APS anti-bullying campaign starts

It is difficult to estimate the toll that bullies exact on the education of their victims.

One of the main reasons it is so difficult to estimate is APS' steadfast refusal to actually measure the effect by surveying students. APS as is their custom, will try to solve a problem without quantifying it first. In the absence of any declared reason for the refusal to survey, it is fair to assume that APS is simply covering its collective butt by not gathering incontrovertible data on its failure to adequately address the problem.

One cannot survey students on bullying without revealing that students don't believe that administrators consequence bullying adequately enough to change their behavior.

It is the same reason that teachers will never be surveyed on the subject either; they will point to the administrations failure to provide consequences for bullies that will put them out of business.

As an aside, APS' Research, Development and Accountability Department, freely admits that they have never done a survey where they asked teachers, and other staff working at the educational interface, what they need to succeed. The reason for refusing to do the survey is the same, they are covering their asses.

If teachers ever had an opportunity to identify their real needs, they would point to the failure of the administration to back up their efforts to control the behavior of chronically disruptive students.

I expect the little progress will be the result of the current effort, simply because I believe it to be impossible to solve a problem at the same time you are trying to hide it.

A recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools revealed that APS administrators "routinely falsified" crime statistics in order to protect their school's image.