A Program to Involve Fathers

            In the US approximately 40 percent of children are born to unmarried parents.  Many of these children come from younger, economically distressed parents where they mostly likely will be raised with an inconsistent or absent father.  There have been many attempts to address the lack of consistency of fathers in the live of their children, unfortunately there are very few that have been successful, until now.

            In Minnesota, Hennepin County Family Court Judge, Bruce Peterson created Co-Parent Court.  Co-Parent Court is modeled after the drug courts, which offer alternatives to incarceration.  The premise behind Co-Parent Court was that kids will do better with two involved parents.  Co-Parent Court sought to maintain and strengthen the relationship between the unwed mother and father.  Participants are required to attend four weekly co-parenting classes and complete a parenting plan that covers holiday schedules to communicating with each other.  Completion of the program allows the parents to receive support from community agencies with finding work, housing, addiction, domestic violence, and mental health problems[i]. 

            Getting unwed mothers and fathers involved in maintaining a positive relationship for the benefit of their child should provide the psychological and economic stability needed to focus their efforts on school.  Additionally, the support parents receive from community agencies should remove or greatly diminish barriers that would usually create a division between mother and father. 

The removal or diminishment of barriers should lead to greater stability of the relationship between mother and father.  The stability of the relationship directly affects the child’s overall environment and well-being.  If a child lives in a stable home, feels safe and doesn’t have to worry or feel frustrated about being placed in a “tug of war” by the parents, the child should be able to thrive in a learning environment that is supplements by the parents.

            The Co-Parent Court program in Minnesota is currently serving a small number of parents.  However, it’s a program that Family Courts across the country should duplicate.  The potential impact this program could have on the achievement gap is exciting.  By providing supports to maintain a positive relationship between the unwed mother and father could increase academic achievement, reduce truancy, suspensions, and decrease delinquency.  Another benefit could be an increase in active parent involvement in school.  A final benefit is children learning how to have a positive relationship with women.

            By trying to get more fathers involved in the lives of their children, Co-Parent Court may be the program that breaks the cycle of negative consequences for a child who is raised with an absent of inconsistent father. 

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[i] www.npr.org/2012/05/07/152157287/never-married-parents-get-help-from-special-court

Summer of Unrest for Public Education

                This summer will be an important summer for public education.  Public school districts across the country will try to prevent their worst case scenario plans from coming to fruition.  As districts struggle with less money to serve students next school year, difficult decisions will be made that will affect instruction, school climate, and student activities. 

School leaders will have to make tough decisions on instruction that will affect several key areas.  The first is class size.  As districts close buildings and cuts school staff, many districts have sought relief from the state for class size regulations.  The increase in class size could greatly impact instruction and hamper a teachers’ ability to provide quality and differentiated instruction all students need.  Second, school leaders will have to decide on if there should be a change to the school week?  To manage costs, there are a number of medium and small districts that have shortened the school week from 5 days to 4 days.  While shortening the school week has produced mixed results, there is very little longitudinal data to determine if a shortened school week will be a viable cost saving solution to budgetary concerns.  A final instruction concern is whether to keep certain academic interventions that provide supplemental aid to students who are struggling with the core curriculum content and standardized assessments.  To increase scores on standardized tests and improve overall knowledge of the core content, districts spend a lot of money on costly academic interventions that are beginning to show improvement.  The decision to keep costly interventions may lead the termination of other things that might be considered equally important. 

                School climate is another area school leaders will have to address this summer.  Decisions on how to support students when there are cuts to counselors, support staff and cuts to city social services will impact how a school responds to students with behavioral challenges, students who are homeless and students who are truant.  Supporting these students along with the rest of the student body is a complex process.  With less support and security staff, these decisions will become more problematic because school climate directly impacts instruction.  Being sensitive to the challenges that students in crisis face while ensuring the rest of the student body are safe and engaged in learning is a difficult balance achieve and maintain with a full complement of support and safety staff. Combine this with a potential increase in class size and there is a potential for schools to have major climate problems.

                The final area to be considered this summer is cuts to student activities.  School leaders will consider if cutting programs such as art, music, and some varsity and junior varsity sports will produce the financial windfall needed to reduce the deficit.  School leaders will also have to consider if cutting these programs is worth the parental and student backlash that will occur as a result of cutting these programs.

This summer, school leaders are going to make some tough decisions that will impact the educational landscape for their districts.  Decisions about class size, school climate and student activities will greatly impact instruction and student engagement.  Unfortunately, many of these decisions will not be based on what is in the best interest of the students, but in the interest of fiscal necessity.  At a time where our public education system needs to become more competitive on a global level, the summer of unrest may keep our system stagnate or make us further behind our global competition.

Taking Back Graduation

                  Graduation season has come upon us again.  The annual rite of passage will introduce the adult world to a new group of graduates ranging from pre-school to high school.  Graduation is a celebration of the perseverance of a child or young adult in their journey to acquire knowledge and skills.  Graduation also confirms to the adult world that the child or young adult is ready to move to the next grade, ready to transition into higher education, or take their place in the adult workforce.

                  There are some who believe the journey ends with the culmination of twelve years of acquiring knowledge and skills.  For some, graduation will be the pinnacle of their formal education experience.  While a majority of high school graduates in the US do not enroll in a post-secondary education program, graduation becomes a source of family pride and accomplishment.  For some families, being able to see their child overcome the pitfalls and stressors of high school and young adult life and walk across the stage to receive their diploma is one of the proudest moments for parents, friends and relatives.  However, graduating with a diploma should not be considered the end to knowledge and skill acquisition.

                  There is a false belief that the acquisition of knowledge and skills ends at graduation.  While compulsory education may end at graduation, graduation should begin the stage of life long learning. Human beings are not designed to become stagnant, they are designed for perpetual growth.  The desire to acquire knowledge and skills should never end.

                  There is also a false belief that graduation is the end.  Graduation is actually a restart of the compulsory education cycle.  When an adult starts a family and their child becomes of age for compulsory education, the cycle restarts and the journey to the acquisition of knowledge and skills begins with the new generation. 

                  As we celebrate the graduation of our young adults who will transition into adulthood.  Let them know what this day really means.  Let them know this rite of passage is not an end, but an induction to life long learning.

Undoing the Damage of Zero Tolerance

            Student discipline is a complex and controversial topic that places public education in a precarious position.  As an institution of learning, the mission of public education is to provide youth with the knowledge and skills for their future adult lives.  Student discipline had always played a minor part of the instruction process.  However, schools have been spending more time on discipline than instruction. 

            The increase in discipline is due in part to the “Zero Tolerance” policy school districts across the country adopted several years ago.  Zero Tolerance was supposed to reverse the trend of weapons, drugs, and serious assaults by students that were occurring in schools.  Instead, the eagerness of administrators who took a literal interpretation of zero tolerance, found themselves expelling students who the policy was not intended for.  Students with no previous history of suspensions or behavioral problems were finding themselves going through the expulsion process for being caught with scissors in their backpacks for school projects, toy guns for show and tell, and over the counter (and some prescription) medication. 

Since zero tolerance policies do not distinguish intent (accident versus intent to harm), or the type of offense (major versus minor), students were being expelled and a large number became part of the juvenile justice system.  As a result of zero tolerance policies more that seventy percent of student arrest were placed in the custody of law enforcement were African-American and Hispanic[i].  It was statistics like these that led one Juvenile Court judge to create a program that is changing the way expulsions are handled.

St. Louis Juvenile Court judge Jimmie Edwards established the Jimmie Edwards Innovative Concept Academy.  The purpose of the Academy is to provide education and socialization skills to students in the juvenile justice system[ii].  The idea is to prevent youth in the juvenile justice system from dropping out, re-offending, and eventually becoming the next generation of criminals.  The education Judge Edwards Academy provides is both academic and personal improvement.  According to Judge Edwards:

                        making sure students are educated and not incarcerated

                        is about ending a cycle of poverty.  They’ve been so

                        negatively socialized from grandma to mom…They

                        don’t have the ability to teach them to dream.  My

                        children have only had nightmares-nightmares

                        because the only thing they’ve learned has been

                        negative[iii].”

Judge Edwards is one of a number of juvenile judges across the country who recognize a disturbing trend: the school-to-prison pipeline.  To reverse this trend, judges are working with child advocate groups and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to develop a legal strategy to challenge zero tolerance polices that criminalize youth and to help school districts understand their civil rights obligations.

By working with informed juvenile justice judges on student discipline, zero tolerance, and the school-to-prison pipeline, school districts can rethink student discipline and develop alternatives to expulsions, student arrest, and how to prevent students from becoming the next generation of criminals.

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[i] www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/schoo-to-prision-pipeline_n_1340380

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid