What Student Behavior Patterns Can Tell Us

Student behavior patterns can tell you a lot about what’s going on with students.

Educators who employ student behavior improvement programs know that their efforts often produce very-welcome side effects. Naturally, when you focus time and energy on student behavior, student behavior by and large improves.

But we’ve also seen how behavior-improvement programs can reduce suspensions and referrals. And improve school climate and culture. And help educators pull off restorative justice.

What behavior programs can also do is give educators powerful ways to spot behavior patterns.

And sometimes, these patterns can indicate there’s a more serious issue a student is dealing with — a problem that’s just below the surface.

Student Behavior Pattern #1: A Pattern of Acting Out

Studies have shown that when a student is struggling academically with a particular subject, they may exhibit delay or avoidance tactics. So when students act out in class, their intentions may be to disrupt the learning environment as a delay tactic.

This is a pattern that can show up in a school’s student behavior data.

Teachers report the student’s action, and if that student frequently acts out, it’s instantly clear to administrators where there may be academic concerns.

At schools using our behavior management platform, students who are excessively marked for disruptive or disrespectful behavior in certain classes are oftentimes these students.

Student Behavior Pattern #2: A Tardy-to-Class Pattern

As with acting out, a tardy-to-class behavior pattern can also indicate a student is struggling academically. Tardiness may be a student’s physical avoidance tactic.

A tardy-to-class pattern may reveal another reason why students are late: bullying.

If a student has problems with aggressive peers or faces bullying, they may take an extra-long route to class to avoid other students. When and where tardiness occurs throughout the school day shows up with a behavior tool.

Student Behavior Pattern #3: A Tardy-to-School Pattern

Tardy-to-school should be studied separately from tardy-to-class behavior as it may reveal entirely different issues.

Students who face unsafe environments or situations on their way from home to school may be late because they are altering their route or leaving later than they otherwise would.

This pattern shows up in tardy-to-school data — also with a tool like SchoolMint Hero — or in a school’s attendance data.