#suspension

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Thinking and Linking

What to do with angry, unstable students

Joanne Jacobs

May 2, 2022
1 min

What to do with angry, unstable students

Photo: Pixabay In A day in the life of school social workers, Hechinger’s Peggy Barmore looks at how Schenectady (New York) schools diverts troubled students from the classroom and tries to get them back into class. In 2021, the upstate New York district “started to see more students, even those in middle school, landing in long-term suspension because of post-pandemic behavior problems,” Barmore writes. (Nathaniel) Wylie, who has trained in therapeutic crisis intervention, n

Cutting suspensions doesn’t close ‘discipline gap’

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 13, 2018
2 min

Cutting suspensions doesn’t close ‘discipline gap’

California’s out-of-school suspension rate is way down, but the “discipline gap” remains, reports Mario Koran on The 74. Black students are much, much more likely to be suspended. The number of out-of-school suspensions declined by 46 percent from 2011-12 to 2016-17, Koran reports. That reflects national trends. In 2014, an Obama administration “rethink discipline” guidance pressured schools to reduce disparities in suspension rates for black and Latino students and for speci

How restorative justice can work

Joanne Jacobs

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

Joanne Jacobs

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

AFT, NEA play politics with teacher safety

Joanne Jacobs

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

Broken PROMISE

Joanne Jacobs

Apr 19, 2018
3 min

Broken PROMISE

Today, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, students are being urged to walk out of school to protest school shootings, register voters and lobby for gun control. Diego Quesada, an 18-year-old senior at Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas, said organizers will “host a week of kindness that will focus on mental health and school safety issues that more conservative voices tend to champion and use the walkout to push more explicitly for new gun laws,” reports

Discipline rules aren’t racist

Joanne Jacobs

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

Joanne Jacobs

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?

Joanne Jacobs

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

He sat in class — and got suspended

Joanne Jacobs

Mar 16, 2018
1 min

He sat in class — and got suspended

While other students walked out of school to protest gun violence, Jacob Shoemaker sat in class alone. The Hilliard Davidson High senior was suspended for one day for refusing to follow instructions to join the other non-protesters at his Ohio school. Students who walked out were not suspended. Jacob Shoemaker holds his suspension notice. He was trying to stay neutral, Shoemaker told ABC6. “If you walked out you were with the protest, you were for gun control and anti-gun vio

Discipline reform: Did it go too far?

Joanne Jacobs

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

Requiring the impossible leads to fraud

Joanne Jacobs

Feb 16, 2018
1 min

Requiring the impossible leads to fraud

Washington, D.C. public schools were held up as a model of “expert driven” education reform, writes Max C. Eden and Lindsey Burke on National Review. Much of the progress turns out to be “fraudulent.” Suspensions declined dramatically. The Washington Post revealed administrators had failed to report suspensions. The graduation rate soared. NPR revealed students who hadn’t shown up at school were getting diplomas. DCPS’s “accountability” system required principals to do the im

Reforming school discipline: Too fast?

Joanne Jacobs

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

New suspension policy does little in Philly

Joanne Jacobs

Dec 10, 2017
2 min

New suspension policy does little in Philly

Philadelphia’s discipline reforms, which limited suspensions, improved attendance but not achievement for previously suspended students attending schools that complied with the new rules, concludes a new study. Never-suspended students “experienced worse outcomes in the most economically and academically disadvantaged schools.” Only 18 percent of Philadelphia schools fully complied with the new policies, while 60 percent were “partial compliers,” reports Evie Blad in Educatio

Soft discipline is bigotry of low expectations

Joanne Jacobs

Nov 28, 2017
2 min

Soft discipline is bigotry of low expectations

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appears to be gearing up to rescind Obama-era discipline policies. A 2014 “Dear Colleague” letter warned that discipline policies could constitute “unlawful discrimination” if they had “a disproportionate and unjustified effect on students of a particular race,” notes The 74. Obama’s Education Department also pushed restorative justice to reduce suspensions and expulsions. At an Education Department listening session on school discipline, John

Revoke federal letter on suspensions, race

Joanne Jacobs

Sep 13, 2017
2 min

Revoke federal letter on suspensions, race

School safety is more important than racial balance in suspensions, argues Jason L. Riley in the Wall Street Journal. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will end “rule by letter,” she said last week, pledging to rethink the federal “guidance” that changed how colleges deal with accusations of campus sexual assault. DeVos also should rescind the 2014 “Dear Colleague” letter that threatened to investigate school districts that suspend more blacks than whites, writes Riley. School

Discipline reform and disorder in New York City

Joanne Jacobs

Mar 16, 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-

Joanne Jacobs

Feb 27, 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

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