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What is RCD?
RCD Schools typically see a significant improvement not only in behavior management, but also in school climate, student and teacher satisfaction and ultimately academic success.
Most schools fail to get lasting change in student behavior because students seldom feel responsibility for their actions and find ways to project their behaviors onto others. Responsibility-Centered Discipline was created by Larry Thompson to help educators learn the necessary skills and develop a plan to systematically create a culture of student self-responsibility within their schools.
In an RCD school, educators collaborate to identify values and skills – like respect, honesty, effort and academic competencies – that they want students to take with them. Once these values and skills are identified, they are used to establish a common language to address challenging discipline moments with students.
Level 1
The student quickly recognizes that he or she has made a mistake, takes responsibility for the problem and works well with the teacher to resolve the issue.
Level 2
The student begins to display signs of unwillingness to accept responsibility – including arguing, denying, tattling, ignoring the teacher, or interrupting the teacher.
Level 3
The student refuses to accept responsibility and is unable or unwilling to work through the process with the teacher.
When the level of intensity escalates, a teacher can often lose control of the situation, and it becomes easy for the student to escape responsibility and to transfer their problem to the teacher. When teachers become masters of these challenging moments, ownership is shifted back to the student and the school can move to a culture of responsibility.In an RCD school, educators collaborate to identify values and skills – like respect, honesty, effort and academic competencies – that they want students to take with them. Once these values and skills are identified, they are used to establish a common language to address challenging discipline moments with students.
See What Educators Have to Say
"I enjoyed every minute of the training. I used the technique on two of my toughest students the next day and both were successful! I got an apology after one, and the other a handshake and a smile!"
Middle School & High School Teacher
Cleveland, OH
"The best way to summarize our training is amazing. I apologize for the vagueness, but there's try no other way to describe it. Our teachers are still talking about the impact the RCD process will have. We are in our first full week of school and are already benefiting from all that we learned."
Middle School Vice Principal
29 Palms, CA
"This is a common sense approach with concrete reminders for the teacher. Responsibility-Centered Discipline is do-able and it is real! The training was very informational and enjoyable."
Reading Specialist
Painted Post, NY
"After our two day training, we completely eliminated demerits, citations, conduct grades and clip charts. The RCD presentation made the process very accessible and understandable for what is in the best interest of the student."
Assistant Head of School
Louisville, KY