Franklin Schargel’s Blog

The Akribos Group has published my 4th article entitled: “Strategies to End Bullying In Your School.”  The article lists strategies that can be used by parents, students and schools. If interested go to their website,  www.akribosgroup.com

According to Martin Ford in the New York Times: “tens of millions of factory workers are now increasingly being displace by machines with significant consequences for China’s economy – and the world’s.”

Last year, Chinese factories used 25 percent  of the world’s robots, up 54%  from 2013.  In Guangdong, a leading appliance manufacturer is replacing 6.000 employees, a fifth of the workforce, with robots at the end of the year. Foxcomm, which makes products for Apple, Sony and Microsoft, will automate 70 percent of its factory work within three years.  But as China reduces its factory jobs, it is not creating new ones. “The country is already struggling to employ its growing population of college graduates.”

Schools prepare students for the work force.  As jobs disappear (given to robots) how will schools prepare workers for the new jobs?

According to a study released in the journal Sociology of Education the treatment of black and white students who act up results in different responses split along racial lines. Black students are more likely to be punished with suspensions, expulsions or referrals to law enforcement, a phenomenon that helps funnel kids into the criminal justice system. While white kids are more likely to be pushed into special education services or receive medical and psychological treatment for their perceived misbehaviors. Overall, this pattern often leads to the criminalization of young black students and the medicalization of white students.  The study, conducted by Pennsylvania State University assistant professor of sociology and criminology David Ramey, analyzed the rates of suspensions, expulsions and police referrals at 59,000 schools across the country. He also looked at how many students in these schools were enrolled in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, two programs designed to help kids in need of special services.

Ramey found that schools with larger populations of black students also had higher rates of suspensions, while schools with more white students had a greater number of kids in programs designed for students with special needs.

Disadvantaged schools also tend to have more one-size-fits-all approaches to discipline, leading to high rates of suspensions and expulsions.

Suspending low-achieving students or medicalizing kids with certain disabilities can help schools boost their test scores. Ramey said. “If you suspend kids while they’re supposed to take the test, they no longer count against the school’s score.”

Sadly, racial bias could also explain why black and white students are punished differently for similar behavior. “For example, classroom disruptions, talking back — white kids tend to get viewed as having ADHD, or having some sort of behavioral problem, while black kids are viewed as being unruly and unwilling to learn,” Ramey said.

The Akribos Group has posted my latest article, “High Performing Schools: Key Elements”. These 3 key elements enhance the 15 Effective Dropout Strategies. The strategies provide a roadmap but will not be successful unless and until schools have

three key elements:

• A visionary empowering leadership team
• A school culture which supports student learning and achievement
• High performing classrooms

Visit The Akribos Website and search the blog.

According to Child Trends: Spending time in prison or jail can have profound effects on a young person’s future.  High rates of recidivism mean that many youth, once in the prison system, will stay there for significant portions of their lives. Up to one-third of incarcerated youth return to jail or prison within a few years after release. However, some positive life experiences, including employment, marriage, parenthood, job stability, and high school graduation are associated with a successful turnaround in young adulthood. There are particular concerns that certain sub-groups of youth are disproportionately incarcerated. These disparities may also be reflected in arrests, court representation, convictions, or sentencing.

Youth who have been incarcerated experience diminished income in comparison with their non-incarcerated peers.  In addition, they may suffer earnings losses of between 10 and 30 percent for up to ten years after their release. Economic hardship, in turn, is associated with lower levels of mental well-being, physical health, social attachments, and a lower life expectancy.

Given these negative outcomes, it is especially troubling that there are disproportionate rates of imprisonment among young, already disadvantaged, minority men.  According to one estimate, on a typical day in 2000 approximately one in three young, black, male high school dropouts were in prison or jail.

The estimated total number of young adults ages 18 to 29 in prison or jails increased steadily from 745,200 in 1999, to 813,600 in 2002. It rose to a high of 865,400 in 2006, and then began to decline, most markedly in 2009. As of 2010, the population was 779,700. – A much higher percentage of male youth are in prison or jail than are female youth. Among youth ages 18 to 19 in 2010, men were almost 16 times more likely than women to be in jail or prison (1.5 percent of men, and 0.1 percent of women). Among youth ages 20 to 24 in 2010, men were 11 times more likely than women to be in jail or prison (2.8 percent of men, and 0.3 percent of women). This gap had been growing steadily smaller until 2010, when it increased. – There are stark racial disparities in the population of incarcerated youth. Among the estimated 717,800 men ages 18 to 29 that were incarcerated at midyear 2010, 37 percent (290,100) were black and 23 percent (180,400) were Hispanic. Among men, a higher proportion of blacks are incarcerated at any age than are men of other races. For example, in 2010, among men ages 20 to 24, 8.0 percent of blacks were incarcerated, followed by 3.3 percent of Hispanics and 1.3 ““

See more at: https://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=young-adults-in-jail-or-prison#sthash.sTlsMlG8.dpuf

 

EDUCATION ISN’T EXPENSIVE; IGNORANCE IS!

From The Economist

WITH less than 5% of the world’s population, the United States holds roughly a quarter of its prisoners: more than 2.3m people, including 1.6m in state and federal prisons and over 700,000 in local jails and immigration pens. Per head, the incarceration rate has risen seven-fold since the 1970s, and is now five times Britain’s, nine times Germany’s and 14 times Japan’s. At any one time, one American adult in 35 is in prison, on parole or on probation. A third of African-American men can expect to be locked up at some point, and one in nine black children has a parent behind bars.

Advocates of tough justice point out that America’s crime rate has fallen as the incarceration rate has risen. Criminals who are locked up cannot mug law-abiding citizens, and the prospect of going to prison must surely deter some from breaking the law in the first place. All this is true, but only up to a point. In the 1980s expanding prisons probably did help slow the rise of crime by taking thugs off the streets. But mass incarceration has long since become counter-productive. A recent study by the Brennan Centre for Justice, a think-tank, concluded that at most only 12% of the reduction in America’s property crime rates since the 1990s can be attributed to higher rates of imprisonment””and that there might be no effect at all. States with larger prison populations have no less crime than states with smaller ones.

Crime is largely a young man’s game, but many prisoners now are old: the number over the age of 50 has more than tripled since 1994. Many of these people are no longer dangerous, but locking up the elderly””and treating their ailments””costs taxpayers a fortune, typically $68,000 per inmate each year. The longer prisoners are inside, the harder it is for them to reintegrate into society. And mass incarceration has contributed to the breakdown of working-class families especially black ones. Among African-Americans aged 25-54, there are only 83 free men for every 100 women, which is one reason why so many black mothers raise children alone. Men behind bars cannot support their offspring, and when they are released, many states make it preposterously hard for them to find jobs.

More and more Americans accept that the harm caused by mass imprisonment now exceeds its benefits. Hillary Clinton, whose husband’s 1994 crime bill filled many a cell, has now changed her mind. On the right, fiscal conservatives decry the burden on taxpayers, while Christians talk of mercy. Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas and a Republican presidential candidate, boasts of his record of closing three prisons in his state. Nationwide, the incarcerated population appears to have plateaued; it should be sharply reduced.

A good start would be to end the war on drugs, which would do less harm if they were taxed, regulated and sold in shops, not alleys, as marijuana is in Colorado and Washington state. In fact, the drug war is already ebbing: in 1997 drug offenders were 27% of all prisoners; now they are around 20%. That could be cut to zero if drugs were legalized.

The next step would be to amend or repeal rules that prevent judges from judging each case on its merits, such as state and federal “mandatory minimum” sentences and “three strikes” rules that compel courts to lock up even relatively minor repeat offenders for most of their lives. New York has dramatically reduced its state-prison population this way. Prosecutors there have in effect been told to limit the number of people they imprison, giving them an incentive to lock up only the most dangerous. Crime has fallen in New York. There has been no backlash among voters.

Reducing the prison population to European levels is probably impossible, for America is still a much more violent place, even if most districts are reasonably safe. There are roughly 165,000 murderers in American state prisons and 160,000 rapists. If America were to release every single prisoner who has not been convicted of killing or raping someone, its incarceration rate would still be higher than Germany’s.

But still, America does not need to lock up every violent criminal for as long as it does””which is longer than any other rich country. Some 49,000 Americans are serving life without the possibility of ever being released. (In England and Wales the number is just 55.) Such harshness is unnecessary. A 50-year sentence does not deter five times as much as a ten-year sentence (though it does cost over five times as much). Money wasted on long sentences cannot be spent on catching criminals in the first place, which is a more effective deterrent.

Some states are experimenting with better education in prisons (so that ex-convicts have a better chance of finding work), and drug treatment or GPS-enabled ankle bracelets as alternatives to incarceration. Some are also trying to improve prison conditions, not least by curbing assaults and rapes behind bars. The aim of penal policy should be harm reduction, not revenge. Tighter gun laws might help, because guns can turn drunken quarrels into murders; alas, that is politically improbable for now. There is no single fix for America’s prisons, but there are 2.3m reasons to try.

 

Miami-Dade County Public Schools plan to eliminate out-of-school suspensions this year, preferring to keep kids in class and address behavior problems because research and experience shows suspended students often find more trouble outside of school while on suspension.

The district is setting up “success centers” so suspended students don’t disrupt classrooms. The centers are staffed by teachers, social workers and other service providers to work with the students ““ and keep them on their classwork.

Research shows that minority students and students with disabilities are more likely to be disciplined than their classmates. A recent study showed minority girls were disproportionately disciplined.

Some students who ride school buses to come to school will have access to the Internet while on that bus ride. The district is installing Wi-Fi on some of its buses this year. The buses can also work as a hotspot. Miami-Dade Superintendent Carvalho says a bus could stop at a park and provide Internet access in a neighborhood that might not have a library or other public Wi-Fi. And some parents will be able to track their kids as they ride the bus to and from school. The county will install GPS on about one-third of its buses. Parents can use a smart phone app to track the bus’ location.

Suspending students from school makes little sense.  If a student is suspended it increase the likelihood that the student will fall behind in their learning process, it can mean more neighborhood crime and increase the likelihood that the child will be arrested an charged with a crime. A new study links students’ suspension or expulsion from school to a more than doubled likelihood of arrest. (“From the Schoolyard to the Squad Car: School Discipline, Truancy, and Arrest” published in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence in February 2014.) It also places a burden on the teacher.  Students, who return from suspension, must be “caught up” on the instruction they have missed. Students who weren’t suspension must sit through the “˜catching up” period. Many suspended students see suspension as the “punishment” they have been seeking ““ a vacation from school.  Research indicates that “in-school suspension”, properly supervised and with work provided, is far more affective.

How far away from school is school?

Georgia House Bill 131 (The End of Cyberbulling Act”) if passed will hold schools and school officials responsible for all acts of cyberbullying no matter where it occurs – at school events, on school buses, at school bus stops, “whether or not such electronic acts originated on school property or with school equipment.” Any cyberbullying whether “directed at students or school personnel is covered regardless of whether it takes place in the privacy of the student’s bedroom (emphasis added) or in a commons area during a class break.”

This is a dramatic expansion of authority and responsibility of school officials giving schools the responsibility of monitoring the the behavior or students even when not connected to the school day or to school events.

Imagine a student being bullied while on school break or under the supervision of parents.  Is the school responsible or is it the parent?

I am indebted to  Trace Vaughn, Graduation Coach of Sonoraville High School
for alerting me to this event.  Thank you, Trace.