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My professional perspective is to work with Junior High students on becoming successful in their academics and personal lives. upon graduating, I plan to work as a Junior High principal or an athletic coordinator. My "why" behind working with Junior High students is due to so many of them needing a positive male role model and helping them to form lasting relationships with friends and adults.

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As I browsed the Issues and Actions section of the National Education Association (NEA) website, I came across a section dealing with testing.  It stated that NEA supports more localized forms of annual measures of student learning due to their accuracy and speed at which the results are received.  This would take the pressure off of educators to not to "teach to the test" and focus on creating life-long learners who have a love for increasing their knowledge.  It would also allow students to learn skills that they view as beneficial to their future instead of just being taught how to pass a test.

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Testing takes time from learning. NEA supports less federally-mandated testing to free up time and resources, diminish "teaching to the test," and allow educators to focus on what is most important: instilling a love of learning in their students.

The bipartisan Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act (H.R. 452),introduced by Representative Chris Gibson (R-NY) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), would reduce the federal role in testing to the pre-No Child Left Behind status known as "grade-span" testing-once in elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school.

In addition, NEA believes it is essential to decouple high-stakes testing and accountability. While we support an annual measure of student learning, we also believe in increased flexibility-for example, allowing school districts to use locally-developed assessments instead of the statewide standardized tests now required by No Child Left Behind.

The data generated by statewide tests are generally not specific enough to be used "in targeting instruction for individual students. This leaves a clear and essential role for local assessment: developing diagnostic information about what students do well, where they are having difficulty, and how the instructional program might be adjusted to address their specific needs." (Source: Balancing Local Assessment with Statewide Testing: Building a Program that Meets Student Needs, WestEd, 2001)

In short, locally-developed assessments provide better and faster feedback that helps drive real improvementsin teaching and learning.

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Testing takes time from learning. NEA supports less federally-mandated testing to free up time and resources, diminish "teaching to the test," and allow educators to focus on what is most important: instilling a love of learning in their students. The bipartisan Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act (H.R.

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Exploration Option 2:   Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)- Data Collection and Use

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Exploration Option 2:   Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)- Data Collection and Use

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As I browsed the ASCD website, I came across the topic of data collection and use. This is an integral part of education today and must be utilized to gauge students growth and improvement areas. As principals, we must train our staff to correctly dissegregate the data and use that information to design plans to ensure student success.

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Data collection and use is the process of gathering information about students and the teaching and learning systems used in classrooms, buildings, and districts and reviewing the data in a systematic way to inform ongoing decision making. From administrators monitoring AYP and discipline systems to teachers tracking RTI and student understanding, data collection and use is critical to monitoring progress and making sound educational choices and adjustments at all levels.

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Data collection and use is the process of gathering information about students and the teaching and learning systems used in classrooms, buildings, and districts and reviewing the data in a systematic way to inform ongoing decision making.

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Exploration Option 3: Education Week- Legal and Ethical Articles in Education

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Exploration Option 3: Education Week- Legal and Ethical Articles in Education

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In Blat's (2018) article pertaining to schools preparation for active shooters, she states that one in five view their schools as being unprepared. With gun violence becoming more and more prevalent, we must ensure that schools and their employees are as prepared as they can be for this unforgiving situation. With more and more schools hiring armed security guards, they must find a way to incorporate those guards into the safety planning procedures and successfully practicing the designated plans effectively as well as correctly.

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One in five school police officers say their school is not prepared to handle an active-shooter situation, according to a nationally representative survey of school resource officers conducted by the Education Week Research Center.

And some school police report they haven't been adequately trained to work in schools. Some also say their schools don't set limits on their role in student discipline, which civil rights groups say is necessary to protect the rights of students.

School law enforcement officials say some officers will never feel fully prepared for an event like a shooting because they are always looking for ways to improve. They also have to balance the need to be ready for unlikely worst-case scenarios with the everyday duties of the job that requires them, most essentially, to build trust with students.

The survey findings come as elected officials and policymakers push to add more school-based officers in response to two large school shootings this year.

Survey Data: School Officers: Who They Are; What They Do

Nearly 400 school officers responded to the online survey administered by the Education Week Research Center in March and April, after a gunman killed 17 people in the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and before 10 people were killed in a May attack in a high school in Santa Fe, Texas.

Two high-casualty school shootings so close together have intensified debates about school safety, leading districts and governors to convene task forces and scrape together any funding they can find to upgrade security measures and ease the minds of anxious parents.

"Parkland did something to this country," said Bruce Copple, a school resource officer and safety director for the school district in Greensburg, Ind., "Even in our small community, Parkland did something."

In many places, the post-Parkland safety plans include more police in schools.

In Florida, state lawmakers rushed to respond to the Parkland shooting by passing a multi-pronged safety bill that included new gun restrictions and a requirement that every school campus in the state have at least one armed person on site-either a law enforcement officer or a staff member participating in a new state program. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott released a plan that calls for schools to hire retired police and military members to work as school resource officers.

"The push, of course, is a result of school shootings, schools wanting to protect their facilities and students as well as they can," said Mo Canady, the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, which provides training for school police. "We want to make sure that people understand the importance of selecting the right officers for these positions, making sure they are veteran officers, and making sure they are specially trained to work in a school environment."

Registrations for NASRO's annual conference are up about 25 percent this year, Canady said.

Not Just 'Armed Guards'

School resource officers who spoke to Education Week said they aren't surprised that one-fifth of survey respondents believe their schools are unprepared for an active shooter.

Officers say they weigh a range of factors when making that determination, including how well schools have trained teachers and other staff in safety protocols, how often students practice lockdown drills, whether students have strong relationships with adults at school, and whether physical security measures like cameras have been properly maintained.

Officers may feel unprepared if their schools have left them out of the safety planning process, Copple said.

"I think sometimes we have knee-jerk reactions to just put [armed] people in the building and say we're safe," he said. But school police officers should not be treated as armed guards with a limited role, he said. Rather, schools should consult them about working with students, responding to threats and safety concerns, coordinating with first responders, and preparing buildings.

And even the most prepared officers must re-examine their plans after large school shootings, Copple said. For example, Parkland students were fleeing the campus in response to a fire alarm when the shooting there started, complicating a building lockdown. That led Greensburg to review its fire alarm protocols, he said.

In Crocker, Mo., Officer Shawn Wright reviewed the safety plans for his small district, where students of all grades are taught in a single building. Wright has numbered the building's doors and windows to make it easier to share locations in a crisis situation, he's locked down building entrances during the school day so visitors can be more easily screened, and he's included bus drivers and administrative assistants in safety drills.

"We feel confident that if somebody tried to come into a school, we would be prepared for it," Wright said. "Now, are we going to be prepared for every situation? Absolutely not.... You're never going to find a perfectly safe situation, I don't care who you talk to."

The 600-student Crocker district has also discussed arming some staff, providing them training and special vests so that first responders could spot them in an emergency. Wright would not say if teachers or staff now carry guns, but he said there's a sign in front of the building that warns would-be intruders that staff members may be armed and "will do everything necessary to protect our students."

President Donald Trump has pushed for schools to arm more staff and teachers after the Parkland shooting, an idea that was widely panned by educator groups, and Gov. Abbott included calls to arm staff in his safety plan for Texas schools. Thirty-three percent of officers responding to the Education Week Research Center survey agreed that "training and arming a select group of teachers would make schools safer."

But officers who answered the survey were much more likely to link school law enforcement to safety: 88 percent agreed that their presence helped deter shootings, and 95 percent said having an armed officer on campus would serve to "minimize harm" in the event of a shooting.

Confronting a Shooter

Many shootings have occurred at schools with on-site police, but those officers aren't always the first person to engage the shooter. Last month, students in a Noblesville, Ind., middle school say a teacher rushed to disarm a classmate who fired a gun in his classroom. That gunman seriously injured the teacher and a 13-year-old girl.

In March, the Washington Post analyzed every school shooting event since the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Examining 200 incidents, it found only one where a school officer gunned down an active shooter. But school police have taken an active role in intervening in several recent incidents, raising their profile in the school safety debate.

See Also: School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where

At the 1,400-student Santa Fe High School, two school resource officers were on duty when a 17-year-old student opened fire in an art room. One was seriously injured responding to the gunman.

On May 16, school resource officer Mark Dallas responded to the sound of gun shots in the gym at Dixon High School in Dixon, Ill., where students were rehearsing for graduation. He exchanged gunfire with a former student armed with a rifle, stopping the attack. Only the suspect was injured.

"Officer Dallas' bravery and quick action prevented what could have been an unimaginable tragedy," Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said.

In Parkland, by contrast, families of slain students wonder what might have changed if an on-campus sheriff's deputy had entered the building to engage the gunman; security footage shows him standing outside during the attack.

A Multi-Faceted Job

School shootings remain statistically rare events, but often lead to more school police. Though federal data show numbers of violent homicides in schools have stayed at roughly the same level in the years since Columbine, the share of schools with on-site officers has risen significantly. In the 2015-16 school year, 36 percent of primary schools and 65 percent of secondary schools reported the presence of an officer at least once a week, according to the most recent federal data.

But school police are much more likely to be seen monitoring a hallway between classes than responding to a school shooting. Civil rights groups say the role of law enforcement is counter to the purpose of schools, and they fear efforts to add more officers will lead to more punitive discipline. They are especially concerned about the treatment of nonwhite students and students with disabilities, who are arrested at school and referred to police at disproportionately high rates.

"The impulse to police school communities will not prevent further tragedies and will be counterproductive towards building safe, nurturing, and supportive learning environments," said a statement released by the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition of civil rights and student groups, after the Parkland shooting. "We have to fundamentally rethink safety by centering the social, emotional, and mental health needs of young people and providing schools and communities with the resources and supports necessary to address the root causes of issues that are driving their pain, trauma and isolation."

Only 12 states require specialized training for officers who work the school beat, according to a 2015 study by the American Institutes for Research, which means some officers have little transition between patrolling city streets and monitoring school hallways. Civil rights and school policing groups agree that schools are unique environments, and that officers should be carefully selected and trained.

"We have to have that cop working the school that every other division of the police department wants," said Don Bridges, a school resource officer in Baltimore County, Md., and president of NASRO. "We have to have the brightest and best. This is, without question, the most challenging job in law enforcement."

Officers need to understand how to de-escalate conflicts with teens, who may be more impulsive than adults, he said. And they need to focus on relationships with students so that they feel at ease reporting safety concerns before they become problems, Bridges said.

Twenty-five percent of officers responding to the Education Week Research Center survey said they had no prior experience working with youth, and 19 percent said they had been given insufficient training to work in a school environment. While 93 percent said they'd been trained to respond to an active shooter, only 54 percent said they had been trained to work with special education students, who are protected by federal laws that prohibit discipline for behaviors related to diagnosed disabilities.

NASRO advises officers to stay out of routine school discipline issues that it says could better be handled by school administrators. It recommends schools sign agreements with law enforcement agencies that detail officers' responsibilities and outline their role in areas like discipline. But 34 percent of survey respondents said their schools did not specify what types of student disciplinary issues they can intervene in.

Bridges helped launch his county's school resource officer program in 1997, two years before the Columbine shooting brought a major influx of police into schools. He regularly surveyed students, parents, and school staff about how safe and supported they felt at school, and he was pleased to see positive results.

School shootings often change the way officers think on the job. "I don't know how it couldn't," Bridges said, but officers need to be just as prepared for the more routine interactions they will have with students every day, he said.

Bridges just trained 19 new Baltimore County school resource officers.

"The first thing I tell them is that if you don't like kids, this position is not for you," he said.

Related Videos: Policing Schools

Published in Print: June 6, 2018, as Ready for a Shooter? Some School Police Say No

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Ready for a Shooter? 1 in 5 School Police Say No

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One in five school police officers say their school is not prepared to handle an active-shooter situation, according to a nationally representative survey of school resource officers conducted by the Education Week Research Center. And some school police report they haven't been adequately trained to work in schools.

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Exploration Option 3: Education Week- Ed. Dept. Sued Over New Approach to Civil Rights Complaints

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Exploration Option 3: Education Week- Ed. Dept. Sued Over New Approach to Civil Rights Complaints

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In Samuels (2018) article, she stated that the "U.S. Department of Education can't just dismiss civil rights complaints from those who repeatedly file similar actions" (pg. 1). The US Department of education is currently being sued by the NAACP, Council for Parent Advocates and Attorneys, and the National Federation of the Blind for what they say is the "departments new approach to handling serial complaints" (pg. 2). This lawsuit comes after the department made changes to the manual that it's civil rights office uses to process cases (pg. 5).

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The U.S. Department of Education can't just dismiss civil rights complaints from those who repeatedly file similar actions, says a lawsuit filed against the department from three advocacy organizations.

The Council for Parent Advocates and Attorneys, the NAACP, and the National Federation of the Blind filed the legal action in federal district court last week, arguing that the department's new approach to handling serial complaints strikes at the heart of the mission of the office for civil rights.

That office enforces laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, both of which prohibit public entities from discriminating against individuals based on disability. It also enforces Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in education, and other laws that ban discrimination based on age, race, color, or national origin.

"What they've done is basically stripped complainants of their rights," said Denise Marshall, the executive director of the advocates and attorneys council. "They're dismissing cases, whether or not they have merit."

Earlier this year, the Education Department made changes to the case-processing manual used by its civil rights office. The changes meant that the office reserved the right to dismiss complaints if they represented a "continuation of a pattern of complaints previously filed with OCR by an individual or a group against multiple recipients." The civil rights office also said that it would dismiss single complaints "filed for the first time against multiple recipients that, viewed as a whole, [place] an unreasonable burden on OCR's resources." In such cases, the civil-rights office said it may conduct a compliance review or provide technical assistance.

Other Changes

Those weren't the only changes made to the case-processing manual. Also eliminated was an appeals process that had been available to complaint filers, and the lawsuit takes aim at that new policy, too. Such a change would have to be open for public comment, said Eve Hill, a lawyer representing all three organizations. Hill was a former deputy assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, civil rights division, during the Obama administration.

"To the extent there's a rationale for that, they haven't stated one," she said. "It's a substantive change to the rights of complainants."

After the department changed how it processes cases, it started dismissing hundreds of complaints filed by Marcie Lipsitt, a disability advocate in Michigan. Lipsitt's complaints focused on website accessibility. She said that websites of various educational entities were inaccessible for those who are blind or visually impaired or who cannot use a mouse to navigate a web page. Lipsitt has filed more than 2,000 complaints in the past two years.

In addition to having her complaints tossed out, Lipsitt also said she's getting notices that entities that had already settled their accessibility cases as far back as two years ago were now being given "modified resolution agreements." The new agreements no longer have language that requires entities to meet certain technical accessibility standards, train staff annually on accessibility issues, or report on their progress based on a certain timeline.

Lipsitt was gratified to hear of the lawsuit.

"My position hasn't changed from day one. You don't have be an attorney to know these revisions are unlawful. They go against the [OCR's] mission statement," Lipsitt said. "These provisions strip every American of their civil rights and their ability to file civil rights complaints. And the beauty of civil rights complaints has been that everyone has been able to file one."

Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said the agency could not comment on pending litigation. However, she said the changes to the case-processing manual were made in consultation with staff investigators and managers. Dismissing complaints if they're part of a pattern "is intended to permit [the civil rights office] to remain active in every type of discrimination subject matter while retaining discretion to engage in technical assistance efforts where appropriate," she said. The office still accepts all complaints, including those from advocacy organizations, she said.

The Trump administration's proposed budget included a cut to the office for civil rights. But Congress rejected that request in its March budget agreement. The $117 million that Congress appropriated for OCR was $10 million more than requested and $8.5 million more than it had been appropriated in fiscal 2017. In the budget agreement, Congress said the money was intended to increase staffing so that the office could effectively investigate complaints.

Published in Print: June 6, 2018, as Ed. Dept. Sued Over New Approach to Civil Rights Complaints

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Ed. Dept. Sued Over New Approach to Civil Rights Complaints

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The U.S. Department of Education can't just dismiss civil rights complaints from those who repeatedly file similar actions, says a lawsuit filed against the department from three advocacy organizations.

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When performing an internet search over school violence in America, I found an article on USnews.com titled "School Crime and Violence Rise" by Allie Bidwell. Bidwell talks about what measures have been taken to help prevent school crime and violence. She also states that even though the number of violent occurrences have decreased, the number of of crimes (like theft and assault) have increased.

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More schools report increasing safety measures such as the use of security cameras and having security staff on campus than in previous years.

Parents worried about their children's safety while at school might not just be over-protective. While the number of school-related deaths are starting to decrease, incidents of theft and violence - including student violence against teachers - are on the rise in America's schools, according to a federal report released Tuesday. And schools are beefing up security, including video cameras and armed security guards, as a result.

The National Center for Education Statistics released its annual "Indicators of School Crime and Safety" report, finding that during the 2010-11 school year - the most recent data available - there were 31 violent deaths - such as homicides and suicides involving students, staff members and others - on school campuses. That's a decrease from a nearly 20-year high of 63 during the 2006-07 school year. But nonfatal incidents at school - such as theft and assault - appear to be on the rise, after several years of steady decline. In 2012, students between the ages of 12 and 18 experienced more than 1.3 million nonfatal victimizations, according to the report.

"Our nation's schools should be safe havens for teaching and learning free of crime and violence," the report says. "Any instance of crime or violence at school not only affects the individuals involved but also may disrupt the educational process and affect bystanders, the school itself, and the surrounding community."

Although no official government data on school-associated violent deaths is yet available after the 2010-11 school year, media reports shed light on preliminary estimates for recent years. During the mass shooting incident that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, 20 children and six adults were killed. In the year since that incident, there were 17 other school-associated violent deaths, the report found.

Overall, more students experienced incidents of theft and violence at school than away from school. The crime rate works out to about 52 incidents per 1,000 students at school, compared with 35 incidents per 1,000 students in 2010. The rates of victimization in 2012 were also greater for males than females, as well as in urban or suburban areas than rural areas.

[: Pennsylvania Stabbing Shows School Vulnerability, School Safety Expert Says]

But students aren't the only ones experiencing violence in schools. During the 2011-12 school year, more teachers reported being threatened with injury or said they were physically attacked by a student during the previous 12 months. Overall, 9 percent of teachers said they were threatened with injury - lower than the 12 percent who responded similarly in 1993-94, but higher than the 7 percent who said so in 2003-04 and 2007-08. And the 5 percent of teachers who said they had been physically attacked by a student was higher than in any previous survey year, the report found.

Today, more schools are controlling access to buildings during school hours as a security measure. In 2003-08, 81.5 percent of schools employed that method, compared with 88.2 percent in 2011-12. Nearly two-thirds of schools also report using security cameras, compared with just under one-third in 2003-04. More than one-quarter of schools also reported having security staff present on campus routinely carrying a firearm.

"Certain practices, such as locking or monitoring doors or gates, are intended to limit or control access to school campuses, while others, such as the use of metal detectors and security cameras, are intended to monitor or restrict students' and visitors' behavior on campus," the report says.

[: One Year After Newtown, Adding More Cops Doesn't Prevent School Shootings]

The percentage of students who say they have observed certain security measures at their schools has also increased. In 2011, about 77 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 said they observed one or more security cameras in the school, compared with about 48 percent in 2003. Nearly two-thirds said they noticed locked entrance or exit doors during the day in 2011, compared with just more than half in 2003.

"For parents, school staff, and policymakers to effectively address school crime, they need an accurate understanding of the extent, nature, and context of the problem," the report says. "However, it is difficult to gauge the scope of crime and violence in schools given the large amount of attention devoted to isolated incidents of extreme school violence."

Allie Bidwell, Staff Writer

Allie Bidwell is an education reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow her on Twit... Read more

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More schools report increasing safety measures such as the use of security cameras and having security staff on campus than in previous years. Parents worried about their children's safety while at school might not just be over-protective.

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After reviewing legal and ethical issues for school administrators, I find my interest peaked by the idea of school safety. This topic intrigues me due to the prevalence of school violence and the need for safety measures to protect students and educators alike.

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As I searched the Angelo State University Library, I located an article titled "The new normal? Addressing gun violence in America" by Jill McLeigh. McLeigh's article talks about the multiple occurrences of school shootings across the United States and what federal and state governments are doing to help deal with the violence.

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Bidwell, A. (2014, June 10). School crime and violence Climb.  Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/10/incidents-of-school-crime-and-violence-on-the-rise-for-students-and-teachers.

Blat, E. (2018, June 5). Ready for a school shooter? 1 in 5 school police say no.  Retrieved from: https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/06/06/ready-for-a-shooter-1-in-5.html.

McLeigh, J. (2015). The new normal? Addressing gun violence in America. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 85(3), pg. 201-202.  Retrieved from: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.easydb.angelo.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=238dc825-9832-4983-82f4-55d8d46c9834%40sessionmgr4007.

Samuels, C. (2018, June 5).  Ed. Dept. sued over new approach to civil rights complaints.  Retrieved from: https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/06/06/ed-dept-sued-over-new-approach-to.html.

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Implications of School Violence for Administrators

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Implications of School Violence for Administrators

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Every American citizen has the right to own firearms and act how they want to act, but show those rights be allowed to infringe upon others rights? These issues are becoming more and more prevalent in American schools.  As educators, we should be able to work in an environment free from fear of violence disrupting the daily routine and the students education.  Educators should be aware of the laws and steps taken to prevent these acts from happening.
If a student commits an act of violence toward a teacher, or another student, there are ethical implications that are being taken advantage of.  Every teacher and student have the right to attend school or work free from harassment, violence and prejudice.  If the violent act disrupts that environment, then the student or teacher do not feel comfortable or safe.  This takes away natural rights that every person has and those should not be inhibited.
In regards to a scenario, I can think of a situation from this past year where a teacher attempted to step in and prevent a fight from happening. When the teacher stepped in, the aggressor got into the teachers face and threatened her. This student was on a Behavior Improvement Plan and in the behavior unit for part of the day but there were little consequences for the student. He got reprimanded by the principal but not much else were done. I believe as an administrator, you must do your best to protect all employees and students right, not just the emotionally disturbed students.