Evidence-based teaching methods for helping students who are at risk for school failure or who have disabilities.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a policy paper examining a report the Human Rights Watch and the ACLU about corporal punishment in US schools. It provides a clear and powerful indictment of what amounts to a state-sanctioned assault on children.
A Violent Education
Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools
Continue reading ‘Corporal punishment needs to be beaten’
Over on Behavior Mod Info readers can find several entries about the hearings regarding US schools’ use of seclusion and restraint. The hearings were conducted by the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor.
News sources around the US are abuzz with how state and local education agencies will spend the influx of funds for special education that comes with the US government’s increases in IDEA funding under the stimulus plan.
Given that these funds may be pretty fleeting (here today, gone in a couple of years?), how wise is it to invest in more teachers whom the LEAs will have to dismiss or materials that are likely to need replacement in just a few years? I’d say, “NOT!”
Why not invest in staff development, using the two-year span to ensure that virtually all teachers know how to measure progress in easy-but-rigorous ways (e.g., curriculum-based measurement), implement school-wide discipline programs, and present lessons in systematic and (dare I say it?) instructive ways?
Here are some relevant links: Research Institute on Progress Monitoring and Student Progress; School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a policy paper examining a report the Human Rights Watch and the ACLU about corporal punishment in US schools. It provides a clear and powerful indictment of what amounts to a state-sanctioned assault on children.
A Violent Education
Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public SchoolsEvery year in the United States at least 220,000 children in public schools are subjected to corporal punishment, or “paddling.” Permitted in 21 states, the practice leaves many children injured and disengaged from the process of learning. African-American students and students with mental or physical disabilities receive corporal punishment at disproportionately high rates, creating a hostile school environment in which these students may struggle to succeed.
This practice should stop. I hope readers will review A Violent Education and advocate an end to corporal punishment.
Download the executive summary here and review an earlier post on TE about corporal punishment.
Zig Engelmann, principle author of a sweet suite of instructional materials that cover the range from beginning language skills to core concepts in physical sciences, has revised his Web site, Zig Site. If you’ve ever heard of “Direct Instruction” (sometimes said, “Big DI”), you’ve heard of Zig’s work. The new site has somethings new and somethings old. Rather than précis the changes, here’s how Zig describes it:
Starting in 2009, Zigsite is going to have an emphasis on training through videos. The first will be a series of 13 video sessions on teaching English pronunciation to non-English speakers. It will be followed by a series of training videos on teaching our new program, Direct Instruction Spoken English.
The longer printed works on Zigsite include, Rubric for Identifying Authentic DI Programs, Low Performers’ Manual, and the log of the first formal study I did in education—Comparative Preschool Study: High and Low SES Preschoolers Learning Advanced Cognitive Skills. These are constructive. Most of the other works are constructive only in the sense that they help clarify why education has gone basically nowhere in the past 40 years. Only now are educators starting to “invent” some of the stuff we used back in the 60s.
Continue reading ‘Zig site morphs’
Today marks beginning of “No Name-Calling Week,” an effort to promote civility and decrease bullying in schools and communities. A few days ago I posted a noted about this topic over on Behavior Mod Info, including a suggestion about a series of lessons aimed at increasing the frequency of polite interactions between students. Here’s a link to it.
In case you missed it in the news, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) released a report 13 January documenting the use of seclusion and restraint procedures in US schools. In “School is Not Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools,” NDRN tells terrible stories about things that happen to children at schools. Here’s is an excerpt from the press release by NDRN:
WASHINGTON (January 13, 2009) – The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) today unveiled a disturbing national report on seclusion and restraint in U.S. schools. The report shows an unsettling use of seclusion and restraint tactics, which resulted in physical and emotional injuries as well as deaths, in schools affecting students from grades K-12.The report documents cases that range from students being locked in rooms or even boxes for hours to students who were encouraged to release their aggression by wrestling in “WWF Rooms.”
Continue reading ‘Seclusion and restraint: NDRN report’
Jim Wright, who is a school psychologist in New York and an author of multiple sources about current topics in education, has a Web site that some folks will likely find valuable. He calls it “Intervention Central,” and he’s populated it with guidance about teaching techniques. There are many specific recommendations, organized according to academic area (e.g., arithmetic, reading fluency) as well as by topic (e.g., RTI, classroom behavior). Mr. Wright has based many of his recommendations on published studies. Link to Intervention Central.
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