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Posted on 01/12/2006 12:00:30 PM PST by Sopater
Nearly two decades after it began tracking student discipline, Seattle Public Schools continues to struggle with a chronic problem: African American students are still far more likely than their white peers to be suspended or expelled.
The "discipline gap" persists even as the district drastically lowered the overall number of students who were expelled last year, new statistics show.
Compared with white students, African Americans were nearly twice as likely last year to receive short-term suspensions, lasting 10 or fewer days. Long-term suspensions were imposed on black students more than twice the time.
"We're still seeing a lot of disproportionality," said School Board member Darlene Flynn, chairwoman of Student Learning Committee. "That hasn't improved at all."
The disparity was investigated by the Seattle P-I in 2002 in a special report, "An Uneven Hand," which found that black students were being disciplined at much higher rates than students of other races -- and had been for at least two decades.
The district has made an effort in recent years to provide better training to teachers and administrators and focus on alternatives to suspending or expelling students. But short- and long-term suspension rates are virtually unchanged since 2000, and in some cases are higher.
Flynn said the district needs to do a better job of lowering discipline rates, especially for black and Hispanic students.
READ THE REPORT
The Seattle Public Schools discipline report is available online at www.seattleschools.org/area/siso/disprof/2005/disprof_2005.xml, then click "Student Outcome Measures." The section on discipline rates begins on Page 41.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...
I have been a public high school teacher for eighteen years. I teach in a large high school in an urban environment. We are about 25% African-American. Most are great, great kids. Yet we too suspend black kids at an alarmingly high rate. What's the deal?
IT'S CULTURE! Until the black community realizes that kids from one parent families aren't making it and does something about it this is going to go on. Many of these kids hit school totally unprepared for classroom work. Large numbers can't seem to be on time. Too many are interested in obtaining $200.00 sneakers and not top grades. Their language is too often loud and vulgar. Too many seem to have no respect for adults or authority.
Off course they're going to get suspended. This isn't going to change until behaviors change. Is anybody really surprised?
This is also something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If black students are led to believe that they are being disciplined due to institutional racism, what motivation does that leave them to behave better? If you believe that racism is the reason behind your punishment, you are only given more reason to misbehave. The mindset behind this article is pathetic on its face; but it is typical of Seattle educators and journalists.
I am very mad at my daughters school right now, mainly because of a lack of discipline. My daughters old school was closed, and they are at a new school that is clueless about discipline.
My daughters' teacher is great. We had her last year at our old school, and she is great at controlling her classroom. However, when the kids are at lunch and out of control of the teacher, it is another story.
The new school does not have a cafeteria, and the kids eat outside most of the time. Well, yesterday it started raining. The staff told the kids to go into the gym. The kids went in and started screaming at the top of their lungs, and no one did anything about it. One of my daughters said she had to cover her ears, and she hated being in there.
I told my daughters that they were not to go into the gym anymore and to either go to the office or the nurse and call me if it happens again.
I've talked to their teacher and the principal.
If I didn't like their teacher, I wouldn't stay at the school. We will not be there next year, no matter what.
The lefties REALLY don't want to dig into that matter. Deep down, they know what they'd dig up: that black students generally receive LESS punishment for the same misbehavior. Go to the average inner city, predominantly black high school, and you'll see the BETTER behaved kids doing and saying stuff that would get them suspended from a lot of predominantly white schools. For starters, just imagine a kid (of any color) calling another student "nigger" at a predominantly white school.
No...the reason is this:
Percentage of Black kids born out of wedlock: 70%
Percentage of white kids: 25%
Family values really do mean something.
The Unspoken Here: School Officials are all white and don't like blacks. Not that that is a steriotype...
Our response to these very real concerns was to enroll our daughter in Catholic school, even though we are not Catholic. There is a culture of learning and achievement, and zero discipline problems. Also, Catholic schools expect (actually, demand) parental involvement in the educational process, and in my view this is an essential aspect of their success.
Our black population in Pocatello is very small, but they too exhibit problems far out of proportion to their percentage of the population. A small number of black football players were recruited to the local college and managed to record the first drive by shooting we've ever had in the area.
Diverting the subject away from misbehavior, how are these students doing academically? Are they top of the line scholars?
Why?? Because the ...
* Race gap in ordinary manners for young children persists.
* Race gap in fatherless homes persists.
* Race gap in drug-addicted mothers persists.
* Race gap in stupid teens who spread their legs too willingly persists.
* Race gap in minority culture, that stresses sports over academics, persists.
* Race gap in minority culture, that says a young black scholar is a sellout, persists.
* Race gap in teens and pre-teens who join gangs persists.
I could go on and on. But this issue is a no-brainer. It only takes an idiot liberal in the media, combined with one at the school district level, to claim racism.
My son was in private school for a few years. The problem we have is my daughter is special needs. Most private schools cannot handle her situation, and we also lose all of her services if we transfer to a private school or homeschool.
We are currently trying to get my daughters into a charter school for next year, but the charter school is full for this year.
The prison system also has the same problem with high black disciplinary problems. A study suggested higher testosterone levels were possibly the reason, because black prisoners had higher levels of the hormone.
However, race-based biological explanations of behavior are not politically correct, sociological explanations can't be discussed, and even adult criminal statistics that mirror this phenom are tossed out the window. Those doing the reporting must stop reporting black transgressions as well as try to over-report white transgressions to rectify the imbalance.
We all know that a disproportionate of prisoners in our jails are black. Why ? Because they are the ones breaking the law. Here we have students in school being disproportionately punished. Why?? Thhaaaaats right folks , they are the ones breaking the rules. Can there be some sort of reason the same kids breaking the rules in school are ending up in jail?? Yeah Thats right again. Certainly there is.
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This type of crap leads to people becoming apologists for behavior issues that sometimes plaque black students- such as cursing at teachers; constantly disrupting instruction; fighting; bringing guns, knives, and other weapons to school (even here at the Primary school where I teach, grades 2-3). For example, a black principal refusing to punish black students who called a white teacher a "stupid bitch-ho" because that type of behavior was "cultural". The principal told my friend she would have to get over it, it was a cultural thing. No amount of training for teachers or administrators is going to change student behavior. Not punishing students for their misbehavior does not help either. Us teachers cannot undo what is done at home.
The weird thing is that poorer children of all races tend to have more behavior problems that wealthier kids. We don't have black kids here for the most part and we still have issues. And it is generally the poor kids that get in trouble.
If a higher pecentage of black kids live at the poverty level.....
But you can't get money using those stats. Make it a racial problem and someone will want to throw free government money at it. And the people who found the problem will be there to catch it.
The "officials" would never see a student unless a behavior problem warranted taking the student out of the classroom. Before asserting a bias in handling cases of misbehavior, I want to see exactly how many students were referred to "officials" for misbehavior...broken down by race please. I want to know the exact nature of the offense and the action taken.
Obviously bad discipline problems among White students MUST BE INCREASED...
Yes, and reckless drivers get pulled over way more often (though not often enough) than law-abiding drivers.
There is a high percentage of XYY "super males" in the prison population as well. They tend to be bigger, stronger and more aggressive than the average male. I have no idea what the distribution of that anomaly is with respect to race.
Yep! And the whole time that this particular student is acting up in class the rest of the students aren't learning anything.
I believe it was called "mainstreaming" where kids with behavior problems were placed in regular classrooms so their fragile "self-esteem" wouldn't be damaged. The result is that one or two of these kids can hijack the entire class and waste untold hours throughout the year while the motivated kids sit in silence watching the clock tick away learning nothing.
Reason number 4,597 why I would never be a public school teacher.
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