Learning Forward
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A better approach to student behavior
By Greg Lane, Peter Nowak, Dominic Piacentini and Joseph Jackson
Categories: Leadership, Learning designs, School leadership, Social & emotional learningDecember 2025
The traditional system for attending to student misbehavior — issuing a referral, calling a parent or guardian, and meting out a punishment — has never been an effective way to change or shape behavior. In fact, it often produces negative results for both students and educators. At Burger Junior High School, a diverse public school in western New York state serving 700 students in grades 7 to 9, we set out to change this trajectory. Over the past five years, we have improved our school culture and student outcomes by fostering mindset shifts, implementing new strategies, and leveraging professional learning about student behavior. This work has grown organically, with early ideas growing from “seedlings” into learning opportunities for our whole faculty. As a result, student
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Greg Lane has three decades of dedicated service in education, Greg spent the last 20 years leading at the secondary level as a building principal. Greg began his career in the social studies classroom. In addition, he was a national trainer for the Teachers Curriculum Institute in Palo Alto, California, with the History Alive! Program.
Peter Nowak has thirty one years of experience in education, with twenty three years as an Assistant Principal. During his tenure in Rush-Henrietta, Peter’s passion has been to transform the role of Assistant Principal from behavioral manager to behavioral leader.
Joseph Jackson is an educational leader and nationally certified school psychologist with over 15 years of experience advancing equity, wellness, and comprehensive mental health systems in K–12 public schools. He currently serves as Director of Wellness and Equity in the Rush-Henrietta Central School District, where he leads districtwide initiatives in MTSS, culturally responsive practices, trauma-informed care, and community partnerships to improve student outcomes.
Categories: Leadership, Learning designs, School leadership, Social & emotional learning
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