The unfinished business of school discipline

The unfinished business of school discipline

by | Apr 11, 2018 | K12 Education, National, school discipline

Educators are doing something right inside our public school buildings. While it’s not often reported, indicators of disciplinary problems have been showing steady declines in recent decades, including for such serious infractions as gang activity, physical threats of violence, and weapons carried on school property. But it’s too early to start high-fiving. A new study further reveals that the overall picture is hiding disturbing and persistent inequities in how discipline is administered.

First, let’s look at what’s moving in the right direction:

  • Between 2000 and 2016, the percentage of public schools reporting at least weekly incidents of bullying fell from 29.3 to 11.9%. Over the same time period, schools also saw declines in student verbal abuse of teachers (12.5 to 4.8%); student to student sexual harassment (4.0 to 1.0%); and gang activity (18.7 to 10.4%).
  • Since 1993, the percentage of high school students who reported being in a physical fight at school decreased by half (16 to 8%); students who said they had carried a weapon (defined as a gun, knife or club) in school fell from 12 to 4%.
  • Schools are reporting fewer “serious disciplinary actions“ against students for fighting, insubordination, and possession or distribution of illegal drugs or weapons. In 2005-06, nearly half — 48.1% — of public schools had on at least one occasion removed a student for five days or more. That percentage dropped to 37.2% in 2015-16.
  • The number of students who have been subject to such disciplinary actions has fallen even more dramatically, from 3.9 million in 2005-06 to about 600,000 in 2015-16.

Unfortunately, not all students were equal beneficiaries of these improvements. The non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office examined how school discipline practices affect black students, boys, and students with disabilities compared to their classmates. Its report was developed at the request of Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and was released in March of this year.

The authors analyzed the most recent data (2013-14) from the Office of Civil Rights in order to compare the proportion of disciplinary actions received by different student groups compared to their representation in the overall student population. Here’s what they found:

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One year in, teachers hand DeVos an ‘F’ grade

One year in, teachers hand DeVos an ‘F’ grade

by | Feb 9, 2018 | Betsy DeVos, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), K12 Education, U.S. Department of Education

WASHINGTON — One year after U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was sworn in, teachers’ groups delivered “report cards” to her place of employment, grading the secretary on her performance protecting students’ civil rights, ensuring educational equity and providing funding for students of color and low-income students.

Predictably, the teachers did not grade on a curve.

The groups, which have largely been adversarial during DeVos’ tenure, gave her all Fs. They also delivered what they said were 80,000 individual teachers’ evaluations of DeVos, along with comments about what she’d see if she visited their classrooms.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who addressed a small group of activists gathered in the cold outside the U.S. Education Department on Thursday, said 90% of the teachers “frankly gave Betsy DeVos a failing grade.”

DeVos’ spokeswoman, Liz Hill, said the department is happy to get feedback, but added, “It’s unfortunate that instead of working to have productive dialogue, the union decided it was important to pull teachers out of the classroom for a two-hour political publicity stunt — for which they shot their own footage to send to media outlets.”

For her part, DeVos marked her first year on the job this week saying her proudest accomplishments were shrinking the role of the department and rolling back Obama-era regulations and guidance on several issues.

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