Evaluating Public Schools

Presidential election season is once again in full swing, and yard signs, bumper stickers, campaign buttons, and social media posts all demonstrate Americans' support for their preferred candidates. Political expression remains an important part of civic participation, but as one high school student in Philadelphia discovered, expressing those views at school does not always go as planned. This student got more than she bargained for when she wore a pink Romney-Ryan T-shirt to school. She was publicly humiliated and harassed for her choice, not by fellow students, but by her own teacher.

The Samantha Pawlucy Story

Samantha Pawlucy was a sophomore at Charles Carroll High School in the Philadelphia area. Pawlucy decided to wear her Romney-Ryan T-shirt to class on a "dress-down" day when the shirt fit within the parameters of the school dress code. It was a daring thing to do in a community with one Republican for every six Democrats. However, Pawlucy had no idea just how traumatic the response to her attire would be.

Pawlucy's geometry teacher, Lynette Gaymon, called attention to Pawlucy's shirt during class. According to reports at the time, Gaymon told Pawlucy to remove the shirt. When Pawlucy refused, Gaymon compared wearing the shirt to coming to school wearing a Ku Klux Klan T-shirt. She explained that Charles Carroll High School was a "Democratic" school and then told Pawlucy to leave her classroom.

In this video, an attorney comes down hard on the teacher who was accused of bullying Samantha.

The U.S. Department of Education recently released its 2012 National Blue Ribbon Schools awards, which include 219 public and 50 private schools across the country. The National Blue Ribbon Schools program has been a mainstay of the education system in the U.S. for the past three decades, providing parents, students, and members of the community with information about the top-rated schools in the country. The awards are primarily intended to serve as an example and inspiration for the entire education system in the U.S.

Announcement of Awards Eagerly Anticipated

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced the recipients of the awards from Arlington Traditional Elementary School, one of the 2012 Blue Ribbon Schools, according to a report in the Washington Post. The program recognizes public and private primary and secondary schools that have demonstrated outstanding student achievement or improvement over the past academic year.

“Our nation has no greater responsibility than helping all children realize their full potential,” Secretary Duncan was reported by the Examiner as stating at the award presentation. “Schools honored with the National Blue Ribbon Schools award are committed to accelerating student achievement and preparing students for success in college and careers. Their work reflects the conviction that every child has promise and that education is the surest pathway to a strong, secure future.”

In this video, Superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy talks with Principal Holly Hawthorne of Arlington Traditional School about the school's 2012 Blue Ribbon School selection by the U.S. Department

A new report issued by the New York Civil Liberties Union indicates that the NYPD is making an average of around four arrests each day in New York City public schools. In addition, the police wrote around seven summons daily for students with less serious infractions. The report has been met with widespread concern, particularly in light of the fact that the large majority of students arrested were students of color. Is the NYPD exercising too much power in the public schools of the city, or are the police merely doing the job they were hired to do? The answer to that question appears to depend on who is asked.

Hundreds of Arrests on Record

The NYCLU recently released its report after conducting an analysis of police activity in the city’s public schools. The agency took advantage of a new city law to compile their report, which requires documentation and disclosure of school safety information, according to a report at SI Live. The report found that during the 2011-2012 school year, the police made a total of 882 arrests of students while the students were at school, with an additional 1,666 summonses issued.

Around 95 percent of the students arrested were black or Hispanic, despite the fact that students of color only make up around 71 percent of the total student population in the city. Of the minority students arrested, 63 percent were black students. Around 48 percent of the summonses issued were to students

A report from U.S. News & World Report reveals the top-rated high schools in America, but it is not without its share of accolades and controversy. Today, the rankings continue to attract national attention, with U.S. News annually evaluating thousands of public high schools using updated measures of college readiness, state assessment performance, graduation rates, and underserved student achievement. While some schools celebrate their inclusion on the list, others are left scratching their heads, wondering how and why they were selected among so many excellent high schools across the country.

Parents should remember that rankings are just one tool for evaluating schools alongside school culture, academic offerings, extracurricular activities, and student support services. For additional guidance, read 10 Tips for Choosing the Best High School for Your Child.

Three Steps to the Top-Ranked Schools

The creation of the U.S. News list was originally achieved through a three-step process implemented by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). While the methodology has evolved over the years, it continues to focus on objective measures of school performance and college readiness.

1. First, the publication looked at student performance by weighing math and reading scores on state high school proficiency tests against the percentage of economically disadvantaged students at the school. Schools that scored statistically higher than the state average were evaluated through the next step in the process.

2. Next, U.S. News and AIR looked at whether the least advantaged students were performing at a higher rate than the state average.

Most educators, parents, and students would agree that sexual harassment is a particularly devastating form of bullying that can negatively impact a student’s academic performance, as well as the physical, emotional, and mental health of the student. The definition of sexual harassment, according to the Free Dictionary states, “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that tends to create a hostile or offensive environment.” As one six-year-old Colorado boy discovered, sexual harassment also apparently knows no boundaries in terms of the age of the perpetrator or the victim.

This video explains what sexual harassment is.

The Story of D’Avonte Meadows

D’Avonte Meadows is a first-grader at Sable Elementary in Aurora. The six-year-old was recently suspended from school for three days, after being accused of sexual harassment and disrupting other students. The crime? Allegedly, Meadows was singing a line from an LMFAO song, “I’m Sexy and I Know It,” to a female classmate while waiting in the lunch line at his school.

According to a report at the Washington Post, Meadows was sent home from school after the incident, along with a letter from the school district to his mother, explaining why he was suspended. School officials would not comment on the case initially, but did point out the definition of sexual harassment according to school board policy, which called