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By Dr. Harry Tennant
Thursday, February 3, 2011 Discipline: Suspending The Education Of Students By Mandating Vacations The decision to remove a child from an instructional setting for any reason is increasingly frowned upon. Students miss instructional time for quite a few reasons in our schools. From scheduled school activities including games and contests, to out-of-school appointments and family obligations, to pull-outs from other instruction to remediate unrelated instructional deficits, to all sorts of other discretionary activities. Perhaps the most difficult to reconcile is taking at-risk students out of the instructional setting for disciplinary reasons. The learning gaps may never be closed. In-School suspension and DAEP are, at least, educational settings. Theoretically, the student is still getting instructional support and benefits from the structure of a school setting. Suspension out-of-school, however, is another concession altogether. Many at-risk students welcome out-of-school suspension as a free day (or more) to explore their world outside of school, typically without much adult oversight. Accordingly, my experience has been an increasing hesitancy to suspend students out-of-school except in situations requiring the immediate removal of a student from campus. Typically, even then, we get them back on campus or on a disciplinary campus (DAEP, for example) within three days. The article below cites a counter-trend in NYC schools that is the result of mandatory out-of-school suspensions for nearly thirty offenses. There are quite a few interesting details in this article that may cause you to question the wisdom or efficacy of "mandatory" consequences directing free student vacations for our worst offenders. Removing students from the instructional setting, on occasion (for one or another reason), is unavoidable. Even emergency removals to out-of-school settings are unavoidable. Can anyone, however, defend the numbers cited in this New York Times article? Would you rather these thousands of young people be wandering the streets...or...is there a better way to "discipline" students without offering free vacation time? Much more detail can be found in the article by clicking the image below. A few lines from the article follow: "The number of New York City student suspensions more than doubled in the six years after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of public schools and as the city moved toward a zero-tolerance approach toward misbehavior, according to a report released on Thursday. The report, compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union and based on 10 years of previously undisclosed suspension statistics, echoed a nationwide trend toward mandatory suspensions for an increasing variety of infractions. In the city, at least, the suspensions have also kept students away from the classroom for longer periods." ...Of roughly 74,000 suspensions given out in the 2008-9 school year, about 11,000 lasted one to five days, while 5,500 ran anywhere from 30 days to one year, the analysis shows. There were roughly 32,000 suspensions in 2002, and the vast majority of them lasted five days or less."...The report recommends ending the zero-tolerance policy and improving access to guidance counselors, social workers and school psychologists. It also asks the Education Department to make its data more accessible; Ms. Lieberman said it took her organization two years to get the statistics on suspensions through a Freedom of Information Law request." 
Posted at 11:53 AM Keywords: Discipline , Attendance , Student Suspensions , At-Risk Students 1 Comments |
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Seth Stephens said... In my opinion, missing days of school as a type of "discipline" can only be an effective learning experience, but rarely is, if the student has strong involvement by the parents. More often than not these specifically are the students that are lacking that fundamental ingredient already. I know that not so long ago when I attended high school, out of school suspension was funny to the students. "You mean I don't have any 'real' consequences, and I get a couple of days off. Sweet." In stark contrast, ISS, or as we referred to it at my school 'AEP' was no laughing matter. Something to be avoided at all costs. What do today's kids value enough to be used as a viable potential consequence? Freedom and social interaction. One option takes both away, and the other provides an excess of both. Seems like common sense. Friday, February 4, 2011 12:08 AM |