This week, I’m stepping in for Editor in Chief Liz Willen to share some recent work from our newsroom that you may find astonishing: American school kids miss hundreds of thousands of days of school every year because of punishments they receive for something like ripping up their assignment in class.
Hundreds of thousands of days.
Little justifies violence or aggression in school, and being a teacher has never been easy. Certainly there are occasions when the only solution for a troubling situation that compromises safety at school is to have a student leave campus. Hechinger reporting that involved a legion of public records requests, countless interviews and analysis of thousands of discipline records, however, found that schools all over the country rely on a collection of ill-defined reasons to eject kids from class that sometimes have little to do with safety. That subjectivity can be especially problematic for young students still learning to manage their emotions and students with disabilities.
Later this week, we’ll publish a piece showing what happened in a school system that tried to quit suspending kids for these ambiguous reasons. Even some skeptical teachers found value in the new world order. I hope you’ll read it.
Nirvi Shah, Executive Editor
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There’s more to come from our school discipline series. Here’s a sample, and you can sign up to receive everything right in your inbox.
The details behind the millions of suspensions we analyzed
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Join us for our annual PBL World event in Napa Valley! This year, our keynote speaker is Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, an acclaimed author, education thought leader and distinguished professor. Be inspired as we dive into this year's theme, "Igniting Joy through PBL."
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