Case Study: Baseline Academy achieves an 82% drop in suspensions and 75% fewer office referrals with PowerSchool Unified Classroom Behavior Support and Proven Practices coaching

Reducing Student Suspensions with Unified Classroom® Behavior Support and Culture Coaching

Baseline Academy, an Arkansas turnaround school established in 2015, faced widespread inconsistency after a complete staff and leadership turnover: teachers used different rules and incentives, discipline was fragmented, rewards were paper-based and unanalyzable, and suspensions were alarmingly high. Leaders needed a unified, data-driven behavior system and consistent schoolwide expectations to improve culture and reduce disciplinary incidents.

They implemented Unified Classroom Behavior Support alongside PowerSchool’s Proven Practices School Culture Coach to track positive and corrective interactions, set a 5:1 positivity goal, automate alerts, and build SEL-aligned incentives, PLCs, and peer culture walks. The result: dramatic improvement in culture and transparency — suspensions fell by 82% (from 95 to 15), office referrals dropped roughly 75%, 95% of student-teacher interactions were positive, and leaders now use actionable data to target supports.

Baseline Academy

Pamela Freeman

Principal