No Uniform View Among Educators About Dress Code

Ventura County schools gave mixed reviews of disciplinary measures such as uniforms and Saturday classes, which some poorer local schools said helped them rank well in a statewide assessment released Tuesday.

“If that were the case, think of all the money we could make selling uniforms,” said Robin Freeman, principal at Charles Blackstock School in Oxnard. “There’s no direct correlation.”

But schools in districts that require uniforms, including Fillmore, Santa Paula, Oxnard and Port Hueneme, say that what uniforms offer is better behavior--as competition for style dies down--and teachers spend less time on discipline.

It would be unlikely that other--meaning more affluent--school districts would take such measures, county school officials said.

In Ventura, Supt. Joe Spirito has been trying for years to persuade schools to take up uniforms. Spirito said he would study the Academic Performance Index for cause and effect, but said uniforms were an unlikely option in his district.

He said some Ventura parents would consider uniforms a violation of their children’s right to choose their clothes, a means of self-expression.

“I think there’s a difference,” he said. “I think there’s a system of values” they would help promote.

Many school officials said there were other ways to get students to perform well. And even those administrators who require uniforms and firm discipline said it was only a piece of their total plan.

“It makes our days go easier,” said Heidi Haines, a teacher at Parkview Elementary School in Port Hueneme. “We have fewer little spats, so we can focus on what’s going on in the classroom. But, there are a lot of other reasons we did well [compared with similar schools]. We have after-school programs, reading programs and homework clubs.”

And supporters of uniforms and other disciplinary plans, admit that they aren’t always successful. Many schools with such requirements rated inconsistently on the recent index, with some scoring poorly even against schools with students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds.

At some schools, officials argued that it was not behavior measures that mattered, but the involvement of parents that most benefited students.

At Emilie Ritchen Elementary School in Oxnard, parents are asked to sign a contract vowing to support their children in their studies. At Blackstock, children carry a planner, which they fill with homework assignments and show to their parents. At Sunkist Elementary School in south Oxnard, parents learn of important meetings by phone, and can take advantage of baby-sitting and translation services to attend them.

It’s clearly not a simple task when parents have a multitude of other worries.

“What we want most is a high degree of parent involvement,” said Carolyn Banks, principal of Emilie Ritchen school, which lies in a relatively affluent neighborhood in Oxnard. “Parents are critical. But, it’s a luxury at many schools where parents may not have time because they’re working in the fields.”

Simi Valley’s Hollow Hills Fundamental School is a magnet school built on parental involvement and personal responsibility, and is one of the highest-ranked schools in Ventura County on the Academic Performance Index.

The school requires a contract with parents, who must attend PTA meetings and back-to-school nights.

“None of this is revolutionary,” Principal Leslie Frank said. “We as educators just have to make it clear to parents how important it is that they are involved. We just want them to do a little every night. Just sit down and talk about school a little bit.”