New Report Recommends Best Anti-Bullying Practices

The American Educational Research Association issued a new report Tuesday recommending best practices and policies for schools and colleges to address bullying. Prevention of Bullying in Schools, Colleges and Universities includes 11 briefs addressing topics such as gender-related harassment, legal rights related to bullying, and school climate. The AERA task force that wrote the report was asked to identify the causes and consequences of bullying, highlight training opportunities for faculty and staff, evaluate the effectiveness of current bullying prevention programs, and asses the connections between legislation and current bullying research and interventions.

"Bullying — a form of harassment and violence — needs to be understood from a developmental, social, and educational perspective," the report reads. "The educational settings in which it occurs and where prevention and intervention are possible need to be studied and understood as potential contexts for positive change. Yet many administrators, teachers, and related personnel lack training to address bullying and do not know how to intervene to reduce it."