Guess which schools in Connecticut have the highest suspension rate for children in kindergarten?

Categories Charter Schools, Childhood, Pre-K, K, Connecticut

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Linda says:

May 20, 2013 at 11:03 am

See if this link works:

http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/05/20/news-flash-connecticut-charter-schools-outperform-public-schoolsin-suspending-kindergarten-students/

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philaken says:

May 20, 2013 at 11:06 am

Diane,

The link in the last post is not working.

Ken

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2old2tch says:

May 20, 2013 at 11:12 am

What does a child under 6 do in order to get suspended? So many teachable moments out the window!

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- avan says:
  
  May 20, 2013 at 10:08 pm
  
  Hmmm, stab someone with a pencil, throw chairs, knock over desks, leave the classroom and run through the halls, start a fight, run around the room and scream over instruction…just to name a few. While yeah, it would be better to have some kind of counselor or therapist to deal with these kids, many schools have no backup for the teacher. I never saw such things until I came to my present urban job….it is unbelieveable the behaviors and as a teacher, how are you supposed to teach OR protect the other children?
  
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  - 2old2tch says:
    
    May 20, 2013 at 11:00 pm
    
    How many kindergarteners do they have in a class? Are they trying to teach an academic curriculum? I taught on the other end in high school in a low income urban/suburban community. I have only anecdotal info on their pre-school and kindergarten classes. The behavior you are describing would be an outlier.
    
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  - Ms. Cartwheel Librarian says:
    
    May 20, 2013 at 11:38 pm
    
    “Students behaving poorly at school” – from the article. Let me tell you that if you haven’t seen it, you will not believe it. Avan is totally dead on and I could list incidents of unbelievable behavior so far beyond “poor” that you would think you are in a juvenile detention center and these are kindergardeners coming in the door. They have been doing as they have pleased for 5 or 6 years, remotes and electronic games in hand and then you want them to do what??? – stand in line, wait to be called on, not get up and do as they please, follow directions. Where is their remote so they can turn you to another channel or zap you on a game. Unlike high school students many of them have no understanding of what consequences are.
    
    I would never have thought the students would do this in kindergarten but the tides are changing. Parents abdicate their roles as parents and allow just about any behavior as long as it doesn’t cause them to have to deal with their children at home – it’s called “neglect”. Kindergarten is all academic now, playtime is a thing of the past. The poor little kids that have to witness this on a daily basis at school are affected too, I can’t imagine the stress and then there’s the contagious nature of students acting out leading others to act out. My school is one of very high poverty but not urban in the least.
    
    This is a national problem and yes, it is extremely disheartening to all who work with students,. Budgets have been cut to the bone and behavioral support personel are a thing of the past. These young students are but the harbingers of what is coming on up.
    
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  - Hannah says:
    
    May 21, 2013 at 12:20 am
    
    With you on this avan… have had “sacy” kids (sexually aggressive children/youth) in kindergarten, kids stab each other with pencils and tacks, attempt to leave the classroom (fortunately, doors are a bit too heavy for most of them), shout over instruction, … yes, I too have seen this… “hands on” activities go out the window… literally and figuratively… if it can go in their hands, it can be used as a missile or other weapon… so the sacred “hands on” activities are typically minimal until the kids are reasonably, reliably trained in appropriate behaviors… which remains a challenge most of the year.
    
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  - avan says:
    
    May 21, 2013 at 12:30 am
    
    2old2teach:
    
    Our Kindergartens have 27-28 students in the class, with no assistant. Yes it is academic. Our admin just last week advised parents enrolling next year that there would be no more cut and paste or coloring…..that their children would be writing paragraphs!! Also, they decided to take out music and art and have prep periods of creative writing, world cultures and other subjects more appropriate for middle school. They have no idea of child development.
    
    So you have these traumatized children who come with so much less and then the “reformers” think that what they need is a more “academic” curriculum. Is it any wonder they don’t pay attention and have behavior problems? What they really need to focus on are social skills, fine motor skills, listening skills, phonics skills and letting children learn through fun activities, Heaven forbid!!
    
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  - 2old2tch says:
    
    May 21, 2013 at 9:48 pm
    
    Avan,
    
    I don’t know how you do it. The whole set-up is so wrong.
    
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  - rr says:
    
    May 21, 2013 at 10:31 pm
    
    Don’t forget the chucky cheese bus ride to and from home w/o monitors.
    
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Joe Nathan says:

May 20, 2013 at 2:28 pm

Perhaps the story is a bit more complex?

Here’s the link to the newspaper article:
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/hundreds-kindergarten-students-suspended-school
As the reporter notes,
“The district-by-district suspension data compiled by the Connecticut State Department of Education show some districts have much higher rates of suspensions . For example, New Haven had 89 incidents of students 6 years old and younger last year being suspended, while Waterbury, which has an almost identical student enrollment, had 173 suspensions.

Likewise Achievement First charter schools in Hartford suspended 114 students last year while Amistad charter schools in New Haven suspended 38.

Of the nearly 2,000 suspensions reported statewide, 1,161 were out-of-school suspensions and 806 were in-school-suspensions.”

The Connecticut Dept of Ed website does not break out how many of these suspensions per school were “in school” and how many were “out of school.”

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- Linda says:
  
  May 20, 2013 at 2:35 pm
  
  No matter now you spin and defend, for Achievement First that is a huge percentage of their population for one grade and they are SIX years old.
  
  I suppose the reorientation room where they “get the culture they need” certainly will help these tiny “thugs”….see Pelto for clarification. Orwell was only off by about 30 years and evidently, it wasn’t fiction.
  
  And Joe are you just defending the charter schools?
  
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  - Joe Nathan says:
    
    May 20, 2013 at 3:44 pm
    
    Sounds like some district schools & some charters are using in-school and out of school suspension with a fair number of students. Other schools are not. That’s one of the points that I think the reporter made.
    
    People on this list serve often criticize “outsiders” for criticizing schools without fully understanding what’s going on. I understand that criticism.
    
    I’m suggesting that more information is needed about what is going on before making generalizations.
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    May 20, 2013 at 3:46 pm
    
    So you say…
    
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retiredbutmissthekids says:

May 21, 2013 at 3:39 am

27-28 kindergarteners with one teacher and no assistant AND an academic program
(with no play) in INSANE! Bad enough that the number of children-to-adult ratio is that large, but adding academics to that…”writing paragraphs”–in KINDERGARTEN?!
avan, as my WWII Vet Dad used to say, those administrators need to “blow it out their barracks bags.” And, to quote Vivian Paley, K expert extraordinaire,
“The work of children is play.”

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rr says:

May 21, 2013 at 10:33 pm

Here! Here!

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Yvonne Metiche says:

May 24, 2013 at 7:13 pm

most of the suspensions that occur are not due to chairs being thrown, pencils being used to stab, etc. most of the suspensions are for “disrespect” and “defiance.”

no one here is even naming the fact that a huge majority of these suspensions happen to little 5 and 6 year old black and brown boys.

a child advocacy grow in conn. did some research on this in 2006, and the result are the SAME. nothing has changed in connecticut for years…students who are mainly latino, black, and native american who live in poor areas are the ones being hit the hardest with these suspensions. and it’s not even about maintaining safety in the classroom…it’s about the presumably majority white female teachers’ lack of maintaining discipline, understanding different cultures, and jumping over their own inner hurdles of racial bias.

a person on this very board compared these kids to juvenile offenders. these are BABIES. they are not criminals. they are only frigging 5 years old, on average.

i feel for the kids in public schools in connecticut.

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- Monica says:
  
  May 26, 2013 at 9:14 am
  
  In my school, a rural poor school with almost no minority students, we have suspended K students for: throwing furniture, hitting, biting, and spitting on classmates (after multiple reteaching sessions and processing with support staff), and running out of the building and/or through the halls. It does not happen that frequently, but I am curious – how many times does a Baby get to hurt your child before you demand that something be done about it? We are financially unable to hire more mental health staff, and outplacement isn’t generally appropriate. Honestly, suspension is usually designed to punish the parents in the hopes that they finally step up.
  
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Sophie says:

May 26, 2013 at 3:13 pm

That’s right Monica! Has anyone looked at data from the non white teachers? it’s easy to blame white teachers of being racist and unable to overcome their own bias. Are the minority teachers “racist” too? Maybe the black and brown boys from poverty are suspended more because they are the ones coming into classrooms with confrontational behaviors. Instead of blaming teachers and calling schools racist, how about creating school programs that can handle disruptive and defiant children? Guess what? There are plenty of black and brown kids who do want to learn and who are also losing out when teachers can’t remove the wild ones from class. Does anyone care about them?

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