Tag: SD Unified
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The End of ‘Willful Defiance’ School Punishments (Sort of)
When a child gets in trouble at Cherokee Point Elementary School, Principal Godwin Higa, talks quietly to the student to sort things out. | Photo Credit: Jane Stevens By Mario Koran On this, most school officials agree: “Willful defiance,” a kind of catch-all reason for ejecting students from class is overbroad and problematic. But for…
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Charting a Path Forward for English-Learning Students
By Mario Koran Even though one in four school children in California are learning English, most school districts are still scratching their heads over how to best help these students. That’s the gist of a new report from Education Trust-West, an education research and advocacy organization based in Oakland. The central question for school districts…
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District to Help Teachers Better Connect with Communities In Which They Teach
Urban schools like Lincoln High can be a more challenging place to teach. Without ongoing support for new teachers, schools are more likely to see teacher turnover. | Photo Credit: Jamie Scott Lytle By Mario Koran Americans have debated the qualities that separate good teachers from the bad for more than 100 years. These days,…
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Local Report on Suspensions Echoes ‘Vergara’ Findings
Photo Credit: Shutterstock By Mario Koran Seniority-based hiring policies in San Diego Unified mean the poorest schools usually end up with the least experienced teachers. Black and Latino students who attend poor schools are disproportionately suspended and expelled. And one paragraph buried deep within a 63-page report from the school district shows that the two…
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A New School of Thought on Discipline
Photo Credit: Shutterstock By Mario Koran A report by the Harvard researchers who visited San Diego Unified says it best: The tough-on-crime, zero tolerance policies America used to fight the war on drugs in the past few decades shifted to schools. “Now, with 20 years of experience and insight into how this approach to school…