No Hall Sweeps?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been teaching for over a decade. This year, the high school I teach at has an unprecedented amount of students in the hallways after the final bell. I’m talking hundreds. It is so bad that it looks like we are still in a passing period. We are a school of 2000+. Students are still walking the halls over 5+ minutes past the bell.

We have petitioned our admin to do hall sweeps—which have been repeatedly scoffed at or ignored. We are told that “research doesn’t support the data behind hall sweeps.”

My concern is that with so many students in the hallways after the bell it becomes 1) chaotic / disruptive and 2) takes away from the already short classes we have to get through the material.

I’m wondering if other high schools have the same problem and what other administrations are doing to help solve this problem.

We can also stop blaming COVID. We have been back in-person for several school years now. Kids can see right past that excuse and are taking advantage of the fact that they can come late to avoid work.

[Anonymous]

Can you mark kids down in participation for being late?

[Anonymous]

My high school tends to get kids wandering the halls using bathroom passes. They seem to seek each other out. There was a group today just hanging out in front of the main office like they didn't have a care in the world. One security guard was just standing watching them saying nothing.

I have so many D's and E's this quarter from kids just refusing to be in the room. How can I get grades up if kids aren't in class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been teaching for over a decade. This year, the high school I teach at has an unprecedented amount of students in the hallways after the final bell. I’m talking hundreds. It is so bad that it looks like we are still in a passing period. We are a school of 2000+. Students are still walking the halls over 5+ minutes past the bell.

We have petitioned our admin to do hall sweeps—which have been repeatedly scoffed at or ignored. We are told that “research doesn’t support the data behind hall sweeps.”

My concern is that with so many students in the hallways after the bell it becomes 1) chaotic / disruptive and 2) takes away from the already short classes we have to get through the material.

I’m wondering if other high schools have the same problem and what other administrations are doing to help solve this problem.

We can also stop blaming COVID. We have been back in-person for several school years now. Kids can see right past that excuse and are taking advantage of the fact that they can come late to avoid work.

What school? And yes you should be doing them. I have heard some districts use the teachers in a planning period to spend the first five minutes of that period in the hallways writing up tardy slips

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been teaching for over a decade. This year, the high school I teach at has an unprecedented amount of students in the hallways after the final bell. I’m talking hundreds. It is so bad that it looks like we are still in a passing period. We are a school of 2000+. Students are still walking the halls over 5+ minutes past the bell.

We have petitioned our admin to do hall sweeps—which have been repeatedly scoffed at or ignored. We are told that “research doesn’t support the data behind hall sweeps.”

My concern is that with so many students in the hallways after the bell it becomes 1) chaotic / disruptive and 2) takes away from the already short classes we have to get through the material.

I’m wondering if other high schools have the same problem and what other administrations are doing to help solve this problem.

We can also stop blaming COVID. We have been back in-person for several school years now. Kids can see right past that excuse and are taking advantage of the fact that they can come late to avoid work.

What school? And yes you should be doing them. I have heard some districts use the teachers in a planning period to spend the first five minutes of that period in the hallways writing up tardy slips

Planning period? What’s that? Do you mean the period when I cover another teacher’s class because there aren’t enough subs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you mark kids down in participation for being late?

There is no participation grade in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

We need to go back to the policy of lates/tardies/skipping resulting in failing quarters. The current system is just not effective at getting kids into classrooms and learning. It is designed to ensure failing is difficult and to guarantee graduation rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to go back to the policy of lates/tardies/skipping resulting in failing quarters. The current system is just not effective at getting kids into classrooms and learning. It is designed to ensure failing is difficult and to guarantee graduation rates.

I feel like there was a post not too long ago about this very thing. Why does MCPS not see this? Or care?

[Anonymous]

Today I asked a group of kids being noisy outside my door to go to class. They moved about 3 feet away. They got louder. I went out again to ask them to keep it down. One said to the group "is that b* still talking?"

Some variation of this happens regularly.

I did one loop around my floor today for about 3 minutes. Encountered at least 2 dozen kids and no security.

[Anonymous]

What happens with tardies or absences? Is there a school consequence? And, are parents/guardians called?

If I got a call that one of my kids
was not in class, they’d be in trouble - lose the phone, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today I asked a group of kids being noisy outside my door to go to class. They moved about 3 feet away. They got louder. I went out again to ask them to keep it down. One said to the group "is that b* still talking?"

Some variation of this happens regularly.

I did one loop around my floor today for about 3 minutes. Encountered at least 2 dozen kids and no security.

This is outrageous.

When admins say things like "research doesn't support " hall sweeps I think k of every fake research paper that got busted along with the fact that nearly zero psychology study could be reproduced with the same result.
In otherworlds, asmin needs to statt using their own brains.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Fat fingered that!
"In other words: Admin needs to start using their own brains. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you mark kids down in participation for being late?

There is no participation grade in MCPS.

Some of my child's HS classes have a participation grade.

[Anonymous]

My high school does hall sweeps with a scheduled lunch detention in the auditorium as penalty. It gets the bulk of kids who are just being teenagers hustling to class. It does nothing about the perpetual hall walkers, but that’s not the point of the hall sweeps. We won’t have them for a while, but then if halls are noticeably still full at the bell, they’ll have a few for the next couple of days to reset. It works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have petitioned our admin to do hall sweeps—which have been repeatedly scoffed at or ignored. We are told that “research doesn’t support the data behind hall sweeps.”

Ex-teacher here. Our HS did hall sweeps every so often, and they worked. I'm sure they were inconvenient for the administration, but the teachers saw an improvement. It's human nature for routines to slip once in a while, and get back on track with a concerted effort. I'd love to know what kind of data your admin is citing; there's so much garbage "research" out there in education.