Articulation Case Study

Teacher Shortages – In many areas of Alabama there are subject-specific teacher shortages, especially in the area of secondary mathematics. As I travel from school to school, I have found that many of the middle and high schools I visit have unfilled mathematics positions. Many of these schools are in economically disadvantaged areas of the state, but the teacher shortage issue is not isolated to a particular area or demographic. I have found classrooms staffed by long-term substitutes in wealthy systems, poor systems, systems in North Alabama, systems in South Alabama, and systems of every racial make-up. Most, if not all, of these long term subs are not qualified to teach mathematics which leaves many of the students an academic year behind their peers. I have also identified another disturbing teacher trend that is impacting student learning. In the “hard-to-staff”, poor, rural areas of South Alabama, there appears to be a pool of ineffective, poorly trained mathematics teachers who rotate from school to school. Every year these teachers are released by their systems, move one county, city, or system over and get a new job. The lack of qualified, effective teachers to take their places ensures that these teachers will continue to teach many of our most vulnerable students.

All qualified students with disabilities living inside of the school district area are entitled to a “free and appropriate education”. To be appropriate the educational program must be designed to meet the individual needs of the student, as outlined in their IEP, to the same

Since my first day of grade school I have dreamt of becoming a teacher. It was not until my junior year of high school that my dream grew into a passion for wanting to teaching in an urban environment. During a field tip to a Chicago Public School, I observed that the students where clearly in an underfunded and disadvantaged environment compared to my own experience in school. The moment that I saw that teacher earning respect and influencing her students, it was obvious to me that these teachers were the most influential factor in the classroom. The teacher’s attitude and ability to influence was more important than any other resource.

I was born in a city with one of the nation’s worst public school systems. The District of Columbia Public School district has been under an education reform for the past decade and there has been a lot of work to bring justice to the students there. That is where I started – and from there I still found myself enrolled in low performing schools without a solid budget or plan. Regardless of the status of my school and the budget it’s district has created, I was able to graduate from high school and attend a four-year university in one of the most ethically diverse cities in our country. This is the kind of opportunity I want for all children that come from the city like me. I have been inspired by all of my educators to pursue a career in teaching and I am motivated to create this opportunity for all students in my classroom.

Another answer to the problem was described earlier, which is in the administration of school districts towards their less skilled, underperforming teachers. According to the report by Arne Duncan, “The Irreplaceables,” the rate at which teachers are leaving the field is the same for both high performing teachers and underperforming teachers. The percentage of the teaching population is similar between both sides of this, about 20% of teachers are considered high performing and 20% underperforming. While it may not be practical now to mandate that the school district become stricter on the performance of its teachers, if financial incentives are given to the high performing teachers, a larger population of them would stay and, possibly, a larger amount of them would come to the city of Detroit. If this were to happen, then it would suddenly be practical for Detroit to have its schools be stricter on underperforming teachers, producing a sort of snowballing effect of improvement on Detroit’s school system.

Teachers in these big urban schools don’t invest as much time into their students as small suburban schools do. The class sizes are big and the teachers can’t attend to every students needs so students start to fall behind. Falling too far behind, it begins to be too difficult for them to catch up and meet the academic requirements. As the Baltimore education documentary showed, some of the twelve year old boys still could not read, yet the teacher in the Baltimore school didn’t even know this because of how many students they have. Not only are the class sizes substantial, the working environment is neglected and despaired from previous years. The students destroy the schools throughout the years and because of budget cuts, the students are still being educated in these dilapidated, neglected schools. In suburban communities, people along with community members fund the schools and help out to make the school district excel. In urban cities it is harder to receive the funding because in most cases, the schools are surrounded by poverty. It is also problematic to attract quality teachers into these areas when they don’t have favorable work environments, the students are struggling with poor home conditions, and the pay isn’t adequate due to many budget cuts. Because of budget cuts, the schools have to cut more after-school activities, giving the students more reasons to not value school, misbehave, and not be

A second grade English Language Arts and Reading educator in the Seminole Independent School District was asked to partake in an interview about the disproportionality of African Americans students in special education programs. In the interest of confidentiality, the interviewee’s name will not be disclosed throughout this paper. To discuss questions surrounding the aforementioned topic, it was important to gather the educator’s experiences about special education programs in general. In her third year of teaching she taught in a self-contained classroom, where students had severe and profound disabilities. She quoted seven years of teaching experience, where she have taught general education co-teach classes and one inclusive class. She

American schools are continually growing more diverse. It is not an option to ignore the growing minority-majority populations found within the public school system. In an attempt to address the changing demographics, many schools are implementing cultural competency and responsiveness training for teachers. Most research, up to this point, has focused on teachers and the direct impact of cultural competency trainings in the classroom. Very little has focused on the administrators. We need better insight into the effect of teacher training. In many areas, including the Delta region of the country, are facing a major budget crisis. Rather than extending the cost of training teachers from outside agencies, the administrators are now in charge of training teachers. The trickle down approach needs to be studied and monitored, as funding restrictions are requiring districts to think more critically about programming and professional development. I would like to study the impact that cultural competency and responsiveness training for administrators, specifically, have on their school systems.

When the kids go to school, The quality of their teachers is the most important factor for how well the kids learn. Having good teachers is important for all kids, especially kids who are falling behind. Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, shows that those who are taught by a good teacher can make as much as a year and a half’s worth of progress in a single year. The kids will close the achievement gap. Also, they will catch up faster. But how do we know who is a good teacher? How do we find the best teachers, attract them to school? How do schools help teachers do the best job? How should they reward them? In fact, some schools are working on seeking and rewarding the best teachers. In addition, other schools are looking for better ways to evaluate teachers and help them enhance performance. For example, the Joyce Foundation supports

According to studies like those done by the Harvard Report, research has shown that high levels of teacher turnover negatively affects student achievement. There are additional studies like those done by the Teachers College Record, that indicate low teacher retention rates are often caused by poor working conditions within high-poverty schools. A school’s leadership, culture, and relationships within the school all affect working conditions and teacher satisfaction, which ultimately plays a role in teacher retention. Fortunately, these components are within the grasp of those working inside the schools and can be addressed without depending on changes by policymakers. Currently there are studies which show how

In impoverished neighborhoods, children’s quality of education is destitute. According to Morgan 2012, “Schools in economically disadvantaged areas in the US suffer from teachers who are underprepared and too often work in schools with poor working condition” (291).

My vision for high-quality education in urban schools is to strengthen the capacities of students to act progressively on their own behalf through the acquisition of relevant knowledge, useful skills, and appropriate attitudes. Complementary to this, I believe that a quality education is one that focuses on the whole child. This approach allows schools to integrate fully with their communities in order to access a wide range of services to support the educational development for their students. Equally important, is the need to ensure access to quality teachers, effective learning tools, and professional development opportunities. These factors contribute to the ability of faculty and staff to establish a safe, supportive learning environment

Between 40 and 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching. This low retention rate effects students as well as school districts in negative ways. Not only do teachers fail to act as a positive and consistent role model for students, but they also cost schools thousands of dollars. A recent study found that teacher “attrition that costs the United States up to $2.2 billion annually” (Amos). In addition to teachers leaving the profession, there are many who remain but are consistently absent. Teacher absenteeism adversely influences students because inattentive teachers fail to create and maintain meaningful relationships with their students. This issue is especially a problem in urban, low-income schools because many of the students do not have positive role models or steady relationships at home and the only adults they may count on are their teachers. Professionals in the education field are tackling this teacher drop-out issue. They have found that while most would think that teachers would ask for a higher paycheck, what the majority of them want is flexibility in order to allow them the power to decide how to teach their students. Teachers want to have a voice in their own classroom. In addition, researchers found that most schools lack a support system for first-year teachers. Carol McNulty found that administrators play a great

     One of the major concerns of inclusive education is the lack of training general education teachers have. Scruggs and Mastropieri (1996) found that ?Teachers need systematic, intensive training, either as part of their certification programs, as intensive and well-planned in-services, or as an ongoing process with consultants.? (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank & Smith, 2004, p.69). Many general education teachers have very little or no training in special education and are not offered it through their school system. General education teachers may know nothing about IEP?s and the meaning of accommodations and they may be unaware of how to implement a curriculum to include special needs students? individual accommodations. Teaching special needs students requires knowledge of how to adjust your curriculum to serve these students, without training

Countless surveys are completed each year with the primary goal of identifying why certain schools and school districts are failing. The common root causes, in no particular order, often include: lack of adequate funding, insufficient training and professional development opportunities for teachers and staff, lack of parent engagement, inequality due to discrimination or lack of monetary resources, and so on. All of the aforementioned causes represent legitimate cracks in the foundation of many educational systems across the United States and more specifically, in Philadelphia. So, how do we ensure we have enough funding for our schools? How do we build a school system that engages parents and build a sense of community and collaboration? These issues can be resolved by establishing a network of partners and community resources within schools to promote not only student achievement but also family and community well-being. One such model recently introduced to the Philadelphia School system is the Community School model. This initiative transform schools into community hubs, which are designed to offer programs and services based on the needs of each specific community. Many of the common educational pitfalls such as lack of funding or lack of resources at home, can be addressed by adopting and effectively implementing the Community School model holistically across the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Mayor, Jim Kenney, has declared a goal of creating 25