Many Teens Experience Sexual Harassment

This is an alarming and important article into the common teen experience these days:

Many Teens Endure Sexual Harassment

By Sarah D. Sparks

As students navigate changing sexual and social norms in middle and high school, many of them confuse the line between joking and sexual harassment, according to a new report.

Based on the first nationally representative survey in a decade of students in grades 7-12, the study, which was set for release this week by the American Association of University Women, found that 48 percent of nearly 2,000 students surveyed had experienced verbal, physical, or online sexual harassment at school during the 2010-11 school year.

The students' reports reveal constantly shifting school environments—mostly unseen by the adults on campus—in which students use everything from gossip and teasing to groping or more severe physical attacks to enforce gender stereotypes, bully, and retaliate. Nearly a third of victims become harassers themselves.

Researchers found that while students generally don't see themselves as sexual harassers, 14 percent of girls and 18 percent of boys reported that they had harassed another student, either in person, online, or both. The report says that 44 percent of those who sexually harassed another student considered it "no big deal," and that another 39 percent said they were trying to be funny.

Student Reactions to Sexual Harassment

To explore the impact of sexual harassment on students in grades 7-12, researchers surveyed 804 students who had experienced harassment either in person, online, or both. Their findings suggest that being harassed both online and in person compounds the effect on students.

SOURCE: American Association of University Women

"If people who are harassing think they are joking and the victim is trying to respond by laughing or trying to turn it into a joke, it confuses things," said Holly Kearl, a program manager at the Washington-based AAUW and a co-author of the report. "Prevention just has to be key, and that is what is not being done so much. We don't want all these kids being suspended and expelled for something they don't recognize as being wrong."

The distinctions between teasing, bullying, and sexual harassment are becoming more critical as the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights focuses more on school harassment data. The main federal law prohibiting gender-based discrimination, commonly known as Title IX, requires districts to protect students from gender-based behavior that would create a hostile academic environment, and the civil rights office has been requiring more-detailed reporting from districts on episodes of sexual harassment. The first nationwide OCR data on that topic are expected in the coming months.

"As the bullying crescendo rose, schools have been replacing their sexual-harassment policies with bullying policies, and they're not the same thing," said Nan D. Stein, an education professor and sexual-harassment researcher at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who was not involved with the AAUW study.

New Avenues for Abuse

Ms. Stein said most of the teachers she works with are "well versed" in sexual-harassment issues, but tend "to think about it in a physical way—groping, grabbing, that kind of stuff."

The addition of social media complicates the situation, because those networking tools can easily extend harassment beyond campus. The study found that more than one in three girls and nearly one in four boys had been harassed through texting or social media; through incidents such as being sent sexual pictures, jokes, or comments; or having such things posted about the student.

The researchers found that students who were harassed both online and in person reacted more strongly than those who faced abuse in only one area. For example, students harassed both in person and online were more than twice as likely to feel nauseated, have trouble sleeping or studying, not want to go to school, or switch schools or activities as were students who were harassed only in person or online.

"There's an amplification when it's both," said Catherine A. Hill, the AAUW's director of research and a co-author of the report. "Online is instantaneous, invasive, 24-7. It's particularly well suited to creating this illusion that everyone thinks this."

Girls were more likely than boys to experience most forms of harassment, but both were equally likely to be harassed based on gender stereotypes; for example, a boy wearing bright colors or a girl in sports might be called "gay" or "fag," while a girl who physically developed earlier than her peers may be called a "slut." While boys were more likely than girls to report being able to shrug off harassment, abuse was likely to interfere with academics for both sexes. More than one in 10 students said they had stayed home from school or gotten in trouble at school because they were harassed, and nearly one in three found the harassment interfered with their ability to study.

"It's kind of hard to educate kids who are experiencing this harassment and violence and expect them to show the same performance they would regularly," said Bruce G. Taylor, who studies sexual harassment as a principal research scientist for NORC, a research organization formerly known as the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago; he was not involved with the AAUW study. "These are the kinds of problems that could really fester into long-term problems for these kids."

What makes matters worse, the researchers noted, is that prevention programs often do not address the complexities of the problem. Many school-based anti-harassment programs focus on teaching students to develop healthy romantic relationships, but the AAUW study suggests that approach may miss the point: Only 3 percent of students who had sexually harassed another student said they acted because they wanted a relationship with the victim.

Respecting Boundaries

"The prevailing notion when people talk about teen-dating violence is to talk about healthy relationships, which I think is a … paternalistic approach. Who decides what is healthy?" Ms. Stein said. "It's how do you understand someone else's personal boundaries and how do you get people to respect your boundaries."

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Ms. Stein and Mr. Taylor are developing and evaluating a holistic approach being used in some New York City middle schools since 2008. As part of the program, called Shifting Boundaries, schools post information on sexual harassment and gather focus groups of students, both within classes and campuswide, to talk about the school's sexual environment and legal and school rules related to harassment.

In one activity, students map out "hot spots" in the school where they feel most unsafe.

"Inevitably, it's the least-supervised areas that are marked as least safe," such as restrooms used by older students or rear corridors, Ms. Stein said." In response, she said, school administrators were able to change travel patterns or change hall-monitor locations.

A 2010 study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice of 30 New York City middle schools found schools that implemented the program saw 26 percent to 34 percent fewer instances of sexual harassment after six months, 32 percent to 47 percent fewer instances of sexual violence, and 50 percent less physical and sexual dating violence than at the start of the program.

An Important Censorship Article Worth Reading!

www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/bs-md-ha-student-drama-20111104,0,942876.story

baltimoresun.com

Harford schools reverse move to ban scene of gay men from play

ACLU criticized decision; no physical contact, graphic language in scene

By Mary Gail Hare, The Baltimore Sun
7:25 PM EDT, November 4, 2011

The Bel Air High School production of "Almost, Maine," almost debuted in Harford County absent a scene many students considered critical to the drama about love in a small town.

When county school officials demanded that the scene involving homosexual romance be deleted from the show, students cried censorship and discrimination and contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

After a strongly worded letter from the civil rights organization, officials reversed their decision with apologies. The show will open Thursday evening at the school with all story lines intact.

"Cutting the scene was definitely censorship," said junior Julia Streett, president of the school's Gay Straight Alliance and sound engineer for the show. "It repressed creativity."

The drama, written by John Cariani, depicts characters falling in and out of love through a series of vignettes. In "They Fell," the scene at issue, two young men, who are longtime friends, compare notes about disastrous dates with women and come to realize that they are attracted to each other. Both actually fall several times in almost slapstick fashion. The two make no physical contact and use no graphic language.

"The show is all about different couples falling in love," said junior Krissy Vogt, a member of the show's technical crew. "Adding a gay couple created diversity. I think that the scene is definitely necessary to the show."

The play was well into production when the faculty director asked school officials to review the scene for appropriateness.

"They told us to cut the scene but gave us no reason," Vogt said. "We were puzzled. The scene is really lighthearted and there is no physical contact. We decided to go to the ACLU. We knew they could get something done for us."

The ACLU argued that the decision violated the students' right to free speech.

"It is the only portrayal of same-sex love in the play; it is also the only portion of the play the drama club was required to remove," Deborah A. Jeon, ACLU legal director wrote in the letter dated Wednesday. "The decision to censor the play to eliminate representation of same-sex love and gay identity is unlawful and we demand that the decision be reversed."

Contacting the organization showed prescience and tenacity on the part of the students, she said.
"It shows how courageous they are in standing up for their rights," Jeon said in an interview Friday. "They took a stand in a non-disruptive way."

Teri Kranefeld, Harford schools spokeswoman, said officials have "discretion to determine whether the content of material in items such as school plays and school newspapers are appropriate and have educational value." Upon receipt of the letter from the ACLU and further review, the decision to remove the scene was reversed, she said.

She apologized for the error made in pulling the scene and commended the students for their foresight.
Streett and Vogt said they had been prepared to "go to court" if officials did not reverse the decision. If officials were trying to avoid controversy, they failed and probably boosted ticket sales, Streett said.
"There was a lot more controversy about cutting the scene," she said.

mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2011, The Baltimore Sun

Link to Fund School Libraries

In these tough economic times, many cuts are being considered.  Here is a link to sign a petition at WHITEHOUSE.gov to ask that school libraries be included in federal funding programs. 

You have to create an account to sign (takes 2 minutes)

If it is a belief you have, please feel free to forward.

Thanks!

http://wh.gov/Tzj

Some great new titles to check out!

These appear to be well-worth the read:

1. Teaching in Tandem: Effective Teaching in the Inclusive Classroom
By Gloria Lodato Wilson and Joan Blednick

2. Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning
By Mike Schmoker

3. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom
By Carol Ann Tomlinson and Marcia B. Imbeau

4. Guided Instruction: How to Develop Confident and Successful Learners
By Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

5. How to Teach Now: Five Keys to Personalized Learning in the Global Classroom
By William Powell and Ochan Kusuma-Powell

6. Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap
By A. Wade Boykin and Pedro Noguera

7. The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson
By Harvey F. Silver, Richard W. Strong, and Matthew J. Perini

8. Everyday Engagement: Making Students and Parents Your Partners in Learning
By Katy Ridnouer

9. How to Motivate Reluctant Learners
By Robyn R. Jackson

10. School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results
By Robert J. Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian A. McNulty

How to Create a Global Classroom

Check out these awesome resources!

Creating Global Classrooms: Additional Resources

Learning Democracy through International Collaboration

The Learning Democracy Project is an iEARN collaborative project that was initiated at Riverwood High School in Atlanta, Ga., in 2004. Through the project students in more than 40 countries, including Afghanistan, Egpyt, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan learn about democracy as they study voting processes, analyze media coverage of elections, and look at the major issues affecting the global community over the next few decades. The diverse group of young people explore a wide range of issues, share ideas, and ask tough questions. Read more about the program.

Online Educational Resources

Bring the world to your classroom using the following online education resources.

• ePals connects educators in more than 200 countries, enabling them to develop interactive projects that bring students around the world together.
• Global Gateway is a U.K.-based helps educators build collaborative projects, grow and sustain partnerships, and find funding resources for international education.
• Global Nomad Group creates education programs and resources to teach youth about global issues.
• International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) has been helping teachers develop online international education projects for 20 years.
• InternationalEd.org offers a comprehensive listing of online international education resources.
• National Geographic Kids offers a wealth of information including country profiles, international recipes, videos and more to teach youth about different cultures.
• Southern Center for International Studies provides a collection of education materials to supplement high school social studies curricula “covering seven world regions from a geographic, economic, political, cultural and environmental standpoint.”
• UN CyberSchoolBus gives students an inside look at how the United Nations works through webcasts, videos, and other resources. Students also can learn about human rights, world hunger, and peace education.

Effective Classroom Management Tips

November 2011 | Volume 53 | Number 11
How To Manage Your Classroom Effectively    

How To Manage Your Classroom Effectively

By Jennifer J. Salopek

Want to create a positive, engaging, and orderly learning environment? Sharpen your classroom management skills with these tips from the experts.

Classroom management includes everything from seating to transitions to engagement to discipline. What classroom management should not include is a command-and-control approach, says Carol Ann Tomlinson, a professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and coauthor of ASCD's Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom. "If a teacher's notion is to manage, [his] style becomes domineering," says Tomlinson. "This results in resistance from students and an adversarial relationship."

Some teachers, especially new ones, confuse classroom management with discipline, says Tomlinson's coauthor, Marcia Imbeau, who is a professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at the University of Arkansas. Although discipline is an element of classroom management, other elements, such as established routines and mutually designed guidelines for good behavior, can foster a manageable environment while greatly reducing the number of disciplinary incidents.

The goal, says Tomlinson, is to create the kind of environment that studies have shown to be most conducive to learning: one that is orderly but enabling. "An orderly/enabling environment facilitates high-quality learning," Tomlinson says. There should be a defined structure with clear processes and expectations, but the structure should include enough flexibility to accommodate students' needs.

A solid set of classroom management strategies can combine with a defined structure to help create an environment that is orderly, but the enabling part is up to the teacher. Here are a few favored strategies from experienced classroom teachers at all levels.

• Take the time to get to know your students and enlist them in their own success. Elona Hartjes, a special education and math teacher at Woodland Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario, has been teaching for 29 years. She has been writing her blog, Teachers at Risk (www.teachersatrisk.com), for five years. One of her most popular posts is titled, "Nine Questions I Ask My Students on the First Day of School," in which she describes how she asks students about their learning successes and difficulties.
  "I want the students to know that we are a team, and that we each play a part in the learning," Hartjes says.
• Collaborate with your class to create guidelines for appropriate classroom behavior. It's important to enlist kids in the creation of these guidelines, especially at the high school level, says Hartjes. "I emphasize to them that they're in grade 9; they're experts at school by now. We work together to create four basic behavioral guidelines for the year and to describe what each behavior, such as attentive listening, looks like. Kids won't buy in otherwise."
• Establish a routine for starting class. Post a problem or a writing exercise on the board that students will begin as soon as they stow their gear in their desks. Also, create a seating chart so you can take attendance without calling roll, suggests Tomlinson.
• Establish a signal that indicates when students should stop talking and give you their full attention. Never talk when students are talking; doing so diminishes your leadership role and doesn't motivate them to stop talking, says Tomlinson. The signal could be a bell, a hand clap, or dimming the overhead lights—whatever works for you. Susan Alexander, a middle school English teacher at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Fla., uses a vibraphone (a vibrating percussive instrument) for this purpose. The vibraphone's tone can take several minutes to dissipate, says Alexander, who notes that students naturally become quiet as they strain to hear when the tone will stop completely.
• Give clear directions. "Consider what good quality will look like. Communicate the process for how to do the task well," says Tomlinson. You can also make "task cards" and place them in the center of tables or on the board so kids can remind themselves of the steps they need to take to finish a project.
• Create a strategy for kids to request help. When you're working with students one-on-one or in small groups, you want the others to have a way to get help without interrupting you. Formulate a strategy for this and ensure students understand it, says Imbeau. Some teachers use "check with three before me"—meaning that students should ask three classmates before going to the teacher for help. Other teachers place "hint cards" in a central location that students can check when they get stuck. At the elementary level, students can place "stoplight cups"—green, yellow, and red—on their desks as nonverbal signals of understanding.
• Find creative ways to set the mood. Alexander, a former professional actor, director, and writer, borrows from her theater background to harness kids' energy and set the mood in the classroom. "You can create an environment with lighting and sound that is appropriate to your underlying message," she says. "After all, a play begins before the actors take the stage." Alexander might put colored gels on the overhead lights, project an image onto the wall, and play music as students enter the room.
• Use technology strategically (or, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"). Many students have cell phones or smartphones, so figure out how you can leverage those devices to aid in classroom management, suggests Lori Gracey, executive director of the Texas Computer Education Association. For example, at www.todaysmeet.com, teachers can create private forums where they can post questions for students to answer, tweet-style. "Students are writing rather than talking," Gracey notes. "Students using technology are paying attention, responding to their teacher and to each other."
• Practice flexible grouping. Imbeau emphasizes that it's important for kids to be exposed to diverse personalities, interests, and ability levels as you work together to build a community of learners. "Flexible grouping supports the idea that students can learn from each other," she says. She works hard to mix up groups throughout the week, charting them out and keeping notes on her rationale for her student pairings.
• Provide opportunities for collaboration. "Kids are dying to collaborate," Alexander notes. Set aside time for students to work together to solve problems, conduct research, and play games that build teamwork.
• Allow kids to use their own words. In her "Fishbowl" exercise, Alexander places three chairs in the middle of a large circle of students seated on the floor. She asks a provocative question—one designed to foster conversation, with many possible valid answers—but only students seated in the chairs may respond. Once students in the center have spoken, they must relinquish the chairs and return to the larger circle. The exercise gives each student the opportunity to be heard.
• Plan a high-quality curriculum. This is the Holy Grail—the strategy that will render all your other classroom management strategies unnecessary. "A high-quality curriculum is an effective method of discipline," says Tomlinson. "Students who feel that they belong, that they have a voice, and that they understand classroom routines are more engaged. Engagement gives them less of a reason to rebel." 

What to do with ALL these college grads...

A college degree doesn't guarantee you a job anymore like it did a decade or two ago. South Korea knows this well. Maybe the US can learn something here and begin to offer additonal viable paths for high school students??

In South Korea, too many college grads: Fred Hiatt

Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 3:00 AM

By Plain Dealer guest columnist The Plain Dealer

SEOUL, South Korea -- Americans who deem South Korea's education system a model (President Barack Obama, among others) might be surprised at one message leaders here are delivering to their youth: Drop out, please.

Well, that may be a slight exaggeration. But South Korea's government has decided that too many people are going to college. It is working to restore the luster of a high school diploma as a stopping point for some and to establish a vocational track for others.

And that has to be sobering for anyone who has assumed that education will be the antidote to the downward-mobility pressures of globalization.

Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, frequently cite South Korea in contrast to America's shortcomings -- the diligence of its students, the commitment of its parents, its success in equipping successive generations to compete.

Pretty much everyone agrees that this East Asian nation's progress, in just half a century, from abject poverty to developed-world prosperity, owes much to its schools and its devotion to schooling. South Korean 15-year-olds rank first in reading and math, and third (behind Finland and Japan) in science, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. U.S. teens rank 14th, 25th and 17th in the three categories.

Yet South Koreans are deeply unhappy with their system -- to the point that many blame their world-lowest birth rate (1.1 child per woman) on their schools. They complain about an emphasis on memorization, a stifling of creativity, a failure to teach usable English and a weakness in developing leadership skills.

Finding state schools inadequate, parents spend millions on tutoring. Children study in after-school academies, known as "hagwon," until 11 p.m. and beyond. The expense -- Seoul families spend 16 percent of their income on private schooling -- is one reason many parents say they can afford only one child.

The shadow system makes South Koreans worry about their children's health but also, in a society that values equality of opportunity, about unfairness. In response, the government has limited how much hagwon can charge and how many hours they can meet (in theory, not past 10 p.m.).

Because violations are routine, the law allows citizens to report lawbreakers and collect part of the fines for themselves. So now, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, there are hagwon to teach people how to catch the miscreants.

Much of the pressure arises because South Koreans believe their children must go to college to guarantee themselves a middle-class future. As a result, South Korea has one of the highest college-going rates of any nation -- a category in which, as Obama has complained, the United States has slipped to 12th. More than 60 percent of South Koreans ages 25 to 34 have higher educations, compared with about 40 percent in the United States, and the gap is growing.

But South Korean officials are alarmed that many graduates are not finding jobs -- more than 40 percent in the past year, even though the South Korean economy was doing pretty well. That is why President Lee Myung-bak is promoting alternatives.

Last month, the president urged employers to hire more high school grads and promised, as an example, to hire three into the presidential Blue House this year and three more next year. "Professional footballers just need to be good at kicking balls," Lee said. "They don't need to graduate from Seoul National University."

The government also is investing in vocational schools designed to put young people on a career track without going to college. "Reckless entrance into college," Lee has said, is "bringing huge losses to households and the country alike."

Obama isn't wrong to stress the urgency of improving U.S. education. America's scandal, unlike South Korea's, is the number of poor and minority children consigned to dropout-factory school systems that hollow the promise of class mobility. If South Koreans have put too much emphasis on tests, American schools, allowing so many kids to grow up illiterate, for too long put too little.

But the South Korean experience does suggest that no nation will find an easy answer to the stresses of the global economy, especially as so much of the work of knowledge occupations -- lawyer, editor, radiologist -- proves as outsourceable as building cars or staffing call centers. An educated population will still fare better than an uneducated one. But if you think everything will be OK if we can just be a bit more like, say, South Korea -- well, ask a few South Koreans what they think about that.
Fred Hiatt is The Washington Post's editorial page editor.


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