ARC approach helps keep students focused

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A local school division is taking a new approach to delivering discipline: helping students understand their issues and find effective solutions before problems arise.
Christ the Redeemer Catholic School Division (CTR Catholic) has implemented an Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) framework, a system of behavioural management that uses a proactive approach to keeping students responsive and engaged in the classroom.
To help “disregulated” students, which refers to students who are distracted, disengaged or have otherwise deviated from the lesson plan, the strategy relies on working alongside students to develop simple interventions to keep their learning on track.
According to Scott Morrison, CTR Catholic superintendent, the program aims to help students who are increasingly having difficulty concentrating and regulating their own emotions and behaviour – an apparent trend that might be attributed to wider access to technology.
“Schools haven’t changed, parents haven’t changed, and for the most part kids haven’t changed, but I think technology is changing the nature of their brains,” he said. “The school environment is very different if your first four or five years have been spent not interacting with a lot of other people.
“What we are seeing are kids who have a bit more of a challenge regulating themselves, and that’s what we want to work with – we want to help them, and we’re on our way with this initiative.”
This personalized approach prescribes interventions depending on the student’s personality and needs, being anything from a short walk around school, a trip to the weight room or having a nutritious snack.
The program relies on classroom-based educational assistants who assess students and watch for signs they are becoming disregulated, rather than just responding to those misbehaving, said Morrison.
“They were sitting in the classrooms of behavioured kids – kids who were disregulated – waiting for them to explode,” he said. “Instead of doing that, we said, ‘let’s have them do something proactive.’”
The ARC framework is a single approach that can help a diverse study body, said Holy Cross Collegiate principal Lavern Evans.
“Every kid is different and every kid needs to be regulated differently. We’re just trying to help support each and every individual in the building,” he said.
Delivering the program is dependent on trust and understanding between students and the school, added Evans.
“The more you spend time with somebody, the more you get to know them, understand their little nuances, and learn what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “We are in a relationship business – we want to be able to relate to our kids.”