Franklin Schargel’s Blog

Secondary school teachers from the United States to Singapore value collaboration with their peers, but the vast majority are still largely isolated in their classrooms, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (OECD)

The OECD’s 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey analyzes what more than 100,000 teachers in 34 member countries and economies think of their working conditions. The survey found women in American education still make up 68 percent of the teaching force and that teachers are overwhelmingly college educated and engaged in ongoing professional development at least once a year.

U.S. teachers report spending more hours a week working than their international counterparts””45 hours versus 38 on average in other countries””and more hours in instruction, 27 hours versus the 19-hour OECD average. Even so, 89 percent of the U.S. teachers surveyed said they were satisfied with their job overall””only slightly below the international average of 91 percent. But when it comes to implementing research-backed teaching practices such as collaboration, many teachers reported not being able to do so.

In spite of research touting the benefits of collaboration, the survey found that more than half of teachers in grades 7 to 9 reported they rarely or never co-teach or observe their peers teaching. Moreover, nearly half never get feedback on how they can improve at their jobs from their principal or other school administrators. Nearly all U.S. teachers receive feedback from their principals or administrative staff (98 percent), but less than half receive feedback from their peers.

Though more districts have been adding additional school days to the calendar, he said, schools need to discuss ways to integrate more professional development, planning, and team-teaching time throughout normal school days rather than tacking on a few extra professional-development days at the end of a term.

In the US, teachers are already considered slackers and lazy by the media and those who wish to undermine public education.  But the reality is that America’s teachers are working more hours than their peers in other countries and are receiving less administrative support. 

 

 

 

Students”˜ experiences in their first year of high school often determine their success throughout high school and beyond. Nevertheless, more students fail ninth grade than any other grade (Education Week, 2007). Students who make it to tenth grade but who are ?off track to graduate from high school””as indicated by failed grades, a lack of course credits, or poor attendance during their ninth grade gateway year””may have already missed the opportunity to get on track for high school graduation (Allensworth & Easton, 2005).

The following statistics highlight a noticeable trend in the lack of progress of many students through freshman year. Many students are held back in ninth grade””creating what is known as the ninth grade bulge””and drop out by tenth grade””contributing to the tenth grade dip.

U.S. Student Enrollment by Grade and Percentage of Total Enrollment, 2009″“10 school year shows enrollment numbers for tenth grade at around 3.8 million””a decrease of 7.8% (Snyder & Dillow, 2011). The dip in the number of students in tenth grade reflects the large number of students who either do not advance to tenth grade or drop out after their ninth grade year.

•   Twenty-one out of 50 states and the District of Columbia experience the greatest decrease in enrollment between the ninth and tenth grades. In some states, this decrease is as high as 25% (Snyder & Dillow, 2011).

• There are pronounced racial disparities in the ninth grade bulge and tenth grade dip, as illustrated by data from the 2009″“10 school year:

•  For white students, during the 2009″“10 school year, ninth grade enrollment was 8% higher than eighth grade enrollment, while attrition between ninth and tenth grades was stable at approximately 3% (NCES, n.d.-a).

• For African-American students, ninth grade enrollment was 23% higher than eighth grade enrollment, and attrition between ninth and tenth grades was approximately 11% (NCES, n.d.-b).

• For Hispanic students, ninth grade enrollment was 11% higher than eighth grade enrollment, and attrition between ninth and tenth grades was approximately 7% (NCES, n.d.-c).

• Common predictors of ninth grade student dropout include:

• Repeating the ninth grade: Up to 40% of ninth grade students in cities with the highest dropout rates repeat the ninth grade. Only 10″“15% of those repeaters graduate from high school (Balfanz, 2006).

• Low credit accrual: During the 2000″“01 school year, students who dropped out in the tenth grade accrued only 59% of the credits accrued by on-time graduates (Hampden-Thompson, Warkentien, & Daniel, 2009).

• Grade point average (GPA): In one Chicago study, student GPA was found to be an accurate predictor of student graduation for 80% of all students in the sample (Allensworth & Easton, 2007).

• Low attendance rate: The same Chicago study found that fall semester attendance was an accurate predictor of student          graduation for 74% of all students in the sample (Allensworth &     Easton, 2007).

• A failing score on the state English language arts or mathematics examination: A Texas study found that 82% of high school dropouts had failed the state exam in either reading or mathematics (Brunner, 2010).

• For English Language Learners (ELLs), research shows ninth grade course performance to be a stronger predictor of high school   graduation than language proficiency (Gwynne, Pareja, Ehrlich, & Allensworth, 2012).

• Similarly, among students with disabilities and those who entered high school two or more years below grade level, students who were on track at the end of the ninth grade were three to six times more likely to graduate than students who were off track (Gwynne, Lesnick, Hart, & Allensworth, 2009).

•  Ninth Grade Transition Strategies ?School systems must support first-year high school students to help prevent the decline in grades and attendance that often characterize the ninth grade year (Barone, Aguirre-Deandreis, & Trickett, 1991).

• Strategies include:

1. The creation of ninth grade academies that are separate from the rest of the high school, or the creation of separate stand-alone schools (Reents, 2002). During the 2009″“10 school year, 190 ninth grade-only schools were operating (NCES, n.d.-d).1

1. A 2002 study showed that for schools in which transition programs are fully operational, the average dropout rate was 8%. Schools without transition programs averaged 24% (Reents, 2002).

1. Career academies group students into smaller, themed-learning academies for two to four years, depending on the program. Students learn and take classes with the same group of students and are taught by a team of academically diverse teachers. In 2004, there were 4,800 high schools across the country that had at least one career academy (Brand, 2009).

Research indicates that there are 3 transitional years: 3rd grade, 6th grade and 9th grade.  Doesn’t it make sense to make those three grades smaller in class size so that teachers can assist students who need additional help?

 

In the past, schools suspended students for such offenses as chewing gum, calling out, jeans, sneakers or wearing short skirts (females) or “inappropriate clothing”- tee shirts, cutoff pants, shorts. Schools have used a variety of techniques to control discipline. But just as society has changed so have the nature of students.  Traditional school discipline was based on a system of reward and punishment.  Based on the concept, “Respect me or I will hurt you. I will suspend you or expel you.”  But this has limited effect on students who have been abused, have seen the death or friends or family.  Rewards are effective incentives only if the person is interested in the reward or fears the punishment. Traditional discipline makes the school culture adversarial.

Two months after federal officials brought  attention to how students are discipline in the nation’s schools, a group of 26 researchers, educators and advocates released findings  that underscored racial disparities  in suspension. African Americans and students with disabilities are suspended at “hugely disproportionate rates,” said leaders of the group, called the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative. They also noted higher levels of suspension among Latinos and students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.”

The group cited work by Anne Gregory, of Rutgers University, which they said showed that a rigorous teacher training program intended to improve student engagement also had the added benefit of reducing disciplinary referrals and eliminating racial disparities in those referrals.

In the 1972-73 school year, suspension rates were 6 percent for whites and 12 percent for African Americans at the secondary school level. The most recent federal figures, for 2009-10, show rates of 7 percent for whites and 24 percent for African Americans in those grades. By comparison, 12 percent of Hispanics at the secondary level were suspended. A nationally representative population-based sample of adolescents indicates that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth are at greater risk of expulsion than their heterosexual peers, researchers said, citing a 2011 study. For some student groups, the rates are markedly higher. For example, among middle and high school students, 36 percent of black males with disabilities were suspended at least once in 2009-10.

Research shows that out-of-school suspensions are linked to academic disengagement, lower achievement and greater risks of school dropout and contact with the juvenile justice system. The group noted discipline successes in a number of school systems, including Baltimore, where the group said graduation rates had improved as school officials overhauled discipline and cut back substantially on out-of-school suspensions.

African-American students are 1.78 times more likely to be suspended out of school, according to one study. But disparities aren’t just along racial and ethnic lines. Disabled students are suspended almost twice as often as non-disabled students. And students who reported same-sex attractions in surveys had higher odds of being expelled, even after controlling for factors such as poverty, race, and misbehavior.

The unevenness in discipline can’t be explained away by poverty or by higher rates of misbehavior. Instead, school factors, such as the principal’s attitude about discipline, have a stronger effect.

The collaborative highlighted a number of steps schools can take to improve climate and safety and reduce discipline disparities. Among them:

“¢ Strengthen student-teacher relationships. Black, Latino, and LGBT students less often see school staff as supportive. But teachers who systematically get to know their students and reflect on how they interact can make a difference.

“¢ Establish a respectful and bias-free environment.  Educators can also analyze their own discipline data to look for unfair patterns. One middle school principal showed the staff they were not enforcing rules against short skirts as much as they were against baggy pants, more typically worn by boys of color.

“¢ Take a problem-solving approach. In contrast to a zero-tolerance approach, schools should look at the context around behavior problems and tailor their responses. Schools may discover, for instance, that a student breaking rules feels unsafe or has experienced trauma. Schools that trained staff in the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines to investigate underlying problems have been found to have a more positive climates and issue fewer suspensions. They have also reduced the black-white discipline gap.

“¢ Reintegrate students after conflict. After long suspensions or stays in juvenile facilities, students can have trouble catching up and can feel stigmatized. Schools can offer support services, such as a transition center where community organizations provide an advocate for the student and can collaborate with teachers and probation officers.

There is a chapter on school discipline in my new book, “Creating Safe Schools: A Guide for School Leaders, Teachers, Counselors and Parents.”

 

 

A recently published working paper by National Bureau of Economic Research, (May 2014) based on nationwide data, found that a 20 percent increase in school funding, due to changes that began in the 1970s, produced dramatic results in the academic success of low-income students:

?[A] 20 percent increase in per-pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school for children from poor families leads to about 0.9 more completed years of education, 25 percent higher earnings, and a 20 percentage-point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty; we find no effects for children from non-poor families. The magnitudes of these effects are sufficiently large to eliminate between two-thirds and all of the gaps in these adult outcomes between those raised in poor families and those raised in non-poor families.”

 

My thanks to Tom Miles, Albuquerque for alerting me to this.

A national report by the nonprofit Attendance Works zooms in on a statistic called “chronic absenteeism,” generally defined as the number of kids who miss at least 10 percent (18) of school days over the course of a year. Chronic absenteeism focuses on the specific kids who are regularly missing instructional time, regardless of the reason why or the overall performance of the school.

If you miss more than 10 percent of school days, your odds of scoring well on tests, graduating high school, and attending college are significantly lower. A statewide study in Utah, for example, found that kids who were chronically absent for a year between 8th and 12th grades were more than seven times more likely to drop out. The pattern starts early in the year: A 2013 Baltimore study found that half of the students who missed two to four days of school in September went on to be chronically absent.

Oddly enough, the federal government doesn’t track absenteeism. Seventeen states do, states have found that school attendance often falls on socioeconomic lines: In Maryland, nearly a third of high school students who receive free or reduced lunch are chronically absent.

The Attendance Works study, which used missing three days per month as a proxy for the 10 percent threshold, categorized students missing school by location, race, and socioeconomic status. Here’s what they found:

The good news is that citywide studies in New York City] and  Chicago show that when chronically absent kids start coming to school more, they can make substantial academic gains. And the simple act of tracking and prioritizing absenteeism can lead to statewide progress: When Hawaii started keeping track of chronic absenteeism in 2012, the state went from having a chronic absentee rate of 18 to 11 percent over the course of a single year.

By School Lunch: Who’s Missing School?

Percentage of students missing three or more days of school in one month, divided by eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunch;

4^th Grade Eligible = 22%, Ineligible = 17%

8^th Grade Eligible = 23%, Ineligible = 16%

By Race: Who’s Missing School?

Percentage of students missing three or more days of school in one month

American Indian = 29%

Black = 22%

Hispanic = 20%

White = 19%

Asian = 13%

By City: Who’s Missing School?

Percentage of students in major cities missing three or more days of school in one month 8^th Grade

Detroit = 33%

Cleveland = 30%

Washington, D.C. = 28%

Milwaukee = 28%

Baltimore = 24%

Charlotte =24%

Fresno = 24%

Philadelphia + 24%

Albuquerque = 23%

Atlanta + 23%

New York City = 22%

Boston = 21%

Dallas = 21%

San Diego = 21%

Austin = 20%

Los Angeles = 19 %

Houston = 18%

Chicago = 16%

Miami/Dade = 16%

With chronic absenteeism accounting for 1 out of 5 students, we need to ask why are students missing school? Is it illness? Do parents need older siblings to watch younger siblings? Is it difficulty to get to school because of lack of transportation? Do schools contribute to the problem by labeling absences as “excused” or “non-excused”? (An absence is an absence). Are students truants because of fear of being bullied?   

 

 

 

 

According to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been an average of 1.37 school shootings for each school week. Seventy-four school have taken place in the approximately 18 months since the Dec. 14, 2012, Newtown shooting. The average school year typically lasts about 180 days, which means there have been roughly 270 school days, or 54 weeks, of class since the shooting at Newtown. With 74 total incidents over that period, the nation is averaging well over a shooting a week at a school.

In all, 31 states have had an incident of gun violence at a school. Georgia has witnessed far more incidents than others, with 10 happening at schools there since Sandy Hook. There have been seven school shootings in Florida, five in Tennessee, four in North Carolina and four in California.

Would you be interested in the ultimate list of free tools for teachers? At the following post you will found 321 Free Tools for Teachers separated in 18 educational technology categories. Enjoy!

Go to: https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/321-free-tools-for-teachers-free-educational-technology/?utm_source=Global+Digital+Citizen+Foundation&utm_campaign=79ee11c1f1-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f244ccc9d2-79ee11c1f1-160825486&mc_cid=79ee11c1f1&mc_eid=dd0fca5143

 

I am putting together my speaking calendar for the 2014-2015 school year.  If you are organizing or know of a conference dealing with preventing school dropouts or preventing school violence, feel free to contact me @ [email protected]

Thank you