Journal of Educational System Volume 2, Issue 1, 2018, PP 34-40 Journal of Educational System V2 ●I1 ●2018 34 A Descriptive Analysis of the Most Common Student Misbehaviors for Texas Middle School Students Shara B. Schlitzberger and John R. Slate Sam Houston State University, USA *Corresponding Author: Shara B. Schlitzberger, Sam Houston State University, USA INTRODUCTION Issues exist in Texas, as well as in other states, with school discipline and the School-to-Prison pipeline. According to Fowler, Lightsey, Monger and Aseltine (2010), this School-to- Prison pipeline refers to a disturbing pattern of school disciplinary problems escalating from suspension to removal from school, juvenile justice system involvement, and school dropout. Previous researchers (e.g., Christle et al., 2004; Henkel, 2015; Hilberth & Slate, 2014a; Skiba et al., 2009) have indicated a link between exclusionary discipline assignments, low student achievement and higher student dropout rates. Discipline consequences occur on a daily basis to thousands of students in the United States. According to Fowler et al. (2010), “Numerous studies by national experts in the fields of education, criminal justice, and mental health have established a link between school discipline, school dropout rates and incarceration” (p. 10). The single most important predictor of student future involvement in the juvenile justice system is a prior history of disciplinary referrals at school (Fowler et al., 2010). According to Tiger and Slate (2017), student academic achievement may be adversely influenced by disparities in the assignment of discipline consequences, disparities that exist between boys and girls and by student economic status (i.e., Not Economically Disadvantaged, Moderately Poor, and Extremely Poor) In a study directly related to this article, Curtiss and Slate (2015) investigated whether discipline consequence assignment and the reasons why students were disciplined differed for Grade 4 and Grade 5 boys and girls in Texas. They analyzed data on all Grade 4 and Grade 5 students who received a discipline consequence in the 2013-2014 school year. Although their findings were not statistically significant, differences were noted in the reasons why students were assigned a discipline consequence and the discipline consequences that were assigned between boys and girls. Grade 4 girls were assigned to partial day suspensions at a higher rate, 18.6%, than boys, 12.8%. The primary reason that Grade 4 girls were assigned a discipline consequence was due to a violation of the code of conduct. Boys also had as their primary reason violations of the code of conduct, however, they also had numerous instances of fighting and persistent misconduct. ABSTRACT Examined in this study were the most frequent reasons that resulted in discipline consequences assigned to Texas middle school students. Data were downloaded from the Texas Education Agency Public Education Information Management System for the 2013-2014 school year. A descriptive analysis of the 5 most common reasons that discipline consequences were assigned was conducted separately for Grades 7, 8, and 9 boys and girls. Analyses revealed that boys, regardless of grade level, had 3 times the number of discipline referrals as girls. The most frequent reasons that discipline consequences were assigned, across all grade levels and for boys and girls, were violations of the code of conduct. Serious/persistent misconduct violations and fighting/mutual combat were two other commons misbehavior reasons identified in this study. Truancy was also a common misbehavior reason across all grade levels for both boys and girls. Implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are made. Keywords: student misbehavior reasons, discipline consequences, school to prison pipeline, office referrals, violations of the code of conduct, serious/persistent misbehavior, truancy, controlled substance/drug possession