Safer than at home?

Safer than at home?--The Tennessean provides lots of inches to push Schools Under Surveillance: Cultures of Control in Public Education by Vanderbilt Professor Torin Monahan. A lot of 'duh' statements in this overview such as:

"Generally speaking," [Monahan] said, "surveillance is not good for preventing crime. It's more useful for catching people after the fact."

But this statement certainly wasn't.

"Schools are some of the safest places you can be," Monahan said. Students are "significantly safer there than on the streets or at home." [Emphasis added]

Add this to the already growing pile of "expert" statements that are being collected to prove that government knows better than parents how to keep children safe and raise them correctly.

Another take on school safety: School Choice Reduces Crime, Increases College-Attendance...: According to Harvard researcher, David Deming:

Seven years after random assignment, lottery winners have been arrested for fewer and less serious crimes, and have spent fewer days incarcerated… The reduction in crime persists through the end of the sample period, several years after enrollment in the preferred school is complete. The effects are concentrated among African-American males whose ex ante characteristics define them as “high risk.”

Maybe we should say YES to choice so we can save that $2.2 million in security costs for curriculum, paying good teachers well or maybe even fixing a roof or two.

Thank you, whoever you are

Last spring a teacher was assaulted at Jere Baxter ALC. Neighbors were shocked at the attack and further shocked to learn that no alternative schools had school resource officers. The neighborhood association tried to get answers from Gracie Porter and the police department with very little success. The best that could be done, we were told, was to separate the students by grade and to keep calling the police when neighbors and local merchants observed illegal behavior.

Today, I've been told that Jere Baxter ALC now has a police officer at the school for four hours per day until December 22. No one seems to know how this came about, but we're all very thankful it has. The principal was quoted as saying the attitude of the students at the school has changed 180 degrees. I can't imagine how much relief teacher must be feeling about their safety. I know the local merchants are happy to see that their serious concerns about truant behavior is being addressed.

I'm told some folks are starting to think outside the box in regard to these schools and I'm hopeful that further improvements for these students, and the neighborhoods that host them, will be forthcoming.

Heartfelt thanks to whomever saw the wisdom in placing an officer at Baxter. I hope that when school resumes in January they'll have found a way to continue that position. Thank you for this much. It has already made a difference.


Previous post: MNPS-PD

MNPS-PD

Inglewood residents were shocked to discover after a teacher had been assaulted at Jere Baxter Alternative School last spring that there is no police officer in this school specifically designed to hold students that have 'issues'. In fact, neither of the alternative schools had a police officer. There was only one campus supervisor assigned to the school that day of the assault. I was told that campus supervisors do not carry weapons and aren't required to have any formal security training. That made no sense.

Residents had known for some time that the students in this school made a habit of being delivered by city buses to the building and promptly heading into the neighborhood or neighborhood businesses. Local merchants had to take it upon themselves to chase the students off in an effort to keep them from intimidating their legitimate customers. Police cars regularly appear at Baxter ALC. It's hard for mere citizens to see the wisdom of letting something happen and then calling for a police officer when having one there and available could head off serious trouble.

When the police department was called and asked about why there was no police officer in the school they said it was the call of Metro Schools. When I asked Metro Schools they said it was a police department decision. What became clear was that no one was stepping up. The Inglewood Neighborhood Association invited school board rep, Gracie Porter to the May 2007 meeting to discuss the recent assault, the loitering and the lack of a police officer. She provided some basic information regarding the school, the churning of the student body population and the turnover in administration there to give us a larger picture of the situation. She also told us that she learned the day before that Nashville Chief of Police Ronal Serpas , MNPS Director of Schools Dr. Pedro Garcia and Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Ralph Thompson were going to meet about discipline issues and police presence in schools the next week. When she was asked if she was going to attend considering how concerned we all were about this issue her reply was "I'm not going to crash Serpas' meeting." She did say she expected some restructuring to be done by the next school year that could help the situation.

So Thursday we read in the Tennessean that there is talk about school systems creating their own police forces. The legislature created a study committee (they're very good at that). The legislation is HB1765/SB1451 sponsored by State Rep. Ulysses Jones (D-Memphis) and State Senator Reginald Tate (D-Shelby County) . I'm very concerned about this. My biggest concern is that we'll not have any way of knowing exactly what has happened on those campuses. I look back at college campuses that regularly didn't report serious crimes out of concern for their image. The same could easily occur in MNPS. The Tennessean wrote:

The school district Tuesday released statistics on student offenses in Metro during the 2006-07 school year, but they weren't broken down by school.

And that's exactly correct. They report this information by cluster. There is no way for a parent to know if the school their child attends is safe, let alone exactly what happened and how many times. These are our children. We have a responsibility to ensure their safety. We have a right to know as much as possible about how safe they are while there.

And the Tennessean reports the disincentive there will be if MNPS is allowed to handle all these issues:

But creating a self-run police department can put school districts at odds with the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires states track the number of serious incidents that occur at a school. If over three consecutive years a school meets the "unsafe" requirements defined by law, students are allowed to transfer to another school.

Because police officers are responsible for recording some incidents in school, an officer employed by the school district could have an added interest in making sure a school in his district doesn't wind up on the list.

KnoxNews has an article on this issue also. The issue of who will pay for this is huge and they provide some important editorial comments about that.

It might make things simpler for the school systems, but it would make things more expensive for the taxpayers.

The push is on to create taxing authority for local school boards. Can you see it coming? Not only do we need more money to get the job of education done (as if money was the answer) now we'll need more money to create a police system. We are underfunding MPD, how are we going to afford to create an MNPS-PD?

The public education system has lost its focus. Every year, for what seems like good reasons their mission expands. It currently includes feeding, clothing, nursing, transporting, parenting and now policing children. All the while the original mission fails regularly. The school system doesn't need to expand. It's my opinion we should let the school system do the teaching and let the police department handle the crime.


For further info:
National Association of School Safety and Law Enforcement Officers (NASSLEO).

Education legislation

The state legislature is making some progress toward making information more accessible to mere citizens. They've still got a ways to go before catching up with some other states but I'm thankful for forward progress. I'd like to see the companion bills listed together. I'd also like to see an e-mail subscription service that would automatically e-mail a citizen when a bill is filed (or action is scheduled or taken) that is on their 'watch' list.

For our purposes here bills filled that touch on education issues can be scanned from this web page. It sure beats the heck out of reading through the summaries of some 1500 bills filed each of the last several years. This format will make it much easier for moms and dads to scan and discover where they may want to impact the system. The more eyes that look at these and discuss the back stories and connections the better off we'll all be. So when you've got a few minutes and a warm cup of your favorite beverage scroll through these. Also be mindful that the summaries may not be completely accurate and you may want to actually review the legislation.

Scanning this page it looks like BEP is going to be a hot topic and this bill from Rep. Mike Turner (D- Nashville) catches my eye:

*HB0052 by *Turner M.

Education - Deletes provisions for value added testing and performance education. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1.

The Abstract summarizes *HB0052 as introduced.

I consider Value Added information essential to knowing how well public education is doing. Tennessee had a healthy jump on the NCLB requirements because we had value added already up and running. What we need is access to more of the Value Added information, specifically teacher scores, not less. And this from a man who wanted homeschoolers to be tested.

And elected superintendents of schools, a perennial favorite is back again:

*SB0589 by *Burks. (HB0661 by *Hill, *Ford.)

Education - Permits election of director of schools and outlines specifications. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 2, Part 3 and Section 49-2-203.

HB0948 by *Winningham. (*SB0578 by *Burks.)

Local Education Agency - Permits election of director of schools and outlines qualifications. - Amends TCA Section 49-2-203 and Title 49, Chapter 2, Part 3.

This is a curious one:

*SB0198 by *Harper.

Local Education Agency - Authorizes legislative body of Davidson County to appoint a certified teacher as a non-voting member of the Davidson County school board. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 2, Part 2.

It's not like Jayme Merrit, MNEA President, hasn't already put the school board on notice that she wants three minutes to speak at every BOE meeting, or that there haven't been enough 'former' educators on the Board already. If the Metro Council wants to appoint someone to be their eyes and ears at the BOE they are free to do so outside of the state legislation. And what's the purpose of making sure it's a certified teacher?

And I'm wondering why partnering with the local police department is insufficient:

*SB1451 by *Tate.

Education - Requires department of education to study allowing LEAs to create school district police departments. - Amends TCA Title 49.

And here the LEA gets to skim money off the top of a charter school's budget:

*SB1447 by *Tate.

Local Education Agency - Authorizes the LEA to retain, as an administrative fee, 5 percent of the state and local education funds that otherwise would be allocated to a charter school for processing information required by the state department of education with respect to such school, including reporting student enrollment data, teacher certification data, insurance and retirement data, and budgetary information. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 13, Part 1.

and more on charters:

*SB1865 by *Johnson.

Schools, Private and Charter - Removes the prohibitions on converting a cyber-based school to a public charter school and on creating a cyber-based public charter school. - Amends TCA Section 49-13-106.

This has to happen. We're very far behind this education innovation in other states. I know that one homeschooling organization is going to be afraid that this will 'lure' homeschoolers back to public education and is concerned that parents may not understand that their children will be 'public schoolers' and not homeschoolers but we need to focus on the needs of children. It's past time for Tennessee to offer this. They are certainly cheaper to operate than a brick and mortar school and provide some alternatives that can benefit many families and their children. This could be a legitimate alternative for some of our students expelled as a result of zero tolerance for starters.

Saturday 12/09/06

From here and there--

Bredesen's legacy target: Comprehensive pre-K--

He may devote about $25 million more to continue to expand pre-K in the state’s next budget.

“That would get us to a comprehensive pre-K program by the end of my time as governor,” Bredesen said, “which I would consider a great legacy.” (snip)

But their older brothers and sisters--

The governor wants to add truancy officers in all of the state’s 400 public high schools to improve attendance and, hopefully, result in more high school students graduating.

Adding those positions would cost more than $16 million annually, which Bredesen isn’t 100 percent confident the state can fully afford in its next budget. City Paper

Attendance does not equal education. As I've said many times before--these pre-K children have time yet but there are thousands of near adults leaving the system frustrated and lacking basic skills every year and for too many that directly leads to criminal behavior that endangers us all. THAT's where the focus needs to be. We can't just consider them lost causes and turn our backs on them in favor of toddlers. The mantra 'for the children' usually conjures up images of those cuddly small ones but those high school drop outs are still children too.

We'd save more than $350M I'm sure--

The Alliance for Excellent Education, based in Washington, D.C., estimates that if all Tennessee high school students graduated, the state government would save $350 million a year. The project was funded by the MetLife Foundation and is based on evidence that high school graduation is an essential element in upward mobility. (snip) The savings, calculated for each state, is based on a dropout's utilization of Medicaid and other public expenditures. Tennessee has made huge strides in graduation rates, raising it from 59 percent in 2001 to about 64 percent today. But that's still behind the national average of about 74 percent. Memphis Business Journal

Oversight?

[Hamilton County Mayor Claude] Ramsey said Loftis, as the lobbyist for Hamilton County Schools, has met with the governor, education commissioner, state senators and representatives.

He added "Governor Bredesen says it's a positive thing. He agrees with us, or the four large counties, that we're getting short changed and he's going to make some changes."

While no one disputes Loftis' work has been good for schools it was made public recently that he never registered as a lobbyist with the Tennessee Ethics Commission. (snip)

Tennessee Ethics Commission records show Loftis registered as a lobbyist for Hamilton County Schools last Thursday. WTVC Chattanooga

Core Curriculum--

“A lot of us struggle not with finding a warm body, but a warm body that comes to work every day,” said Gary Dies of Saia-Burgess Automotive Actuators Inc. “When you get [workers] below about 32, there’s a substantial difference in attitude, willingness to take responsibility. There’s a huge gap.” (snip)

There are a number of trends that could be contributing to the decline. Zinkiewicz points first to rising teenage unemployment levels, brought about by more older workers, welfare recipients and immigrants competing for jobs in industries like retail and fast food that were traditionally good places for teens to get their first jobs. (snip)

Herrman said Metro Schools recently received a six-year, $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that, in part, takes measures to incorporate soft skills into the curriculum by decentralizing and personalizing Nashville’s eight largest schools, which all have at least 1,000 students. City Paper

KY Special Need scholarships--

In Kentucky, a prefiled bill [BR 98] by Lexington Rep. Stan Lee [R-Lexington] would not only make the commonwealth the fifth state to offer such scholarships, it would also be the Bluegrass State’s first statewide school-choice program controlled by parents.

State law currently allows special-needs students to attend schools providing educational services not available in their resident district schools. However, this system is largely ineffective and relatively few students participate because school districts – not parents – control the process. Edpresso

And--

If just 1 percent of Kentucky’s special-needs children – roughly 1,100 students – could have participated in the proposed scholarship program in 2005, state and local school districts would have realized an estimated savings of $5.7 million. Ed News

I hope some Tennessee legislators will consider following suit.

School uniforms

Also on Tuesday's agenda under "Board Development" is a committee Report on Standard School Attire--code for school uniforms I suppose.

What I'm hearing from parents is that school uniforms are cheaper, harder wearing, make life easier for families in the morning and parents are nearly all for 'em. They may not be fans in the beginning but it doesn't take long to convert them.

School staff's are also big fans as it does encourage better behavior amongst the students and those that don't belong are quickly identified.

What's yet to be heard is a legitimate discouraging word about uniforms. The only one that comes to mind is the whine that children will lose their freedom of expression via fashion. Sorry. Children don't really have a right to freedom of expression. They do have time away from school to express themselves. I'm more concerned about whether these children learn to read and write.

Fashion, and not enough fabric, have become too much of a distraction and it needs to be reigned in. Trying to decipher the current dress codes can be too subjective but there's not much confusion about a white polo shirt and khaki pants (legimately belted at the waist please).

MNPS Discipline Charts 2005-06

I'm linking to the discipline charts included in the 9/12/06 Agenda packet provided to the Metropolitan Nashville Public School Board of Education. There is no good reason that this information isn't already uploaded to the MNPS website for citizens to access. The complete BOE agenda should always be published as soon as it's made available to the BOE members so that citizens can start participating in the process and start communicating with their BOE representatives about these issues.

There are a good number of citizens that believe, rightly or wrongly, that many many MNPS schools are unsafe. So here we have, at least, some information with which to continue the conversation. I'm sure there are mitigating factors, explanations, provisos and other 'good reasons' these charts are going to be misunderstood. I welcome clarification. I'd love to see how these statistics are viewed by the Metropolitan Police Department and how they jibe with their statistics.

Obviously missing from these charts is specific school identification. Parents and the community want and need to know which schools are safe and which are not. It's not really helpful to the conversation to not provide that specific school by school breakdown.

Here's the actual Monitoring Report by Dr. Garcia and his staff regarding EE 15 - Student Learning Environment/Discipline. He asserts that the district is in compliance with the BOE's expectations regarding truancy, safety and conduct. You'll find the expectations the BOE has enumerated at the beginning of this document.

2005-06 Discipline Charts
by Cluster:
.pdf documents

Antioch
Glencliff
Hillwood
Hillsboro
Hunters Lane
Magnet Schools
Maplewood
McGavock
Overton
Pearl-Cohn
Stratford
Whites Creek

Chart "Comparison of Total Discipline Events" 2004-05 and 2005-06

CompStatting schools

Considering that MNPS with over 73,000 students is a fair sized population I'm a little surprised to learn that we're just now considering what looks to me like a mini MPD CompStat program to track discipline issues.

Back in June CM Pam Murrey hosted a meeting in Cleveland Park to discuss the grave situation at Maplewood and how the community might help turn things around. At that meeting I, as a BOE member, asked Ralph Thompson, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, for crime information about Maplewood. He wasn't able to provide it. He did say that new statistics were expected shortly and that he'd have to go through it before he could provide the information needed. He has since managed to give me a few numbers but nothing comprehensive.

From today's City Paper we learn that a free program call School COP (Crime Operations Package) is being considered. I would have thought, given the success of CompStat techniques in Nashville, East Nashville specifically, we could have been doing this all along.

Of course, just like real life, if citizens/students don't report incidents they don't get logged and patterns and needs are not revealed.