In 2014, the Madison Metropolitan School District introduced a new behavior policy aimed at keeping students in the classroom rather than suspending or expelling them. Our guest, who worked in the school district last year, argues that this plan is failing Madison’s kids. We also get the latest on all the national politics headlines, and hear from a columnist who says reinstating Milwaukee’s residency requirement is good for the city.
Featured in this Show
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Columnist Says Reinstating Milwaukee Residency Requirement Good For City
An appeals court has reinstated Milwaukee’s residency requirement, meaning all city workers must live in Milwaukee. A columnist talks about the reinstatement, and why he says its good for the city.
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This Week In Washington – July 22, 2015
Harry Enten, senior political writer and analyst for FiveThirtyEight, joins Central Time for our weekly look at the most pressing issues in national politics.
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Is The Madison Metropolitan School District's New Behavior Education Plan Working?
The Madison Metropolitan School District’s new behavior education plan went into effect in 2014. We’ll hear from a critic who says the plan isn’t working and why he says behavior has become a safety hazard in some schools.
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Former Madison Public Schools Assistant Says District's Discipline Policy Isn't Working
A former special education assistant in the Madison Metropolitan School District is criticizing the school system’s new discipline policy, saying it leaves teachers busy handling behavioral issues and results in an unsafe learning environment.
In 2014, the district implemented a behavior education plan aimed at trimming down the suspension rate and giving students more learning time in school. The move reflects a national trend toward rethinking harsh “zero tolerance” policies.
According to the district, out-of-school suspensions dropped 32 percent in the first three quarters of the school year. But Micah Matthews, a former special education assistant in Madison’s Toki Middle School, said the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“I think this approach to discipline … has a good heart, but when you actually see it in practice, while the theory is it will keep kids in the classroom learning, what actually happens is that it creates chaos in the classrooms so that nobody is learning,” Matthews said. “The teachers are always dealing with behavior problems so that they’re really not able to teach.”
Matthews recently wrote an opinion piece in The Capital Times saying that the policy shift leaves teachers powerless when they need to deal with bad behavior, and offers no boundaries to students. He described the school’s hallways as being particularly unruly and even dangerous to some of the special needs students he worked with.
“My concern is that while it sounds good on paper, in practice it ends up making it feel like the students are in charge, because there very often aren’t real consequences for bad behavior, and so then teachers end up feeling powerless,” Matthews said. “The adults in the building don’t really seem to have any real control because the students know that they can kind of get away with stuff.”
Episode Credits
- Rob Ferrett Host
- Veronica Rueckert Host
- Chris Malina Producer
- Galen Druke Producer
- Veronica Rueckert Producer
- James Causey Guest
- Harry Enten Guest
- Micah Matthews Guest
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