Case Study: Burton Elementary School

Busch Middle School of Character had a wonderful sense of community, each student, instructor, and family, made sure they were doing their part. I believe it’s important for educators to understand the needs of the families and community of their students because the more resources the better. When schools actively involve parents

Understanding the importance of a family-school partnership is essential in order for school districts and families with children to grow and strive. If an imbalance occurs within any of the various parts that play a key role, difficulties will rise to the surface. Several of these roles include: communication, decision making, volunteering, and learning and parenting at home. All of these factors must work together in order to create a successful school environment in which children are able to learn and strive. When a school is successful in fulfilling each of these roles, there are several benefits. These benefits include: better positive attitudes toward school, higher achievements, better attendance, higher graduation rates, an increase in enrollment rates in post-secondary education, and overall better schools to attend (University of West Virginia).

The participants selected for this study will consist of both male and females 18 years or older. Specific ethic background is not a criterion in participant selection, therefore will not play a role in participant recruitment. Only individuals who have worked in or with the informal class reassignment program at Carmack Elementary will be selected to participate in this study. Carmack Elementary is a public elementary school, which is part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District. The San Bernardino City Unified School District is identified as a large public school district and is located within Southern California. Participants selected for this study will consist of special education teachers and special education school personnel.

Burton Elementary is a kindergarten through fifth grade school which has been open since 1970 with a current student population of 452. Burton obtains students from the surrounding neighborhood and houses two special education classes that acquires children from all over the district.

Rancho Minerva Middle School (RMMS) is located in the rural area within the Vista Unified School District (VUSD). A major issue occurring at RMMS is corresponding to sixth to eighth grade male students being recipients of ineffective punishments as a result of their disruptive behavior. Students’ disruptive behavior refers to those who engage in altercations, disrupt teachers during instruction time, and become involved in substance use. The ramifications for students with disruptive behaviors are followed by disciplinary approaches such as expulsions, suspensions, Saturday school, and after school detention. Such approach has resulted in students achieving lower academics which can also increase the chances of engaging in risky behavior outside the school. According to RMMS School Accountability Report Card (SARC), in the 2014-2015 school year, RMMS reported 10.4% suspensions which demonstrated to be higher than the previous years. Additional factors that have had an effect on suspension rates are the limited in house services provided to this particular population at RMMS. Though RMMS does not have an appointed mental health provider or personnel to assist with mental health support on site, students are granted the opportunity to be referred to outside providers/therapist for counseling services. However, this has been a major limitation for our

Northwood’s inferiority to the other schools creates the need for change. Highwood, a small town next to Highland Park with a large Hispanic population, sends all 6th-8th grade students to only Northwood. Therefore, Northwood’s Hispanic population rises exponentially as compared to Edgewood and Elm place (41%, 6%, 11% respectfully). In addition, Northwood shares its estate with a large elementary school, hindering Northwoods further development. As a solution, Northwood decided to build “mobile classrooms” to accommodate the extra student's enrollment. Unlike the other school's continual development and enhancement, Northwood is just a single floor square with a few outdoor classrooms. This type of

Due to the fact that I am currently majoring in Elementary Education I thought it would be interesting and relevant to my major to attend a school board meeting for Clark County School District. General school board meetings are held regularly two times per month and the public is encouraged to attend and can even sign up to speak on any issue scheduled for the night. Attending this meeting was a little confusing at the beginning because some of the items on the agenda were issues that had been previously discussed at earlier meetings and were just being reviewed or quickly affirmed by the board members. Though most of the agenda issues were unfamiliar to me as a member of the public, there was printed information and background packets available before entering the meeting that helped give some idea of what the meeting would consist of and the research and information behind each agenda item. Overall, the meeting was very orderly and generous time was given to any person that signed up to speak on an item.

A great strategy for collaborating with the community is for the school to have a community day. Partners from around the community introduce themselves and provide information and assistance regarding academic, social, recreational, and health resources available to the families throughout the community. Community collaboration allows local businesses and nonprofit organizations to provide services to parents that advance student learning and overall wellness. Schools should invite community partners into the schools to participate in mentoring. Community service is a great strategy to foster student and parent participation. Providing support and learning opportunities for parents such as: GED classes, English language classes, and job training is a great strategy for collaboration with community partners. Parents and the communities should be made aware of activities and programs taking place inside of

Carolina Forest High School is located in the Carolina Forest area of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at 700 Gardner Lacy Highway. According to the US News and World Reports data on this High School, there are currently 2,066 students in attendance, with 102 full time teachers for a teacher to student ratio of 20:1. 72% of the student body at Carolina Forest High School is identified as White, 15% as Black, 2% Asian, 7% Hispanic, and 4% as multiracial. With a total of 24% of students belonging to an ethnic minority group, there is a multicultural presence felt in the school. Also provided by the US News and World Report is data on the economic situation of students who attend Carolina Forest High School. 37% of students who attend are currently

Roxboro Community School is a college preparatory school, it’s main focus is to ready you for the outside world. Here, we are given harder assignments in a short period of time to ready us for college level work. We have many Advanced Placement course in which we can take. Technology also plays a large role in my educational experience. We started learning how to type in second grade, making it easier to accomplish larger tasks later on in life. Tests on paper have mostly been replaced with tests on a computer. All of our research mostly comes from the internet rather than books. For two weeks, I studied abroad in Oviedo, Spain spring break of my junior year. Although it was not a long period of time I still got to experience the world, meet

Timberlane Middle School is located in the town of Pennington, New Jersey. It is one of six school in the Hopewell Valley Regional school district and is the only middle school. The school district is highly supportive of the arts and funds many extra curricular music programs such as marching band, winter colorguard, indoor percussion, and jazz band. The school directly located across from the Central High School, allowing for both schools to collaborate in multiple projects. For example, many 8th grade middle school students are allowed to join the extra curricular music programs offered at the high school. In addition, this allows me and my cooperating teacher to travel during the day from the high school, where my main student teaching

There must be excellent forms of communication in order to have effective parental involvement. Herndon High School has numerous resources that have been utilized to inform parents regarding their children or used to get parents involved with the school. When teachers want parental involvement, they have the capability of sending progress report via e-mail. Additionally, twice yearly there were “Touch Base”. Touch base was an opportunity for teachers to have mini conferences, no more than three minutes, early in the morning. In additional to using newsletters, e-mail, the telephone, mailing letters and progress reports, the school website’s is a valuable resource and has a wealth of information for parent to be involve with different activities.

My focus this month is for all families to actively participate in their child’s education both in and out of school. Presently, I am planning to prioritize the role of families in schools this year by expanding parent and family engagement in the Castle Hill School District. When schools come together with families within the community to support our children’s education, research suggests that this increases the success rate of children in schools. In response to findings within our school district that were identified last

Every place has it’s own unique story to tell. A building constructed in 1899, and owned by JA Long, “the father of Roxboro business” operated as the Roxboro Cotton Mill for decades and is now Roxboro Community School (RCS). Chartered in 2006, RCS has undergone four stages of renovations. A former mill that transitioned into a middle and high school--RCS is a place that stays true to it’s vision.

I worked at a preschool when I was 18 and I saw first hand the involvement from parents, volunteers, and the community. One example I have seen first hand the school had a sign-up sheet for parents to help out in the classrooms, whether it be a holiday party or another special event. We also had the police department and fire department come by and talk about safety, during our safety week. The police officers would talk about how to dial 911 and what they will need to know information wise for the person on the phone, for example their first and last name, what is wrong, who is hurt or who the call is for, the persons first and last name, as well as their address. They practiced situations that could happen and practiced the phone calls. The