Last week, the AFT launched a national campaign for standards of conduct and achievement in U.S. schools. The public overwhelmingly supports these standards-- and so do the people who work in the schools. But they haven't been heard.
Policymakers and reformers have gotten caught up in faddish and radical schemes for improving the schools, and they ignore what is obvious to people who work in the schools and to parents who send children there: Unless you have order and civility, not much learning will go on. And unless there are high academic standards, which students are expected to meet and helped to meet, school programs become trivial and meaningless; they do not prepare students to become responsible and productive members of society. Focusing on safe and orderly schools and high academic standards makes common sense, it works and it's long overdue.
What kind of teaching and learning can take place in classrooms where teachers have to spend their time dealing with students who are violent or who constantly disrupt the class by shouting obscenities and threatening other students? And yet, in too many schools, students who want to learn, and teachers, have no protection from this kind of thing. A school district may have a discipline code that is poorly written--or it may have none at all. But even an excellent code can only be effective if it is enforced, and many are not because school districts may be worried about their reputation or a court challenge. Or perhaps there is no place to send troublemakers but out on the street.
Safe and orderly classrooms are essential preconditions of learning. But we also need clear and rigorous academic standards. Students and parents--and all citizens--need to know that promotion from one grade to another and graduation from high school mean that academic standards have been met. They need to know that high grades stand for high achievement and a high school diploma means having the knowledge and skills essential for college and a good job.
Teachers, and the AFT, have supported high standards of conduct and achievement for a long time, but they can't bring it about alone. Parents and the public, across all demographic groups, have also said for a long time that safe and orderly schools and high standards in the core academic subjects are their priority. The 1994 Public Agenda Foundation survey, "First Things First," and the 1995 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll that I have discussed previously are only the most recent evidence. But individual parents and citizens, acting one at a time, have not been able to get school districts, their elected representatives and reformers to make high standards of conduct and achievement a priority. Acting together, however, we can get the job done. And that's what the AFT's national campaign is about.
How will AFT's national campaign accomplish its goals? In the first phase, we are concentrating on urging individuals and community groups at the local level to endorse the "Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for Learning" (see below) and to urge school districts to adopt it. We'll also work together to get school districts to establish or modify discipline codes so that they are clear, fair and enforceable and to establish alternative educational placements for violent or chronically disruptive students. And we'll continue urging states and districts to establish clear and rigorous academic standards, helping them to do it and to ensure that students have the help they need to meet standards.
The second phase of the campaign will concentrate on making sure discipline codes are enforced and reviewing how current due process procedures for students help or hinder fair and consistent enforcement, as well as beginning the process of tying promotion and graduation to meeting rigorous academic standards. Putting high standards of conduct and achievement firmly in place in our schools may also mean working together to change state and federal laws that stand in the way.
Last November's elections showed how angry people are because they can't seem to get what they want from their government. It is the same thing in education. Parents and the public strongly support public schools. They do not want to turn the schools over to for-profit outfits, and they have repeatedly rejected vouchers. What they want, first and foremost, are safe and orderly public schools that focus on high academic standards for students. AFT's national campaign is about giving people the hope and the tools they need to get what they have been asking for.
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A Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for Learning: Standards of Conduct, Standards for Achievement
The traditional mission of our public schools has been to prepare our nation's young people for equal and responsible citizenship and productive adulthood. Today, we reaffirm that mission by remembering that democratic citizenship and productive adulthood begin with standards of conduct and standards for achievement in our schools. Other education reforms may work; high standards of conduct and achievement do work -- and nothing else can work without them.
Recognizing that rights carry responsibilities, we declare that:
1. All students and school staff have a right to schools that are safe, orderly and drug free.
2. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in school districts and schools that have clear discipline codes with fair and consistently enforced consequences for misbehavior.
3. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in school districts that have alternative educational placements for violent or chronically disruptive students.
4. All students and school staff have a right to be treated with courtesy and respect.
5. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in school districts, schools and classrooms that have clearly stated and rigorous academic standards.
6. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in well- equipped schools that have the instructional materials needed to carry out a rigorous academic program.
7. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in schools where teachers know their subject matter and how to teach it.
8. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in school districts, schools and classrooms where high grades stand for high achievement and promotion is earned.
9. All students and school staff have a right to learn and work in school districts and schools where getting a high school diploma means having the knowledge and skills essential for college or a good job.
10. All students and school staff have a right to be supported by parents, the community, public officials and business in their efforts to uphold high standards of conduct and achievement.