Derail the school-to-prison pipeline in Georgia
Rob Rhodes is director of projects with the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. This is his first piece for the AJC Get Schooled blog:
By Rob Rhodes
Along with the fiscal cliff, the United States faces an “education cliff” — the growing problem of unacceptably low graduation rates made worse, at least in part, by the reliance on school disciplinary practices that contribute to the “school to prison pipeline.”
Georgia’s significantly lagging high school graduation rate is the result of many factors. A key cause may be an overuse of exclusionary discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, and the regular referral of incidents of schoolyard misbehavior to juvenile court.
The Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice has conducted a comprehensive study of student discipline policies, which found sharp differences among the school districts in the use of exclusionary discipline.
In 2011, eight school districts reported overall out-of-school suspension rates of less than 1 percent including one district with a student population in excess of 30,000. On the other hand, 10 districts reported rates in excess of 15 percent, about double the state average.
Of note, low out-of-school suspension school districts consistently outperformed the average graduation rate and graduated students at much higher rates than districts that used out-of-school suspensions more often.
For 2011, using the new graduation rate formula, Georgia’s four-year graduation rate was 67.5 percent. School districts with relatively rare use of out-of-school suspensions reported graduation rates on the average of 77.2 percent, as compared to a 64.4 percent average rate in districts that use them often.
While low graduation rates certainly are the result of a number of factors, a clear negative correlation exists between extensive use of exclusionary discipline and educational attainment in Georgia’s public schools.
Effective student discipline is vitally important to ensuring that all students are provided with a safe environment that is conducive to learning. However, each child in our public school system, even ones who are sometimes unruly, should also have a reasonable opportunity to obtain a quality high school education.
We recognize the very difficult balancing act that public school educators must perform every day to support these two vital interests. It would, therefore, be unfair to the thousands of Georgia K-12 educators who are committed to the success of their students to criticize the overuse of exclusionary discipline in the absence of effective alternatives.
The good news is that there are sound, evidence-based practices that can maintain collective safety and order while nurturing individual students. Such practices may include the implementation of school-wide climate enhancement efforts using the framework of positive behavioral intervention and support. Another approach may be increasing the efficacy of in-school suspensions. While there is no “one size fits all” answer, there is growing evidence that, with focused leadership and adequate resources, effective alternatives to exclusionary discipline can be implemented.
There are many reasons for low graduation rates, and we do not believe that addressing school discipline issues is a “silver bullet” solution. We do believe, however, that the changes discussed above can be implemented at a relatively low cost and will be a meaningful part of a comprehensive strategy to allow Georgia’s children to flow through a “school to opportunity” pipeline.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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172 comments Add your comment
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:26 am
@another view
sorry. incorrect. especially the higher ed bit.
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:28 am
@ HBD
and you know me how?
you are either seriously deluded or outright lying.
the only person who doesn’t see educated minorities at all levels of society seems to be you.
Concerned Educator
December 20th, 2012
9:31 am
This is all BS. Nothing is going to stop a juvenile from being stupid. As an alternative educator, 90% of my current students have been in alternative school more than one time (thank you Mr. Taxpayer). Now some Einstein wants less incarceration??!! Whose brother-in-law got paid to develop this great plan? Additionally, when these students return to regular school they want to pay that teacher based on these students test scores! Another problem that isn’t addressed is the adverse effects these students have on the other students who actually want to get an education.
skipper
December 20th, 2012
9:32 am
School discipline…………an oxymoron in today’s feel good society!
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:34 am
oh, and HDB
I can back up my claims, easily. easily.
lets start with Erroll Davis. he may be corrupt, but the man is very well educated.
and there’s this Obama fellow in the White House.
and lets not forget there are still more whites than minorities in this nation. its not mathematically possible to have elected Obama without the large amount of whites who voted for him.
are you contending whites would vote for an uneducated black man to run the nation
guest
December 20th, 2012
9:38 am
HDB,
You’re completely full of it. I’m tired of hearing these excuses of how black people are so disadvantaged. I went to a predominantly black high school. I didn’t receive any after school tutoring, etc. My parents didn’t make a lot of money. I didn’t have any “special” advantages afforded only to non-blacks. Yet, when I graduated, I knew the difference between “their”, “there” and “they’re”. Also, please explain how so many “poor” immigrants can come here an get an excellent education.
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:39 am
in fairness, I gotta agree with Rhodes on the bit about schoolyard misbehavior being bounced to juvie.
in today’s over regulated society, common sense is hamstrung by idiotic regulations
HDB
December 20th, 2012
9:40 am
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:28 am
I didn’t say that educated minorities don’t exist (I’m one, as an example!)…but I did say that they are viewed as the EXCEPTION rather than the norm!! I see them DAILY because that’s my personal sphere of influence!! I was raised around educated minorities because that was the NORM in my environment!
What we as a society must do is to demand that education be the NORM rather than the exception for ALL ethnicities…and be viewed equally across all spectrums!!
Far from deluded…..far from lying…….just my experience!!!
HDB
December 20th, 2012
9:50 am
guest
December 20th, 2012
9:38 am
As I stated….education has to be viewed as the NORM rather than the expection!! As our educational situations are parallel (attending predominately black educational facilities, financials, et. al.), what made us learn was that for us, the educational paradigm was the NORM…..
You can not discount financial capability in education, for it is evident that those of limited financial means have greater hardships in achieving educational greatness. Not saying that it can’t be overcome….but it adds another degree of difficulty……..
When society thinks that a segment of the populace can’t be educated…then it WON’T be educated!! Right now, many think that black children….particularly black males….can’t be educated!
guest
December 20th, 2012
9:55 am
HDB,
Just to let you know, most of the black kids in my school drove cars, had the latest Jordans, wore the latest fashion, etc. I did not have these since my parents only made a modest living. I rode the yellow limo all through my schooling days. So don’t give me this black people are financially disadvantaged crap. It’s merely another excuse.
Society thinks the way it does from actual observation. Besides, it’s people like you, Sharpton, and Jackson that perpetuate this black people are so disadvantaged, therefore, they can’t get an education.
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:56 am
@ HDB
running with your claim….
perhaps if the black community would promote “keepin’ in in school” as opposed to “keepin’ it real”
you might have something.
if there is a problem its a self inflicted one. promote Condi Rice or Ellison (rep. Minnesota) instead of Lil’ Wayne and Wendy Williams
and to be brutally honest, pull up your pants. its very hard to take someone seriously with pants around their knees
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:00 am
more brutal honesty.
it is the black community of Atlanta who gave us Beverly Hall. it is the black community of DeKalb County who created the DCSS mess.
until you demand better of yourselves, don’t lecture overall society about how to treat you.
HDB
December 20th, 2012
10:03 am
guest
December 20th, 2012
9:55 am
“Society thinks the way it does from actual observation. Besides, it’s people like you, Sharpton, and Jackson that perpetuate this black people are so disadvantaged, therefore, they can’t get an education.”
One — you can not deny that the disadvantages exist…..but I never said that black people can NOT be educated!!
Two — Society can be/has been/is sometimes WRONG!! As I said, in MY strata, educated minorities were the NORM!! The problems that I see society accenting are more the EXCEPTION in my sphere!! Society has come out with the view that minorities can’t be educated…..and when someone is the example to COUNTER that paradigm, that person is viewed as an EXCEPTION!! If you want an example…look at how the PRESIDENT has been viewed: an educated black man as the head of this nation….but many have viewed him as a foreigner and many other prejoratives. How many have questioned HIS academic credentials?? That’s society’s observation…….
Another Math Teacher
December 20th, 2012
10:06 am
Keep in mind, no matter which side of an issue you fall – Pride and Joy (aka Good Mother,) is the board troll. Responding to ‘her’ clutters up the discussion. (’She’ changed ‘her’ name to allow for a fresh start trolling.)
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:07 am
its interesting to me that the most colorblind aspect of society -the military- has more successful black people in it than any other.
in a society where respect is earned, not given, and hard work rewarded, blacks seem to do just fine.
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:10 am
if society has the view blacks can’t be educated, why is there so much preference to recruiting them in higher education?
HDB
December 20th, 2012
10:12 am
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
9:56 am
For me, “keepin’ it real” involved getting an education…and for all in my strata…that was DEMANDED!! Admittedly, it starts at the bottom — in the home!! What also has to be de-emphasized is the “quick gratification” society…
Question: you said this — “until you demand better of yourselves, don’t lecture overall society about how to treat you”; if I AM an educated professional, carry myself as such…why does society tend to QUESTION my credentials and capabilities? Why does society lump me in with others rather than dealing with me as an individual?? By YOUR statement, I DO have the right to lecture society as to how I should be treated…..and believe me, I try to!!!
HS Math Teacher
December 20th, 2012
10:13 am
As long as you have a significant portion of kids who “happen up to” high school unprepared for rigorous coursework, you’re going to have problems. We allow social promotion to continue, while clamping down on kids once they enter high school. It won’t work.
We are trying to alter reality through intellectual pipe dreams, while looking through rose-colored glasses. We are wearing down and demoralizing good teachers across the state.
If you’re going to raise the bar, stop lowering the floor. STOP THE CHARADE!
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:14 am
people question Obama’s intelligence because he often acts like an idiot. just like a lot of white people do. and because there are a whole lot of holes in his personal biography
stupid isn’t a matter of pigment. its a matter of pigheadedness
Just A Teacher
December 20th, 2012
10:16 am
“Pity for this tyrant? . . . It’s less trouble to feel sorry for her than it is to teach her anything better.” James Gibson, “The Miracle Worker”
As usual, this is the tone taken by many people involving public education. If a child needs discipline, however harsh, it must be meted out. The damage inflicted by molly coddling juveniles with discipline problems lasts long beyond their formative years. If anything, it has been my experience that most administrators are far too lenient with chronic discipline offenders.
HDB
December 20th, 2012
10:16 am
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:10 am
If society has the view black children CAN be educated, why are black students suspended in higher numbers and given more extreme punishments than their Caucasian counterparts? If society had the view that black children CAN be educated, why iare funding mechanisms for education being REDUCED? If society has the view that black children CAN be educated, why do many teachers (particularly white teachers) have the attitude that they CAN’T??
Ga Tech Rules
December 20th, 2012
10:17 am
HDB – Intelligence as measured by standardized tests can best be summarized as a normal statistical distribution. If you group the test takers by some characteristic, such as “race,” you will have different means for each group. But the distributions for all the groups overlap, such that even the lowest scoring group has some members well above the average for the highest scoring group. Does this mean one group is smarter than the other? No, it means within our ability to measure, the groups have different mean scores. If the tests scores are standardized, people of East Asian “races” have the highest average test scores, regardless of where those people live, that is China, Japan, Korea or the USA. In other words, we can expect people of all races to be in the top 1% of intelligence, but as a percentage there will be more East Asian people in that top tier.
HDB
December 20th, 2012
10:19 am
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:14 am
Samee thing could be said about George W. Bush…but he didn’t suffer the persistent denigration that Obama has undergone CONTINUOUSLY!! You can’t have it both ways…….
Ga Tech Rules
December 20th, 2012
10:23 am
HDB – Have you asked the students if they are doing their homework, the reading assignments, the math problems, and other work that is collectively called “learning?” If the children are not making an effort, they cannot be educated. Disruptive students must be removed so those who are not disruptive and are making an effort can learn.
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:24 am
@ HDB
trust me, I’m treating you exactly as your actions/statements have warranted. at least from me you are being treated exactly as you have earned.
if you lecture me on how you demand to be treated, without my having seen firsthand you merit it, I’m gonna tell you to go have a sex act with yourself.
respect isn’t demanded, its earned. and in the city of Atlanta, considering how black systems have destroyed their educational systems -despite the heroic efforts of hundreds of people of all colors-
not only has respect not been earned, it has been trashed.
you can keep this up all day, and you are entitled to your opinions and beliefs, but you are gonna fail at every turn because reality is not on your side
now if you’ll excuse me, one of my favorite political commentators -and SHAZAM!, by coincidence a successful, educated black man – Herman Cain is on the radio.
indigo
December 20th, 2012
10:27 am
Bootney – 9:28
It’s true there are educated minorities at all levels of society.
It’s also true these minorities, at the high levels of society, are not PROPORTIONAlITY represented when compared to whites.
This little detail is conviently missed by people who know better but are too controlled by political correctness to admit the truth.
HDB
December 20th, 2012
10:27 am
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:10 am
“if society has the view blacks can’t be educated, why is there so much preference to recruiting them in higher education?”
To answer this question…..what segments of society have been more maarginalized and have the greater disadvantages to overcome? Primarily, African-American, Native Americans, then Hispanics. In order to break the cycle of negativity, the effort to educate minorities so that they can become productive citizens has come forth!! Problems exist when educators in elementary and secondary education believe that minority children can NOT be educated! For some, traditional methodology can work; for others, it doesn’t! A hybrid of traditional/non-traditional methodologies should be invoked so that ALL children can achieve!!
HS Math Teacher
December 20th, 2012
10:28 am
To add: Simply put, kids who can’t succeed in academic cousework in high school will more than likely become discipline problems. If there was a realistic way for them to get a “meaningful education”, this would change. We used to have such a way. “Not no mo!”
HDB
December 20th, 2012
10:36 am
bootney farnsworth
December 20th, 2012
10:24 am
1) Respect is earned…AND demanded! Respect simply as a human being is DEMANDED…and if you can’t understand that aspect, you may reciprocate your self-sexual gratification!!
2) Everyone’s reality is different…and having been educated in the City of Atlanta, I can say that you can not lump all schools in the city as “non-performing”; there ARE excellent schools in APS….and many of the academic achievers are in predominately black schools!!
indigo
December 20th, 2012
10:27 am
Bootney – 9:28
It’s true there are educated minorities at all levels of society.
It’s also true these minorities, at the high levels of society, are not PROPORTIONAlITY represented when compared to whites.”
Is the proportionality skewed because of the VOLUME of the population..since Caucasians are 78% of the American populace??
Ga Tech Rules
December 20th, 2012
10:23 am
NO DISAGREEMENT THERE!!!
A Conservative Voice
December 20th, 2012
10:45 am
You know, Maureen, it’s great that your column give the populace a chance to spout off about a particular subject relating to educating our children; however, I must question your motive and the motives of your employer, the AJC. What are you doing with the comments you receive? Are they used just to satisfy your bank account? or are you doing something constructive with them? There are some very good ideas presented here but, you know what? they’re just words that never get where they should get, to our leaders??????who aren’t doing a very good job of leading, to our school officials at the state, county and city levels who can make a difference but don’t seem willing to. It seems as though we have a bunch of educated idiots who write articles like the one above who don’t have a clue. Are they writing words just to get paid for their words, also? We’ve got a problem with our public schools and no one seems to be doing a d*mn thing to aleviate the problems, in any way. We’ve got corrupt school boards, we’ve got corrupt school system superintendents, we’ve got teachers who shouldn’t even be teaching our children, we’ve got parents who are raising thugs and hoping the school system will do something to help her become a better parent. Tell me, what is anybody doing? What are you doing, besides writing words? Our school systems are crumbling and we’re sitting there watching it happen,right before our very eyes. Our so called leaders?????? seem to think they have all the right answers…..there are a lot of very smart people in this state who could help solve the problems with our schools and would probably be glad to help if they were called upon but, our leaders????? seem to be too proud to do anything that sensible.
paulo977
December 20th, 2012
10:46 am
Mary E …..”Of course, the “rule” of no talking during In-House placement would have to lifted. We must think “outside of the box” and in more creative and bold ways in order to address discipline problems and to address erroneous instructional level teaching, which are precursors to the drop-out to incarceration reality. We must stop thinking in terms of “blame and punishment” and start thinking, instead, in terms of what will, realistically, solve this destructive problem.”
_________________________________________________________________
GREAT ,GREAT post!!
Unfortunately , the education system to a great extent now resembles a facory belt ….pass the units that comply and ‘dump’ those that don’t!!
Mary E, we once led the world in edecational thought and philosophy in whichthe developing child was just that, DEVELOPING, and had to be treated as such in the way you have described.I am not sure that we ,as a nation, now have the vision or love to recognize that our chidren as need our ’specialized’ care in the schools!
Mortimer Collins
December 20th, 2012
10:47 am
This “supposed” school to prison pipeline, that seems to be everyones problem except for the culprits will end when these low-rent dads get involved and the moms/kids begin having some self-esteem and self-worth.
I have no problem with my tax $$ going to build bigger, meaner and tougher jails, prisons.
Maureen Downey
December 20th, 2012
10:53 am
@Bootney, With regards to your brutal “honesty”:
I can fill this blog with names of incompetent and corrupt white politicians from Georgia.
An example: For all the times that I have mentioned ex state School Superintendent Linda Schenko on this blog, I have never once seen anyone, to paraphrase you, write: “it is the white community of Atlanta who gave us Linda Schrenko…until you demand better of yourselves, don’t lecture overall society about how to treat you.”
Why do you hold the black community responsible for an errant local African-American school chief, yet never say the white community is responsible for a felonious state school chief who stole money from deaf children for her facelift and her ill-fated quest for the governorship? (Schrenko was elected on the strength of suburban and rural areas. And if you wanted to see a friends and family plan, read about her hires to her cabinet.)
And I have to note that if the Newtown shooter had been black, there would be countless comments on this blog about thug culture and how the black community has to take responsibility.
Maureen
guest
December 20th, 2012
10:55 am
HDB,
ALL children can succeed. Are you telling me that the teachers ignore the black kids and spend all their time educating the white kids? When I’m sitting in next to a black kid in class and he is goofing off instead of listening to the teacher, what is to be done? Is he not being afforded the same chances as me? If anything, he is preventing the others from learning.
guest
December 20th, 2012
10:59 am
Maureen..blah, blah, blah…white people are evil…blah, blah, blah.
Just so you know, all races commit crimes. However, look at the percentage of crimes committed by blacks as a whole…it is much higher. Society didn’t just wake up one morning and say blacks are criminals.
Maureen Downey
December 20th, 2012
11:06 am
@guest,
But, somehow, we have declared through our actions and attitudes that black kids should be treated more harshly under our laws for their wrongdoing, even their first offenses.
Take some time and look at virtually any study on how the criminal justice system responds to first-time offenses by black kids vs. white kids.
The test of our juvenile justice system is whether we believe it would be fair to our own children. If white parents learned that their teenagers were 48 times more likely to go to juvenile prison for a first-time drug offense than black kids, they would storm the Capitol.
But it’s not white parents who live with this outrage. It’s black parents.
Research shows that kids whose cases are transferred to adult courts come out of jail committing more and worse crimes than those who did similar crimes but remained in the juvenile system. According to the national data, African-American children with no previous time in a juvenile facility are locked up at six times the rate of white kids charged with similar offenses. Looking only at drug cases, the admission rate of black kids to juvenile detention centers is 48 times the rate for whites.
The gap continues once kids are jailed. African-American children are incarcerated an average of 85 days longer than white youth, and Latinos are incarcerated an average of more than 140 days longer than white youth.
But let’s not worry about the facts. Let’s just trade in mindless stereotypes.
Pride and Joy
December 20th, 2012
11:18 am
Once Again, Mary Elizabeth has some sound ideas. She says behavior problems are often caused by frustration, the kind kids feel when they are in a ninth grade English class and they are reading at a fourth grade level. She suggests using in school suspension to use reading tutors to help them.
I say — GREAT IDEA — but implemented too late.
The reading tutors should come waaaay before high school when out of school and in school suspension is used.
I say get em early. No kid should get out of the third grade without reading well.
A friend of mine fought to have her child held back in kindergarten and the school flat out refused. He knew then that his daughter was way behind in reading and other skills and wanted her to repeat k but the school flat out refused.
This is what APS does. They just keep passing and passing kids along to make themselves look better when even the PARENTS recognize kids should be held back and given more time to learn the basics.
K through 2 is LEARN TO READ.
3 through infinity is READ TO LEARN.
When a child cannot read well by third grade, the intervention team needs to be in full force as Mary Elizabeth suggests, to make sure EVERY CHILD reads well.
When they cannot read, the flunk out eventually but along the way they disrupt, distract and cause problems for everyone else as ME knows.
guest
December 20th, 2012
11:18 am
Maureen,
Key word “similar”. I can throw out a bunch of numbers to corroborate what I want people to believe. Is having an ounce of crack “similar” to having a pound of crack? You live in a bubble and blindly believe these “numbers”. I’ve seen and lived this first hand.
Like I said, stereotypes come from actual experience.
Pride and Joy
December 20th, 2012
11:21 am
Maureen, white parents don’t follow a school bus with their daughter, then tell their daughter to beat up another girl. It’s a black thing.
Violence is encouraged by blacks for blacks.
You can spout statistics all you want to try to say that blacks are victims. They are victims. They are victims of black on black crime and a culture that values tennis shoes more than school.
Maureen Downey
December 20th, 2012
11:32 am
@Pride and Joy,
Really?
Try being a cop reporter. I have been and I can assure that white parents do stupid things, too. I covered a story where a white father tried to pay for drugs by offering his 15-year-old daughter as payment. Bad parents are universal.
Maureen
da bear
December 20th, 2012
11:37 am
The way to stop this is simple. As has been said before, fix k-3 and the rest is AOK. Invest the alternative resources into fixing the problems before they get out of hand and the discipline problems will be massively reduced.
Teachers have been saying that for years, but politicians will not listen.
RCB
December 20th, 2012
11:40 am
Maureen, so what do you do about kids whose home environment is worse than a juvenile facility? Nothing will change there, so what do we do?
Lee
December 20th, 2012
11:42 am
@Andy, re: “Why is it 60 years later, the black population as a whole still can’t assimilate into society? The black kids sit next to and get the same education as the white kids, yet they still can’t as a majority even make through an easy 12 years in the GA Dept Education.”
Google “Race and IQ”. Explains a lot.
Pride and Joy
December 20th, 2012
11:44 am
Bootney, there is one HUGE flaw in your argument.
Obama is NOT BLACK.
Even black Morgan Freeman said as much.
Obama is half-white. He had a lilly-white Kansas-bred mother who valued education and Obama had a black Kenyan daddy who split when he was two years old.
Obama was raised by white grandparents and a white mother who valued education.
To call Obama black is to deny reality.
indigo
December 20th, 2012
11:48 am
HDB – “is the proportionality skewed because of the volume of the population, since Caucasians are 78% of the American populance”
No, it’s not. That is just an excuse.
Strong civil rights laws have been in effect since the 60’s.
And, since the 60’s, we’ve had one social experiment after another attempt to bring overall black achivement up to the white level.
None of them have worked.
So, you can be an adult and accept simple and obvious reality.
Or, you can be a professional victim.
You’re choice.
Lee
December 20th, 2012
11:52 am
@Maureen, no doubt there are idiots who walk among all races, but maybe you should take off those politically correct blinders and peruse through the US Dept of Justice Uniform Crime Statistics.
Don’t have time to do that, the publication “Color of Crime” takes those statistics and puts it in context.
http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.html
Ms. Teacher Lady
December 20th, 2012
11:58 am
Mr. Rhodes, I appreciate that you at least acknowledge that the correlation between higher expulsion-like disciplinary measures and lower graduation rates is just that. . .a correlation. But, you don’t really identify or explain the causation.
Therein lies the rub. I’m a teacher; I loathe ISS/OSS disciplinary measures because I know my students don’t learn on those days. I also know that the more ISS/OSS a student “earns” the more likely s/he is to fail a subject.
At the same time, I teach in a Title I school that is plagued with disruptive behavior. I have an amazing principal, incredible administrators, and an A+ team of colleagues. We work hard to provide positive incentives for good behavior, and recognize student growths in behavior and academics. We recognize and award not only the A students, but also those who have managed to raise grades from F’s to C’s.
The positive incentives do work for some students. But, there is a rather large group of outliers for whom nothing seems to work (parent interventions, ISS/OSS, detention, incentives, consequences, etc. etc. etc.). I want to see these children, the outliers, succeed academically. . .But, let me tell you, they are horrible to have in class. Whenever I have two or more in a class together, the class stops. I can’t teach. I spend nearly all of my class time addressing behaviors, breaking up fights, and encouraging, cajoling, begging them to work. After they have gone through all of my in-class consequences and incentives (they are numerous), I have no choice but to refer them on to an administrator.
Administrators aren’t allowed to say: “Okay, you smashed crayons into the carpet. Let’s teach you how to carpet clean” as a consequence. Administrators are left with few options for how to address the student behaviors -once they get to this point- other than ISS/OSS. At that point, it isn’t even about the student so much as it is about the class. I feel it is more about the fact that the other students and the teacher need a break from the disruptive outlier behavior.
That, at least, is the ugly truth in my classroom and school.
I truly appreciate your article, but how about some ideas as to SOLUTIONS rather than another pointless article about the correlation between ISS/OSS and lower graduation rates. We know that. And besides, most people don’t get the difference between correlation and causation. . .So, they read an article like this and think: “Yup. If only teachers would give positive incentives! All the problems would go away.”
Just A Teacher
December 20th, 2012
12:05 pm
I thought this was a discussion of school discipline. How did it turn into a place for racist rants? How can you expect children to rise above racial stereotyping when even those people who show an interest in their education and development are preoccupied by it? Get over it, people! Each student is responsible for his or her own behavior no matter what their skin tone! Quit spending so much time looking at the outside of a person and try to find out what is on the inside. I have a dream that one day america will realize that the only race that matters is the human race!
Tonya C.
December 20th, 2012
12:06 pm
There is a home-to-prison pipeline. Failures in home of the parents or guardians of these kids is a far more pressing issue than what the schools do. Schools can only ENFORCE standards for kids, not create them.
AlreadySheared
December 20th, 2012
12:07 pm
Wrong headline.
Right headline: “Derail the single-mother household to prison pipeline”