Apropos of everything in this blog:
School discipline hits some kids more-St Petersburg FL
Boys are most likely to find themselves in the principal's office. The question is why.
By LETITIA STEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 17, 2007
Boys are sent to the principal's office almost twice as often as girls. And minority students are far more likely to receive referrals than their white classmates.
The St. Petersburg Times conducted an analysis of all discipline incidents last year in Hillsborough County schools. The review found several disturbing patterns:
- Boys were involved in 65 percent of all disciplinary incidents. There was only one type of violation where girls outpaced boys by a significant margin: dress code.
- Black boys were involved in one in four discipline incidents -- more than anyone else and far more than their percentage in the overall school population. They were frequently cited for vaguely defined transgressions, such as disobedience and inappropriate and disruptive behavior. By contrast, white students, the largest racial group, were cited less often. The handful of categories they dominated generally allow little room for interpretation, such as possession of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, leaving campus without permission, truancy and vandalism.
- School officials are concerned that bullying is being under-reported. Many schools cited zero incidents. Fewer than 300 bullying incidents were recorded last year, most of them by middle schools.
Experts caution that the biggest problem with boys may be that they are misunderstood. That may be even more true with minority students.
Boys roughhouse. They learn by doing. By middle school, when discipline incidents soar, many have a child's immaturity but a man's appearance.
If we don't have the right environment of learning and emotional growth, it's very easy for them to get in trouble," said Mike Trepper, executive director of the Boys Initiative Tampa Bay, a nonprofit that is working closely with the school district.
The stakes are especially high for black boys, who were involved in 27 percent of discipline incidents last year even though they account for just over 10 percent of the population.
Cultural misunderstandings may be a factor. White females make up the majority of Hillsborough's teachers.
"I sometimes think the African-American male has gotten a bad reputation," said Natalie Smith, a seventh-grade teacher at Stewart Middle School near downtown Tampa. She finds that some of the children already are labeled troublemakers by the time they get to her room.
Smith, who is African-American, believes some black boys struggle to make sense of conflicting messages. Those from single-mother homes may be the male head of their household. They make the rules. Then at school, they must follow them.
Across Hillsborough, black students were cited for "disobedience/insubordination" and "disrespectful" behavior almost twice as often as white students.
Don't Forget:
Why Black Males are So Over-Represented in
School Discipline Systems and How This Can Be Changed
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 4pm – 6pm, Free Public Lecture
Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 8am – 4pm, All Day Seminar ($175 registration fee) Jabari Mahiri
Associate Professor of Language and Literacy, Society and Culture
University of California Berkeley, Graduate School of Education
posted by Murph @ 4:17 PM
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