Did school crime cover-up lead to Trayvon’s death?
By covering up students’ crimes, Miami-Dade schools contributed to Trayvon Martin’s death, argues Robert Stacy McCain on the American Spectator‘s blog. District policy was to treat crimes as...
View ArticleJust eat the damn marshmallow
In their zeal to produce self-regulating, calm, marshmallow-postponing students, schools are failing non-conformists, writes Elizabeth Weil in The New Republic. Do we want a generation of Stepford...
View ArticleIf not suspension, then what?
California schools are reducing suspension rates, reports Sharon Noguchi in the San Jose Mercury News. Pressed by law enforcement, civil-rights advocates and the realization that the way they...
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Tough teachers are the best
Tough teachers teach more, writes Joanne Lipman in the Wall Street Journal. Lipman is co-author, with Melanie Kupchynsky, of Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Gift of Great Expectations. The...
View ArticleThe softer side of KIPP
KIPP schools aren’t militaristic or joyless — much less “concentration camps — write Alexandra M. Boyd, Robert Maranto and Caleb Rose in Education Next. We found that schools that begin by establishing...
View ArticlePushed out
Let’s return to common-sense discipline and stop suspending, expelling and arresting students for minor offenses, argues Advancement Project. Overusing suspensions and replacing counselors with metal...
View ArticleHow parents choose schools
Georgia parents don’t choose private schools for their test scores, concludes More Than Scores, a study of the the state’s tax-credit scholarship program by the Friedman Foundation for Educational...
View ArticleFeds won’t tolerate ‘zero tolerance’
“Zero tolerance” policies — adopted to ensure uniform punishments — are too harsh, says the Obama administration, which issued an advisory on school discipline. “Ordinary troublemaking can sometimes...
View ArticleSuspended learning
Reformers should support the Obama administration’s effort to “reduce the overuse of suspensions and expulsions,” argues RiShawn Biddle in a Dropout Nation podcast. Harsh discipline pushes troubled...
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A ‘no excuses’ school day
A Day in the Life of a No Excuses Charter School Student is highly regimented and repressive, writes Sarah Goodis-Orenstein on the Center for Teaching Quality site. After four years teaching English at...
View ArticleDisciplining the undisciplined
Federal “guidance” on school discipline could “have a chilling effect . . . potentially leading to unruly and unsafe classrooms,” warned senior House Republicans in a letter to Education Secretary Arne...
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Expulsion is ‘heartbreaking but necessary’
Chicago charter schools expel 6 of every 1,000 students compared to .5 for public schools, the district reported. ”At three campuses in the Noble Network of Charter Schools, which has faced backlash...
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Silent or spoiled for ‘Game of Thrones’
A French math teacher quiets classroom chatter by threatening to write Game of Thrones spoilers on the board. Most of his students are fans of the TV series. The teacher has read all the books. When...
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Behavior explains discipline disparity
Angel Rojas, shot to death on a New York City bus, is mourned by his wife and children. A Dominican immigrant, Rojas worked two jobs to support his family. — New York Daily News Kahton Anderson, 14,...
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Intensive math in a barn
Ben Chavis turned the failing American Indian Charter School in Oakland into three very high-scoring schools — and was forced to step down after charges of financial mismanagement and overly strict...
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Too strict?
A student at Lyons Community School in New York prepares for a student “circle.” Is this working? asks a story on school discipline policies for NPR’s This American Life. Reporter Chana Jaffe-Walt...
View ArticleHow strict is too strict?
How Strict Is Too Strict? asks Sarah Carr in The Atlantic. Many high-performing urban charter schools “share an aversion to even minor signs of disorder,” she writes. Critics say students — most are...
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Are military academies the answer?
Youth Challenge cadets at the Grizzly Academy in San Luis Obispo, California Military training can turn Strugglers Into Strivers, writes Hugh Price, the former Urban League chief turned Brookings’...
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Black girls face harsher discipline
Photo Mikia Hutchings, 12, and her lawyer, Michael J. Tafelski, at a hearing on school discipline. Credit(Photo: Kevin Liles for The New York Times) Black girls’ face harsher school discipline than...
View ArticleLearners have rights too
Charter schools with strict discipline policies provide learning opportunities for motivated students, wrote Mike Petrilli in a New York Times debate on school discipline. That’s why parents are...
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