Teaching Interrupted: Do Discipline Policies in Today's Public Schools Foster the Common Good?

Publication Date: May 2004

Publisher: Public Agenda Foundation

Author(s):

Research Area: Education

Type: Report

Abstract:

Teachers and parents say too many students are losing critical opportunities for learning -- and too many teachers are leaving the profession -- because of the behavior of a few persistent classroom troublemakers. Teachers in particular complain about the growing willingness of some students and parents to challenge teacher judgment and threaten legal action. But both teachers and parents support a variety of remedies, including stricter enforcement of existing rules of conduct, alternative schools for chronically disruptive students and limiting parents' ability to sue schools over disciplinary decisions.