The value of family involvement
Adolescents benefit when parents stay active throughout high school

AFT member Dottie Jenson says that safe and orderly schools happen when everybody is on the same page—the one with “Student Code of Conduct” printed at the top.

A 25-year classroom veteran who currently teaches health at Perth Amboy (N.J.) High School, Jenson is an advocate of strong, uniformly enforced student codes of conduct. These can be an important tool to help promote learning-friendly conditions in schools, Jenson says, but she is quick to add an important caveat: Codes of conduct and discipline plans can’t be “sometimes” propositions. They must be enforced consistently so that everyone—teachers, school staff, administrators, parents and particularly the students—knows that the rules matter. “You get into trouble when you introduce gray areas” in the code of conduct, Jenson cautions. “You need that consistency up and down the line.”

That’s the type of environment the Perth Amboy Federation/AFT is working to promote.

More than a decade ago, the AFT local was instrumental in helping garner widespread community support for a student code of conduct. Today, the local is calling attention to the need for consistent enforcement of the rules already in place. A recent poll of the district’s high school teachers shows it’s the single biggest step the district can take to keep discipline problems in check, reports local president Donna Chiera.

Perth Amboy recently has had problems with student fighting at the high school level, but the district is by no means the worst when it comes to safe, orderly classrooms. And that’s precisely the point of why acting now—before things grow worse—makes sense, Chiera argues. There is no need to wait, because so many of the lessons the AFT promotes in the area of safe and orderly schools apply to schools at any point on the spectrum.

The need for consistency in discipline lies at the heart of “Charting the Course,” the AFT’s new agenda for improving public education. Safe and orderly schools are a key plank in the union’s action agenda. It demands discipline codes based on clear and functional rules—ones that are taught to all students and rigorously and fairly enforced. And “Charting the Course” also stresses that many solutions to school discipline problems can be front-loaded: “Working closely with teachers in the early grades on students’ behavior-management skills can yield substantial future benefits,” the policy statement stresses.

And, as it also makes clear, school discipline is an issue that demands community involvement. Schools that promote safe and orderly environments do so with help from others—the business, religious and civic groups that share this common goal. The agenda and accompanying background papers are available at www.aft.org/teachers.