A Real Sweeping Change To No Child Left Behind
July 19, 2010
By Robert Golomb
(New York, N.Y.) - President Obama recently announced his Administration’s intention to make “sweeping changes” to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Unfortunately, these sweeping changes do not include any proposal relating to the most critical issue facing students and teachers today: order and safety. Which is a shame, for even as federal expenditures for education had tripled through NCLB surveys continue to show that an overwhelming majority of both teachers and students continue to say that the disruptive behavior of a relatively small number of students makes it difficult for teachers to teach and students to learn. Nor did NCLB even attempt to address outside the classroom school violence, which has inflicted physical and psychological harm on the 3 million elementary, middle and high school students who are its annual victims. The recipients of the bountiful largess of NCLB, many American schools still remain unable to provide their students with a positive learning environment in their classrooms and with a safe environment in the hallways, cafeterias and bathrooms.
What “sweeping change” can an amended NCLB make to combat this educationally, physically and psychologically toxic school environment, which, while predating NCLB by at least 2 generations, had not been helped by it in any way and has not to date even been mentioned by the Obama White House? The answer might be found in a strategy containing a special meaning to Republican and Democratic legislators alike- a surge. A surge would no doubt be supported by the same people whose opinions and feedback the authors and advocates of education reform rarely request-teachers. Teachers would tell of the frustration they experience when 3 or 4 children from a class of 25-30 students create disruptions that prevent the rest of the class from learning, and teachers would probably add that, out of the 3, there is often one, the worst, who is the classic bully who has ruined the childhood of his victims.
This snapshot of a typical classroom reflects what researchers Curwin and Mendler (C and M) discovered 20 years ago: the 80-15- rule. According to C and M, eighty percent of students are well behaved, follow school rules and regulations and come to school to learn. Fifteen percent commit on a fairly regular basis infractions that, while generally non-violent in nature, interfere with the teaching and learning process. The final five percent are the recidivist breakers of fundamental school rules and regulations and the perpetrators of the acts of violence and intimidation inside and outside of the classroom that make school a dismal and frightening place for their victims. Enter the surge in the form of additional adult supervision. Under this plan a significant portion of the same federal funds, currently used to support a sundry list of sound- good but non-essential programs, would be targeted to add a second, and if discipline issues require, a third cost effective non-pedagogical (but trained for the challenge) adult, who would serve as the second (or third) set of eyes and ears of the teacher, thus reducing the vital adult to student ratio from 30 to 1, to 15 to 1, or even 10 to 1.
This idea, as anyone familiar with the American educational system knows, is not unique in kind, but rather, original in its scope. Para professionals already assist teachers in special education and inclusion classes. Aides and teacher assistants support teachers in early childhood classes. An arguable majority of General education teachers from grades1 through 1 2 need that assistance and support as well. As do their counterparts in special education and early childhood, those who support teachers in grades 1through 12 would merit a title of their own. The title “Friends” seems appropriate- because they will indeed be friends to teachers and students alike when they escort a disruptive student to the main office for a call home or to the dean’s office if a more severe punishment is required. This strategy provides two research proven benefits. The removal of the disruptive student significantly increases the ability of the rest of the students in the class to learn. The behavior of the disruptive student, assuming he fits into C and M’s 15% category, can be dramatically improved if such simple interventions as described above are used.
As part of the “ sweeping changes” a further extension of the surge would be directed to handle those students who fit into C and W’s 5% category. Inside the schools, adding additional hard muscle - extra deans and safety agents, and extra soft muscle-guidance counselors and tutors, and, on a district level, expanding the number of alternative sites to house the most recalcitrant students would begin to end the chaos and violence that those 5% of students have perpetrated in the classrooms, hallways, bathrooms and cafeterias of schools across America and create the safe and secure learning environment that students of all ages, grades and abilities require and deserve.
Robert Golomb (MrBob347@aol.com) is currently an adjunct professor of graduate education and school administration. Before his retirement, he had served ten years as an English teacher and twenty years as an assistant principal in N.Y.C. intermediate schools. His previously published articles have covered a range of educational topics.
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