#discipline

Thinking and Linking

Jun 16
1 min

Black male teachers are not security guards

If schools want more black male teachers, principals will have to let them be teachers — not security guards — writes Durrell Burns. Durrell Burns When he started teaching, he was “excited to make a difference,” he writes in Education Next. “But I often felt pigeonholed into stereotypical roles, asked to serve as a disciplinarian for young Black boys or to teach more basic, non-academic classes.” “A 2017 study found that low-income Black students who have a Black teacher for

‘Sit Down and Shut Up’

Sep 22, 2018
1 min

‘Sit Down and Shut Up’

On his first day in the classroom, Henderson was cursed and threatened by one of his students. He called a monitor to escort the student to the office. He was back within five minutes with a note saying, “OK to return to class.” Henderson blames the legacy of racism, fatherless ness, traumatic experiences and “the false promise of meritocracy” for classroom chaos. Henderson rejects the cliches about kids’ rights, writes Larry Wilson, who’s on the Pasadena Star-News editorial

Public supports raising teacher pay

Aug 20, 2018
2 min

Public supports raising teacher pay

Public support for raising teacher pay is climbing, reports the 2018 Education Next survey. Support for increasing teacher pay was strongest in states that experienced teacher strikes or walkouts this year, such as Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Not surprisingly, there’s a sharp split in opinion about the Janus case: While 65 percent of teachers who are union members support agency fee rules, only 16 percent of non-union teachers say

Less discipline, more disorder

Jul 16, 2018
2 min

Less discipline, more disorder

– Education Next 2015 The Obama-era push to reduce suspensions of black students ended up hurting black students, writes Gail Heriot, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, on the Volokh Conspiracy. Schools are “tolerating more classroom disorder, thus making it more difficult for students who share the classroom with unruly students to learn,” she charges. During Arne Duncan’s tenure, the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) threatened to investiga

How restorative justice can work

Jun 28, 2018
2 min

How restorative justice can work

Students talk at the peace table at a San Jose Montessori school Restorative justice can make schools safer, if it’s done well, writes Maureen Kelleher on Education Post. She sends her daughter to a charter school “founded to create a peaceful environment.” Each classroom has a Peace Table where students discuss conflicts. When her third-grade daughter was choked by another girl at recess, the teacher sent an e-mail, copied to other staff who help with safety and discipline.

Lax discipline, bullying, chaos and death

Jun 12, 2018
3 min

Lax discipline, bullying, chaos and death

A “once safe and supportive” New York City school “fell into chaos as new administrators implemented a supposedly more positive approach to school discipline,” writes Max Eden, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on The 74. Disorder led to bullying — and death. Abel Cedeno was arrested in 2017 for the fatal stabbing of a classmate and now faces manslaughter charges Cedeno, now 19, said he was bullied for being bisexual. Photo: Go Nakamura/New York Daily News “On Sept

Glitter jars, bean bags and progress

May 14, 2018
1 min

Glitter jars, bean bags and progress

At a Columbus, Ohio school in a high-poverty neighborhood, teachers use different strategies to help children learn to calm themselves, writes Katherine Reynolds Lewis in The Atlantic. Many students at Ohio Avenue Elementary come from troubled families and violent neighborhoods. Staff have been taught that “trauma can make kids emotionally volatile and prone to misinterpret accidental bumps or offhand remarks as hostile,” writes Lewis. “They’ve learned how to de-escalate conf

AFT, NEA play politics with teacher safety

May 13, 2018
2 min

AFT, NEA play politics with teacher safety

Teachers across the country are complaining that new, softer discipline policies aren’t working, writes Max Eden, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in The 74. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is considering withdrawing the federal letter that pushed schools to limit suspensions and stress “restorative justice.” Why do teachers’ unions defend the federal directive when their own members say it leaves them unsafe in their classrooms? he asks. Eden looks at districts wh

Discipline rules aren’t racist

Apr 13, 2018
2 min

Discipline rules aren’t racist

Students Suspended from School Compared to Student Population, by Race, Sex, and Disability Status, School Year 2013-14 Black students are suspended at three times the rate of whites, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. In addition, special-education students and boys are much more likely to be suspended. Government Watchdog Finds Racial Bias in School Discipline was the New York Times headline. Those statistics don’t prove that school discipline polic

De Vos: Schools are less safe

Apr 12, 2018
3 min

De Vos: Schools are less safe

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is under pressure to rescind — or to preserve — what’s known as the “Obama-era guidance” on school discipline, writes Erika Sanzi in Education Post. A response to high suspension rates for black, Latino and special-education students, the 2014 “Dear Colleague” letter warned districts that disparate discipline numbers could be investigated by the Office of Civil Rights. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos DeVos listened to educators on both sides o

Safety last?

Mar 29, 2018
2 min

Safety last?

When he brought a knife to San Diego’s Lincoln High School, the student’s special education team decided he wasn’t responsible because it was “a manifestation of the lack of impulse control caused by his disability,” writes Mario Koran for Voices of San Diego. Two weeks later, the student used a knife to slash another boy’s neck. A student was arrested Jan. 23 at San Diego’s Lincoln High after he slashed a classmate’s neck. Four years ago, San Diego Unified School District sh

Discipline reform: Did it go too far?

Mar 7, 2018
2 min

Discipline reform: Did it go too far?

Discipline reform may have contributed to the violence at Douglas High School, writes Erika Sanzi, who blogs on Good School Hunting, on Real Clear Education. . . . since 2013, schools have been under enormous pressure — for good reason — to lower their suspension, expulsion, and student arrest numbers. Broward County was part of the PROMISE program (Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Supports & Education), which was intended, according to t

Orderly classrooms help disadvantaged kids

Feb 5, 2018
1 min

Orderly classrooms help disadvantaged kids

Orderly classrooms help disadvantaged students become achievers, writes Greg Ashman, who teaches in Australia. He cites an OECD working paper based on Programme for International Student Development (PISA) data. Researchers defined successful low-income students as “academically resilient.” . . . the likelihood that disadvantaged students will be resilient is higher in schools where students report a good disciplinary climate, compared to schools with more disruptive environ

Reforming school discipline: Too fast?

Jan 21, 2018
2 min

Reforming school discipline: Too fast?

Is school discipline reform moving too fast? asks Wayne D’Orio in The Atlantic. In the Highline district south of Seattle, suspensions are way down, while the graduation rate is up. But teacher turnover has increased. Kimmie Marton, a special-education teacher at Mount Rainier High School, said students became more disrespectful after the threat of out-of-school suspensions diminished. “Kids will cuss you out, there’s stealing and disobedience,” she said. Los Angeles, which b

Discipline reform and disorder in New York City

Mar 17, 2017
2 min

Discipline reform and disorder in New York City

Suspensions are down at New York City schools, but teachers and students report more disorder, disrespect, fighting, gang activity and drug and alcohol use, concludes School Discipline Reform and Disorder by Max Eden, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. Eden relies on the district’s surveys, which ask teachers and students about learning conditions in their school. The first wave of discipline reform under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which banned suspension for first-time, low-

Feb 28, 2017
2 min

Let schools enforce discipline

Rescinding the joint 2014 “dear colleague” letter on school discipline should be a top priority for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, writes Checker Finn, Districts don’t have to obey the “guidance,” which doesn’t have the force of regulation. But they were threatened with federal investigation if their discipline practices had a “disparate impact” on minority or disabled students. . . . Classroom behavior — and the consequences of misbehavio

Arrested for burping: The Gorsuch dissent

Feb 3, 2017
1 min

Arrested for burping: The Gorsuch dissent

Remember when a 13-year-old Albuquerque boy was arrested — taken in handcuffs to a juvenile detention center — for fake burping in P.E. class? His mother sued, but the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in favor of the school district in July 2016. Judge Neil Gorsuch, now a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote a memorable dissent, reprinted in Valerie Strauss’s Washington Post column. If a seventh grader starts trading fake burps for laughs in gym class,

Teachers protest discipline reform

Jan 17, 2017
1 min

Teachers protest discipline reform

Under pressure to reduce racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions, schools are turning to “restorative justice” programs that encourage offenders to discuss their actions and make amends. Earlier this year, Indianapolis and New York City teachers complained about poorly implemented “restorative justice” programs, reported Emmanuel Felton in Ed Week. Now, teachers in Fresno and Des Moines are saying new discipline policies are making it harder to teach. “As Fresno Unif

Principal raises class size, adds counselors

Dec 28, 2016
1 min

Principal raises class size, adds counselors

Given power over her school budget by Indianapolis Public Schools, Principal Tihesha Guthrie decided to increase class sizes to fund counselors and add 30 minutes to the school day, reports Chalkbeat. By adding five students per class, the elementary school was able to hire a “discipline specialist, a math coach and a teacher who specialized in teaching social skills like relationship building and self-control,” reports Dylan Peers McCoy. School 99 was one of just six schools