The release of a Texas study on school discipline last month should be a cause for alarm among policymakers and educators throughout the country. Unfortunately, it will probably get lost amidst the chatter that gets regarded as news these days and its importance to those who seek to find ways to reform America's public schools is likely to go unrecognized.
"Breaking School Rules" is by far the most comprehensive study on school discipline conducted in recent years. The study followed every incoming seventh grader in Texas over three years and in some cases beyond high school graduation. Its most shocking finding is that nearly 60% of the students in the study were suspended at least once (this includes in-school suspension) and an alarming 31% were suspended at least four times. African American students were over-represented among those who had been suspended and subjected to the harshest forms of discipline, including placement in alternative classrooms. A shocking 83% of African American males and 74% of Latino males in the study were suspended at least once, and one in seven students in the study was suspended at least eleven times.
This study is important for several reasons. First, it makes clear that schools are relying upon suspension and other types of exclusion as a form of punishment, often without regard to how this may affect the education and social welfare of students. The study shows a disturbingly high correlation between the number of times a student is suspended and the likelihood that they will be required to repeat a grade or fail to graduate. When one considers the fact that when a student is suspended from school they typically spend a day at home watching television or playing video games, the logic behind reliance on suspension as a form of discipline becomes even more dubious. The mere fact that many schools are repeatedly suspending the same students should make it clear that suspension is not working, particularly if the goal is to change student behavior. The study makes it clear that such practices are exacerbating the challenges schools face in raising achievement and increasing graduation rates.
The study is also important because it draws attention to what many advocates have called the school to prison pipeline. Almost 15% of the students in the study had at least one record in the juvenile justice system. The vast majority of these students were African American and Latino males, and students with learning disabilities. This suggests that rather than serving as a source of support that makes it less likely a student will one day end up in prison, for a significant number of students, school is the place where entry to the pipeline to prison begins.
Those who have been following what has happened in schools since the adoption of zero tolerance policies will undoubtedly not be surprised by this report. Although these policies were adopted in the wake of the school shootings in places like Paducah and Littleton, Colorado, the impact of the policy has been most obvious and pernicious in urban areas where suspension rates are highest. In too many cases, zero tolerance has led to zero discretion and zero good judgment on the part of school administrators. While it is essential for schools to maintain safe and orderly environments that are conducive to teaching and learning, it is equally important for schools to find ways to address the underlying causes of student misbehavior if we are to avoid pushing the neediest students out of school.
One big surprise of the report is that a number of schools in Texas have found ways to maintain suspension rates that are significantly lower than schools with similar characteristics. While half of the 1,504 schools in the study had suspension rates that matched what researchers had projected, based on the characteristics/risk factors of the student population and the school campus, the other half of the high schools had rates that varied greatly from what was projected. 22.5 percent had disciplinary rates that were significantly higher than what was projected while 27.2 percent had disciplinary rates that were significantly lower. We need to learn more about these schools and what they are doing to address student behavior.
We have known for some time that students who have given up on learning are often the most difficult to discipline in school. Such students are rarely bothered when they are removed from a classroom or suspended from school. In many cases, exclusion has a negative affect on their academic progress. The key question that we should be focused on is: how do we get these students motivated to learn and re-connected to school? If this report does nothing else, hopefully it will call attention to the fact that what we are doing now is not working and may actually making things worse. What we need is a different approach, one that is less punitive and draws upon what we know about child development.
If we want these children to grow to be contributing members of society and not drains on society, we must find a better way. No, this study does not tell us what that better way is, but the study is proof that what they are currently doing is making matters worse, not helping. Maybe now we can work on making things better…
That said, from my experience, most students are actually suspended from school for such things as fighting...usually in groups and gangs, the possession, use or selling of drugs, or continuing to cut classes when sweet reason has failed to make a difference in their behavior. They are also suspended for using profane, lewd, or vulgar language to an adult, threaten an adult, or physically attack an adult.
So...what would you really expect us to do. We are tasked to teach THE CLASS. When someone's little darling needs services beyond what we as teachers have the time and training to provide, our duty is the group of students that are trying (and willing) to attempt to get an education.
Seriously, what do you want?
In school suspension... where specific academic tasks must be completed to be released from a very boring environment... is a better plan than out of school, certainly. Detention is a much better plan. If you don't want to study in school, you certainly don't want to spend a few extra hours there. If one detention isn't enough, then give'em a month's worth, but for the Love Of Pete, don't give them three days off and expect them to behave differently next time. That's like giving your dog a cookie for barking and expecting it to learn to be quiet.
Of course, detention takes resources, and the schools don't have any.
Suspension as punishment is wrong. Unfortunately, there is a huge reason for suspension. It gives teachers (and administrators) a breather so they can get their classes on track.
Instead, we should pull disruptive kids out of class to deal with the issue, to teach them proper behavior, and draft a plan for success.
Far be it from this Okie to say anything good about Texas schools, but I fear the reality is more complicated. In my experience, for instance, schools arrest students for minor misbehavior because they are not allowed to assign the consequences prescribed by the code of conduct. Again, I don't want punishment, but we need interventions and we need to do something about the anarchy in urban schools.
We need to assess consequences according to the code of conduct and according to our best judgments, and with "fear and trembling" because we know the dangers of ostracizing kids. When our school of 350 high school kids arrested 185 people in a 173 day year, most were necessary. When we arrested kids, recently, for just arguing back because we weren't allowed to work "defiance of authority" referrals, that was obscene.
Social welfare is primarily influenced by the situation at home, not at school. Utterly ridiculous and irresponsible to blame schools for everything. School to prison pipeline? Surely you are joking! A catchy but utterly meaningless phrase in this era of newsflashes. What happened to the responsibility of the parents?
No articles or columns talk about decline in respect and decorum in the classroom. Not a word about out of control students. As always, shift the blame somewhere else. If you must know, Texas allow paddling in many school districts. Good for them!
Of course it goes without saying that having an array of disciplinary tools also emphasizes their judicious use. In many cases, teachers have NO choice if the school district has zero tolerance on an issue.
Hate to break it to you, but all the "sensitivity" you're advocating is what got us into this situation in the first place. "Human development?" How about "raising a child properly."