Manipulating
Policy, Buying Programs, and Following Federally-Funded Technical Assistance
Centers Do Not Work: Why be Surprised. .
. about Why We Aren’t Succeeding?
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On April 4th, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) published, K-12 Education: Discipline
Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities. This study of schools nationwide during the
2013-14 school year found continued disproportionality in how different groups
of students are disciplined regardless of the type of disciplinary action,
level of school poverty, or type of public school attended.
This Blog asserts
that we have been unsuccessful in addressing the issue of disproportionality in
our schools because we are not analyzing the underlying student, teacher, and
administrator factors. Six primary flaws
are explored:
Flaw #1. Legislatures are trying to change practices
through policies.
Flaw #2. State Departments of Education are promoting
one-size-fits-all programs that have not been validated.
Flaw #3. Districts and schools are implementing
disproportionality frameworks that target constructs rather than changing
behavior.
Flaw #4. Districts and schools are not recognizing the
impact of poor Classroom Management.
Flaw #5. Schools and staff are trying to motivate
students who have social, emotional, and behavioral skill deficits.
Flaw #6. Districts and Schools do not have sound
multi-tiered systems of support.
The Blog critiques
the PBIS and SEL frameworks; Character Education; Hattie’s meta-analytic
research; and students’ disciplinary versus psychoeducational problems.
To successfully
address the issue of Disproportionality in our schools, we need comprehensive,
multi-tiered systems of supports. Policy-level changes have not solved this
problem. We need to apply evidence-based
practices.
Please read the
entire Blog. What do you think?
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