Listen here:
The Juneau School Board is taking no action after a student’s parents asked that classroom management materials be independently reviewed. The decision on Tuesday comes more than a year after the parents first raised concerns about the materials being used at a local elementary school.
Juneau parents Marc and Carolyn Lofgren filed a complaint with the Juneau School District in early October over concerns about a classroom management program called Acting Right used at Kax̱dig̱oowu Héen Elementary.
Their complaint said the program supports using shame and exclusion as tools to manage student behavior. The curriculum is from a company called Focus Five.
Marc Lofgren spoke at the Tuesday school board meeting. He said they brought the complaint forward after their daughter had a bad experience with the program in kindergarten last year. The incident involved a consultant who was training staff on how to use the materials.
“Last fall, our kindergartner developed nightmares, stomachaches and school refusal after her first session with the Focus Five consultant,” he said. “Later, at home, she was playing school with her stuffed animals, and she divided them up into the ‘strong’ group — they got to do the fun things — and the ‘weak’ group. They got to sit by themselves.”
That type of language – words like “weak” and “strong” – was included in scripts within the curriculum, the parents say. The school gave them the materials after they brought up concerns with the school last year.
“When I read the scripts, they contained a lot of harmful practices,” said parent Carolyn Lofgren.
The school offered the parents the opportunity to observe the consultant working with students. Carolyn Lofgren said they declined to do so.
The Lofgrens are homeschooling their daughter this year as a result of what happened. While it’s going well, they said they miss many of the opportunities from the school and the teachers that worked with her.
Marc Lofgren also emphasized that they respect teachers’ ability to teach and use their best judgement when using the curriculum.
“But successful adaptations should not be used to shield a bad curriculum from scrutiny when parents report harmful practices that are written into it,” he said.
The Lofgrens filed the complaint after district administrators did their own review earlier this school year of how the program was being used. Administrators found that no additional action was needed.
Their review included observing the skills being used in various classrooms at the school, doing focus groups with teachers, talking to students about the skills they are using and contacting the author of the materials.
The review found that teachers were not following scripts provided in the materials that use the “strong” and “weak” language.
Kelley Harvey is the district’s director of teaching and learning support. She visited several classrooms as part of the review and described what she saw to the school board.
“In that time, I did not hear the language of ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ used with students,” she said. “I did see students who were struggling and conversations around ‘How can we help you know to work together?’, ‘How can we make sure that everybody’s included?’”
The district recommended that the school should continue the work it’s doing with the program, which includes making adjustments to ensure it’s meeting students needs.
Kax̱dig̱oowu Héen Principal Katie Koski said many factors around the school have improved due in part to the curriculum.
“The foundation of Acting Right and the way it is interpreted at my site is very positive and restorative and inclusive, and it connects all of our students,” she said.
Last year, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development determined the school was no longer in the bottom 5% of schools in the state.
Three longtime teachers at the school testified to the school board. They vouched for the program and how it’s helped teachers support students.
Lindsay Baranovic currently teaches a preschool program at the school and has worked in schools and childcare for 18 years.
She said she also had some discomfort with the language that was included in the curriculum, but her mind has changed when actually putting the concepts to use.
“When it is taken out of context, it sounds like it could be used to be punitive, that it could be used to segregate or isolate,” she said. “It has always been used to bring the students together and bring the teachers together.”
The school board unanimously decided not to take further action on the item. While many of the board members, like Jenny Thomas, voiced concerns about using the words “strong” and “weak” to describe student behavior, they also said they trust teachers to make the best decisions for students.
“Hearing how the teachers are using it reassured me that, you know, they’re providing what’s best for the kids, and I think that I have no doubt that they’re putting it in the right context,” Thomas said. “And you know, it’s unfortunate that the parents’ daughter had a different experience, but I think it’s shown that it’s done great things for that school and our district.”
Koski said the school is continuing to use the program as a framework to approach student management.
