Schools kicking too many out of class

By The Des Moines Register

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The number of students suspended from Des Moines schools rose slightly in the 2010-11 school year. Administrators gave 4,172 students either in-school or out-of-school suspensions.

However, it's apparently common for students to be suspended more than once during the year, because the district reports 12,793 “suspension events” last year.

Minority students were suspended at a disproportionately higher rate. Des Moines school board member Dick Murphy said the district “has searched the nation for effective remedies” related to minority suspensions but “has found very little.” He said the board is in the midst of looking into the issue of suspensions, including a breakdown of incidents by grade level.

“Research often shows that most suspensions occur at the sixth-grade level and the least at the fifth-grade level,” said Murphy. “We may have to look at better preparing students for the middle school experience in order to decrease the sixth- grade suspensions. But, first we need the data.”

He said the district was also going to explore what time of day suspensions occur to institute preventative measures, like more staff in certain areas of a school.

Other districts in this state should be examining this issue as well.

Iowa schools suspended, expelled or somehow removed about 47,000 students from school in about 70,000 separate incidents in the 2009-10 school year. Districts can suspend students for as long as 10 days. According to the Iowa Department of Education, the top two reasons for in-school suspensions: attendance policy violations and disruptive behavior. For out-of-school suspensions: disruptive behavior and fighting without injury.

More than 900 suspensions were doled out for tobacco-related offenses.

As Iowa considers education reform, leaders must better understand why thousands of students are being dismissed from thousands of days of classes. What alternative consequences are there for wrongdoing? Have suspensions become so commonplace that students don't even care about them anymore?

Schools should especially rethink “out of school” suspensions. It's hard to imagine that sending a kid home for days accomplishes anything. It may do more harm than good for some students. Kids are left to sleep in and lounge around the house, which is hardly a “punishment.” They also miss class time and fall behind in their school work.

Out-of-school suspensions can result in kids being banned from extracurricular activities. Having to drop out of a school play or lose your place in a concert can be devastating. Some students may be so embarrassed they never want to rejoin. That doesn't “teach them a lesson.”

In-school suspensions make more sense. Students have to get up in the morning and go to school. They sit in a room and can study. Teachers are able to give them tests so they don't fall behind. The students aren't home playing video games.

Jon Thompson, superintendent of the Aplington-Parkersburg district, said, “The principals within our district do not believe in out-of-school suspensions and rarely have issued this type of consequence.”

More school administrators should come around to that way of thinking.

Everyone understands kids do incredibly stupid and sometimes dangerous things. Schools have limited options for punishment. But is depriving students of education really punishment? Does it make them value learning more? Do they want to return to school and do a better job?

Probably not.