Public School Policies

Despite our modern approach to education, physical discipline is still being used in public school classrooms in America. Parents nationwide are expressing concern over the use of seclusion and restraint in public school classrooms. A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, released in May 2009, revealed that between 1990 and 2009, there had been “hundreds of allegations” of abuse involving restraint or seclusion, according to USA Today. In Texas and California alone, a combined 33,095 students were secluded or restrained in the school year leading up to the report’s issuance.

Restraint Practices

The restraint practices described in the May 2009 report could sometimes verge on what could be called child abuse. Restraint practices are commonly used to deal with students who have behavioral or emotional problems.

In one New York school, a 9-year-old with learning disabilities was confined to a “small, dirty room” 75 times over the course of six months as a consequence of his “whistling, slouching, and hand-waving,” reports the USA Today. Meanwhile, in Texas, a 14-year-old boy who would not stay seated in his special-education classroom died when his teacher restrained him by lying on top of him.

This video looks at the issue of restraint and seclusion.

Lack of Regulation

According to concerned parents, there is a lack of federal and state regulations addressing seclusion and restraint practices in public schools. In May 2009, USA

Detroit Public Schools’ students recently won the award of the worst math scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ 40-year history. Couple the disheartening standardized test scores with the nation’s lowest graduation rate, according to NPR, and you have a public school system that has utterly failed its students.

To further complicate the issue, Detroit Public schools are currently fighting an internal battle with Emergency Finance Manager Robert Bobb. Detroit public school teachers, administrators, parents, and school board members are upset about Bobb’s recently issued directive, outlining that all students in the district take an additional standardized test this year.

The issue of whether students should have to take this new test – on top of the STARS (Standardized Testing and Reporting), MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program), PSAT, SAT, and ACT tests that they already take – is part of a larger battle for control of academic decisions between the Detroit school board and Bobb.

This video offers a look at one of the Detroit Public Schools buildings.

Why Do Detroit Schoolchildren Need a New Standardized Test?

Steve Wasko, DPS Executive Director of Public Relations, says that the new standardized test Bobb has ordered – the Quarterly Benchmark Assessment, or QBA – will be used to assess how effective the current curriculum is in helping students to meet benchmarks and achieve adequate academic progress.

Amidst historical snowfall, school districts across America are struggling to decide how to make up the classroom time that has been lost to snowstorms.

Although many school districts have a built-in number of “inclement weather make-up days,” the unexpectedly brutal snowstorms of the past few weeks have exceeded the pre-allocated snow days. Additionally, many school administrators are worried that a large number of missed days is needed to adequately prepare students for spring’s impending standardized tests. In the coming weeks, school boards and school districts in various states will be meeting to consider how best to address this problem.

This video reports on how New York City schools will handle snow days during the 2022-23 school year.

Proposed Solutions to Snow Days

The options that school districts have thus far proposed to make up the missed days include:

Adding Days to the End of the Year

Various school districts are planning to make up the missed days by extending the last day of school in June past its planned date. In an online poll of Des Moines, Iowa residents addressing the question of how to make up the unusually high number of snow days experienced this year, the fourth most popular option (out of six choices) was adding days to the end of the school year.

Lengthening the School Day

Alexandria, Virginia’s superintendent has issued a letter to parents,

As Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools during the years from 2001 to 2009, Arne Duncan enacted major changes. Now, Duncan has taken the national stage as President Obama’s Education Secretary.

Education policy experts agree that the best way to understand how American public education may change under Duncan’s guidance is to look at Duncan’s performance as CEO of the Chicago public education system. A recent New Yorker profile of Duncan highlighted the many reforms that Duncan championed during his tenure as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, which included:

• “The turnaround” and shutting down under-performing schools – The New Yorker article describes the turnaround as Duncan’s “signature move” as Chicago Schools’ CEO. Duncan’s “turnarounds” in Chicago involved shutting down schools that had persistent records of low performance on measures such as standardized test scores and high school graduation rates. The students whose schools were shut down would often be transferred to newly opened charter schools.

• Opening new charter schools – Opening new charter schools was another of Duncan’s most significant undertakings as CEO of Chicago schools. The program that he championed, called Renaissance 2010, consisted of a network of charter, contract, and performance schools opened in the wake of the closures of low-performing schools.

• Using data to track student performance – As the Chicago schools CEO, Duncan pushed for public schools to collect more data on student and teacher performance and to use the data to guide decision-making.
• Drawing on resources outside the education community

Students in schools across the country may find their campuses and classrooms shuttered beginning next fall. In a scramble to improve student performance and address funding shortages, districts are proposing school closures on large scales. Although parents and teachers are voicing their concerns about such sweeping moves, school and government officials maintain that closing under-performing schools is the right thing to do.

School Closures Across the Nation

New York City Public Schools have been at the forefront of the trend of shutting down under-performing public schools. Most recently, New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy voted to shut down 19 of the city’s public schools. The 19 schools had all been nominated for closure by Mayor Bloomberg on the basis of poor academic performance. The New York Times reports that New York City has closed or is in the process of closing 91 schools since 2002.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, the Board of Education announced in January that it would “close, consolidate, or overhaul” 14 public schools this year, according to the Chicago Tribune.

School districts in Cleveland, Ohio and Providence, Rhode Island have also recently proposed closing schools in an attempt to boost student performance and address budget shortfalls.

Reasons for School Closure

Poor performance is the most common reason given for choosing to close a school. New York City School officials say that high schools are chosen for closure on the basis of low graduation rates, low student