Florence School Mission Statement

I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.

The Hispanic population is one of the fastest-growing minority populations in the United States. Despite their growing number and the great strides taken to narrow the academic gap, students learning English as a second language remain among the most educationally disadvantaged groups in the country. Madrid states that, “poor academic achievement of Latino students is indicative of a complex, multifaceted problem that must be addressed because as the Latino student population continues to grow, their poor achievement especially in mathematics and reading has significant implications not only for California’s public educational system, but also for the state’s and nation’s social, political, and economic future.”(2011). Schools across the country, both those that have served Hispanic students for many years and those that have new and growing populations, must take steps to improve the likelihood that Hispanic students reach the same high standards expected of all students.

Villegas suggests six qualities leaders should implement to respond effectively to the increase of diverse populations. First, teachers must understand how learners construct knowledge. The best ways teachers can achieve this concept is by helping these students bridge the gaps in what they already know about a topic and what they need to learn about it. Next, the teacher should learn about the students’ lives. When teachers know the cultural makeup of their students they can assess their prior knowledge of a subject. Teachers must also be socioculturally conscious, meaning the awareness that a person 's worldview is not universal but is profoundly influenced by life experiences, as mediated by a variety of factors, including race, ethnicity, gender, and social class (Villegas & Lucas, 2007). Many teachers see students of diverse cultures as not being able to achieve. Villegas (2007) suggests teachers should see students from an affirming perspective and truly respect cultural differences. If teachers can set their differences aside their students will have better ways to communicate and succeed. It is important for teachers to use appropriate instructional strategies to help English language learners. They can give these students with material in their native language, provide graphic organizers, and hands on activities to help assist these students. Lastly, teachers need to advocate for these

Under certain circumstances, each school district has diverse needs that their students have. Although, I believe that we can create a general idea of what schools can do to closing the opportunity gap among the school districts. In the San Francisco School District, they have more than 6 out of 10 public school students who are from low income families. So, to change their situation, they want to implement a plan called Vision2025 to start closing the opportunity gap. In their plan they are committing to improve education in the early years(pre-k-third), start investing more in low-performing and low-income neighborhoods using research-based reforms, and starting to do more professional training for teachers and principals as graduation expectations arise and they start implementing new common core standards (HAAS Jr, 2015). Simply by having these expectations as a whole school district no matter how big the community is, schools will start seeing a change in their

This past week I implemented a five day Social Studies/ELA unit that incorporated reading, writing, vocabulary, whole and small group and centers activities. The unit was designed to comprehend ways in which diversity influenced reading and writing in my students. Furthermore, it provided differentiated instruction and instructional materials to meet the needs of my struggling students and ELL students. Creating this lesson was truly enjoyable. As a third grade

The development and implementation of a culturally relevant teaching and learning pedagogy is essential for the academic growth and success of our diverse student populations. Educational leaders must be able to embrace a school culture that reflects the students, in order to engage students through culturally relevant teaching and learning experiences. For the implementation of a culturally relevant teaching and learning pedagogy, administration must engage the faculty and staff to reduce learning gains among subgroups of students. Purposeful, genuine, and engaging professional development created by administrative, instructional, and educational leaders will be utilized to establish intrinsic investment by the instructional staff to reduce performance and achievement gaps between subgroups of students within the learning environment.

This report will discuss the common core and state standards for the state of Alabama. Education itself is like an ornament and should be displayed bold and beautifully. The soul purpose of having a strong education system Is not only to make sure subjects are being taught, but to also make sure they also being performed. Much has been made and said over the years about the importance of a child education and making sure school systems are following the proper guidelines. By having strong educators, school districts, and administrators that follow the state rules and standards it raises the expectations for all. The Common Core is a state‐led effort that is not part of No Child Left Behind or any other federal initiative (2017 Common

ELCC 1.2. Standard Element ELCC 1.2 addresses collecting and analyzing data to improve and achieve academic goals outlined by the district. ELCC 1.2 is a culmination of assigned readings and internship activities. The internship activities were Organizational Effectiveness, Field Project-Issue Impacting Learning, Effective Schools Project, School Board Activity, Field Experience Project, and Diversity Plan Outline. These activities refined my critical and analytical thinking skills, which enabled me to understand in-depth the analysis of major issues in schools: 1) data design; 2) collection of data; 3) understanding assessment of data; 4) organizational effectiveness and how it effects student achievement.

There can be many challenges involved when it comes to ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for culturally diverse children in the classroom. Teachers are beginning to have students with a more culturally diverse background. Trying to meet the needs of each student can become challenging; however, it is the teacher’s responsibility to effectively teach a class that has culturally diversity in it. Diverse individuals commonly find themselves challenged with trying to understand a different language and also with the new way of learning and living that they have yet to understand and accept. The three practices that stand out to me the most to promote or obstruct equal access to learning are: creating a physical setting that supports academic and social goals, establishing and maintaining expectations for behavior, and working with families.

In an attempt to address the previous school closure policy, Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Fariña developed a new initiative the School Renewal Program (SRP) (City of New York). This initiative hopes to counteract previous policy approaches geared at increasing student outcomes by restructuring current school models to increase student outcomes (City of New York - Pledging Strong Schools). Additionally, the program model is reflective of the Chancellor 's vision for NYC schools: Framework for Great Schools, which encourages collaborative efforts between “parents, educators, school communities and external stakeholders” to improve student achievement (“Framework for Great Schools: Vision”). This framework for improved student achievement consists of six research-based elements: “effective school leadership, collaborative teachers, rigorous instruction, supportive environment, strong family community ties, and trust” (“Framework for Great Schools: Vision”).

At Carthage High School there are two very distinct categories that students are a part of: “Hispanic” and “everyone else”. Over the past decade the school district has seen a dramatic increase in the number of Hispanic students that are being enrolled in our district. There have been numerous attempts to help meet the needs of our Hispanic students, most of them are English Language Learners (ELL), and while there has been progress made, there is much more that our school could be doing for these students. Data from state test results and annual yearly reporting (AYP) show our minority students are making progress but still fall significantly behind the non-ELL peers. Teachers are the key to seeing our Hispanic students achieve higher rates of success because they have the largest effect on the daily motivation and learning of these students in the classroom. Using interviews, observations, and artifacts produced by students my action research plan will show successful methods being used in the classroom and which methods are not helping to achieve the desired results for our students. My action research plan will also help bring to light the social issues that are being dealt with in our school and building as a direct result of the influx of diversity in our community and school. Our school is trying to aid in this area by introducing programs aimed at helping bridge the gap between the diverse cultures in our community. These programs will be reviewed to see if

Over the past decade multicultural demands at educational institutions have increased, with over 6.3 million students having English as their second language and 13 million students living in poverty (Assaf, Garza & Battle, 2010). This has caused educators working in kindergarten through 12th grade to assess their teaching styles, bringing culture to the forefront of the classroom.

When researching for a suitable rubric, Julie selected a simple one that was similar to the formatting of a rubric she used several years ago. With her present students in mind, she felt that the rubric could be adapted to students performing below grade level, at grade level and above grade level. Also, this rubric was one that she and Jamie, co-teachers in the classroom, as well as classmates in this graduate class, collected over the summer for possible use during the school year in their 6th grade ELA inclusion class. It was also chosen for its simplicity in language that her students need.

When it comes to the development of our Learning Community, our primary concern was diversity. When we visited Hunt Middle School, the biggest thing that stood out to me was the cultural diversity of the school. Students were often English language learners and teachers had to be extremely conscious of that. At the same time, Ms. Hickey, the teacher who talked with us,

Based on the table above, it is evident that African-American (AA) students at Mitchell Boulevard Elementary School (ES) are not meeting the passing standards in the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). According to the school’s Texas Academic Performance Report, AA students make up approximately 57% of the student population at Mitchell Boulevard. This data signifies that more than half of the students in this school are in need of quality instruction and intervention programs to foster their academic and social needs. As the principal of Mitchell Boulevard, I would focus on the following goals to achieve optimal student performance on the STAAR test and beyond: a) Increase in reading and math comprehension, fluency,