Is the HISD Behavior Center Plan Destined to Fail?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses Houston ISD's plan to use behavior centers and Zoom-in-library alternatives for disciplined students, and whether it can work.
Key Takeaways
- Alternative settings need real resources - Sending students to a behavior center only works if the center has trained staff and structured programming
- Zoom-in-library isn't a real alternative - Putting students on a Zoom call in the library is barely different from in-school suspension
- Half measures won't work - HISD's plan may sound innovative but risks being another poorly executed alternative to real discipline
Transcript
So a couple weeks ago it was reported that Houston Independent School District, HISD, was setting up these kind of behavior centers or team centers in libraries and like kind of getting rid of the librarian and having computers set up where maybe students could be sent if they were not behaving themselves in class so that they could learn on Zoom from the classroom.
I think this is the kind of thing that just is destined to fail.
It just cannot work because if a student is not paying attention in class where they have peers, where they have a teacher who cares about them, where they have interesting things to do, the idea that that student is going to behave in the library on Zoom just seems ridiculous to me.
Did the people who came up with this have any teaching experience?
Had they ever worked with students?
Because if you have worked with students, you know...
that the classroom is kind of the best case scenario for attention and behavior.
Like when we had students learning at home during the pandemic, did they pay attention better?
Like the students who struggle in school in person?
No, they did not.
They did not do better on Zoom.
So I think this really just needs to be rethought, but I'd also like an update.
Like if you know how this is going, what the reaction has been so far, I don't know if HISD has started, But keep me posted if you hear anything more about how this is going.
It's not a huge number of schools.
It's maybe 40 schools in a very large district.
But I feel like this is the kind of thing that we need to run by educators and parents and maybe get some feedback on before trying.
And I get that district leaders want to have bold, decisive action if these schools are...
in need of some sort of improvement.
It can seem decisive, but I think there's a fine line between decisive and just kind of insane.
So let me know what you think about this plan to send students out of the room to a Zoom room if they are not behaving.
I think in general, we have to be very careful about sending students out of the room.
There have to be some things that like, yes, you need to go to the office.
Yes, maybe you need to go talk to somebody.
There need to be some things that there are consequences for and other things that maybe there's an opportunity for calming down or counseling, things like that.
But just sending students out of the room at the drop of a hat or to some other alternative learning space, I don't think this can really work.
I think there is a very true extent to which you give up your power as a teacher when you send a kid out of the room.
And if they're just in a place where they're not going to learn, sending them to a different place is not going to make them learn.
I think we really need to think about what kids actually need when they're not able to learn.
And often they need to talk to somebody.
They may need, again, a counselor.
Or if it's a particularly bad behavior situation, they may need a consequence.
And putting them on Zoom is not really a consequence.
It's just an ineffective, inferior learning environment.
Like, do any of us want to go back to learning on Zoom?
I don't think it is really better.
So let me know what you think.
And if you have an HISD update, let me know.