Getting out the broom

The cover of a recent Time Magazine turned more than a few heads - especially those of educators. Michelle Rhee, the head of Washington, D.C. schools, stands at the front of a classroom firmly clutching a broom.

Educators who know of Ms. Rhee immediately get the symbolism: She is sweeping away the "deadwood." Suggesting that some teachers should get bonuses, increasing their pay up to $130,000 yearly, has endeared her to some. Firing teachers and principals who do not meet her expectations has, to others, made her an enemy.

Rhee took charge of Washington's 144 schools in 2007. Her resume was surprising: she had never been in charge of a school, let along a whole district. She made waves from the start. She fired over 10% of the central office bureaucracy. She also fired 270 teachers and dismissed 36 principals.

We won't wade into that controversy. Most of us try to work hard with the staff we have. Instead, we'd like to focus on the broom.

The Time Magazine article on Rhee mentioned a high school senior named Allante Rhodes who emailed Ms. Rhee one day to complain about computers that did not work in his school. Rhee not only responded to his email, but also visited with him and toured the school. They met a number of times where Rhodes was able to voice his concerns to "the boss."

Amanda Ripley, a senior writer for Time who reported on this story, spent time with both Michelle Rhee and the student Rhodes. She said, "... he is dismayed by his school. He walks through his halls pointing out the litter on the floor and the broken lockers." Rhodes pointed out a bank of lockers along the hallway, "You see all those lockers? None of them work."

And we were reminded of Broken Windows.

Perhaps many educators can recall studying the "Broken Window Theory" in a Sociology class or Psychology class once upon a time.

The concept is based upon an article titled "Broken Windows" by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which appeared in the March 1982 edition of The Atlantic Monthly. The title comes from the following example:

"Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars."

A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, according to this theory, is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood.

The Atlantic article included a summary of some experiments conducted by Philip Zimbardo where two autos were parked on city streets, one with its hood up, the other with the hood down. Within ten minutes, vandals attacked the car with hood up. The other car was still perfectly intact after a week. Then Zimbardo smashed part of the untouched car with a sledge hammer. He reported, "within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed."

What do broken windows have to do with schools?

First, we sincerely hope you don't have any.

More important, we suggest there is a high probability that the appearance of your school building and classrooms have a major impact on the behavior of your students. (A promising topic for a graduate paper or project)

As we wind down classes before our Winter Breaks it might be a good time to make the extra effort cleaning, straightening and fixing some of those problem areas around the classroom, hallways, locker rooms, cafeteria, hallways and building entrances and exits.

The costs are minimal. The gains may be monumental.

Best wishes in the New Year.