We’ve had third-graders offer to perform sexual acts on their teachers and fellow students using language that you’d be shocked to hear on HBO.... Eva Moskowitz in WSJWhat are they teaching kids over at Eva's schools?
 |
| Recess at Success Academy Charters |
There must be a serious discipline problem in Success Academy schools.
In my 18 years of teaching self-contained grades 4-6 and a decade of cluster teaching computers (with 200 kids a year) in one of the most poverty stricken neighborhoods (East Williamsburg) I never had a child suspended and if my principal had tried I would have fought her.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Teachers Unite Slams Eva Moskowitz on Restorative ...":You think that maybe, just maybe, all those inexperienced teacher replacement parts may, just may, not have a handle on how to discipline WITHOUT suspending kids?
Student A was suspended for four days for calling his teacher a fucking bitch. When he returned from his suspension, he called another teacher a fucking bitch. Suspensions work like a charm Eva. Expulsions work better. You should know Eva.
Last year at Success Academy Charter Schools, which I founded in New York City in 2006, we suspended 11% of the 7,000 students in our 22 schools, a rate higher than the 4% average for the city’s district schools. Yet strict discipline has not dissuaded parents. This year there were more than 20,000 student applications for 2,688 spots.Oh, my, Eva. Why don't you just show is that list of 20,000 people dying to get onto your plantation. 11% of your creamed kids behave poorly enough in your plantation-like institutions to require suspension? That's about 800 kids suspended in 22 schools - that's an astounding 30+ kids per school.
That reflects poor administration and inexperienced teachers.
What is the expulsion rate? What percentage of kids suspended is ultimately expelled? Where is the discipline policy?
ReplyDeleteHow would anyone know? They lie anyway.
DeleteI'm amazed at her comments -- like any other autocrat she goes too far. She suspends because the climate of oppression in her schools is so bad kids misbehave more.
ReplyDeleteCharters like Eva's probably have "better behaved" students because they are not subjected to the ties that bind public Ed. Charters have the right to expel and shouldn't. But they are not audited either even though our tax dollars support them. Charters like Eva's probably have "better behaved" students because they are not subject to the ties that bind NYC schools and teachers.
ReplyDeleteOne of my former schools ran an alternative suspension sight. I was asked to write up detailed lesson plans and packets for my students. That took hours and made me feel I was the one being punished.
When I first started teaching elementary school, I had the power to take away specials and trips. I would give up my prep period and have those students with me in the classroom making up homework or writing reflections about their actions. The first day of school we would write class rules and discuss consequences. By December I had one of the best-behaved classes in the school. My classes got more ice cream parties because they would rack up so many commendation cards at lunch. And they had a sense of pride and family. They liked learning and the classroom was a fun place. We were there for each other. Then I lost that control after the code was changed. All consequences were considered hurtful to the child's self esteem.
Today it's hard to find administrators who support teachers when it comes to discipline issues. In fact teachers get written up for lack of management skills. When any policy is written without the input of teachers, it's bound to fail. Students are different and schools are different. No one-size-fits all policy works. We cannot put students in overcrowded classes, put teachers under testing pressures and also try to maintain discipline if their hands are tied. Violent schools will remain violent because no one recognizes that social issues need to be addressed first. The article in the New Yorker about the Atlanta cheating scandal proves what happens when we stop addressing the social needs of students before their academic needs.
Yes Eva is evil. But politicians give her complete power over her schools while making our jobs more impossible each day.
I am a student at success academy and they are ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. They do way too much. Last year in my freshman year of high school, my friend was suspend for not having her school sweater.
ReplyDelete