Russell John Skiba is an American educational psychologist known for researching

school discipline School discipline relates to actions taken by teachers or school organizations toward students when their behavior disrupts the ongoing educational activity or breaks a rule created by the school. Discipline can guide the children's behavior or ...

and

school violence School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, ...

. He is a professor in the

school psychology School psychology is a field that applies principles from educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and behavior analysis to meet the learning and behavioral health needs of children and adole ...

program at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, where he directs PBIS Indiana, a program aimed at developing a network of

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Positive is a property of positivity and may refer to: Mathematics and science * Positive formula, a logical formula not containing negation * Positive number, a number that is greater than 0 * Plus sign, the sign "+" used to indicate a posit ...

across

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. He also co-directs Indiana University's Equity Project, which aims to provide evidence regarding zero-tolerance policies,

educational equity Educational equity, also known as equity in education, is a measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education. The study of education equity is often linked with the study of excellence and equity. Educational equity depends on two ...

, and school violence to policymakers, and directs the Discipline Disparities Research to Practice Collaborative, a group aimed at bringing researchers together with policymakers to address

disproportionality Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

in school discipline. He has received the Push for Excellence Award from

Rainbow/PUSH Rainbow/PUSH is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization formed as a merger of two nonprofit organizations founded by Jesse Jackson; Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition. The organizations pursue socia ...

for his work on racial disproportionality in school suspensions.

Education

Skiba received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

educational psychology Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences i ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1983 and 1987, respectively.

Work

Skiba is known for his work on school discipline and how it is affected by student race. In 2002, for example, he published a study showing that black students tended to be disciplined for more subjective offenses than were white students. In 2008, Skiba was the lead author of a task force report on zero-tolerance policies in schools released by the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

. The report concluded that these policies were not only ineffective, but also counterproductive, in that they increased the chances of future student misbehavior.

References

External links

Faculty page
Living people University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development alumni American educational psychologists 21st-century American psychologists Indiana University faculty Educational researchers Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-psychologist-stub