as a one-time training. edCircuit’s Utilize Culturally Responsive Teaching covers the related instructional approach and its evidence.

Do phones affect classroom management?

Phones are a major classroom management issue in high schools, though evidence that banning them improves outcomes is limited. In a fall 2023 Pew Research Center survey of public K–12 teachers, 72 percent of high school teachers said students being distracted by cellphones was a major problem in their classroom, compared with 33 percent of middle school and 6 percent of elementary teachers; among high school teachers whose school had a phone policy, 60 percent said it was difficult to enforce (Pew Research Center, June 12, 2024). A cross-sectional study of 1,227 students aged 12 to 15 in 30 English secondary schools found that students in schools that banned recreational phone use spent less time on phones and social media during the school day, but found no difference in mental well-being or in overall weekday and weekend use (Goodyear et al., The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, February 2025). A phone rule is managed like any other expectation: taught, supervised and enforced consistently. edCircuit’s How to Support Your Students as They Navigate Digital Spaces and 3 Ways to Make Digital Citizenship Part of Your Everyday Teaching cover the wider subject.

What should families know about classroom management?

Families help most when they know the classroom’s expectations, hear from the teacher about good news as well as problems, and work with the school on a shared plan when a child struggles. Practical steps:

• Ask about the expectations. Families can ask for the classroom and schoolwide expectations and use the same words at home.
• Share what works. When a concern is raised, families can ask for specific examples and what has been tried, and describe what helps at home.
• Ask how discipline works. Families can ask when they will be contacted and what the district’s code of conduct says about suspension.
• Raise concerns about a disability. If behavior may be connected to a disability, families can request an evaluation or an individualized education program meeting; edCircuit’s Special Education Guide explains the process.

edCircuit’s 4 Strategies to Pair with Parents and Families for Student Success is written with families in mind.

Questions to ask about classroom management in your schools

For school and district leaders and instructional coaches

• Does every school have a small set of schoolwide expectations that are taught, not only posted, and do classroom expectations align with them?
• Do new teachers receive coaching on classroom management in their first months, including feedback on praise, routines and opportunities to respond?
• Do we review office referral, suspension and restraint data by school, classroom and student group at least monthly, and act on what we find?
• If we use PBIS or restorative practices, do we measure implementation, and do we track achievement and student experience as well as suspensions?
• Are staff trained in de-escalation, and are our crisis protocols practiced?
• Does our code of conduct set out a continuum of responses, and when did we last check it against state law and current federal guidance?

For teachers

• Could every student tell a visitor our three to five expectations and what they look like in our main routines?
• Did I reteach routines after the last break, and which routine causes the most problems now?
• How often in a typical lesson does every student respond, not only those who raise their hands?
• In my last counted lesson, did I give more specific praise than correction?
• When a behavior persists, have I looked at when it happens and what follows it?
• Which students have I not had a positive conversation with this week, and where do I need to repair a relationship?

Classrooms where students can learn

Classroom management is a set of practices with a substantial research base, not a personality trait. The strongest evidence supports what teachers do before problems start: teaching a few clear expectations and routines, keeping every student engaged, supervising actively and acknowledging appropriate behavior with specific praise, with relationship routines and social-emotional skills increasingly part of that core. When behavior goes wrong, a calm continuum of responses and planned de-escalation keep small problems small, while suspension carries long-term costs that fall unevenly. PBIS has good evidence in elementary schools, and restorative practices show promise alongside real limits. Because average effects are modest, the schools and teachers likely to gain most are those that choose a few practices, carry them out well, check the results, and give new teachers the coaching many did not receive in preparation.

Related reading

• Connecting with Kids: Proactive Behavior Management Strategies
• Must-Have Insights to Run an Effective Classroom
• Connecting the Dots of Educator-Student Relationships
• The Importance of the First Day of School
• Social-Emotional Learning Guide

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