As the title suggests, the article makes two arguments: (1) The Obama Administration's aggressive application of disparate impact theory to school discipline, is a bad policy; and (2) It goes beyond the scope of the federal government's authority too...It remains to be seen if the Trump Administration will rescind those policies.
The first half of the article examines both empirical evidence and opinions from teachers indicating that things are getting worse in schools as a result of the push to stop disparate impact in discipline. In addition, it discusses a poll showing that a healthy majority of teachers oppose the Obama Administration's school discipline policy.
Also in the first half, the article examines (and rejects) studies cited by the Department of Education for the proposition that disparate impact in discipline is the result of discrimination rather than differences in actual behavior. Instead it cites to better-designed studies leading to the opposite conclusion.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
School Discipline
A new paper is out that tells us what we teachers already know, that the Obama-era guidance on school discipline was a bad idea:
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3 comments:
Restorative Justice or whatever bright euphemism used by local administration has been a joke. Thanks to the concept of allowing students multiple opportunities to improve their behavior, the students in my school are more out of control than ever. We can send kids to the office and they come back smirking. They actually try to get in school suspension so they can sleep. It's a nightmare.
Are the kids likely to be suspended attending regularly, otherwise? Give the DC attendance data from last year, I am thinking not. If so, thst undercuts the argument that suspensions cause the “school to jail pipeline”. I have never seen data on that. Any answers?
I myself don't have the answer, but as I've said many times: I just don't believe that our schools, all across the country, are staffed and run by racists. I believe *culture*, and concomitant behaviors, explain disparate disciplinary outcomes far more than racism does.
Of course, whenever I hear about "institutional racism"--and it's always from a unionista--I remark how horrible it must be to admit that all those fellow union members in schools across the country are so racist :-)
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