“Hall sweeps” are surprise checks of the hallways during class time to identify and address students who are tardy or loitering in the halls instead of attending class. But are these “hall sweeps” truly effective?
We all have classes we would rather not be in during the school day. We may sit there counting down the minutes until we can leave, but we do it — we sit there. For me, sitting in a class I don’t want to be in and having students showing up late or glancing out of the door, and seeing students loitering in the halls as if they don’t have class themselves, frustrates me. I get that it can be hard to get to class on time every day or that some don’t want to be in class, but it’s disrespectful towards the teachers to not attend class. This is especially frustrating when these same students later beg teachers about their grade. I mean, would you show up late to a friend’s invite?
The surprise hall sweeps that occur at PB do target the problem of tardiness and result in students hurrying to classes. However, they only fix tardiness on the day the hall sweeps occur as students rush to all of that day’s classes to avoid getting caught up in one.
But what about loitering? Hall sweeps do provide a short-term fix for tardiness, but are meaningless when it comes to loitering, because students who loiter are not interested in being in class at all. Tardy people go to class even if they are sometimes very late, but loiterers are full-on dedicated to not going to class. So this really presents a whole different problem that a hall sweep cannot fix.
In terms of addressing either of these issues, hall sweeps are a negative because they are a short term solution, create a tense school environment fostering an atmosphere of mistrust between students and teachers, and imply that students do not have valid reasons for being late.
To develop better solutions, schools should involve the students in the process of how to deal with tardiness and loitering. If the students are late and they are the problem, then find the root cause of tardiness and loitering, and involve students in discussions about school policies and explore collaborative solutions. This would give students the chance to solve problems that affect them and others.
Though school and education is important, at the end of the day, we need to aim for strategies that create a positive and supportive environment, while addressing the causes of attendance issues.