Dive Brief:
- The recent firing of a New Orleans charter school principal for attending a protest of the scheduled dismantling of a Confederate statue exposes the need for greater scrutiny of leader biases which could impact the way they view their students, but also should spur an examination of the systemic biases in our schools and the problem with ‘second-chance’ schools, notes a recent article in the Hechinger Report.
- Nicholas Dean had been principal of the Crescent Leadership School for three years, managing a school where 84% of the student population was black. Observers are using his case as an example of how, although cultural ignorance and unconscious bias may not be visible, it can be equally damaging to students’ futures.
- The concept of last-chance schools, which are for students who had been expelled from other schools, can also be problematic, and regular schools may be too easily willing to expel students knowing there is an alternative. Such school’s funding can depend on children being expelled from regular schools to sustain them.
Dive Insight:
As last-chance schools continue to exist based on disciplinary issues at other schools, “restorative justice” has gained prominence among educators and administrators as a means to avoid some of the negative consequences of harsh disciplinary policies. Former Secretary of Education John King, Jr. said last year that charter leaders needed to be less willing to utilize suspensions and expulsions, saying they disproportionately affect students of color. This can be especially difficult in New Orleans, where the school system is almost entirely made up of charters, which can often have different and stricter disciplinary policies than district schools.
Offering more supportive disciplinary approaches and boosting students’ social-emotional learning as shown positive results in some cases; at Broward County Public Schools in Florida, a program entitled PROMISE (Preventing Recidivism Through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Support & Education) worked with students involved in nonviolent misdemeanor felonies. Reports indicated that only 12% of students re-offended. With lower numbers, more pressure can be put on regular schools to keep trying with students and not feel like they have an alternative option of a last-chance school.