In my 5th series of exploring the need for a new federal funding program named the Individuals with Blackness Education Act (IBEA) which would be modeled after the Individuals with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA), it was the subject of behavior that spawned the concept.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Do highly qualified or better yet, highly effective teachers avoid schools with a large populations of minority students?
Then, there were these statements:
Euclid said...
The more interesting question which the study did not seem to ask is:
Were the effective teachers in Charlotte/Mecklinburg compensated based on the performance of their students? If so then their departure may have been to avoid losing bonus money because of the expected poor performance of the minority students. Which clearly indicates that the promise of additional teacher compensation tied to student performance probably does not promote effective teaching. Even here in Florida we reward A schools with additional compensation which is usually distributed to the staff. However, the schools with large minority populations struggle to earn A's. The "top teacher flight" might be something that SDHC wants to look hard at as we proceed toward rewarding "effective teachers" with additional compensation a la the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Goader said...
I don’t think teachers leave or avoid schools because of race or school grades. They do so because of persistent incorrigible behavior problems.
Anonymous said...
Behavioral problems are a huge reason for most teachers! Those "bonuses" aren't a possibility for effective teachers whose students are constantly suspended or worse- those students that are allowed to continually disrupt classrooms. Administration is overwhelmed at these schools. Parents do NOT care in many instances!
Anonymous said...
Let me see if I have this correct? As an effective teacher I can work at a school with a positive environment and students that are more likely to meet the benchmarks that determine my bonuses, including AP, with fewer behavior problems, and get paid on the same scale as my counterpart that is banging their head against the wall everyday at an at-risk school. Did I mention the overabundance of meetings and trainings required at these "problem" schools? hhhmmm...NO THANKS!!
July 8, 2009 8:12 PM
Anonymous said...
Until students of all ethnicities and backgrounds come to school with appropriate attitudes and behavior, it will be so.
July 10, 2009 9:33 AM
Anonymous said...
OK-- I read the piece on D/schools that have heavy minority populations. Until the powers that be get it--that they can workshop/mentor teachers to insanity, change admin time and time again, build fabulous new building equipped with the newest tech, yet not work with parents and students in those schools--NOTHING will change.
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Substitute the word "minority" for "students with disabilities".
Look at how behavior is addressed in the IDEA: Regulations: Part 300 / E / 300.530
Sec. 300.530 Authority of school personnel.
e) Manifestation determination.
(1) Within 10 school days of any decision to change the placement of a child with a disability because of a violation of a code of student conduct, the LEA, the parent, and relevant members of the child's IEP Team (as determined by the parent and the LEA) must review all relevant information in the student's file, including the child's IEP, any teacher observations, and any relevant information provided by the parents to determine--
(i) If the conduct in question was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child's disability; or
(ii) If the conduct in question was the direct result of the LEA's failure to implement the IEP.
Working backwards, we can throw out .530 e (ii) because no conduct in question is ever, I repeat ever, the direct result of the LEA's failure to implement the IEP.
That leaves us with with .530 e (i). We have all heard that there are double standards of behavior when it comes to students with disabilities. If you haven't heard any of these anecdotal stories, I can provide you with some. One concrete example that most should comprehend would be where two kids are running down the hall and a figure of authority, say an SRO, yells "Stop!". Both kids keep running. Now, not only can they be charged with disorderly conduct, they can be charged with non-compliance or disobeying an order, attempt to escape arrest or whatever. However, after the handcuffed kids have been hauled off to the local detention center, someone finally states that one of the two kids is deaf.
Oh, shit. Try overturning an administrative decision.
I actually witnessed a scene that had a lot of similarities to this tale. Since I was there, the results were a little tamer.
In my example, everything past the charge of running would and should be considered a manisfestation of the deaf kid's disability. Despite how pissed off the authority figure is that both kids openly and outrightly challenged their authority, it doesn't change the fact that the deaf kid could not hear the command. Consequences for running, assuming the deaf kid had the cognitive ability to understand that there is no running in the halls, would be appropriate as it would not be considered a manisfestation of his disabilty.
From the comments I have been reading (see previous series on IBEA) it appears that schools with high minorities have a high incidence of violations of code of conduct. From what I am gathering, the kids and the parents don't know how to behave or don't care, and the administration is afraid to back up the teacher's request for intervention of repeated and repeated and repeated violations of the code of student conduct.
Within IDEA, if the parent doesn't know how to deal with their kid, and how many do, guess what?
Regulations:Part 300 / A / 300.34(8)
(iii) Helping parents to acquire the necessary skills that will allow them to support the implementation of their child's IEP or IFSP.
Double Oh shit. According to 300.34 8 (iii), it's not PC to bash parents of kids with disabilities openly, and it looks like the school system has an affirmative action to help parents, even the parents who are told they are in denial, and they should leave the education to the professionals and especially those that are told that the professionals know more about the kid's disability than the parent.
Therefore, it seems reasonable me that the federal government needs to step in and develop the IBEA.
If it worked for overcoming the obstacles for families that had kids born with disabilities, it should work for families that had kids born with blackness.
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