Study: Students Suffer in Unruly Classes Ben Feller
Associated Press, May 11, 2004 In this Associated Press article on the Common Good sponsored Public Agenda poll "Teaching Interrupted," Public Agenda president Ruth Wooden points out:
"If you start totaling up the hours that teachers could be teaching and students could be learning, it's just staggering. We've got lots of programs on things like accountability and testing and parent involvement, but we haven't been nearly as successful at this daily distraction that takes teachers off-task."
Veteran teacher, Tina Dove, a self-described "no-nonsense disciplinarian," whose frustration with disruptive students has led her to take time off this year is quoted as saying:
"If you have a child in your classroom who is difficult to work with, and they are setting a tone, you can have anything from a five-minute distraction to the loss of half a class period," said Dove. "If you try to deal with that child in a way that's going to have the least impact on everyone else ... that can take up an amazingly large period of your class. Before you know what happened, you're behind."
General Counsel for the National School Boards Association Julie Underwood agrees. And while a firm and consistent discipline policy is essential, she says that "parents are much more willing than they were 20 years ago to lawyer up and fight."
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