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District chips away
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SUSPENSIONS
Are schools calmer? Results of a 1998 revision of the discipline code. Alternatives
to suspension keep kids in school Three
masters of management share their tips Breaking
the suspension habit: John Hay emphasizes classroom management |
When Cleveland schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett was hired in 1998, she was alarmed by the district’s “extremely high” annual suspension rate of about 56 suspensions for every 100 students. Byrd-Bennett quickly overhauled the district’s suspension policy with an eye toward keeping students in school as much as possible. Three years later, a CATALYST analysis shows that the suspension rate declined in both the middle grades and high schools. The analysis found that between the 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 school years: Suspensions among 6th- through 8th-graders declined nearly 12 percentage
points from 66 per 100 students to 54 per 100 students. Over all, the decline was 10 percentage points, to 46 per 100 students. During the three-year period, enrollment declined 10 percent for middle grades and high schools combined, while the total number of suspensions dropped by 25 percent to 14,452. The district has no official update on suspension rates, but administrators say the CATALYST analysis suggests that the revised discipline policy is paying off. “If suspensions are down, obviously we’re doing something right,” says Mark Curtis, manager of attendance and a former special assistant to the director of student administrative services. “We’re offering alternatives to suspensions and cutting down on reasons for suspensions. … We’re more intervention focused now and teaching discipline, not just punishing. With all that being implemented, it’s starting to pay off.” District officials also point to structural changes such as the opening of alternative schools, the phase out of middle schools and new ways of scheduling classes. Union officials question whether the lower rates mean schools are more orderly. “I don’t think the drop indicates children are better behaved in school,” says Jan Brundage, bargaining unit director for the Cleveland Teachers Union. She suggests that principals who feel pressured to keep rates down are rejecting suspensions even in cases where they are allowed. However, a number of principals interviewed by CATALYST say their schools are noticeably calmer and more orderly than they were three years ago. But they acknowledge that serious discipline problems persist. Take, for example, Central Middle School at East 40th Street, where suspensions rose and then fell, going from 999 in 1998-99 to1,328 in 1999-2000 to 763 last school year, or 88 per 100 students. “A lot of the structure that we instituted last year carried over to this year, so that kids who came back in September knew what the rules were,” explains Principal Deborah Ward. “So it was easier for them to fall in place.” She adds: “We still have serious misbehavior. I don’t want to go on record saying we don’t. The suspensions are still too high, and I would like to decrease them further. Basically, we want to use more parent contact and conferences to try to iron out [students’] problems.” Marilyn Cargile, principal of Carl F. Shuler Middle School, near W. 130th and Bellaire Avenue, says that over all, her children are better behaved but that a number of incidents are far more serious than in the past, even though gang activity in the neighborhood is down. “I’ve seen an increase in teen-age smoking,” she adds. “Often when you have a lot of kids who are beginning to smoke, other behaviors come into play.” Suspensions at Shuler fell from 82 in 1998-1999 to 39 in 2000-01, 5.4 per 100 students. Suspensions have followed an erratic pattern at Charles W. Eliot Middle School in the Lee Harvard area. In 1998–99, 232 dismissals were reported, a year later, 28. Last school year, they reached an all-time high with a total of 730, or 89 per 100 students. Principal Micheline Jackson has no data on suspensions so far this year, but she says efforts to maintain order are showing some results. “We’ve made clear what the expectations are: That students are to get to class on time and be prepared,” says Jackson. “To make sure that happens, myself and the administrators must constantly monitor what’s going on in the halls and in the classroom,” she says, emphasizing the word classroom. In addition, Jackson says, the school has put a “smorgasbord” of academic programs in place to stave off the boredom that can lead to student discipline problems. She ticks off the list: Voyager algebra and geometry, chess, robotics on Saturday, and a school-wide campaign to read books by Sharon Draper, author of young adult novels such as “Forged by Fire” and “Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs.” Behavior problems “off the hook” Even with the high suspension rate, Cleveland teachers complained that behavior problems in some buildings were “off the hook.” Byrd-Bennett responded by changing the district’s posture on suspensions. The goal, she says, was to discourage time out of school for minor infractions such as talking in class and leaving school without permission, and assure removal from school for the worst kinds of offenses, like carrying weapons. Focus on 6th-8th-graders The new grade configuration is designed to keep older students in schools where teachers know them and their families a little longer. It also is intended to limit the number of students in a single building who are experiencing the emotional and physical “Middle schools were our focus when we came here because that was where the larger proportion of students were getting suspended,” Byrd-Bennett says. The district also opened four alternative or option schools; two are for over-age students still in the middle grades. An abundance of over-age students mired some middle schools in behavior problems, which principals say drove up suspensions. (See CATALYST Aug./Sept. 2000 at www.catalyst-cleveland.org.) The four alternative schools now house about 670 students who would have been in traditional schools, says Region 6 Supt. G. Wayne Carter, supervisor of alternative schools. An unanswered question is whether the decrease in suspensions in regular schools can be attributed to the reassignment of troublesome students to the new alternative schools. District officials say they need more data to know the
impact that placing students in alternative schools has had on suspension
rates. Principals interviewed by CATALYST could not say how many of their students had been transferred to alternative schools, but they believe the transfers have helped calm their schools. “It made a big difference,” says Principal Ward at
Central Middle. “I don’t think that the initial thing we look at is to send them to an alternative school,” she explains. “We have to provide interventions to help students modify their behavior. The problem may be something we can resolve for them by getting them in a counseling program. If they are not successful, then we may consider outside options like an alternative school.” School reorganizations John Hay went to block scheduling this school year with four 90-minute class periods. Now the school day has three class changes instead of 17 class changes, Peterson says. The result is “12 minutes of idle time per day as opposed to 68,” Peterson says. “I’m just guesstimating, but half of our suspensions came from class changes or during study hall or during lunch periods in the middle of the day. Now that time is being spent in the classroom.” A few schools limited late lunch to 9th-graders, whom principals see as a troublesome bunch. John Marshall does not use block scheduling. Marshall at W. 140th Street is Cleveland’s largest high school with about 2,095 students. Last year, 9th-graders made up about half of its enrollment, which Principal Cynthia M. Metzger says helped push suspensions up from 37 per 100 students to 42. Metzger is not sold on block scheduling as a remedy to discipline problems. “It limits the number of electives students can take like band, foreign language, family and consumer science,” Metzger contends. “What happened to teaching the whole child?” Smaller learning communities Harry E. Davis Middle School, near Superior Avenue and E. 105th, has small learning communities. In two years, Davis saw suspensions for fighting, the offense middle-school students commit most often, plummet from 221 to 42. Principal Sharree Ray credits the small learning communities and conversion from a middle school RIGHT? to a K-8 school with grade levels housed on separate floors. Suspensions declined even though enrollment increased by 51 students, according to state data. “Before we got here, they said the school was off the hook,” says Lorenzo Lewis, security chief at Davis. “They didn’t have an intervention for fighting, so if it happened, they suspended right off the bat. We still have them. But now we mediate.” Enrollment shifts reflected in
suspensions John Marshall expects suspensions to drop this fall because the school has more upperclassmen than freshmen for the first time in years, Metzger says. “You can see a change in the tone of the building already, and we’re only five weeks into the school year,” she said in October. At James Ford Rhodes High School on the west side, some troubled students were removed from day school and placed in Twilight School, whose classes start at 1 p.m. “Last year I didn’t come to school,” says Johnny Millsaps, 15, admitting his transgressions also included being suspended and retained. “Twilight school is helping me because I wanted to go here, not some other school. And I’m getting the credits I need to go to 11th grade.” One principal speculates that the end of busing and return to neighborhood schools also may put a damper on suspensions. Deborah Pye, principal of South High School on Broadway Avenue, says that schools are becoming more homogenous not only by race but also by neighborhood, class and cliques and that that may reduce conflict. “That could be a factor,” concurs John F. Covaleskie,
assistant professor of education at Northern Michigan University in
Marquette, Mich. In addition to cutting down on rivalries, the return to
neighborhood schools brings parents closer to schools, which makes contact
with teachers and administrators easier, he adds. “Where there was a lot
of cross-city migration, it was more difficult for parents to get involved
in the schools,” Covaleskie notes, adding that lasting change in school
discipline results from “a conscious change in relationships with the
child and the home.”
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