Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Suspension rates

On another post Anonymous wrote:

"Today's PG presents the reports (facts?) on PPS suspensions. Please note that 81% of the students who are suspended in PPS are Black students (who represent only 55% of the PPS total population).

Does this suggest that if these students "Be there" they are quickly 'sent out of there,' by way of suspension? Hmmmm? Perhaps the United Way campaign should be find a way to "keep students there" (in schools).
“More than half of the suspensions in Allegheny County are in Pittsburgh Public Schools.”

“The PA state Safe Schools report shows Pittsburgh Public Schools issued 15,522 suspensions -- including 10,266 for conduct in 2011-12.”

“The suspensions covered every grade level in K-12, including 233 in kindergarten, growing to 1,383 in ninth grade and falling to 776 in 12th grade. The largest numbers were in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10.
While there are still thousands of suspensions, Pittsburgh Public Schools reduced the number by about 30 percent from 2011-12 to 2012-13.”

“Pittsburgh provided data showing that in 2012-13 there were 10,695 suspensions given to 5,015 students. That's not only fewer suspensions but fewer students – more than 1,000 – than the previous year.”

“While black students account for 55 percent of the enrollment, they made up about 81 percent of suspensions in the state Safe Schools report in 2011-12.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/schools-finding-suspensions-ineffective-701785/#ixzz2dnq86BLt
"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

One suggestion that has been made is that principals would sometimes cLl families of children, out of control, in distress, and just have them go home for the rest of the day. No it wasnt recorded...meaning their could have been more students out of school than recorded. It sounds odd to read the Kindergarten number etc. but with no extra personnel, principals and vp busy cruising with laptops, what is the safest way to deal with a melt down in a primary grade of a needy child? Teachers are seriously busy with the other 25+. Sometimes a distressed child, an undiagnosed child, needs to be isolated. This isnt minor, as in the paprr - like giving someone the finger. There.arent staff members for a full on hysterical child, endaering him/herself and others. Sure, getting to the root of the issue is important-- but so is your student, just obseving tjis situation.

Anonymous said...

How many kids are directly/indirectly affected by an undiagnosed distressed child? My son was/is a bit freaked out by some stuff he saw at Minadeo. We pulled him out of PPS in middle school even though we could barely (no more college savings) afford private school.


Anonymous said...

What alternatives to suspension have proven to work? I have heard for years how kids are relieved when a disruptive student is on suspension or placed at an alternative site even for a short term. I have also heard at least one kid say he prefers the day he had at an alternative site to the days he has at his home high school.

Anonymous said...

2:26 AM Things haven't been quite the same since CO railroaded Principal Getty right out of Minadeo only to replace her with an ineffective PELA. It's not just happening at Minadeo. Student behavior is off the hook in so many of our schools and the reason is failed leadership by those who are in charge. When students don't think twice about disrespecting the principal then, it just snowballs throughout the school and inside the classroom door. Guess who's held responsible? TEACHERS! They are forced to retire or resign and the same ineffective principals remain intact. Just ask around the schools and staff will tell you how much they miss their principal of yesterday. Some schools are lucky because they have not been blessed by a PELA leader while those of us struggle along with an incompetent leader who wasn’t known to be a top notch classroom practitioner. Now, these are the principals with their IPad in tow rating us. What a sham!

Anonymous said...

Read the August Board minutes. Melissa Wagner Minadeo's PELA Principal is now a lead principal. You have got to be kidding. Read on because the only two credible lead principals are Mrvos and Reichert. As for the others, it's like the blind leading the blind.