Liz! Glad to hear from you! I am still thinking about your series (last year or was it more) about those kids from high school. Man, that was a moving story.

So, suspensions - I think that so much of it comes down to setting a strong school culture. And of course that comes from strong school leaders who can hire staff that understands their vision, buys into their vision and is able and willing to carry that vision out. No, it's not the only thing, but it's a start. I just read a paper (man am I a geek) about using a timeout room. What struck me was the need for trained staff. At one of my old schools, for a short time we had two positions that were staffing an in-school room. One was a guy who was a teacher who could deal with some of the assignments and keep records and call parents. The other was a counselor who could talk with kids about what was going on. For a few short months this worked really well. There were those kids who had a bad moment, or a teacher who flipped the chain and sent them out (hey, it happens to all of us) - those were easy and were dealt with in house. Then there were others who were in need of services beyond what the classroom teacher was able to provide. This is where the in school room came in. With the two staff members, there could be real dialog between students and someone who cared and then between teams of teachers who were able to have real data and able to make some real progress. All for the cost of 2 positions. Small potatoes compared to what happened when those positions were cut.

What are other schools doing instead of suspending kids? I have heard about a school that when a kid needs to be sent out, contacts their mentors and they go and spend a day with that person. Again, very labor intensive but what a difference.

Liz:

Yoiur questions are thought-provoking ones. I agree with your comments about the KIPP schools but you have to keep in mind the students who are there are the ones who are motivated and have parents/guardians who are able/motivated to find places like the KIPP program schools for their children. The public schools don't have that luxury. They have to take the kids that live in the school zone.

IOn the whole, I agree with the comments about good instruction reducing discipline problems but you also need a culture and climate in the school that supports teaching and learning. It is next to impossible to be an effective teacher in an environment where there is little or no support for a climate and culture that promotes teaching and learning.

Anon:

Yes, I totally agree about the role fo school culture. It's one of the advantages that some of the newly created schools have over traditional schools. And may be a reason for the results at KIPP and at schools that are similar in how they were founded.

One major correction is needed here and I am not sure why this issue continues to be, well, an issue. KIPP, the rest of the Charter schools, transformation schools, and others that fall under that banner are all public schools. They get public money and serve public kids, our kids. These schools not only serve (in BCPSS) city kids who would otherwise be at any other traditional school, but also bring kids back from private schools which brings much needed funds into the school system. Not saying that these are "public" schools does a diservice and perpetuates the misconception that these schools somehow take non-public school kids in or that they have entrance requirements. They don't. They take any student including those with IEP's, from out of zone, neighborhood kids, the whole tomato. Just want to be clear on this point.

Yes, KIPP and others take anyone who applies BUT--and this is a big item--they also mandate parental involvement and are often not equipped to deal with IEP students who fall into certain categories. I work in summer school programs and can tell you that several parents removed their IEP students from the charter programs when the schools could not deliver the same level of instruction that other "public" schools could. I agree that there is often a misconception about the KIPP and other charter schools in terms of their clientele. However, they are more selective about the students they take in, there is an admission process, and they often mandate some sort of parental volunteerism. Would that zone schools could do the same! The bottom line is that until parents start demanding that their students come to school prepared to learn real change will never occur.

Just a few points of clarification here:

1) While charter and other non-traditional schools can ask for parental involvement and welcome it and make it a part of the culture they CANNOT require it as a part of staying at such a school. I know, I am a parent of students at such a school and a teacher at another such school.

2) The IEP issue is interesting - sure, some of these schools have not done right by IEP students (interestingly I can from an IEP meeting at my kids school yesterday and was never so impressed with dedication to provide services, but that's anecdotal). Of course few of the traditional BCPSS schools provide services well - check the lawsuit that has been the driving force behind almost every piece of paper our special educators have to produce. Special education in this city has been an embarrassment in a system that should be ashamed of the way it treats all of its students.

So yes, there are isolated issues with IEP students at charter schools but let's be fair and put that in the context of the systemic issues with special education in the system.

I do agree with you that parents should be outraged about the state of education in this system. Where is that outrage? I'm not sure. I don't see it from administrators (for the most part), students (for the most part), parents (for the most part) or teachers (for the most part) and in light of Ms. English's win for the Union last night, not at all in the union (for shame). Where I do now see it is with Dr. Alonso and it's about damn time.

There are parents that can find good IEP services at a traditional BCPSS school? They sure don't live in my zone. My child is in a "non-public" placement because of the lack of accommodations that could be provided at our school. In the fall we will try to get back into inclusion by going to a charter school. Maybe other charter schools are different, but the two that we applied to actually believed in inclusion and accommodations to a level I've never seen in a traditional BCPSS school.