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Discipline in Schools that Works
by discipline.com
According to a new report titled “Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice” compiled by the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education, as school suspensions have soared over the last ten years, so has the disparity by race, ethnicity, and disability. The agency analyzed decades of data and found that black students are three times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates, and Hispanic and Native American students are also suspended at higher rates.
The report shows that students of color receive harsher punishments than white students do for both similar misdeeds and for minor discipline infractions, like dress code and cell phone violations. Some of the study’s authors suggest that the recent push toward school discipline reform that is based on cracking down on slackers and getting tougher on students is to blame for the current situation. Whatever the preferred approach to school discipline may be, when schools are given the power to use harsh discipline without giving them training and positive alternatives to go along with the discipline, it is not a surprise that it is used disproportionately against boys and young men of color in our public schools.
The study also found that suspensions are now all too common in middle schools across America. Last year, 28% of all African-American male middle school students were suspended, compared with 16.3% of Hispanics and 10% of white males. As result, civil rights groups now want indicators of school success to include how they mete out punishment and the methods of discipline used to be documented as well. Because suspensions can lead to greatly increased dropout rates, some administrators are urging school districts to lay out discipline policies that recognize that all children benefit from being in school and that the schools should weigh appropriate alternatives to suspensions and expulsions like teaching positive behavior and employing intervention techniques to prevent bad behavior in the classroom instead.
This does not signal a move toward allowing schools to tolerate disruptive or bad behavior, and administrators stress that our public schools should be safe places and if that means discipline and punishment, steps should be taken to make there is no discrimination built into in the process. Instead, the emphasis should be on including students instead of punishing students who need help and deserve an education. The report concluded that excessive discipline policies only succeed in pushing students out of schools and into the jails, and that schools need to address these findings and reform their practices going forward.
Discipline in Schools that Works
by discipline.comThe report shows that students of color receive harsher punishments than white students do for both similar misdeeds and for minor discipline infractions, like dress code and cell phone violations.
Some of the study’s authors suggest that the recent push toward school discipline reform that is based on cracking down on slackers and getting tougher on students is to blame for the current situation.
Whatever the preferred approach to school discipline may be, when schools are given the power to use harsh discipline without giving them training and positive alternatives to go along with the discipline, it is not a surprise that it is used disproportionately against boys and young men of color in our public schools.
The study also found that suspensions are now all too common in middle schools across America. Last year, 28% of all African-American male middle school students were suspended, compared with 16.3% of Hispanics and 10% of white males. As result, civil rights groups now want indicators of school success to include how they mete out punishment and the methods of discipline used to be documented as well. Because suspensions can lead to greatly increased dropout rates, some administrators are urging school districts to lay out discipline policies that recognize that all children benefit from being in school and that the schools should weigh appropriate alternatives to suspensions and expulsions like teaching positive behavior and employing intervention techniques to prevent bad behavior in the classroom instead.
This does not signal a move toward allowing schools to tolerate disruptive or bad behavior, and administrators stress that our public schools should be safe places and if that means discipline and punishment, steps should be taken to make there is no discrimination built into in the process. Instead, the emphasis should be on including students instead of punishing students who need help and deserve an education. The report concluded that excessive discipline policies only succeed in pushing students out of schools and into the jails, and that schools need to address these findings and reform their practices going forward.