Contact: John L.White, 410-767-0439
Baltimore, MD
The Maryland State Board of Education voted unanimously yesterday to accept guidelines for the state’s student code of discipline that can serve as a model for local school systems to use when developing their own discipline codes.
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) presented the new framework for school systems to use as they review and revise their local district codes of discipline, and develop and establish new discipline-related policies. These guidelines include behavioral expectations for all members of the community who have a direct impact on creating healthy learning environments and promoting student success. They also were designed to reduce disparities in discipline based on race and disability.
“The State Board is committed to establishing policies that lead to safe learning environments for all students, and keep more students in school and on track for graduation, while eliminating the disproportionate impact of school discipline on students of color and students with disabilities,” said State Board Vice President Dr. Mary Kay Finan, who presided over yesterday’s meeting. “It is imperative that we continue learning and make decisions that are in the best interests of students regardless of where they live, what they look like or what challenges they exhibit.”
The Maryland Guidelines for a State Code of Discipline align closely with the Maryland State Board of Education’s discipline reform efforts as laid out in their 2012 report, School Discipline and Academic Success: Related Parts of Maryland’s Education Reform. The guidelines were written in accordance with state law and the Code of Maryland Regulations. They complement and support the new state regulations, which the State Board adopted in January to keep students in school, maintain their progress toward graduation, and strengthen school safety overall.
In response to the Board’s request for an inclusive, thorough, and participatory process, MSDE convened a workgroup in 2012 and appointed two co-chairs, MSDE’s Robert Murphy, M.Ed., and Kate Rabb, JD, of Open Society Institute-Baltimore. MSDE staff issued initial invitations to representatives from all 24 local school systems in Maryland, and numerous organizations and stakeholders including: ACLU-MD; Advocates for Children and Youth; Baltimore Teachers Union; Department of Juvenile Services; Johns Hopkins; MD Association of Boards of Education; MD Association of Pupil Personnel; MD Association of Secondary School Principals Association; MD Coalition of Families for Children’s Mental Health; MD Disability Law Center; MD State Education Association; MD Parent Teacher Association; MSDE; NAACP; and Public School Superintendent Association of Maryland. Members of the State Board also were invited. Through the course of six open meetings between November 2012 and July 2013, additional groups were invited and additional people participated.
As a model, the guidelines provide suggested roles and expectations of the broadly-defined school community, and a framework for choosing appropriate and fair consequences for students. In response to the State Board’s directives, the guidelines create a structure that emphasizes discretion for decision-makers and is designed to eliminate disparities in discipline, and make consequences meaningful and appropriate.
The draft guidelines, workgroup report and the report to the State Board of Education have been linked to yesterday’s State Board meeting agenda.
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11 comments:
You lost me the second you dropped the race card.
And how they get local schools to follow these guidelines is by dangling state grant money over their heads. They claim they are a "model" by schools have no choice but to follow these guidelines.
It's like the Safe Streets crock. You get the grant money when you show a reduction in crime. This leads to crimes being downgraded.
The problem we have is most of our local politicians are democrats thereby fools so they can't comprehend how this all works. The ones who do understand are as dishonest as the day is long and will never tell the whole story.
A Good A$$ Whipping will keep the (F.I. A.'s = Future inmates of America)out of the Criminal Justice system....
wonder how many of their votes are UNANIMOUS? WorCo BoE votes are UNANIMOUS 99.9% of the time - why bother with 7 representatives when 1 will do?
Reduce "disparities" in discipline??? WTF?
Just punish everyone the same for the same offenses.
Let the cards fall where they will.
However, STOP suspending kids for defending themselves when they get punched, pushed, or attacked, in order to make sure the NAACP doesn't say there are "disparities".
When you look for trouble, you often find it. But you don't get to drag everyone you attack into jail with you so the BOE can hit their racial quota's.
Get rid of the FIA's so the kids who WANT TO LEARN can do so without fear.
Like a cop I know once said, "we didn't put the black guy in prison because he was black. We put him there because he robbed a bank and shot a teller."
Same thing is true in school. You don't get suspended because you are black, Mexican, white, or a visitor from another planet. You got suspended because you attacked someone. Or walked out of class. Or threatened a teacher.
Or got caught with drugs.
THAT'S how you get a "healthy learning environment".
This is what former Board of Education president Mark Thompson does for the WCBOE. His job is to make sure black kids are not disciplined. This is the biggest race fraud ever.
Obama as well as every other single democrat are losers through and through. Everything they have ever touched has gone to hell and this is a fact. Democrat is the party for all those in the moron/imbecile/idiot IQ levels. As well as the party of pathological liars, and those with no principles or morals.
We need to just start calling the public schools pre-detention centers because that's all they are anymore, holding areas for future criminals. Real true education doesn't exist in public schools. It's all social engineering and learning to be a want more instead of a decent self sufficient member of society.
In plain English.
Quadruple the punishment of Whites.
Quarter the punishment of Blacks and Hispanics.
Ignore the facts make decisions based solely on race.
If they can not see this as racist they are blind. No decision should ever be made based on race.
This is a war on whites. Supported by Government.
Sarcastically, non-minority students are not causing a racially proportionate amount of trouble.
This unfairly shifts the burden onto those who are willing and able to misbehave.
'Guidelines' is bureaucratic doublespeak for 'You will do this.'
We should expect a more realistic set of guidelines, expectations and procedures from such a 'learned panel' but since it's the OweMalley appointed crew it won't happen.
Go visit our schools. Decide who the troublemakers are.
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