A survey of teachers who belong to the Professional Educators of Iowa finds their number one concern is order in the classroom.Jim Hawkins, state director for the Professional Educators of Iowa, says 89 percent of those surveyed believe schools should make it easier to remove disruptive students from the classroom.Hawkins says improving classroom discipline would be the number one means of improving test scores and student performance. Hawkins says you can’t teach students who aren’t paying attention, and the antics of those kids disrupts the classroom so others can’t learn. Hawkins says state officials should consider establishing a statewide, consistent policy about discipline in the classroom. Over 15-hundred Iowa teachers are members of Professional Educators of Iowa, a non-union alternative to the Iowa State Education Association, the teachers’ union which had over 40-thousand members.
