Our school got rid of ours (budget cuts) about four years ago, you can
definitely tell the difference. I will be honest with you, even a bad ISS
policy is better than NO ISS. Our kids now go straight from a 15 minute
detention with the teacher to out of school detention. There is no middle
ground.

I was only at this school a couple of years before they got rid of ISS and
during that time didn't have much need for it so I will talk about the ISS
at my last school. I will say however, that only the principal could assign
someone ISS, not a teacher. I didn't realize how effective our ISS system
was until I left.

At my last school, ISS was in one of the portable buildings. It was painted
white inside, everything was white. Each desk (small) faced the wall, with
walls that went up to the ceiling and came to several feet behind the
student, completely blocking off contact with other students. Students were
not allowed to talk. If they did or refused to work. They got sent to the
office for OSS and then still had to complete the day of ISS when they
returned. The classroom had a bathroom in it and sack lunches were
delivered and the students ate at their desks.

We also had them do that self reflection thing as to why they were in ISS.
There was also remedial math and English sheets. As far as teacher
assignments we all kept a stock of them there. Several of the most common
was copying the chapter and vocabulary work sheets. We got to know
approximately how much a student could get done in a 45 minute period. That
evening the work was placed in our boxes. If that work wasn't enough (kid
faked working) we could have him repeat the day. The students learned real
quick which teachers would enforce this and which ones would slide.

We as teacher had to send something to the ISS teacher everyweek. There was
a cubbie for each teacher and the ISS teacher would then put the stuff
there. This was mainly used for the drop ins in the middle of the day. If
a student had a repeat day, or recieved several we were expected to adssign
something, or give something plus what was in our cubbie.

There was a white board in the teachers lounge. On it were the names of the
students in ISS. It would have something like McCoy, James Mar 1, 2, 3. If
the student was absent on the first, the 1 was circled and the 4th would be
added. If the student was kicked out the date would be crossed through and
then the 4th was added. We were expected to look at this board everyday.

Our school did not believe in OSS suspensions and reserved it for the worse
offenses. Us teachers did get notes from the ISS teacher if we didn't send
work and if it happened more than two or three times, the ISS teacher went
to the principal. We were then called in and had to explain ourselves.

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