(By Christina Hoag, The Associated Press, 04/08/2012) School suspensions were once reserved for serious offenses including fighting and bringing weapons or drugs on campus. But these days they're just as likely for talking back to a teacher, cursing, walking into class late or even student eye rolling. More than 40 percent of suspensions in California are for "willful defiance," or any behavior that disrupts class, and critics say it's a catchall that needs to be eliminated because it's overused for trivial offenses, disproportionately used against black and Latino boys and alienates the students who need most to stay in school.

By Christina Hoag, The Associated Press, 04/08/2012

School suspensions were once reserved for serious offenses including fighting and bringing weapons or drugs on campus. But these days they're just as likely for talking back to a teacher, cursing, walking into class late or even student eye rolling.

More than 40 percent of suspensions in California are for "willful defiance," or any behavior that disrupts class, and critics say it's a catchall that needs to be eliminated because it's overused for trivial offenses, disproportionately used against black and Latino boys and alienates the students who need most to stay in school.

"It's so broad it's not useful," said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president and chief executive of the nonprofit South Los Angeles Community Coalition. "You can't quite define what it means, what it doesn't mean."

Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, earlier this year introduced a bill to remove willful defiance as a reason for suspension and expulsion.

His bill, AB 2242, would replace that category with specific behaviors such as harassment, threats, intimidation, creating substantial disorder or a hostile environment.

Willful defiance is coming under scrutiny as attention focuses on whether "zero tolerance" discipline policies instituted in many schools in the 1990s are working, especially for minority students.

A report by the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office last fall found vast disparities in the use of suspensions and
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expulsions against students of color.

Black students comprise 18 percent of public school enrollment nationwide, but 35 percent of suspensions and 39 percent of expulsions, the report stated.

School discipline even caught the attention of California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G.

Cantil-Sakauye, who addressed the issue in her State of the Judiciary speech to the Legislature in March, saying she was alarmed to find out that 700,000 suspensions and expulsions were handed down statewide last year.

"You might ask, `Why is school discipline a justice issue?' The answer is obvious - when children are not in school, studies show they are at risk of entering the juvenile justice system," she said. "Studies show that one suspension triples the likelihood of a juvenile justice contact within that year."

Most school districts across the country stipulate defiance or insubordination as a cause for discipline. The key is the punishment meted out for the offense.

Baltimore City Public Schools has managed to slash the number of suspensions from nearly 27,000 in 2003-04 to just over 11,000 in 2010-11 after extensively revising its code of conduct and disciplinary policies. A suspension for defiance is now only given if it's a repeated offense, according to district data.

In California, defiance is a key reason behind high suspension rates, particularly for black and Latino students. A University of California Los Angeles report found students of color are most often suspended for infractions relating to disrespect, defiance and disobedience.

"There's a bit of profiling that goes on, particularly with low-income African-American and Latino boys," Harris-Dawson said. "A white girl can scream and slam books on the desk and not be seen as threatening, but a black boy can do half of that and it can be taken as `he's going to hit me."'

For teachers, sending troublemakers to the principal's office is a necessary tool to maintain classroom discipline, said Frank Wells, Southern California representative of the California Teachers Association, who said he has not noticed an excessive use of defiance and the union has to remind teachers they can use that.

But if statistics show a disproportionate use of defiance against certain groups of students, it could indicate a cultural gap. "It's something that should be studied," he said. "But we hate to limit teachers' authority to discipline."

South Los Angeles high school senior Brett Williams said he feels teachers use defiance as an excuse not to hear the students' side. "It's like sit down and shut up," the 18-year-old said. "You're not even able to tell your story. That to them is being defiant."

A few weeks ago, Williams was not wearing his uniform shirt under a sweater after playing basketball. Told to go to the dean's office, he resisted because he was putting on his shirt and wanted to remain for the lesson. He was threatened with suspension for being defiant and sent home.

When he returned to school the next day, he had a run-in with the dean and was told he was disrespectful, rude and defiant and was sent home again.

"It escalated into two days of missing school over a uniform shirt," said Williams, adding he's determined to graduate in June despite the problems. "You can't even be treated fairly so what's the point of going to school. That's the way they made me feel."

At Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, administrators started taking a different approach to discipline after seeing a record 600 suspensions in 2004.

The 2,700-student school now has a progressive discipline system where teachers and counselors intervene before a situation reaches the dean and principal. Parents are called and offenders ordered to write apology letters, apologize publicly, or spend lunchtime in the dean's office to realize the consequences of their behavior.

Defiance is no longer a cause for suspension.

"We took the suspension quick-trigger off the menu," said Assistant Principal Ramiro Rubalcaba, who used to have students in his office for everything from chewing gum to sleeping to coming to class without a pencil. "It was the big umbrella."

Teachers, who initially balked at the new disciplinary approach, are given extra training in classroom management if they report a lot of student behavior problems.

Last year, the school had only one suspension and has had only one so far this year. With that record, Garfield has become a model for discipline reform, and is now regularly visited by administrators from other high schools and even state lawmakers.

When seniors Jamie Rodriguez and Janaye Esparza got into a fight during drill team practice earlier this year - grounds for suspension at most high schools - their parents were called in, they were banned from the team for a week, spent lunch in the dean's office and were counseled on getting along.

"We learned to keep our distance and respect each other," Janaye said. "We ignore our differences."

Both girls said the toughest punishment was sitting out drill team. "That was hard," Jamie said. "It was something I really worked for."
 

Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune, 3/26/2012

Program is part of principal's approach to teaching nonviolence at the school

Last week was Peace Week at Fenger High School. This week is spring break. Principal Elizabeth Dozier told me that students hold the event the week before vacation because they think it has a calming effect during the time off.

Dozier is 34, but as she was standing amid a crowd of students gathered outside Thursday for a brief ceremony, she could easily have passed for one of them.

She came to the school in September 2009 to help fix Fenger. It's considered a "turnaround" school because of students' behavior problems and low test scores and attendance rates.

She had been on the job only a few days when sophomore Derrion Albert was brutally killed and his death made national news.

In the aftermath, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder flew to Chicago and met with Dozier and others to discuss anti-violence strategies. From her office window, she watched for weeks as national and local news trucks clogged Wallace Street.

"Since then, I've lost seven other students," said Dozier, who grew up in south suburban Crestwood. "Six of them died in violent ways."

She said she didn't know Derrion well. But she knew the other students and attended each of their funerals.

She understands that children are taught violence, and that means her work is often about reteaching them what's appropriate when dealing with confrontations.

Dozier has tried to change the culture at the school — helping students and their parents learn nonviolent ways to resolve conflicts. She has created "peace circles," which assemble angry parties so they can talk through spats that in the past might have escalated into violence, and "restorative justice" conferences that focus on repairing harm.

"During my first three months here, there was a parent who tried to come to the school to get into the cafeteria to fight one of the students. A parent," Dozier said. "Now fast-forward 2½ years and this same parent was concerned about something and told one of the staff members that she wanted (to assemble) a peace circle. That was huge.

"She gets the language and sees the process as a powerful modality."

Dozier said peace circles might sound elementary or even corny, but if students haven't learned certain social skills at home, they need to be taught how to disagree appropriately.

"Not all the kids, but certainly enough of them haven't been taught this," she said. "If you don't value yourself, why would you value someone else? In addition to what we teach from the textbooks, we do a lot of building kids up and making them feel good about themselves."

Walk around Fenger today and you begin to understand her philosophy. She believes students can't learn surrounded by clutter — so everything is organized and immaculate. Floors are swept and buffed. The halls are well-lit, with walls that are filled with colorful artwork and esteem-building posters.

In the cafeteria is a stunning peace mural that students built out of decorative mosaic tile. Hanging on the ceiling just outside the main office are two colorful canopies of paper cranes that students made last year for Peace Week.

"We don't have the newest building in Chicago," Dozier said, "but it will be a clean, orderly and colorful environment that reflects who they are."

Much of this wasn't in place prior to her arrival. Neither were the computer-generated sheets of paper that she hangs in the corridors that list the students who are on track academically and have good attendance, and those who aren't.

The Chicago Public Schools system requires turnaround schools to record all drug-related and violent conduct in the system's database. Dozier's numbers show that Fenger's incidents have greatly diminished from more than 450 inside the school during fall 2009 to a little more than 150 inside and outside the school last fall.

"It makes no sense to try to game the system," she said. "We need an accurate picture so that we can make real-time decisions. If we lie on the numbers, all we're really hurting are the kids because we're not applying the appropriate remedies."

The older students remember the way things were a few years ago and know it takes time for change to really take hold.

Fenger senior Adrienne Dixon, 18, is a member of the Peace and Leadership Council of the Mikva Challenge, a civic and leadership organization for youths. The council helped organize last week's event. Dixon said the violence around Chicago, especially during weekends, is a constant cause for talk among students Monday mornings.

"Every Monday, it's almost like somebody knows somebody who's been shot," she said Thursday, as we watched students release red and green balloons into the sky. "We're trying to say there's got to be another way. Too many kids are dying."

Originally published here.
 

Dinu Ahmed, Huffington Post, 3/13/2012

Bronx, NY - On March 8, 2012, the New Settlement Parent Action Committee gathered 100 parents, students, educators, and elected officials on the steps of the Bronx Borough President's office to express their outrage over the Bronx's shocking rates of school-based arrests and student summonses, and to demand positive disciplinary alternatives.

Recent data released under the Student Safety Act -- new legislation that disaggregates statistics on arrests and summonses by race, age, and gender -- shows the disproportionate impact that harsh punitive measures in New York City schools have had on the Bronx, particularly on youth of color. Out of a whopping 532 summonses issued to New York City students to appear in court during the last three months of 2011, the Bronx alone accounted for nearly half of all cases. 63% of those summonses were for charges of "disorderly conduct." Unbelievably, 93.5% of the nearly 300 students arrested in the same time period were either Black or Latino - and here too, the Bronx topped the list as the borough with the highest percentage of school-based arrests.

The press conference began with Frank Rivers, an 18-year old Bronx student, and member of Sistas and Brothas United. "We know low-income students of color are being criminalized by being suspended and arrested in our classrooms. Discipline should be handled by school staff, not NYPD cops."

Andy Artz, attorney at Legal Services NYC-Bronx echoed similar concerns: "Many of the young people I've represented in long-term suspension cases were also arrested in school. These are not just older teenagers getting arrested; many of my seventh and eighth grade clients have been arrested for things like fighting in school, or for resisting when a School Safety officer attempted to take them to the office. Some of these students are in special education, and struggle to respond appropriately to authorities. We need to change the policy that permits so many children to be arrested in our schools. Instead of suspensions and arrests, our schools should be using positive alternatives, such as restorative practices, which foster a culture of safety, respect, and dignity."

The data collected under the Student Safety Act validates community concerns about excessive policing towards historically marginalized communities. Since the NYPD was awarded control over school safety in 1998, serious questions have been raised regarding the abilities of NYPD School Safety Agents to distinguish minor school disciplinary issues from criminal behavior that warrants an arrest.

Local elected officials also expressed their anger around the policing of Bronx students at yesterday's press conference.

"One -- that is the days of training that School Safety Agents get by the Department of Education before they are put into our schools to 'police' our children. One day. That is not acceptable. School safety agents should be there to protect the students. They should not be there to make them feel like they are in prison...we should not be policing our children; we should be teaching them," remarked State Senator Gustavo Rivera.

Esperanza Vazquez, a parent leader with the New Settlement Parent Action Committee, considered the impact of arrests upon Bronx youth: "More than 93% of the students who were targeted for arrests were African American and Latino. These statistics demonstrate that the current school system criminalizes, and is not welcoming to, youth of color. What does it mean to have an arrest on your record at a young age? For a young person, having a record can affect the rest of his or her life. One arrest can deny you access to a higher education, to future employment and to many other opportunities that most of us take for granted. Suspensions too, are pushing our youth out of schools and into the streets, into the criminal justice system, into low-wage jobs, therefore continuing the cycle of poverty."

State Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson called for the Department of Education to implement positive disciplinary alternatives.

"It seems as if these growing statistics are more of an extension of our criminal justice system, with textbooks being replaced with handcuffs. These growing numbers and these statistics which are being used to define our young people, are shameful at best... We are asking the Department of Education to come to the table and implement alternative measures that keep our young people engaged. Instead of sending them to the local precinct, implement counseling, and more guidance counselors and social workers in our schools. Throwing our young people in jail is not the answer. That does not solve the problem and that does not address many of the challenges that we face ... we are demanding a greater accountability from the Department of Education."

Participants gathered at the press conference, most of whom are affiliated with the Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York, are calling for the use of positive alternatives to discipline for minor incidents that are currently resulting in the use of arrests, suspensions, and summonses, through the use of restorative justice approaches or positive behavior intervention supports (PBIS). They are demanding that more city resources be put towards implementing positive alternatives to discipline in New York public schools. Additionally, the coalition is calling on elected officials to hold an oversight hearing to demand greater accountability and transparency on how school arrests are being made and why they are disproportionately affecting Black and Latino youth.

The Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York is a coalition of students, parents, educators, civil rights, students' rights and community organizations, including: Advocates for Children of New York, Center for Community Alternatives, Children's Defense Fund-New York, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, Coalition for Gender Equity in Schools, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Future of Tomorrow, Make the Road New York, Mass Transit Street Theater, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), New Settlement Apartments Parent Action Committee, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Pumphouse Projects, Sistas and Brothas United, Teachers Unite, The Sikh Coalition, Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC), Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Youth on the Move, and Youth Represent.

Dinu Ahmed is a community organizer at the New Settlement Parent Action Committee.

Originally published here.

Joy Resmovits, Huffington Post, 3/6/12

Minority students have less access to advanced courses, more inexperienced teachers and face tougher disciplinary consequences than their counterparts, a new trove of federal data shows, affirming long-held beliefs about disparities in the classroom.
Civil rights advocates expect this data, collected during the 2009-10 school year, will provide new ammunition for compliance reviews, advocacy and lawsuits involving educational fairness in America.

"The undeniable truth is that the everyday educational experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said on an embargoed phone call Monday afternoon. "It is our collective duty to change that." Duncan is expected to make similar remarks Tuesday at Washington, D.C.'s Howard University.

The numbers, to be released Tuesday, are jarring. Black students are more than three-and-a-half times as likely as white students to be suspended or expelled, according to the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights' survey, known as the "Civil Rights Data Collection." More than 70 percent of students arrested in school or handed over to law enforcement were black or Hispanic.
But Duncan and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali both stressed that the data is not "alleging overt discrimination in some or all of these cases."

The disparities are also inherent in access: Twenty-nine percent of high-minority schools offered calculus, compared to 55 percent of schools with smaller black and Hispanic populations.
Teachers in high-minority schools made $2,251 less per year than teachers in other schools, but these disparities varied by district.

For example, while Houston pays teachers in its high-minority schools an average of $2,549 per year more than their peers, Philadelphia pays them $14,699 less. A deficit in teacher pay generally represents less-experienced teachers.
"We are issuing a challenge to educators and community leaders across America to work together to address these inequities," Duncan said, referencing President Barack Obama's goal to "lead the world in college graduates by 2020."

Federally, schools are judged solely by test scores, which have shown pervasive achievement gaps among students of different races. But civil rights activists say that information doesn’t tell the full story of underserved students facing disproportionate hurdles to school success.

"For many folks in the civil rights movement, it's not enough to judge schools on the basis of student achievement as measured by test scores," said Dianne Piche, a former OCR deputy who now oversees education policy for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "You also need to look at ... barriers to achievement that schools are erecting for our students."

And counter to some schools' beliefs, suspension of alleged troublemakers rarely boosts achievement, said Dan Losen, who directs the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Civil Rights Remedies. "Schools that are not loosey-goosey on discipline but are doing it in a way to teach appropriate positive behavior, tend to have higher achievement and lower suspension," he said. "The idea that we kick out bad kids so we can teach the good kids is a myth."

The disparities extend beyond race. English-language learners, which made up 12 percent of the sample, represented 12 percent of students held back. Students with disabilities were more than twice as likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than their peers. Students with disabilities were also more likely to be physically restrained.

The data comes from the second half of Education Department's Office of Civil Rights' 2009-2010 survey, which collected self-reported information from 72,000 schools -- or 85 percent of the country's students. The data set, which will be on the Education Department's web site Tuesday, includes more detailed information than the last time it was collected in 2006.
The first half of the survey measured opportunities, such as advanced placement courses available or the number of inexperienced teachers.

While Duncan said he hopes the data will get schools, districts and states to start "conversations" about these policies, "and ultimately actions," it is unclear how these actions will take shape.

"Part of the problem is that folks feel like they're being called racist if they see data like this," said Russell Skiba, an Indiana University, Bloomington education professor.

Districts, Skiba said, tend to look at this data and assume that students from minority backgrounds simply act up more -- but according to his research, that's not the case.

"If you look at kids in the same district in the same school, there is no data that African American kids are actually engaging in more severe behaviors that lead to a higher percentage of expulsions and suspensions."

While Losen said the much-anticipated data is helpful, he expressed the need for it to be released sooner than two years after its collection. "We need this data faster," he said. "If it were test data, they wouldn’t wait two years to release it."

Originally published here.

Cyril Josh Barker, Amsterdam News, 03/01/2012

A campaign made up of public school students, teachers, parents and City Council members released startling data about arrests and summons in schools. The criticism stems from the Student Safety Act, enacted in 2011, which requires the NYPD to submit quarterly reports to the City Council on arrests, summonses and other police-student interactions in the schools.

Last week, the Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York held a press conference at One Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan demanding better school safety policies. Data show that when it comes to policing in schools, students of color are being targeted.

Of the nearly 300 school arrests, a shocking 93.5 percent of students were either Black or Latino, with many arrested for minor offenses. Several students spoke at the press conference about their experiences when encountering police in school. Advocates say that the police presence in school is a creating a prison pipeline for youth.

“When I was a student in high school, every day I was harassed by school safety agents [SSAs] and NYPD officers. Me and my friends were threatened, frisked and discriminated against to the point where many of us never made it past high school,” said Nilesh Viswashrao, an 18-year-old youth leader of Desis Rising Up and Moving. “One particular incident was when I walked into a fight outside of my school and NYPD officers and SSAs came to break it up, and even though I had nothing to do with it, I was handcuffed to a fence and searched by the officers and then questioned.”

During that incident, Viswashrao said she was given a $50 fine and a court summons.

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, police arrested or ticketed about 14 students each day in New York City public schools from October through December 2011. Among arrested students—the only group for whom racial data was released—60 percent were Black. Black students comprise only 29 percent of the student population in city schools yet are almost nine times more likely to be arrested than white students.

“This data demonstrates that the impact of heavy-handed policing in city schools falls mostly on African-American students, who suffered more than 60 percent of the arrests, and on male students, who suffered nearly three-quarters of all arrests,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “If the Bloomberg administration is truly serious about helping young men of color succeed, they must address these disparities and focus more attention on educating children—not arresting them.”

While the numbers do not describe the specifics of each incident that took place, accounts of student arrests for offenses like writing on a desk, cursing and pushing or shoving all point to police personnel becoming involved in disciplinary infractions that should be handled by educators, the NYCLU says.

“For a young person, having a record can affect the rest of his or her life,” said Esperanza Vazquez, a parent leader with New Settlement Apartments Parent Action Committee in the Bronx. “One arrest can deny you access to a higher education, to future employment and to many other opportunities that most of us take for granted. Suspensions, too, are pushing our youth out of schools and into the streets, into the criminal justice system, into low-wage jobs, therefore continuing the cycle of poverty.”

The Department of Education referred the AmNews to the NYPD because they said it’s a police issue. An inquiry has been sent to NYPD, but there was no response by press time.

Originally published here.

By Angel Jennings, Los Angeles Times, 2/23/12

Los Angeles leaders reduce the amounts of fines and offer revised penalties for students who are trying to attend class but are late.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to amend the city's daytime curfew law, which allowed police to ticket students who arrived at school after the start of class, even if they had not intended to be truant.

During an hour-long discussion, more than 30 people criticized the rule as financially crippling — fines and court costs could surpass $800 — and criminalizing to students who, though tardy, were trying to attend school. Many of those fined came from low-income families that could ill afford such costs.


Truancy is a major issue in L.A. not just because the city wants all students to be properly educated, but also because the Los Angeles Unified School District receives money from the state based on daily attendance. Officials also noted that students are more likely to commit crimes or become victims of crimes when they are not in school.

Under the old policy, a student who received a truancy ticket had to appear in court with a parent. A judge would issue a fine and order the student to be on time for the next 60 days or face more legal trouble. Both the parent and student had to return two months later for a follow-up, causing the student to miss school time and the parent to lose wages.

"School attendance is not a court issue," said Judge Michael Nash, who presides over the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court. "School attendance is an issue for the student, the family, the school and the community."

The council ended up amending the law by applying a "graduated sanction" clause that calls for first- and second-time offenders to receive no more than 20 hours of community service. Alternatively, students could be referred to school-based programs such as counseling, tutoring, or mentoring to help them find ways to reach school on time.

Only after the third offense would students face a one-time fine of $20. The tickets can accumulate to as high as $155 after mandatory court fees are tacked on.

The amendment codified an agreement between civil rights attorneys from the Public Counsel Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Los Angeles Police Department, and took that deal one step further by setting a fine cap. In April, the LAPD agreed to exercise leniency during the first hour of class and to stop daytime curfew sweeps except when criminal activity is suspected by youths in a school area.

"This is not a permission slip to be late," said Councilman Tony Cardenas, who initiated the law's changes. "There are still consequences."

Cardenas spent three years working out the agreement with community leaders, including Nash, Police Chief Charlie Beck, and L.A. Board of Education President Monica Garcia.

After the vote, proponents of the change — including scores of student protesters — erupted into applause. They left City Hall chanting and waving signs.

"I'm glad we can make a change in history," said Cindy Gomez, a senior at University High School in L.A.'s Sawtelle neighborhood. "This law is something that affects us and will affect my little brother and cousins and future generations."

Originally published here.
 

(ABC Local, 2/18/2012) - Watch Video - School protest halted after board agrees to meet

February 18, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The school building now quiet after parents staging a sit-in ended their protest. They say that although they recognize that CPS may still go ahead with their turnaround plan, the parents say they did achieve their goal of a moral victory, and the sit-in is over.

"This was our last resort and we did not want history to repeat itself," said protest spokesperson Cecilia Carrol. "With an arbitrary vote on the fourth Wednesday of every February that lacks community input and fair just process."

At least a dozen parents and others ended their protest after having their demand to meet with a school board member met.

The protest began Friday, and continued Saturday as the community railed against the Chicago Public School plan to slate Brian Piccolo Elementary School for turnaround.

"Piccolo has actually failed students year after year and we're seeing them consistently fall in the bottom five percent of the district."

"The parents have spoken in this school," said Christine Mayle of the Chicago Teachers' Union. "They polled the parents and 90 percent of them said they didn't support this turnaround idea. The mayor is always talking about school choice. These parents have chosen and this is not what they want."

The school has been on academic probation for the past five years, but protesters say neither turnaround nor a takeover by the academic urban school leadership is the answer.

"We already did a turnaround when C.P.S. appointed our principal here in July," said local school council member Latrice Watckins. "Ever since she has been here, she has been doing excellent things."

"I think it's important for them to have some stability, at least with school, if they're not getting it anywhere else," said Nancy Barraza Piccolo Specialty School teachers' aide.

The turnaround plan could lead to the school being closed and the staff fired, or it would be run by a private non-profit.

That was met with opposition from teachers and students

"It makes me mad because if the other teachers come here and try to take the other teacher's place and they don't even know us and try to fix it, it won't feel right," said student Erinae Barnes.

Parents plan to meet with school board officials Monday in advance of the board's Tuesday meeting where the school's fate will be finalized.
 

Read More Coverage:

By ABC7's Diane Pathieu

Watch Video - Chicago Parents Occupy School to Protest "Turnaround"

February 18, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- As many as 100 parents, students and activists are camping out at an elementary school on the city's West Side in an attempt to get the mayor's attention and prevent the school from being overhauled.

The group is waking up inside the halls of Brian Piccolo Elementary School. They're protesting plans to "turnaround" the school, which, if approved, would lead to teachers and staff being replaced.

"We want to hear from the mayor," said Latoya Wells, a parent of a Piccolo student. "Hear us. We are taxpayers. We have a right. We have a say so. These are our kids."

"I disagree (with) what CPS says," said seventh-grader Larry Davis. "They're not failing us. It takes a process to fail a child."

Piccolo has been on academic probation for the last five years and in a statement, CPS said, "We need to make difficult, but necessary, decisions to boost student achievement throughout the district and put their needs before all else."

The protestors, who call themselves part of the "Piccolo Occupation, " want a meeting with the mayor and school board members to plead their case. "They are spending a lot of money to try to turn these schools around, but the data on school turnarounds does not show that there is any increase in scores," said teacher Nate Rasmussen. "The data is, you know, spotty, at best."

Read More Coverage:

Telemundo: “No necesitamos que experimenten con nuestros hijos”

Chicago Sun Times: Parents occupy school, demand to talk with Rahm

By Donna St. George, The Washington Post, 2/12/2012

Thousands of elementary students were suspended from public schools last year in Washington and its suburbs, some of them so young that they were learning about out-of-school discipline before they could spell or multiply.

Those sent home for their behavior included kindergartners in nearly every area school system — 94 in Prince George’s County, 74 in Fairfax County, 61 in Anne Arundel County, 50 in the D.C. school system, 38 in Prince William County and 22 in Montgomery County.

They included children who idled at home for a day or two and some who accompanied their parents to work.

They included the pre-kindergarten son of Rajuawn Thompkins, who said the boy was removed from his D.C. charter school for kicking off his shoes and crying in frustration. Thompkins had thought the boy was too young to be suspended.

He was 4.

“I would explain it to him, and he still didn’t understand,” she said. “He’d ask me, ‘Mommy, why can’t I go to school?’ ”

His pointed question underlies a debate about the merits of out-of-school suspension.

Some researchers and critics question whether children in the early grades should ever be suspended. The goal should be teaching appropriate behavior, they say, not sending students home.

Still, many educators see suspension as necessary — a strong message about conduct that crosses the line. Many parents, too, suggest that students who cause a disruption in class, no matter what age, need to be removed. Especially when a child or teacher has been physically hurt, many principals view suspension as an important tool.

A Washington Post analysis of data for 13 of the region’s school systems found that last school year more than 6,112 elementary students, from pre-kindergarten through grade 5, were suspended or expelled for hitting, disrupting, disrespecting, fighting and other offenses.

The total includes 433 kindergartners, 677 first-graders, 813 second-graders and 1,086 third-graders. More than 50 pre-kindergartners were suspended.

In all, those cases represent a small segment of suspensions in the region, and affect from 1 percent to 3 percent of elementary children in most school systems. But some experts say that age sets them apart.

For children younger than 7 or 8, “all they understand a couple of days into this is they are having snow days — and nobody else is,” said Walter S. Gilliam, author of a national study on pre-kindergarten expulsions and director of the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at the Yale Child Study Center.

Gilliam said suspension is at odds with teaching the social and behavioral skills many young students lack. “We would never send a child home because that child was struggling at reading,” he said. “We would never send a child home if that child was struggling with math. Why would we send a child home for struggling with social-emotional skills?”

On those removed from school, the effect is complex. They lose instruction time and slip behind in classes. But there may be other fallout, too: lower regard from peers or teachers, a shift in identity, an alienation from school. “I would be worried it would set in motion a negative trajectory that would gather momentum across the next years of schooling,” said Anne Gregory, a Rutgers University assistant professor and education researcher.

School officials said they try to avoid suspensions of the very young and use positive-behavior initiatives to prevent discipline problems. They said that relatively few students are suspended and that those cases often involve safety issues or repeated misbehavior.

“To me a suspension is for something so unprovoked, or something so out of the norm, that I, as the adult, had no other option,” said Judy Brubaker, principal at Spark M. Matsunaga Elementary School in Germantown.

Brubaker and other principals said they carefully consider each case and often look to other options — involving parents and counselors, creating behavior plans — before suspension.

It is “absolutely not our default,” said Kimberly Willison, principal of Clearview Elementary School in Herndon, who recalled several cases, each with escalated circumstances. “It’s not something we ever do lightly,” she said.

In Alexandria, Lawrence Jointer, director of hearings, investigations and student alternative services, said discipline problems appear to have intensified during his career of four decades. “We see aggressive behavior from kindergarten on up,” he said, and it is tough to affect that behavior when parents are disengaged.

“I understand it gets to a point where principals and teachers feel they’ve tried everything they can,” he said. Sometimes, suspension is a way to “drive the point home: ‘This is serious behavior we’re dealing with at school, and we need your support.’ ”

Nationally, suspension practices are being debated and rethought. The Maryland State Board of Education is considering proposals to end suspensions for nonviolent offenses. Last summer, federal officials launched a broader discipline reform effort as new research highlighted harmful effects.

Many experts say no research indicates that suspensions improve a child’s behavior or make schools safer. But studies have shown that suspended students are more prone to low achievement, dropping out of school and landing in the juvenile justice system.

In elementary school, behavior problems can be rooted in academic gaps — being unable to read, for example, when classmates are poring over books, said Sara Rimm-Kaufman, associate professor of education at University of Virginia. “It’s an emotional response to not knowing what everyone else knows,” she said.

Suspensions have markedly increased nationwide since the 1970s, and some experts suggest that suspensions of younger children reflect, in part, a zero-tolerance culture that has taken hold in schools during the past 20 years.

Among cases that attracted national attention was the 2010 suspension of a Michigan 6-year-old who formed his hand into the shape of a gun. A year earlier, a Delaware 6-year-old was ousted for having a Cub Scout camping tool that included a knife.

Last spring, an 8-year-old boy in Fairfax pocketed a pill for his attention deficit disorder as he rushed to leave for school. After he went to take the medication during a restroom break, he was suspended for possession of a controlled substance, his mother said.

Fairfax, which was under fire at the time for its discipline policies, has since eased its approach to prescription medication, allowing principals more discretion in punishment. The 8-year-old was out of class for 10 school days, his mother said. “It was extreme,” she said.

Fairfax School Board member Elizabeth Schultz (Springfield) said the key to suspension is “proportionality.” Some families have complained about elementary-age students suspended for disrupting class and going to the bathroom repeatedly, she said. “To me, it has to be really significant,” she said, such as imminent danger.

Psychologists and researchers say suspensions can send the wrong message.

“At that age, most of them go home, and if they are allowed to watch TV or play video games, it can be more fun than school and reinforce the behavior that is negative,” said school psychologist Melissa Reeves, who teaches at Winthrop University in South Carolina.

Some schools, Reeves said, rely on suspension because they lack funding for other options. “The challenge,” she said, “is having the resources for alternatives,” programs that teach anger management, social skills, problem-solving and conflict resolution.

In Prince George’s, A. Duane Arbogast , chief academic officer for county schools, said suspension is one of many tools to improve student conduct. Sometimes, it is also needed to set a tone in a school or to be responsive to victims. “It should be used tactically and strategically,” he said.

Arbogast said the 94 kindergartners suspended in Prince George’s last year represent a small share of those enrolled. “About 1 percent,” he said. “. . .Ten percent would be crazy. One percent does not surprise me.”

In Arlington County, Assistant Superintendent Meg Tuccillo said that elementary-age suspensions are rare — 13 last year across 22 schools — but that one might occur when, for example, “a youngster has significantly hurt another youngster.” She added: “Sometimes, either we need time to develop a plan or we need a breathing period.”

Advocates and parents say behavior problems are sometimes signs of undiagnosed disabilities. A second-grader with autistic-like behaviors, prone to meltdowns, was suspended for more than 10 days of kindergarten in Prince George’s, his mother said, and several days of first grade. Now in second grade, the child has qualified for special education services, but he already has lost nine days to suspension and informal send-homes, his mother said.

“It was like he was being suspended for his disability,” she said.

In general, the school system is cautious about such designations, said Arbogast, the academic chief. “You don’t want to necessarily put a label on a kid at age 5,” he said.

How many of the young fully grasp their punishment is hard to know.

“Some can understand the conversation, but others are looking at me, kind of smiling, like, ‘What is all this about?’ ” said Jointer, of Alexandria, who presides over serious suspension cases and every so often sees a kindergartner or first grader.

Teachers describe classroom difficulties with some children lacking basic social skills, said Tim Mennuti, president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County.

In the District, Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children’s Law Center, said recent suspension cases include a kindergartner who pulled a fire alarm, a second-grader with multiple suspensions for fighting, and a third-grader accused of sexually harassing an aide.

“It is never the right answer to suspend an elementary-age child,” she said.

In young children, particularly, she said, misbehavior is a sign of something deeper — family problems, learning disabilities, academic gaps. “It is a sign they are experiencing something in their lives, and they should be helped,” she said.

For parents, suspensions have ripple effects.

Thompkins, whose pre-kindergartner was suspended from Imagine Hope Community Charter School, missed work when her son was suspended and when he was less formally sent home early. “He was suspended so often I lost my job,” she said.

Several calls to the charter school for comment were not returned.

D.C. Public Charter School Board member Darren Woodruff said that charter schools have their own disciplinary practices but that suspensions in the early grades may be an issue to examine. “We support best practices and research-based practices,” he said.

A majority of Washington area school systems suspended at least one pre-kindergartner last year, the data show.

Last year, The Post profiled a pre-kindergarten case in Arlington in which a 3-year-old in a public Montessori program was removed for having too many potty accidents. Arlington officials said that the child was not suspended but that the family was asked to work on toilet skills at home for a period.

In Prince William, Todd Erickson, associate superintendent for central elementary schools, said he finds the suspension totals “rather small,” which “shows us we’re doing a good job with the other students.” He cited anti-bullying and positive-behavior efforts.

Brian Butler, a veteran Fairfax principal, said the goal of elementary-level discipline is “a teachable moment for the child.”

Age is a factor, he said. “If I had a kindergartner who hit somebody,” he said, “I would call the parents.”

Staff writer David Fallis contributed to this report.

Originally published here .

Annette Fuentes, Huffington Post, 1/21/2012

Through months of campaigning and 18 debates, the Republican presidential candidates have limned a range of issues -- from taxation and corporate personhood to abortion and gay marriage, even open marriage. Economic concerns have predictably loomed large, and of course we want to know if they'd launch a strike against Iran. But how about their views on public education?

With No Child Left Behind being overhauled and nationwide school testing scandals and teacher accountability measures in the news, K-12 public schooling is an issue that many care about deeply. So, as a public service, here is a brief synopsis of the education platforms, such as they are, of the Republican candidates, gleaned from their official Web sites and news reports.

Newt Gingrich: In addition to Gingrich's recent eyebrow-raising statements about employing school children as janitors in their schools, he has other ideas on education, which he elaborates as "A 21st Century Learning System" on his campaign website. The Gingrich system favors parent choice, which means no limits on charter schools or home schooling and no teacher unions to muck things up. Merit pay and no tenure for teachers, and a state-created "rigorous standard that allows every student everywhere to master the skills they will need to be competitive." What's not to like about rigor?

Gingrich would shrink the federal Department of Education, reducing it to a collector of data and research and turn most of the control over schools to local districts. Schools can design their own curricula -- with state approval. And the erstwhile professor provocatively calls for every student to learn to read, "and much of what they read should reinforce American civilization." Presumably, that could include such soon-to-be classics as Gingrich's own books, like Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th or Rediscovering God in America.

Mitt Romney: The man from Bain, who attended elite private schools, stands out for the complete absence of any specific educational agenda on his campaign Web site. His "Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth" mentions education fleetingly: "From preschool to PhD, America must have the best education system. If we want to turn things around, and for our economy to bloom in the future, we need an absolute focus on educational excellence." But that's about it.

In the past, Romney was for eliminating the fed ed department, but changed his mind. In his prior presidential run, he said he supported No Child Left Behind and its accountability and testing mandates, but said states need flexibility in meeting testing and achievement standards--which is exactly what the Obama administration decided to do. He supports charter schools and opposes limits on their proliferation.

Romney's proxy on education is Phil Handy, a Florida financier whom the Orland Sentinel described as a "campaign rainmaker." Handy was a three-time Jeb Bush campaign chairman, and the state's Board of Education chairman for six years. Romney last October named Handy co-chair of both his Florida Advisory Committee and his National Education Policy Committee, which apparently has not done much that is newsworthy.

Rick Santorum: The "true conservative," as Santorum calls himself, doesn't specifically focus on U.S. public schools in his platform plank called, "Restoring America's Greatness Through Educational Freedom And Opportunity."

Mostly, Santorum believes in anything-but-traditional public schools. He especially likes home schooling -- his seven children have been home schooled. He believes education is the responsibility of consumers -- the parents -- who have the "right to direct the upbringing and education of their children with local school systems supporting, as desired." His crazy-quilt, avant garde approach to schooling got his family into hot water and headlines back in 2004 when a school board member in Penn Hills went public with the fact that Santorum's family was claiming local residency when they'd actually moved years earlier to Virginia. The Santorums had enrolled five of their kids in a Pennsylvania online charter school and got the Penn Hills district to pay for it -- to the tune of about $72,000, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Santorums yanked their kids out of the Pennsylvania cyber school and were not required to repay any of the districts costs.

Santorum is a booster of charters and online learning and would remove any constraints to increasing them. Common core curricula are okay, as long as they are not forced on any school. The fed role should be limited to civil rights protections of disabled students, enabling research and promoting equality of opportunity. No mention of federal funding of schools. The problem with schools, which he doesn't identify, can only be solved at the state and local levels. Federal legislation won't work. However, Santorum used to think federal legislation was appropriate at the local school level when he was a senator. His now-infamous amendment to No Child Left Behind aimed to encourage public school science classes to teach controversies about such theories as evolution. But that was then.

Ron Paul: The libertarian Texan claims the mantle of "home schooling champion" on his campaign Web site and that means he thinks the feds should mostly get out of the way and let parents take charge of kids' education. Paul doesn't have any ideas for fixing public schools; he believes the government's most useful role is to give tax credits for home schooling and make sure that home schooling remains a "practical alternative" for families. Enough said.

Originally published here

By Sarah Karp, Catalyst Chicago, 1/25/2012

Of the 27,000 juveniles arrested in Chicago in 2010, a fifth of them were taken into custody at school. More than two-thirds of those arrested were black and 75 percent were male.

A youth advocacy group is calling on Chicago aldermen to pass a student safety act similar to one in New York City that forces the school district to reveal the number of arrests, suspensions and expulsions per school every quarter.

Data published as a result of the New York City ordinance have led to important revelations, such as the finding that at least one black male student is arrested in school each day, says Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA.

“This information is conspicuously missing from the school report card,” Kaba says. “This is information that we need to hold our system accountable.”

On Wednesday, Project NIA released a report on arrests in schools, but the information was difficult to get and came from the Chicago Police Department and not CPS, whose officials say they don’t keep tabs on arrests.

The report reveals that student arrests are a major concern. Of the 27,000 juveniles arrested in Chicago in 2010, a fifth of them were taken into custody at school. More than two-thirds of those arrested were black and 75 percent were male.

“It clearly shows that black males are being targeted,” says Frank Edwards, a professor of sociology at DePaul University and a volunteer with Project NIA. He says that black students are 1.6 times more likely to be arrested at school than their peers.

Principals have mindset of “needing cops”

Kaba says she’s optimistic that a student safety act could fly in Chicago. She notes that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made data transparency a big push.

But at CPS, the idea might be controversial. Getting student suspension and expulsion information at the school level has always required a Freedom of Information Act request. In recent years, much of the information is redacted because of privacy concerns.

Also, police have a strong presence in schools and principals are attached to that. Most high schools have two policemen assigned to them every school day. Earlier this year, CPS officials tried to convince principals to give them up in exchange for extra cash. But few principals took the offer.

“The mindset of needing cops is so embedded and cemented,” Kaba says. “That is the environment we are dealing with.”

The number one offense among student arrests is simple battery, which is usually fighting.  Other top reasons include drug abuse violations and disorderly conduct. Few students are arrested for violent crimes.

Project NIA staff are still trying to obtain school-level data from police.

For the most part, the communities with many juvenile arrests also have a lot of school-based arrests. Austin and North Lawndale are exceptions, as they are among the top five communities in juvenile arrests, but not in school-based arrests. Kaba says the situation bears investigation.

Restorative justice still largely untried

In addition to more transparency, Kaba also would like to see more funding for restorative justice programs. The current student code of conduct calls on schools to use restorative justice techniques such as peace circles and peer juries. But the strategies have never taken root in a wide number of schools, since many principals and teachers don’t know how to use these techniques and there’s little money to train them. In addition, some school staff are not convinced that the techniques are effective.

Naomi Milstein, who runs the restorative justice training programs at Alternatives, says that there’s more awareness and desire to do restorative justice. Yet training is hard to come by. Also, since turnover is high in CPS, schools might train one set of staff members but then need to train new people a few years later.

The student code of conduct is currently being rewritten, and Kaba and Milstein would like more explicit directives in terms of restorative justice.

Kaba and Project NIA also are working with state legislators on getting juvenile arrest records expunged. Though most think such arrest records are not accessible, they often show up years later when prospective employers are doing background checks.

Kaba learned this the hard way. A young woman whom she worked with called her, upset that she had been denied a nursing license after attending nursing school--based on a criminal record. At first, the young woman had no idea of the basis of the denial, but then, Kaba says, she remembered that she had been arrested after getting into a fight on her school campus.

“Within 15 minutes of getting to the police department, she was released to her parents,” Kaba says. “She had no idea that she was booked.”

Kaba, who knows the system, was able to get the record cleared up within a week, but she says many  young people don’t have an advocate like her.

“Something like this could cause them to crumble,” she says. “Or it would take a million months to get cleared up.”

Originally published here.

Jason Langberg, Op-Ed, News Observer, 01/23/12

RALEIGH -- It's a new year and an opportunity for a fresh start in the Wake County Public School System. Now is the time to join together with a renewed focus on student achievement - and to improve student achievement we must address school discipline, as the two are inextricably linked.

Last year, positive changes alleviated the school system's discipline crisis, including additional seats at Mary Phillips High School, revisions to the Code of Conduct and the creation of Alternative Learning Centers. However, thousands upon thousands of students - disproportionately male students, black students and students with disabilities - are still being pushed out of schools and onto a path toward poverty and prison.

Academic failure; inadequate prevention, intervention and alternative programs; suspensions; school-based arrests and court referrals, along with other policies and practices, contribute to the problem.

The following resolution, if adopted and accomplished, would go a long way toward much-needed, comprehensive, sustained discipline reform, ensuring that schools are places where children are nurtured, supported, inspired, treated fairly and equitably and given every opportunity to succeed.

During 2012, in furtherance of its mission to "significantly increase achievement for all students...," the system resolves to:

• Support students by: implementing Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in all schools; following high-quality Personal Education Plans for students at risk of academic failure and Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities; and making significant investments in Counseling and Student Services.
• Support parents/guardians by: initiating parent/guardian leadership institutes and informational workshops; building relationships through an Office of Family and Community Engagement, parent information and resource centers, parent liaisons and more accessible meetings and events; and providing teachers and administrators with professional development and time for family engagement.
• Support teachers' efforts to keep students engaged and academically successful by providing them with adequate instructional resources, support staff (e.g., teaching assistants, psychologists, and social workers) and behavior management and interventions training.
• Support administrators' efforts to maintain safe and orderly learning environments by improving the availability of high-quality: prevention programs (such as PBIS); behavioral interventions (mentoring and mental health services); and alternatives to suspension (such as restorative justice).
• Make the Code of Conduct fairer by: including a section on students' rights; prohibiting out-of-school suspension for minor offenses; limiting the length of long-term suspensions; requiring administrators to use alternatives to suspension when available and appropriate, and to specify, in writing, which mitigating factors were considered; and providing stronger due process protections.
• Modify the memorandum of understanding among the school system and local law enforcement agencies to ensure that all school resource officers: play a clear, consistent role; are highly qualified and well-trained; have positive influences on and interactions with students and staff; and are properly limited and accountable.
• Ensure that suspended students are safe and productive, and make adequate academic progress, by improving the availability and use of high-quality structured day programs and non-computer-based alternative schools.
• Ensure the availability and use of an array of services by collaborating closely and strategically with community-based organizations.
• Improve transparency and oversight by creating a school discipline committee - made up of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community members - to perform tasks such as reviewing data and revising policies and practices.
• Improve accountability by collecting and publishing standardized, disaggregated data (i.e., by the students' school, grade, gender, race, disability, free and reduced-price lunch status, and offense) on: placement in Alternative Learning Centers and alternative schools and programs; bus suspensions; in-school, short-term, long-term, and 365-day suspensions; and expulsions.

Ending the school push-out crisis once and for all isn't about Democrats or Republicans, claiming credit or placing blame. Instead, it's about our collective moral responsibility to our children - to safeguard their civil and human rights; to protect them from discouragement, stigmatization, trauma and the streets; and to provide them with the education they need to thrive in adulthood.

It's also about: treating mistakes and childishness as part of normal adolescent development and "teachable moments;" recognizing research and dispelling the myths that suspension is a deterrent to misbehavior and makes schools safer, and that the juvenile and criminal justice systems are rehabilitative; raising academic achievement and graduation rates, narrowing achievement gaps, and improving school climates; and saving money on policing, prosecution, incarceration, lost economic productivity, and dependence on public assistance.

Many Wake school system policies and practices have been models for districts across the country. School discipline reform here can similarly be a national model. Other school systems made comprehensive changes in 2011. In 2012, it's our turn.

Jason Langberg is an Equal Justice Works fellow/attorney at Advocates for Children's Services, a statewide project of Legal Aid of North Carolina.

Originally published here.