Is our nation's drive for testing-related accountability really squeezing public school budgets to the point where necessary programs are being cut in response? Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post thinks so:
Derrick Shaver admits that he used to be a bully. At his suburban elementary school near Denver, the fourth-grader would call classmates ugly names, and he lost friends as a consequence. Then a new school program taught other kids how to tell him to stop. The 9-year-old said he got the message...
The program was started two years ago at Vivian Elementary School in Lakewood, Colo., about 12 miles from the site of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School. It engages every child and adult in an effort to instill respect for others: Students are taught that bullying is not acceptable; that bystanders should get involved; and, contrary to what they might think, bullies are not cool...
But at a time when these concerns are rising, the ability of many schools to respond is being hampered, according to researchers...state and local budget cuts, along with heightened emphasis on raising standardized test scores, are squeezing out anti-bullying efforts -- particularly the time-consuming programs that appear to work the best.
Since President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative became law last year, "schools and districts are under a lot of pressure to make those [test] scores go up," said Janice Sellers, principal of Quincy Elementary School in Topeka, Kan. "We have to decide what we are going to work on. Unfortunately, those kinds of issues, like bullying, are getting a back seat."
Some of those who take issue with the removal of programs such as the anti-bullying efforts say that teachers simply cannot teach effectively if the environment is not "peaceful"; in other words, trying to make test scores go up while kids are punching one another is impossible. Other educators claim that perhaps bullying is not more prevalent, just more noticed. Some claim that tough discipline codes are all that is needed; others believe that recent discipline codes tend to be too tough (i.e., zero-tolerance).
One success story of an anti-bullying program is related:
Marty Gies learned that lesson in the early 1990s. He had been principal of Ross Elementary School in Topeka for less than a month when a second-grade girl was thrown to the ground by six schoolmates and sexually assaulted. Gies said he soon realized that the attack was not isolated but part of a pattern of bullying that led some kids to stay home because they didn't feel safe.
Gies sought help from [researcher Stuart] Twemlow, and over time they implemented a comprehensive plan to change the school's climate. Not only were interventions worked out with students identified as bullies and victims, but the spectators -- kids who watched bullies at work and did nothing to stop them -- were also involved in the program, along with every adult at the school.
Academic achievement went up, and suspensions plummeted, said Gies, who moved to another elementary school three years ago and implemented a version of the anti-bullying program to fit that group of children.
"You need to teach kids respect," he said. "And you need to teach everybody that they are part of the solution. If you are in class and something is happening and you are letting it happen, you are just as much of a problem as the person doing it."
I agree. The schools that need to combat bullying the most are often the schools that need to improve education the most as well; hence the financial crunch. When things are as bad as they were at Principal Gies' school ("bullying" is too mild a term for what happened to that second-grade girl), it's obvious that trying to teach kids to read has to at least temporarily take a back seat to teaching them that assaulting each another is not acceptable. It will be necessary for such schools to find ways to allocate funds efficiently so that administrators and teachers can both teach appropriate behavior and reading skills.
Gies' also makes the very relevant point that schools do need to set a firm example by teaching everyone - students and teachers alike - that they are responsible for the safeness of schools. Students should not feel as though discipline is merely imposed upon them; they should realize that they have the power themselves to create a safer environment.
Posted by kswygert at November 4, 2003 11:26 AM