Courtesy Image The Alpena Public Schools logo.
ALPENA — Tough times at home can mean disruptions in Alpena classrooms, Alpena Public Schools Superintendent David Rabbideau said.
Last year, Rabbideau met with more students about potential suspensions and expulsions than ever before. If trends continue, this year could surpass that record, Rabbideau said at a recent APS Board of Education meeting.
Schools have adopted specific steps to restore stability for kids struggling with emotional turmoil, some of it lingering from disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But many students still come to school reeling from stresses from their home lives, Rabbideau said on Wednesday.
Those stresses can translate into bad behavior, he said.
Of the 70-some families with whom he met last year for suspension and expulsion meetings, “almost every single family was in trauma,” he said.
Kids who have gotten into serious trouble at school often also carry the burden of home lives that explain that behavior, Rabbideau said.
“There’s alcoholism. There’s drugs. There’s divorce. There’s child abuse,” Rabbideau said. “Trauma. Significant trauma.”
‘THEY ACT UP’
At Thunder Bay Junior High School on Wednesday morning, during a visit by a reporter, students in some classrooms quietly worked on computers or listened to teachers’ instructions.
In other classrooms, students chatted in work groups but quickly quieted when the teacher called for their attention.
During passing times, students flowed smoothly through hallways, most walking calmly while the few with more spirited feet slowed obediently at a look from teachers stationed in classroom doors.
On the whole, school life goes on as it always has, Rabbideau said.
But student stress levels are not the same as they have always been, he said.
Last school year, the district expelled four students — three from Alpena High School and one from Thunder Bay Junior High School — according to the Michigan Department of Education.
Those expulsions accompany numerous other referrals to his office for student violence or threats, some resulting in suspensions or other repercussions, Rabbideau said.
When children are under stress, “they act up,” he said. “They might not sit down when you tell them to sit down. They might flip over a table.”
A NATIONWIDE PROBLEM HITS HOME
Alpena is not alone in its recent struggle with student behavior. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 84% of public schools nationwide say the pandemic made student behavior worse, triggering disruptive classroom conduct, rowdiness outside of classrooms, and disrespect toward teachers.
Earlier this year, a survey by EdWeek Research Center indicated that nearly half of all U.S. school and district leaders report more threats of violence from students than in 2019.
Last school year, APS reported several incidents of students allegedly threatening school buildings, staff, or students, including one threat which compelled the district to close several school buildings for two days.
Many education experts link the increase in such behavior to a universal rise in student mental health struggles.
In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than a third of high school students surveyed reported they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 44% said they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year.
Local students feel the same stressors, based on a recent poll of about 1,375 Northeast Michigan teenagers by the Northeast Michigan Youth Advisory Council.
Three-quarters of respondents named depression/mental health and stress as the top two most-pressing issues affecting youth in their communities.
Other areas of serious concern among the local teens included bullying, self-esteem, and teen suicide.
Grades, too, have taken a hit in recent years, both in Alpena and elsewhere.
In the first quarter of the current school year, for example, 21% of grades on sixth-grade report cards were Ds and Fs, Rabbideau said.
In 2019, only 10% of report card grades for the same quarter fell in that range, he said.
Again, the problem is not unique to Alpena. Last month, scores released from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national standardized test, showed plummeting math and reading scores nationwide since 2019.
“This is not Alpena teachers failing our students,” Rabbideau said of this quarter’s APS grades. “This is something much bigger.”
‘CALL ME’
To help students who have extra emotional weight to carry — whether it emerges as poor behavior and bad grades or not — APS teachers intentionally create consistency in classrooms, using the rhythms of the school day to offer the comfort of routine to students sorely lacking it, said Katie Lee, junior high principal.
At the junior high, administrators shifted school practices to keep students with the same advisory adult throughout their three years at the school to offer stability to kids and families shaken by the pandemic.
In the first weeks of school, advisors called every student home to make a positive connection with families, Lee said.
She wishes more of those families would communicate with teachers and administrators, asking questions and offering to help.
In a school of 800-plus students, only two parents show up for parents’ advisory committee meetings, Lee said.
Attendance at this fall’s parent-teacher conferences was “very low,” Rabbideau said.
Jaime Kurowski, seventh-grade English teacher at the junior high, said turnout for her conferences was good, but the parents she most hoped to talk to — whose children most need parental help — didn’t come.
Schools can best help struggling kids when parents want to be a part of the solution, Lee said.
“Call me any time,” she said. “I would love to talk to people about what’s happening in our schools.”
"behavior" - Google News
November 04, 2022 at 12:31PM
https://ift.tt/wHR2zld
UPDATED: APS behavior issues up amid traumas at home, superintendent says - Alpena News
"behavior" - Google News
https://ift.tt/rwaSNet
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "UPDATED: APS behavior issues up amid traumas at home, superintendent says - Alpena News"
Post a Comment