Tuesday Open Thread

 New rules for districts on student discipline from OSPI.

In the 2016–17 school year, 3.5 percent of all students in the state were suspended or expelled. However, the rates of discipline were much higher than the average for certain groups of students. Among students receiving special education services, the percentage was 7.1 percent. For Black/African American students, the percentage was 7.4 percent, and for Hispanic/Latino students, the rate was 4.1 percent.

The Washington State Legislature passed a law in 2016 that aimed to help close opportunity gaps in learning. The passage of the bill pushed OSPI to update the student discipline rules that had been on the books since the 1970s. In rewriting the outdated rules, the agency gathered feedback from families, students, educators, and community members through three public comment periods and eight public hearings.

The biggest takeaway I see from these new rules is to sharply curtail discipline that would exclude a child from class.

Interesting - all of Puerto Rico's schools are going charter (a la New Orleans) and allowing vouchers.  Meanwhile there are stories of missing teachers and large class sizes.  One-fourth of schools are to be closed because of issues around Hurricane Maria.

A sad story from NPR about a teacher grant program started in the George W. Bush administration to encourage teachers to work in high-needs teaching like math and science.  Somehow, during the latter part of Obama's administration, some of these grants got converted to loans.  Imagine getting an expensive gift and then being told later on that you need to pay for it.  DeVos' Ed Department has not done much to help. 

The U.S. Department of Education is in the midst of a top-to-bottom review of a troubled federal grant program for public school teachers. The effort follows reporting by NPR that found many teachers had their grants unfairly converted to loans, leaving some with more than $20,000 in debt. In June, 19 U.S. senators signed a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, citing NPR's reporting and saying "it is urgent that these mistakes are fixed."
 
Now, documents obtained by NPR reveal that a previously unreported plan to fix the program was problematic from the start and did nothing for the vast majority of people involved.

Also from NPR, advice from a teacher on how to make civics lessons stick (and one tip is an oldie but a goodie):

1) start young (and high school is probably late)

"It is kind of hard to make students grasp the idea that, 'Oh, there's still greater community beyond what you had in school.' That's the baseline of a civic education. This is our community of our country."

2)  Be inclusive.

"What's happening is the affluent communities — political elites — are getting a good civics education," Charles Quigley says. "This is contributing to the empowerment gap."

I'll just add that in many well-off, better educated families, there tends to be more talk about politics and the state of the world.  If that discussion isn't happening at home, it needs to happen all the more in school.

3. Create a civic lab for learning.

"You'd never have a biology class without having a lab," says Louise Dubé, executive director of iCivics. "Kids must know, they must learn, they must evaluate, they must have the skills — but they must also do."

It's hard to get his students to connect with what's happening in Washington, so Heuston focuses on local issues like curfew laws and marijuana policy. Then, when national issues come up, his students know how to ground their opinions in facts. 

4. Question everything (the oldie but goodie)

Amy Raper encourages students to do just that. She's an eighth grade social studies teacher in Pheonix, and says, "These kids think, 'Oh, Kanye West says this so it must be true.' I'm like, 'Guys, you have to look at everything. Facebook and social media cannot be your only way of finding knowledge.' " 

 What's on your mind?