It should be understood by parents, educators, and school administration that punitive based discipline generally does not improve behavior, learning, or safety. In zero tolerance school districts, one of the most common approaches results in the suspension or expulsion of the students as the automatic tool against emotional behavioral disorders and other discipline and behavioral issues. Some of these approaches may be the best outcome, especially with regard to drug or weapons possession by the student. However, they have been increasingly used as a response to actions or behaviors which do not threaten either the safety or
Out of school suspensions (OSS) are often enforced with the assumption that students receiving the suspension are less likely to repeat the problem behavior in the future. However, this has been proven to be false. Suspending a student for engaging in a certain behavior does not in fact serve as a deterrent from the behavior but as a deterrent from attending school instead. In actuality, receiving just a single suspension can increase the probability of a student experiencing academic failure, school dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Knowing this, some educators still believe that for many students, suspension can serve as an effective lesson. One of the greatest concerns that educators and administrators face is the matter of classroom management. It is part of their job to ensure a safe, productive and supportive classroom allowing students to learn and grow to their greatest potential. Though there are several strategies gauged towards managing a classroom, the most severe offences often lead to either in or out of school suspension. Some of the largest concerns faced with out of school suspensions is that they are often ineptly applied, used unfairly against students of color and seemingly ineffective at producing better behavior. Also known as exclusionary discipline, the majority of offenses that led to OSS have not been centered around violence but instead emphasised issues of classroom insubordination and defiance. In some rather extreme cases
In August of 2012, at Grand Rapids Community College, I was placed on Academic Probation due to my cumulative GPA dropping below the 2.0 threshold. Prior to this action, I was not driven to take the action to perform well in my classes. I was lost in the options for my future and unaware of where I would end up. It was this lack of focus and drive that reflected in my performance. This was a strong turning point in my life, and after being placed on academic probation I came to appreciate the repercussions I was facing by not prioritizing my education. It was in this year that I decided on where I wanted my college career to take me. Through the influential factors I discussed in my personal statement, I had both my mind and my future set on
(a) This study examines out-of-school suspensions in the 9th grade and their effect on high school and post-secondary outcomes. This analyses also examines demographic disparities in school suspensions, their relationship to poverty and their contribution to high school graduation and post-secondary attainment gaps. (b)
Introduction $10,510, that’s how much less a high school dropout earns annually than an individual with a high school diploma according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A dropout is less likely to be employed, more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to live in poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, due to incarceration, less paid in taxes and other factors a high school dropout costs taxpayers $292,000 over their lifetime. The financial costs alone should be enough to find ways to increase graduation rates. Research has shown early predictors of dropout are parental education level and early low literacy in the child. Families from one generation to another have a difficult time escaping poverty and families from one generation to another have difficulty improving literacy
Schools that are low performing have the highest rates of suspension and expulsion and the lowest graduation rates. According to Mississippi Today, “the dropout rate for students fell slightly to 11.8 percent in 2016, the lowest in five years.” If I were to eliminate funding as a barrier, zero tolerance policies would still exist- especially in public school systems in the South, amidst people of color. Zero tolerance policies are obstacles put in place for small infractions performed by students, which can lead to disciplinary actions such as: corporal punishment, detention, and suspension. These small infractions may be in the form of getting up without permission, excessive talking, etc. Schools should offer more alternative measures, which counsel students on their misbehavior and give the student an opportunity to amend his or her actions. These methods fall under a restorative justice model. Community organizations, like Nollie Jenkins Family Center, have proposed alternatives such as peer mediation and conflict resolution to help keep youth in a learning environment, off the streets, and away from a life of crime. A case study performed by Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program, discovered that after counseling students for infraction their number of juvenile arrests and suspension “dropped by 54%.” This could potentially be a catalyst in bending the moral arc in the direction of justice,
In 2011, the state legislators of Alaska, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland and Rhode Island all considered raising the high school dropout age to 18, yet Rhode Island was the only state that proved successful (Lewin, 2012). Only a year later, President Barack Obama urged all states to move the dropout
Background Hartford Public Schools (HPS) implements exclusionary discipline practices such as out-of-school suspension and expulsion, with 43310 student school days lost to discipline in 2009-2010. This loss of school time fell disproportionately and excessively against Black students, especially males. In the 2009-2010 school year, 52.3 percent of Black students and
Schools should leave their old ways and get rid of school suspension because this makes the student feel as though there voice is being heard in the matter. Cindy attends Turner Falls High School , Cindy has gotten herself into trouble because two boys were making racist jokes therefore she felt threatened so she throws two lunch trays at them causing her to be in the restorative justice room.Cindy has the chance to explain her point of view to the teacher without feeling pressured or frightened.One might say that it would be more efficient if
One of the causes for this problem is the zero tolerance policy in public schools. Since this rule was first started in the 1990’s it has lead to higher amounts of students being suspended from school. According to the US department of education the number of students suspended from school since 1974 went from 1.7 million to
According to information obtained in Detroit Free Press Michigan has data showing that Michigan suspends at least a thousand students in the state each year (Higgins, Tanner, 2016). Last school year, Michigan alone had suspended more than 1,300 students (Higgins, Tanner, 2016). Suspensions for schools have a distinct meaning. It the forced action of taking a student out of educational premises for an agreed upon time because of inappropriate action of the student (Department of Education, 2016). Each school has its own written code of conduct for discipline. The court case San Antonio v. Rodriguez says education in the United States is a right (Black, 2015). An examination of the due process requirements afforded students in short and long-term
Thousands of students each year worry about whether or not they will get into college and a suspension will most likely harm those chances. Suspension gets put on a student’s permanent disciplinary record and will follow him to every school he goes. Honors students can also become victims of strict zero-tolerance policies, even for minor infractions. A mark of bad conduct can easily mar a perfect GPA or test score. Everything a student has worked for can go to waste in the blink of an eye with a suspension slip. At the Sojourner Truth Academy in New Orleans, school officials suspended a group of teenage girls for singing too loudly in the cafeteria (Carr). The November 2011 incident left seniors wondering why they could not have received a lesser punishment like detention. Students are learning their lessons of misbehaving at too high a price. They gain an infamous record and lose valuable class time. Some schools do not allow suspended students to make up the work they missed, and students will go on without the grade and without learning the material. However, not all students view suspension as a bad thing, believing it to be a glorified extra school holiday. Children can slack off and grades begin to drop with more suspensions. If zero-tolerance policies are supposed to help and protect a student, then they are not working. These strict guidelines are not helping students be
Suspensions Hurt Children Suspensions hurt children by lowering academic achievement as well as widening the racial achievement gap between African American students and their peers. This is a growing topic across the country. Schools suspend students at a large cost to society as a whole. Every time a
The principal’s final verdict was so crushing that it left a lump in my throat. My childhood years of trouble making never caught up to me; I never thought it would. Every year, I would end up in one incident or another, but the result was simply a slap on the wrist. This time, there was no escaping punishment. I was to have in-school suspension for three days.
School discipline is to ensure that students and the campus staff are safe and peaceful. According to the U.S. Department of Education on Rethinking Discipline (2017), “Teachers and students deserve school environments that are safe, supportive, and conducive to teaching and learning.” The idea is to decrease bad behavior and school violence which will lead to fewer suspensions and expulsions. There are rules and limitations when it comes to student discipline; there are acts in which students can and must be disciplined. For examples, if a student quality’s for special needs some different guidelines protect them under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA). Furthermore, the Education Code, Section 48900 was implied to discipline students who committed any wrongful doing such as attempting or threatening to physical harm another person. In the case f any wrongfulness, the student is forced to be disciplined by being suspended or expulsed from school.