A FEW SCRAPS OF DISCIPLINE TO RETURN TO BRITISH SCHOOLS

Headteachers, teachers and their assistants will have "a clear legal right" to tackle school bullies, restrain disruptive pupils and confiscate mobile phones under measures to be published in the Government's education Bill. Schools will also have the power to act on bad behaviour by collaborating with each other to set up more "cooling off" units for permanently disruptive pupils in an attempt to restore teachers' authority and tackle bad behaviour in the classroom. The move to strengthen teachers' disciplinary powers comes after repeated calls by teaching unions and schools' taskforces for a new law to give teachers an automatic right to discipline pupils.

The measures, which will be in the education Bill in February, will give headteachers the right to delegate the power to discipline pupils to all teachers and assistants as they see fit. Those who will exercise the disciplinary powers would be properly trained and could use them on the school premises and on school trips. Their powers would extend to journeys to and from school to prevent bullying outside the school gates.

Until now the ability to discipline pupils has been based in common law but, by enshrining it in statutory law, headteachers hope there will be less occasion for parents and children to challenge them on the grounds of their legal rights. "Our White Paper will strengthen teachers' authority and give them the confidence to take measures on all forms of bad behaviour," Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, said yesterday. She added that it would "strengthen the message for parents and pupils that the culture of disruption and failure to take responsibility will not be tolerated".

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said that he fully backed the plans and hoped that they would "end the inappropriate challenges by parents on behalf of their badly behaved children". Schools will also be encouraged to work together to provide on or off-site "sin bins", in addition to the existing pupil reform units for unruly children who cannot be educated in school.

The Government said yesterday that 289 secondary schools across 21 local education authorities had agreed to work together to deal with disruptive children.

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INDIANA HIGH SCHOOLS BETRAY BOTH BLACK AND WHITE KIDS

State Higher Education Commissioner Stan Jones has news for those in Central Indiana who think the state's dropout crisis is limited to Indianapolis: It's a white, suburban problem too. If anything, the typical dropout in the heart of Central Indiana, as in the rest of the state, is white and likely to reside in small towns or in Marion County's suburban townships. Some high schools in counties surrounding Indianapolis have graduation rates nearly as low as those of Indianapolis Public Schools.

The failure of state and local educators to report realistic graduation rates, however, conceals such dismal performance. Says Jones: "They think their schools have nice facilities and things are fine, when in fact things are not." As Central Indiana goes, both economically and socially, so will the rest of the state. Which means that failing to deal with the educational destinies of its children, especially the poor, will bode ill for Indiana's future. A Star Editorial Board analysis of preliminary data from the Indiana Department of Education shows abysmal performance for many high schools in 18 major school districts in Central Indiana. Only 8,400, or a mere 66 percent of Central Indiana eighth-graders who made up the original class of 2005, graduated on time. Where are the remaining 4,400? Most likely not still in school. IPS, with a graduation rate of 39 percent in 2005, remains home to the region's worst dropout factories. But the district's numbers improved four percentage points from the previous school year.

And poor results are spread throughout the region. Three Marion County suburban township districts -- Pike, Wayne and Decatur -- graduated 60 percent or less of their students on time. Some districts, including Carmel Clay, have graduation rates over 80 percent. Other districts clearly are struggling...

One of the schools is Shelbyville High -- 90 percent white -- where just 199, or 64 percent, of the 300 or so freshmen who made up the original class of 2005 graduated four years later. For first-year principal Tom Zobel, it means accepting "the numbers are what they are" and working to stem the tide. Two of the school's "goal action teams" are developing ways to lure students into regularly attending school. A social worker was hired to help at-risk students obtain services such as counseling or welfare. To improve basic skills, the entire school now devotes 20 minutes each morning to reading.

Shelbyville High's problems are similar in some ways to IPS' -- many low-income students struggling in school and in life; children falling behind in early grades; in some cases inadequate support and motivation from parents for their children's academics. Says Zobel: "We fight the same issues that everyone else is fighting."

In turn, Central Indiana's problems are reflected throughout the state. Only 72 percent of the statewide class of 2004 graduated; nearly 20,000 dropped out. Rural and industrial parts of the region, like other areas of the state, are struggling to transition from traditional manufacturing to a more knowledge-based economy. Meanwhile, Marion County townships, now more urban than ever, are confronting the same social and economic ills that have long confounded IPS.

The state's inaccurate method of calculating official graduation rates -- districts such as Shelbyville can claim 96 percent of students graduated in 2004 -- has created complacency. While a more accurate method for calculation will debut with the 2006 graduating class, inflated rates will continue to be fed to the public and the federal government until then. While some Central Indiana districts, notably IPS, have begun to acknowledge their problems, candor needs to become more common. School administrators, especially in suburban districts, too often have refused to admit the reality of low graduation numbers. But when nearly a third of Indiana students don't graduate from high school on time and the state ranks 46th in the nation in the education level of its work force, the time for platitudes about student achievement has long passed.

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War of the words: "Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has launched a war of words in an effort to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Villaraigosa has rhetorically lambasted the leaders of the LAUSD over lagging test scores and dismal dropout rates. Villaraigosa has impeccable progressive credentials, but his attempt to improve the grim status of the LAUSD has led him into a conflict with the same teacher's unions that he once served as an organizer. ... Villaraigosa believes that improvement of the public education system is vital to the city's economic future. The spectacle of seeing a committed progressive struggling against the unions is not as surprising as it might seem at first blush. Anyone making a sincere attempt to challenge the status-quo inevitably comes into conflict with unions."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

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