Now there are many good things going on in the district, however these are the ones that people seem to have differing opinions on.
Parents concerned about discipline in the Middle schools. Probably a well justified concern. It seems I hear more about Code Yellow and Red days of late. For folk not in the these schools, these are different levels of lock down... Thoughts?
Sun Sailor: Discipline Problems
Sun Sailor: Middle School Parents raise concerns
I am not a big fan of PBIS... "district has fully embraced Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a research-based framework of schoolwide interventions designed to keep students in class" It seems like it should make sense, yet keeping disruptive kids in class to the detriment of Teachers and the Other student is a problem. Also, I heard that they have been lightening up on some of the zero tolerance rules and punishments. Any details?
RDALE Behavior Resources
RDALE Emergency Plans
PBIS
Enough said, when will Cavanagh be empty and ready for sale. And is Pilgrim Lane sold yet? Those capital and reduced maintenance dollars would come in handy. Especially if we want to upgrade schools and technology.
Sun Sailor: 287's North Education Center
Transprotation frustration and changes continue.
Sun Sailor: School Bus Changes
Sun Sailor: Shame on 281
Sun Sailor: Taxpayers taken on ride
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15 comments:
"Listening Time" has been interesting this spring. The parents even won a round, regarding the secret waiting lists for magnet schools. The April meeting caught the normally well prepared Supt flat-footed, seemingly uninformed about discipline issues even as a Board member indirectly confirmed. Regardless, I always find it amusing when someone claims to a customer that a change is not a change, especially when that change is clearly just a first step.
As for the bus change, I think the District did the right thing and will realize the savings promised, same thing many other districts have done, and successfully.
I am really unsure how to handle this discipline issue. It is pretty easy when the at risk or behaviorially challenged group is 3% of the population. However it is a totally different situation when it goes into double digits.
Especially when you can't expel them and the parents often are indifferent or overwhelmed at best, and supportive of the bad behavior at worst. As the Orono Principal once told me, his friend the Rdale Principal faced challenges the he could not even imagine dealing with in his school.
How far do we go to save the 5 kids at the expense of the 25 kids?
And do those 5 kids need nuturing and understanding? Or a good dose of consistency and discipline?
I appreciate the "on the scene" reporting as it puts a real face on some of the hypothetical/philosophical discussions we have here. Unfortunately, I think it tends to confirm the glass half full outlook. More correctly, perhaps, it's the "glass clear full" situation, where the glass is full of only hot air and eduspeak.
Certainly discipline is a fundamental requirement for schooling to succeed. Public schools should have better discipline tools but to get that they have to surrender the legal requirement that everybody attend, so that they can penalize those who won't discipline themselves with having to pay-- by finding alternative and costly private schooling. A universal voucher system would work wonders.
The PBIS is just so much hot air, but it points out the fundamental flaw of public school discipline, that it is seen as something imposed on the students, rather than INSTILLED in them. A challenging curriculum with high expectations, and extra help for those that struggle with it, would do vastly more to create SELF-discipline in students (and Self Esteem, too) and make them vastly better citizens along the way.
J. Ewing
We don't need vouchers to implement that simple plan... We give our Public schools the authority to expel permanently the troubling kids/parents.
Then educating those kids would be the problem of the Parents. Or maybe they would need to just settle for a 2nd grade education... I wonder how that would work out for our society...
Do you really think that Parents that are too irresponsible to raise well behaved kids are responsible enough to pay extra money for a more expensive school that requires more discipline?
I don't know that it's an either-or situation. You cannot, in the name of logic (nothing resembling the law, of course) simultaneously require all kids to attend school and then deny them access to one.
You also cannot say that education is a public good-- the great equalizer giving every citizen their chance-- and then not let all the "public" participate in it. Vouchers solve both problems, dumping the responsibility on parents to select a school and see that kids do well because, if they don't, the school can refuse to accept their voucher sending them to a (no doubt more expensive) school for such kids.
J.
If you had vouchers, what would you do to the Parents that did not "do well"? Responsibility without accountability is pointless.
As for kicking them out of Public school and requiring them to have an education. I don't see these as mutually exclusive.
These Parents would just have to foot the whole cost of that Private that can deal with the child. This would be an excellent incentive. Now how do we hold the Parents accountable?
"As for kicking them out of Public school and requiring them to have an education. I don't see these as mutually exclusive. "
I am not seeing where I disagree with that; it is exactly what I am proposing. But if you require parents to educate their kids and then "foot the whole bill" themselves you set up a huge civil rights lawsuit and do great damage to the notion of education as a public good. The vouchers set up what might be a much smaller penalty for parents who fail to parent properly, but more importantly establish in the minds of many parents the notion that they HAVE the responsibility – both financially and authoritatively – for their child's education. Vouchers will not completely or immediately eliminate discipline problems in the public schools, but I believe they would be far more effective than the educational lollipops being suggested here.
J. Ewing
You made me realize that 281 hasn't expelled anyone, what, since Sicoli took over? There used to be 2 or 3 a year under Mack. It requires a Board vote, can't be on Consent Agenda as I understand it.
Are we kinder (PBIS), gentler (RTI) these days?
J,
Same question, how would you advise holding the parents accountable either way?
Speed,
Fascinating... I did not know that... I wonder what happened to those kids? And why we stopped? If there age limitations? Was a psych eval reqd? etc?
Some related links:
MDE Expulsion and Exclusion
MDE Discipline
Check this one out... District apparently has to provide education option even after the student is expelled...
MDE Parent's Guide
Maybe these rules and costs are why fewer are being expelled.
I know Rdale offers Highview, though I am not sure exactly how students get enrolled or why. Or what they can do with K - 9th graders.
Here is the AHS Student Handbook Though apparently there is a seperate Discipline Handbook. Thanks Heavens I have had no reason to no where we put it !!!
Here is another interesting link.
Rdale Alternative Program Evaluation
And finally, Rdale Student Behavior Handbook. However I am too tired to skim it...
More policies
How to hold parents accountable? Giving them the voucher is the first big step. You tell them to take it to "any school that will accept it." When the school accepts it, they say "contingent on good behavior" or somesuch. Then, before expulsion (aka refusal of next year's voucher) there are the customary 3 or more warnings. You can't MAKE them responsible, but you can make them accountable, so long as schooling remains mandatory and the funds are provided by the state to do so.
J.
So you want to fire poor Teachers / Schools...
What would you do to Parents that did not keep their kids in school?
Or getting passing grades?
I just watched "The Blind Side" this weekend... Michael's biological mother was a real peach...
I don't know what I would do with parents who did not keep their kids in school. I assume it would be the same penalties as apply under existing law, whatever it is. I'm not suggesting it be changed. What I AM suggesting is that universal vouchers would give the parents the [opportunity and] responsibility of choosing a school for their child, and that by itself would impress upon many of them the value of an education. Many of them would become immediately more engaged in what the child was actually learning, knowing both the value of the education and the price of the kid's acting out-- more money out of their own pocket. Some wouldn't. Tough. Meanwhile, the schools would have a new authority to get rid of the hostiles while simultaneously being required to offer an education of greater value that would better engage the kids and reduce discipline problems that way. So from all four corners of the triangle, discipline problems get reduced and learning improves.
J.
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