Education Week - November 13, 2013 - 12

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Revolutionizing Discipline,
With a Flowchart
| RULES FOR ENGAGEMENT_News | Harsh discipline policies
are falling out of favor across the country, but Broward
County, Fla., is hoping to do away with them entirely.
Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale and one of the
nation's largest school systems, approved last week a major
overhaul of the district's discipline policies. In place of a
routine that has seen large swaths of students incarcerated,
the district is implementing a system based on restorative
justice and forged with input from a broad coalition of local
organizations and people.
"We've done away with the phrase 'zero tolerance,'"
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a press
conference. "Students will not become collateral damage of
the way things used to be."
The new system offers guidance in two forms: A memo
of understanding that details terms of discipline, and a
flowchart ("decision matrix") that distills that memorandum
into the bare essentials. Both forms make clear when exactly
school trouble warrants police action. The new structure does
not eliminate police influence in schools, or deprive officers
of any jurisdiction. This shift isn't in power, but in mindset,
establishing among all parties involved in the Broward
County legal system-school board, administrators, judges,
attorneys, police, and sheriff-that students deserve more
tolerance than they've yet been given.
District officials want to make police action strictly a last
recourse. Only after five successive levels of intervention
fail should an arrest be made, barring imminent danger
or a felony. That's an abrupt shift in a county so rife in
disciplinary action that many have referenced students
throwing M&M's as a reason for suspension. (Wasting
chocolate is a crime, but still.)
The centerpiece of the agreement seems to be Step Three,
the point at which an officer has been brought in to consult
(but not take action) and must assess a situation. In many
systems, this step can lead to suspensions both in and
out of school because of zero-tolerance policies. In place of
suspensions and arrests, Broward plans to lean heavily on its
newly implemented PROMISE Program, which utilizes positive
discipline techniques.
The discipline guidance itself might not be mind-blowing,
but the circumstances of its creation are a groundbreaking
approach for a district beleaguered by high disciplinary
rates, especially among minorities. Broward County has just
over 260,000 students; of those, about 100,000 are black,
and they've been suspended at over twice the rate of white
students.
Broward County NAACP President Marsha Ellison has been
at the forefront of the effort, and has been working for years
with groups to mitigate the school-to-prison pipeline. But the
organization hadn't found a political ally among top district
brass until the arrival in 2011 of Superintendent Robert
Runcie, who made it a clear priority, starting with changing
the code of conduct.
"If we don't find ways to turn this around and give
[students] an opportunity, we're wasting a lot of lives,"
Runcie said.
Houston Dad Learns Lessons
Volunteering at School
| K-12 PARENTS AND THE PUBLIC_News | Somebody get
Terrance Harris some Advil.
After volunteering all day at his son's elementary
school in Houston last month, Harris' knees ached from
sitting in tiny chairs, and he was exhausted from a day
filled with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, cutting
construction paper, playing learning games, and reading
books with students.
But it was a small price to pay for the lessons he
learned and the sense of pride felt by his 6-year-old
-ROSS BRENNEMAN
son, Nigel, because Harris participated in Gleason
Elementary School's Watch DOGS (Dads of Great
Students) program.
"I have a newfound respect for teachers," said Harris,
a sportswriter and father of two who is a former college
classmate of mine. "It's crazy. I don't know how they do it."
Watch DOGS is a K-12 father-engagement initiative run
by the National Center for Fathering in Kansas City, Mo.
Two fathers in Springdale, Ark., founded the program
following the tragic school shootings at a Jonesboro, Ark.
middle school in 1998 that left four students and one
teacher dead.
Watch DOGS fathers must commit to volunteer all day
at their child's school. From greeting the students in the
morning and reading the announcements to assisting
teachers in the classroom, dads are assigned a variety of
tasks all over campus and not just with their own child.
The program's goals are to provide students with
positive male role models who emphasize the importance
of education, and to give schools volunteers who can
assist with creating a culture of increased security.
Gleason Principal Melody Goffney said traditionally
there are very few men on elementary campuses,
so Watch DOGS provides her 866 students with the
opportunity to have a strong male presence on campus.
This school year almost every day is booked with a dad.
Gleason is one of the more than 3,200 schools in 46
states and the District of Columbia that have Watch DOGS
programs. Last year, about 250,000 men volunteered at
their child's school. Almost by default, most school-related
notices, meetings, and requests for volunteers falls on
the mother, whether she works outside the home or not.
Watch DOGS messages men directly, inviting them at first
to have pizza or doughnuts with their children and then
asking them to spend one day of the year at the school.
Harris, who also has a 12-year-old daughter, said he's
committed to being an involved dad-especially since he's
still considered "cool," for now.
-KARLA SCOON REID
12 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 13, 2013 | www.edweek.org
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Education Week - November 13, 2013

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