Burlington District Honored with the 21CCLC STARS Award for All-Around Achievement with Conscious Discipline

For 25+ years, Conscious Discipline has provided the foundation necessary for education programs to thrive. In the 2023-24 academic year, Burlington Community School District in Burlington, Iowa was honored with the prestigious 21CCLC STARS Award for All-Around Achievement. This honor reflects the district’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence and district-wide wellness, highlighting their success in significantly improving student outcomes. They credit much of their success to the implementation of Conscious Discipline.

Self-Regulation Leads to Outstanding Academic Growth

The prestigious 21CCLC STARS Award is based on statewide local evaluation data collection. Burlington’s impressive performance statistics showcase their dedication to fostering academic growth and promoting self-regulation and wellness among staff and students with the implementation of Conscious Discipline. Since using the Conscious Discipline approach introduced in the 2017-2018 academic year, the statistics speak for themselves:

85% of students in grades 4-8 exhibited growth in Reading and/or Language Arts, as measured by GPRA Measure 1A.
88% of students in grades 4-8 showed progress in Mathematics, according to GPRA Measure 1B.
Total Academic Improvement indicates that 88% of all students needing improvement in Reading/English exhibited growth.
92% of all students needing improvement in Mathematics showed growth.

The evaluation data indicate Burlington’s focus on creating an environment that prioritizes adult-first self-regulation, safety and belonging through Conscious Discipline helps staff, students, and the community to thrive.

Angela Garcia, Coordinator for the PiECES program had this to say about the implementation of Conscious Discipline:

“The Conscious Discipline approach has aided in contributing to the felt sense of safety that is necessary for children to be able to feel connected and access the higher states of their brain. This adult-first approach has given teachers the skills needed to be able to really create the School Family and provide proper structure through the rituals and routines that bring everyone together. Conscious Discipline has given us the tools to also teach students missing skills and aid in their social emotional development. The continued investment in training and resources is crucial to continue to help this program be a high-quality after school program.”

We’re All in This Together: Building Connections Within the Community

The Burlington 21st CCLC Program’s success stems from a community-wide approach rather than one more prescriptively focused on students. As advocated for by their partners at Conscious Discipline, Burlington held seven family engagement events in addition to their staff and student endeavors, creating a robust sense of belonging and support for families and the community.

Kayla Bundy, Universal Support Staff for PiECES Afterschool of BCSD, shared the impact of Conscious Discipline on their program:

“Conscious Discipline’s rituals and routines have allowed our after-school program to build an environment where our students feel safe. The School Family created during the program allows relationships to be built between students, staff members, and families. We recently had a community partner come to us and state she specifically requested to be our curriculum contact because students were telling her about the impact and the felt sense of safety PiECES has given them. These were students involved in our local community Bridges Out of Poverty program. Hearing that the rituals and routines we utilize and the relationships we build because of Conscious Discipline and the huge impact on our districts’ families brought tears to my eyes. For me, it was like our program and its use of Conscious Discipline were being seen for the first time outside of the district.”

The Power of Conscious Discipline

Cassie Gerst, former Supervisor of Grants and Community Outreach of Burlington and current Conscious Discipline Manager of Partner Development, detailed the journey of incorporating Conscious Discipline into their after-school programs:

“I first learned about Conscious Discipline in 2016 at the Iowa Afterschool Alliance’s annual Impact Conference and knew that is the approach we needed to work with our afterschool students and staff. We selected Conscious Discipline as our approach to managing student behaviors after a yearly principal and staff survey inquiring about our program practices. Both our principals and our staff reported that they needed additional training on how to handle children’s behaviors and in classroom management. The adult transformational process of looking at the reasons behind children’s behavior and realizing that it is a missing skill was what stood out most to me. That is when I started learning through the 10 session courses and purchasing the Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms book.”

There was no denying the powerful impact Conscious Discipline had on the after-school program:

Reduced office disciplinary referrals by a staggering 89.5% in the first year.
Improved staff retention and self-regulation among both students and staff.
Students reported enhanced social and emotional skills.

Conscious Discipline’s ongoing training and professional development have been pivotal in maintaining the program’s success. Gerst noted the value of investing in adult-first, staff development:

“Each year when we survey our staff, 95% of them strongly agree that the use of Conscious Discipline has benefited their working with our students. We piloted Conscious Discipline in 2017-2018 and saw consistent, positive outcomes from staff, students, and families.”

“Over the course of seven years, we have sent twenty staff members to the Conscious Discipline Summer Institutes; several of whom have attended two-day events such as Anger and Rage: Planning Your Response, Conscious Discipline for Administrators: Becoming a More Conscious Administrator, and Connecting with Children who are Hard to Reach. We have transformed how our program staff view behaviors and handle upset within themselves and our students. Our onboarding process begins with a training in Conscious Discipline and then throughout the year we continue training on CD to ensure we are practicing with fidelity. The investment we have made with our staff has been instrumental in the success of our afterschool program. Not only are our students benefiting but our staff retention improved so that we have staff who have been with the program for eleven, ten and seven years. The majority of our staff have been with us year after year and a key aspect is that they enjoy what they are doing. Staff burnout was reduced, and I feel in part because we concentrated on their social-emotional wellbeing and created a Staff Family as much as we created a School Family with Conscious Discipline’s powers and skills.”

Angela Garcia, Coordinator for the PiECES Program for the last two years, has witnessed first-hand the transformative power of Conscious Discipline in the after-school program.

Conscious Discipline Calls For A Collaborative Effort

Cory Johnson, Director of Curriculum, emphasized the district’s mission and the importance of collaboration:

“The Burlington Community School District strives to have a profoundly positive impact on each student’s adult quality of life. We are proud of the PiECES program and other services that we provide to our students, families, and community as a part of our efforts toward fulfilling this mission. We appreciate the work of our dedicated staff and community partners who provide afterschool programming for our students through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant. Conscious Discipline is a strong, evidence-based framework that has been an important part of our PiECES afterschool program and its success.”

The collective efforts of the Burlington Community School District, its dedicated staff, and community partners have made a significant impact on student development, wellness and achievement. The recognition through the 21CCLC STARS Award for All-Around Achievement is a testament to their unwavering commitment to excellence in education.

As Burlington continues to prioritize the growth and well-being of its students, the district sets a shining example for others to follow in creating environments where staff and students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally with Conscious Discipline.

Resources:

If you’re new to Conscious Discipline and would like to know more about how the implementation of its practices could positively impact your own life and work, here are a few great resources to start:

There’s nothing like surrounding yourself with your Conscious Discipline Family in person, whether it’s for the first time or you’ve been attending events for years. Check out our events page often for the latest inspirational workshops, institutes, and conferences near you!

Have a question? You can now connect with live support, available on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm. ET. Click on the blue and white thought bubble icon on the bottom right-hand side of the page to connect to a team that is waiting to help.

Sometimes questions can’t wait for working hours. From 5 pm to 9 am. ET, you can access a custom Conscious Discipline chatbot designed to assist you with our most common support requests. If your question requires more personal support, select the “Contact” button to send your inquiry to the appropriate team and someone will get back to you.

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Jenny Shannon

Jenny Shannon has a B.A. in English, an M.A. in Educational Leadership, and an abiding commitment to believing that what you focus on, you get more of. With a strong background in education and communications and the love of a good story, she is thrilled to work on Conscious Discipline’s Marketing Team as copywriter. She lives in a 200-year-old home in northern New Jersey where she moonlights as chauffeur for her two daughters, can be caught singing showtunes in the kitchen and has strong opinions on the best place to grab a cup of coffee.