Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Feds push for new approach to classroom discipline

Obama administration seeks to end disparities in how discipline is meted out

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Attorney General Eric Holder said the problem often stems from well intentioned “zero-tolerance” policies that too often inject the criminal justice system into the resolution of problems.

The Obama administration has issued new recommendations on classroom discipline that seek to end the apparent disparities in how students of different races are punished for violating school rules.

The guidelines are likely to affect school IT departments or those who handle data collection and analysis, as they encourage schools to gather and monitor information about student discipline to ensure nondiscrimination.

Civil rights advocates have long said that a “school-to-prison” pipeline stems from overly zealous school discipline policies targeting black and Hispanic students that bring them out of school and into the court system.…Read More

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Zero tolerance—or zero sense?

A slew of recent high-profile suspensions over perceived threats or weapons infractions has renewed old questions about the wisdom of “zero tolerance” policies.

Waiting in line for the bus, a Pennsylvania kindergartener tells her pals she’s going to shoot them with a Hello Kitty toy that makes soap bubbles. In Maryland, two 6-year-old boys pretend their fingers are guns during a playground game of cops and robbers. In Massachusetts, a 5-year-old boy attending an after-school program makes a gun out of Legos and points it at other students while “simulating the sound of gunfire,” as one school official put it.

Kids with active imaginations—or potential threats to school safety?

Some school officials are taking the latter view, suspending or threatening to suspend small children over behavior their parents consider perfectly normal and age-appropriate—even now, with schools in a state of heightened sensitivity following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.…Read More

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