Activity

Issues at SchoolSUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: close Reading, Marking the text, Notetaking, Paraphrasing, Quickwrite. think-Pair-Share, Word Map, RAFt

2.12

Step OneQuickwrite: Write about your school dress code and the idea of mandatory uniforms. Consider the following as you write:

• What are some of the clothes, hats, jewelry, logos, colors, and so forth that you cannot wear?

• How do you and your friends feel about your school’s dress code? Why?

• How do your teachers, parents, and administrators feel about the dress code? Why?

• How would you feel if you were required to wear a uniform to school every day? Why?

• if you wear a school uniform, how would you feel if that requirement were removed? Explain.

Step Tworead the article entitled “Uniform Opinion,” and highlight all the statements that support the position you have been assigned. in the My notes section, state in your own words the reasons presented. afterward, write a sentence of your own that also includes quoted material (textual support) from the article. For example: School uniforms would be helpful for kids getting along because, as principal Barbara anderson says, “kids respect each other more” when they are wearing uniforms. Put these quotes and reasons on notecards.

Step Three Further prepare for a debate on the value of school uniforms by reading the article called “Student Dress Codes” and highlighting all of those arguments that support the position that you have been assigned. Take notes in the My notes section. Then transfer your notes to index cards.

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Debateas your teacher directs, conduct a modified debate on the position you have researched. remember to use the following types of sentence starters when you speak:

• Even though you just said that …, i believe that …

• i agree with what you said about …, but i think that …

• You make a good point about …, and i would add that …

• Perhaps, but (insert an expert or source) would say that…

Step Fourafter the debate, reflect on the debate on a separate sheet of paper. What were the strongest arguments put forward? What did you hear that might have changed your mind?

Activity 2.12 Issues at School

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Arkansas senator’s bill would require districts to vote on school apparel issue

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Seated on the floor in a circle, fourth-graders at Bale Elementary School listen attentively to their teacher read Sarah Plain and Tall.

It’s not an unusual classroom scene, but there is a difference this year: The students are all wearing uniforms—navy or khaki pants or skirts, and clean, white shirts, tucked in.

To Principal Barbara Anderson, there’s an air of order around the school, and it’s the uniforms that have made a big difference. She said the 350 students, from prekindergarten through the sixth grade, take more pride in themselves. They no longer come to school strutting their designer clothes and high tops.

“It’s amazing. It seems like kids respect each other more. It seems like it puts kids on an even keel,” Ms. Anderson said.

More and more school districts are requiring students to wear school uniforms, and state Sen. Kevin Smith, D-Stuttgart, is proposing legislation that would require school districts to vote on the issue in school elections this year.

The push comes after a wave of school violence in Arkansas and around the country.

Last school year, 12 students and two teachers were killed—and 50 others were injured—in shootings at Pearl, Miss.; West Paducah, Ky.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Edinboro, Pa.; Fayetteville, Tenn.; and Springfield, Ore.

President Clinton has urged school districts to use uniforms to increase discipline and improve security.

In the Little Rock School District, students at more than two dozen schools wear uniforms.

Activity 2.12

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DaLLaS MOrninG nEWS/aSSOCiaTED PrESS

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Unit 2 • Real-Life Challenges 153

Long Beach delighted

The picture from the Long Beach, Calif., Unified School District—the first public school district in the country to use uniforms in all its elementary and middle schools—is rosy, officials said. The district has 90,000 students and is the third-largest school district in California.

“Youngsters are getting along better with one another,” said district spokesman Richard Van Der Laan. “Kids from different backgrounds, they’re not putting each other down or ridiculing you because of what you’re wearing.”

Mr. Van Der Laan said that, since students from kindergarten through eighth grades began wearing uniforms in 1994, the district has seen a 91 percent drop in school crime, a record improvement in student attendance, fewer student suspensions and some increases in test scores.

“Our schools are safer, better places because of the uniforms,” he said.

Mr. Smith has sons in second and third grades at Stuttgart, which doesn’t use uniforms, and he is concerned about school safety. He believes uniforms will help improve academic performance, beef up discipline and eliminate gangs.

“It [regular dress] still sets up sort of a real difference in class distinctions. It’s just not necessary. I think we should stress to children that material goods and clothes are secondary, to say the least, to education,” he said.

His bill would require school districts to put the issue of school uniforms to a vote in this year’s school elections. Districts that already have uniforms would not have to have a vote. His bill also would allow school patrons, after this year, to petition to put school uniforms to a vote.

Not a cure-all

Mr. Smith conceded that uniforms might not be right for every district. He also knows that school uniforms are not a proven measure for improving school safety, can be costly for some students, and may raise concerns about a student’s individual expression. All those issues could be decided at the local level, he said.

continued

Activity 2.12 Issues at School

The perfect tenses of verbs show actions begun or completed in the past. You form the perfect tenses of verbs with the past participle of the verb and the auxiliary verbs have, has, or had. notice this example of the present perfect tense:

…the district has seen a 91 percent drop…

(expresses an action continuing from the past to the present)

in your writing, use the correct tense to indicate the timing of events and actions. Then, keep your tenses consistent: use verbs in the same tense to express events occurring at the same time.

&Grammar UsaGe

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“My main goal is to get school districts and school boards to address this issue and not put it off. We have studied it to death,” he said.

The Arkansas School Boards Association doesn’t have a problem with school uniforms but isn’t keen on Mr. Smith’s bill. Association Director Tommy Venters, the former state Education Department director, said the association believes that school uniforms are a local issue and the state shouldn’t mandate a vote.

Mr. Venters said uniforms have merit but school districts would have to address some legal issues in any school-uniform policy. “You can’t kick a kid out of school for not having a uniform if they don’t have the money to buy a uniform,” he said.

Rison School Superintendent Scotty Holderfield said about half of his student body would probably have a hard time paying for uniforms, which means the school district would have to provide uniforms or the money for them. He said the district could make uniforms voluntary but that would defeat the purpose. After some discussion, Rison school officials dropped the idea.

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by Lynne A. Isaacson 

In recent years, schools across the country have experienced violence, gang activity, and thefts of clothing and accessories. Many school boards, mindful of their responsibility to provide safe school environments for students, have implemented policies specifying dress codes or the wearing of uniforms. 

As many as 25 percent of the nation’s public elementary, middle, and junior high schools were expected to implement dress-related policies during the 1997-98 school year, according to the California School News (March 31, 1997). Ten states allow school districts to mandate school uniforms.

Educators and the public are divided over the value of implementing school-uniform policies in the public schools. This Digest examines arguments for and against school-uniform policies, identifies legal considerations, and offers guidelines for implementing policies on student dress.

What Are the Arguments in Favor of School Uniforms?

One of the chief benefits of school uniforms, say proponents, is that they make schools safer. Uniforms are said to reduce gang influence, minimize violence by reducing some sources of conflict, and help to identify trespassers. Parents benefit because they are no longer pressured to buy the latest fashions, and they spend less on their children’s clothing. 

Uniforms are also claimed to help erase cultural and economic differences among students, set a tone for serious study, facilitate school pride, and improve attendance (Cohn 1996, Loesch 1995, Paliokos, and others 1996). 

Proponents also say uniforms enhance students’ self-concepts, classroom behavior, and academic performance (Caruso 1996). 

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My Notes A r t i c l e

Issues at School

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What Are the Arguments in Opposition?

Opponents contend that school-uniform policies infringe upon students’ First Amendment rights to freedom of expression; interfere with students’ natural tendency to experiment with their identities; are tools of administrative power and social control; offer a piecemeal approach to issues of racial and economic injustice; and may discriminate against students from minority backgrounds (Caruso 1996, Cohn and Siegal 1996). 

Some believe uniforms will not erase social class lines, because policies do not apply to other items that can be used to convey status, such as jewelry, backpacks, and bikes. Uniforms may not be feasible in high schools, because older students are more independent. Others argue that it is wrong to make children’s right to a public-school education contingent upon compliance with a uniform policy (Caruso, Cohn and Siegal). 

What Are the Outcomes to Date?

Most preliminary findings come from the Long Beach (California) Unified School District, the first U.S. public school system to require uniforms for elementary and middle school students. Before implementing its policy in September 1994, the school district required approval from two-thirds of the parents (Caruso 1996). 

Long Beach Superintendent Carl A. Cohn reported that during the first year suspensions decreased by 32 percent, school crime by 36 percent, fighting by 51 percent, and vandalism by 18 percent (Cohn). At Whittier Elementary, attendance rates have risen each year since the policy went into effect, reaching a high of 96 percent (Caruso). 

Schools in Chicago, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, and Virginia have made similar claims (Caruso). 

Parents have responded favorably to uniform policies. In Long Beach, only 500 parents petitioned to opt their children out of the mandate. In a national marketing survey conducted by Lands End, a Wisconsin-based clothing catalog company, respondents agreed that a uniform policy “could help reduce problems associated with dress,” and most felt the price was “about the same or less than the cost of a regular school wardrobe” (California School News). California requires school districts to subsidize the cost of uniforms for low-income students. 

A 1996 survey of 306 middle school students in the Charleston, South Carolina, County School District found that school uniforms 

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affected student perceptions of school climate. Students in a middle school with a uniform policy had a significantly higher perception of their school’s climate than did students in a school without a uniform policy (Murray 1997). 

Student reactions range from delight at not having to decide what to wear to displeasure at looking like a “nerd.” It is important, therefore, to include students as well as parents in the uniform-selection process.

What Legal Issues Are Involved?

To date, most legal challenges to dress-code policies have been based on either (1) claims that the school has infringed on the student’s First Amendment right to free expression or (2) claims under the Fourteenth Amendment that the school has violated the student’s liberty to control his or her personal appearance (Paliokos and others 1996). 

First Amendment Claims. The clash between students’ rights of free expression and the responsibility of public-school authorities to provide a safe learning environment is the central issue in the debate over dress-code policy. 

In developing a ban on gang-like attire, whether through implementing a dress-code or a school-uniform policy, administrators should ask: (1) Is there a direct link between the targeted attire and disruption of the school environment? and (2) Is the prohibition specific enough to target the threatening attire without infringing on students’ rights? (Lane and others 1994). 

“Any dress restriction that infringes on a student’s First Amendment rights must be justified by a showing that the student’s attire materially disrupts school operations, infringes on the rights of others at the school, or otherwise interferes with any basic educational mission of the school” (Grantham 1994). 

To defend its action if challenged in court, a state must carefully define its interest when authorizing school districts to implement mandatory uniform policies. Policy-makers must be able to document that a problem exists (Paliokos and others).

Liberty Claims. Most challenges claiming a violation of the liberty interest have dealt with restrictions on hair length. Courts have been evenly split on whether a liberty interest exists. “Most courts that uphold the restrictions give the policy a presumption of 

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constitutionality and place the burden on the defendant to show it is not rationally related to a legitimate school interest.... Those courts that strike down such regulations have found that schools impose unnecessary norms on students” (Paliokos and others). 

What Are Some Guidelines for Implementing Policies?

Lane and others offer the following advice to policy-makers: Before implementing a dress-code or school-uniform policy, be able to justify the action by demonstrating the link between a kind of dress and disruptive behavior; consult with a school attorney; and make sure the policy is enforceable and does not discriminate against racial/ethnic minorities. 

In regard to uniforms, Paliokos and others recommend that policy-makers address three key questions: Are the requirements legally defensible? Do they actually restore order? Are less restrictive dress codes a better alternative? For example, policy-makers can consider five alternatives ranging from least to most restrictive: 

1. Do not institute a dress code. 

2. Institute a dress code that outlines general goals, and let principals and local school officials formulate and implement policy at the grass-roots level. 

3. Institute an itemized dress code that will be applied throughout the district. 

4. Authorize a voluntary uniform policy. 

5. Authorize a mandatory uniform policy with or without a clearly defined opt-out provision. 

Then policy-makers should decide whether to let schools choose their own uniforms and whether to offer financial help to low-income families (Paliokos and others). 

Whichever policy is chosen, successful implementation depends on developing positive perceptions among students and parents, making uniforms available and inexpensive, implementing dress-code/uniform policies in conjunction with other educational change strategies, allowing for some diversity in uniform components, involving parents and students in choice of uniforms and formulation of policy, recognizing cultural influences, and enforcing the rules evenly and fairly. 

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Superintendent Cohn credits his district’s success to a stable school board, supportive parents and community, resources to defend the policy, capable site administrators, and community philanthropic resources. 

Resources

“California Leads Nation in Public School Uniform Use.” California School News (March 31, 1997): 4. 

Caruso, Peter. “Individuality vs. Conformity: The Issue Behind School Uniforms.” NASSP Bulletin 8, 581 (September 1996): 83–88. EJ532 294. 

Cohn, Carl A. “Mandatory School Uniforms.” The School Administrator 53, 2 (February 1996): 22–25. EJ519 738. Cohn, Carl A., and Loren Siegal. “Should Students Wear Uniforms?” Learning 25, 2 (September/October 1996): 38–39. 

Grantham, Kimberly. “Restricting Student Dress in Public Schools.” School Law Bulletin 25, 1 (Winter 1994): 1–10. EJ483 331.

Kuhn, Mary Julia. “Student Dress Codes in the Public Schools: Multiple Perspectives in the Courts and Schools on the Same Issues.” Journal of Law and Education 25, 1 (Winter 1996): 83–106. EJ 527 561. 

Lane, Kenneth E.; Stanley L. Schwartz; Michael D. Richardson; and Dennis W. Van Berum. “You Aren’t What You Wear.” The American School Board Journal 181, 3 (March 1994): 64–65. EJ481 325. 

Loesch, Paul C. “A School Uniform Program That Works.” Principal 74, 4 (March 1995): 28, 30. EJ502 869. 

Murray, Richard K. “The Impact of School Uniforms on School Climate.” NASSP Bulletin 81,593 (December 1997): 106–12. 

Paliokas, Kathleen L.; Mary Hatwood Futrell; and Ray C. Rist. “Trying Uniforms On for Size.” American School Board Journal 183, 5 (May 1996): 32–35. EJ524 358.

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My Notes

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Step Five 1. read the two texts on the following pages written by students about

the new uniform policy at their school. afterward, complete the raFT and identify the main arguments for each.

“Uniformity” “A Blessing in Disguise”

Role of the author: Role of the author:

Audience: Audience:

Format: Format:

topic (use a strong verb): topic (use a strong verb):

2. Which one of the two pieces is most persuasive? Why?

3. What are the main arguments put forward in each piece? identify the type of appeal used most. include textual support in your response. Why is each appeal appropriate to the purpose and format of the text?

“Uniformity” “A Blessing in Disguise”

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My Notes

by Anonymous Student

A meat grinder is what you want: To squeeze us, press us, make us squirm.Then, then, then . . . look what you got: One big sameness wherever you look. Same hairSame pantsSame shirtsSame namesSame thoughtsSame tiesAnd who do we look like? Just like YOU!

Go ahead and try toRob us of our fashionRob us of our looksRob us of our youthRob us of ourselves

But to you and yours I say:No. Don’t take away what is mine to make me more like yours.

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My Notes

Activity 2.12

continuedL e t t e r

Dear Principal Jackson,

I can’t believe that I’m actually saying this, but thank you for instituting the new school uniform policy. 

I was not one who was in favor of the policy at first, but now I am, though I usually don’t say this in public. 

It used to take me an hour to get ready for school, trying to decide what to wear, to be sure that it was cleaned or ironed or whatever. Now it’s no problem; I know exactly what I’m wearing, and I have enough uniforms that one is always clean. 

My mom and I usually spent a lot of time and money shopping for back-to-school clothes. We’re not rich or anything, but it would usually get expensive and she and I would get into fights about what’s “appropriate” for school. Now, we don’t have that fight at all. I have my uniform for school and the rest of my clothes are for going out after school, so my mom can’t complain about not being appropriate. 

There was always a lot of teasing going on about other kids’ clothes, but now everyone’s in the same boat. We still know who’s rich or poor, but it’s not as obvious anymore and I think there’s less teasing going on. 

After school, I still get to wear what I want, so I’m not sure what the big deal is anymore. 

Thanks again, but don’t print my name. 

A student

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Activity 2.12

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Step Six What do you think is the middle ground or compromise solution for this issue? What do you think that the two authors could agree on? Why?

When writing a persuasive essay, one of the more interesting ways to end your essay is to point toward possible solutions of the issue and point out possible compromises to the two sides (how the two sides can both “win” in some way). imagine that you have written an essay on the issue of uniforms in schools. On separate paper, write a conclusion paragraph in which you briefly summarize the two points of view and identify a possible solution to the problem.

Step Sevennow, brainstorm a list of other issues you see around school that might be possible topics for a persuasive essay or debate.

Select a topic to research. Go to the library or internet, locate one reliable source of information on your topic, and record information on a notecard. Set up your notecard like the example on the next page.

When conducting research, especially when you prepare for debate, the easiest method is to use a series of note cards. Use a new note card for each source of information.

AcAdeMic vocABULARy

a persuasive essay is one written to convince the reader to take action or to agree with the points made by the writer. The essay uses persuasive appeals, supports arguments with research, and offers a clear recommendation for action.

164    SpringBoard® English Textual Power™ Level 3

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Front of NotecardSource Information

Books

1. Full name of author or editor (last name first)

2. Title and subtitle (underlined)

3. City of publication

4. name of publisher

5. Year of publication

Magazine, Newspaper, or encyclopedia Article

1. Full name of author

2. Title of article in quotation marks

3. name of magazine/newspaper (underlined)

4. Date, page numbers

internet Sources

1. author’s name (if known)

2. Title of article in quotation marks

3. Title of Web site

4. Full and exact UrL address

5. Date site was updated or (if not known) date you visited the site

Information Learned

1. What did you learn about the issue from this source?

2. Copy an exact quote or two from this source. Be sure to use quotation marks.

3. To what other sources did this one lead you?

How can you include this information in a debate? Use the following format:

“according to (author or organization and the source where you found the information), (provide an exact quotation that strengthens your argument).”

now, write your quoted information from your notecard using the format above.

Back of Notecard

Unit 2 • Real-Life Challenges 165

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