Make Your Day program puts kids in the driver's seat

MAT-SU -- Not long ago, if students disrupted class, their names were written on the blackboard, their recesses were taken away and, if they still didn't behave, they were marched down to the principal's office for more serious punishments, including suspensions.

Over the last 30 years many things have changed in public education and some of the most influential changes occurred in school discipline policies.

Court cases have had significant effects on public schools -- including schools in the Mat-Su Borough, which have had to adjust the way discipline is administered and even talked about.

In 1975, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of Goss v. Lopez, which held that students facing short-term suspensions must be provided with due process and a hearing before being suspended from school. Other features of due process, such as the right to legal counsel and the right to call witnesses were mandated for more serious disciplinary infractions.

In the Goss v. Lopez case, nine students at two high schools and one junior high school in Columbus, Ohio, were given 10-day suspensions from school. The school principals did not hold hearings for students before ordering the suspensions, and Ohio law did not require them to do so.

The principals' actions were challenged, and a federal court found that the students' rights had been violated. The case was appealed and the Supreme Court eventually upheld the decision.

With the strong-arm approach to discipline weakened, schools have turned to imaginative programs, some more successful than others.

In the Mat-Su Borough School District, all middle schools have adopted the "Make Your Day" program to address student behavior and expectations. The program is now nationally recognized, with schools across the country implementing its strategy of self-directed discipline and citizenship development.

In MYD programs, teachers and principals do not punish students for disruptive classroom behavior, rather, students make choices as to whether they want to participate in education.

At Teeland Middle School, for instance, students may choose, by the behavioral decisions they make, to be removed from class. Education is not force-fed and students may decide to call their parents and go home if that is their choice for the day.

Only in severe instances -- such as drugs, fighting and weapon possession -- do principals suspend students at MYD schools. In most other instances, students themselves decide whether they are ready to learn.

Larry Jacobson is the principal at Teeland Middle School and an avid proponent of the MYD program. Before coming to Teeland, Jacobson was principal at Colony Middle School, where the MYD program was introduced there eight years ago.

"This is not a robotic or punitive program," Jacobson said. "Kids internalize one rule and when they know the expectations, they roll."

There is only one, schoolwide rule, which hangs from a banner at the entrance to Teeland Middle School. It reads, "No one has the right to interfere with the learning, safety and/or well being of others." Next to it, an expectation banner hangs, "Do what is expected to the best of your ability."

Jacobson said the one simple rule and expectation applies to all students and staff in the building, including himself.

When students disregard the rule, they begin moving through a series of four steps that culminates in a choice to have their parents pick them up and take them home for the day.

If a student disrupts the learning of another student, they choose step one, which means they must turn their chair away from the group and think about their actions for five minutes. After five minutes, if they are ready to return, they turn back around and class continues as usual.

If students do not follow step one appropriately or continue to disrupt class learning, they move to step two, in which they stand, facing away from the class, and think about their actions for another five minutes. If, after five minutes, they still choose not to participate, they move to step three and are given a small piece of paper with the school rule written on it. For another five minutes they are to continue standing, while focusing on the rule.

After focusing on the rule for five minutes, students are given yet another chance to join the class. At this point they may choose step four -- an immediate conference with their parent, the teacher and themselves.

When students choose step four, their parents are called to the school and a brief conference ensues.

"Students have the choice to take it to level four," Jacobson said. "The goal is always to get the little person back on task."

Jacobson said parents are key to the success of Make Your Day and if students choose not to go home for the day, the final decision is up to parents. According to Jacobson, the process rarely gets to that point but when it does, it is important to have parental support.

Unlike more classic discipline programs, MYD schools do not have detentions, Saturday schools or other traditional penalties for when students misbehave. This makes the role of parents even more important when they are called at work, during the day, to come to the school.

When a child chooses step four but his parent cannot come to the school, due to work or other commitments, the child is removed from class and placed in another grade until the parent can come. While sitting in the other classroom, the student is expected to listen.

In some cases, when students need extra help, parents will come to school and spend a day with their children, sitting with them in classes.

On Wednesday, one child walked through the hall with his mother at his side.

"She will be with him for a couple of days as he tries to make better choices," Jacobson said. "Parents come in when it's needed. You need moms and dads in the system in order for schools to be a good place to learn."

Not all parents believe the MYD philosophy is working.

Laura Cox's two children attend Teeland Middle School. Cox said some teachers overuse the step program, and classrooms become robotic.

"It's not consistent," Cox said. "Sometimes they use it on kids who are just coughing."

Cox has been called to the school during work.

"It's disruptive to parents," she said, "and the step program wastes school time. If you can't drop everything and come down, the kids sit in another class for the rest of the day. That's not helping them get an education, it's just humiliating."

Another important aspect of MYD is hourly student self-assessment, in which, at the end of each class, students award themselves a certain number of points based on whether they were doing what was expected to the best of their ability.

If a student fails to make their day by making poor choices, he takes home a piece of paper to his parents, explaining what the problems were. The parent signs the paper and the student is supposed to return it to his teacher the next day.

Assistant Principal Monica Goyette said some of the challenges in MYD are getting students to do a meaningful, honest self assessment and also create consistent policies throughout the entire school that every teacher follows.

Longtime teacher Shelley Heiserman teaches eighth-grade math at Teeland. After teaching 30 years, Heiserman said the MYD program works better than any other she has used.

"I think this is the most powerful citizenship program I have ever seen," Heiserman said, "but constancy is the name of the game."

Make Your Day schools attempt to reduce variation from one class to another in terms of what is expected from students.

"If there are variations in classes, then there is a breakdown," Heiserman said, "We have common rules, no caps, no gum. If we are really following this program it should have nothing to do with me as an individual teacher, and for the most part we are pretty darn consistent."

One of the biggest challenges, according to Heiserman, is letting go of her old classroom management techniques and letting the MYD program take over.

"I never have more power than the students in this program," she said. "We are all on even ground. It's putting the power in their hands.

While still a fairly new program, Jacobson said MYD works better than discipline programs he has used in the past. It is not perfect, he said, but it is more effective than many programs.

"Years ago we had 18 billion rules," Jacobson said, "and they didn't work very well."

Mike McLain, who helps implement the MYD program at Teeland, agreed with Jacobson.

"Before, there were detentions and Saturday schools and they didn't work," McLain said. "Because they were always full."

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.