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Education Desk
The Education Desk is our education blog focusing on key areas of news coverage important to the state and its improvement. Evidence of public policy performance and impact will be reported and analyzed. We encourage you to engage in commenting and discussing the coverage of education from pre-natal to Higher Ed.Dusty Rhodes curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.About - Additional Education Coverage00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d385d0000

Education Desk: New Discipline Law, New Discipline Approach

ACES Too High

Next fall marks the launch of a new school discipline law that limits suspensions and expulsions. To help teachers prepare, the Illinois Education Association brought in Jim Sporleder, an expert in getting even the worst kids to behave. He was principal for five years at Lincoln High School, an alternative school in Walla Walla, Washington that’s the subject of a documentary called “Paper Tigers.” The film shows how Sporleder changed the school environment by replacing traditional discipline methods with a “trauma-informed” strategy based on scientific findings of the effects of chronic stress on kids.

Sporleder visited Springfield last month, when the Illinois Education Association showed the movie. For this story, he spoke to me by phone from his home in Walla Walla, Washington.

To see where "Paper Tigers" is screening in Illinois, click HERE

After a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014.
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