Peo Reflection

Building relationships, developing leadership, and focusing on our school as a community will create an environment where students are building a future for themselves. By looking at what worked in the past while also looking at the future, our school community is more likely to be able to come together to create the school that our students truly need. As a school principal, I am dedicating myself to improving the educational experiences of my students and staff. I will constantly work to build a successful school community through collaboration, hard work, and

We have to provide multiple opportunities for students to grow and learn. We need to be a culturally diverse school district that accepts everyone and encourages a pluralistic culture. We need to work together with our

One of the larger changes in our workforce is that the employee population is becoming more and more diverse. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the workforce in 2014 was made up primarily by Caucasians coming in at 79%. African Americans, Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and race list as “other” made up the additional working population (BLS Reports, 2014). Although when looking these different races individually you wouldn’t think that they are a large part of the population. But when you are talking about 21% of our workforce, that is a large number. Looking at the number of people by race actually work is also very interesting. Native Hawaiian 70%, Pacific Islanders 66%, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians 64.6%, Caucasians 63.5% , 63.3% of people descending from two or more races, African Americans 61.2%, and American Indian and Alaska Natives 59.6% (BLS Reports, 2014). Over the last three years our school as went from being a primarily caucasian school to a school with a diverse population. I believe this has made our school strong and offered more of an opportunity for the students and staff to emerge and understand the diverse culture we have all around us. Understand and teaching our students will make a student population that will themselves be more knowledgeable and understanding of the

The new Martin Luther King Pilot School will have a high morale. The teachers will work together cooperatively to ensure that the students reach their full potential of success. A panel of well diverse teachers will serve along side of administrators and principal. The teachers and administrators will work cohesively to sear for a principal that will match the vision of the school. The school will include the parents on the selection of the principal by hosting a town meeting to ensure that the parents voices are heard and their vison of a principal is also shared. The principal shall be an individual who is culturally knowledgeable, diverse, strong, patient, open-minded, possess strong leadership skills. The principal will be able to lead by example.

This will allow for dialogue between faculty, staff, and myself as the administrator. I am currently working as an elementary school aide to prepare for what I need in order to be successful as a school administrator since most duties are non-professional. A successful operation of an educational institution requires a competent administrator, such as one who can lead in teaching and learning, take responsibility for school success, develop and retain excellent teachers, and build a strong school community. Leadership plays a critical part in the realization of effective schools, seeing the vision of the school, and articulates the goals. Leadership is a trait I use daily working with people getting things done by modeling behaviors and inspiring action.

As a leader I envision my school as one where students and teachers come to a place they enjoy entering each day. All share the focus of the school, the belief that all students can become high achievers. Staff is centered on student achievement; no matter what academic level that all students face coming into the classroom. All staff will understand that all children are teachable, even those with learning issues.

The message that I wish to convey to the parents of Hardin Elementary School here in Burkburnett Texas is what our PTO does for the teachers, students, and other parents. I want to make sure that parents know what we do, why we do it, and how they can help out as well. I feel as if most parents think that there is only a small group of parents that help and that is it, no one else can help. This is not the case. The PTO board may be a small group but PTO as a whole can include everyone. I wish to show the parents everything that we are involved in, in hopes of capturing their attention and getting them involved.

This perspective, at first glance, can be seen as appropriate but a closer examination reveals several weaknesses to this perspective. Principal Foster is a white female elementary principal at a suburban school district. Foster describes her school as being a “fairly homogenous group of students, but I would say we do have some racial diversity. I’d say maybe our African-American population for a suburban area might be a little larger than some other schools around this area.” Here, principal Foster reveals that compared to other suburban school district’s her school has a great proportion of black

While shadowing at Ridge Elementary School, I noticed that some of the students seemed to be on different social-emotional scale levels. Some were natural born leaders and some were not which is okay. The natural born leaders would take charge of group assignments and the other children had no problem being a follower. Either way, the assignments that they had got done every time. I perceived almost immediately that an excess amount of the school’s students fell under three complexions. The three were mostly Hispanic, moderate Black/African descent, and few Caucasian. Since the school was mostly Hispanic this lead to the school has a lot of concentration on reading improvement clubs, in other words, bilingual education program which could be a great benefit for students who need the extra assistance. Taking a glance at the religious diversity in the classroom there were hard if any no visible religious diversities. Due to the majority of the school is the same ethnicity I am making an assumption the culture practiced the same religion which is why there is a lack of diversity in that area. More diversity should be added to this school district I believe the most impactful, and teachable moments are derived from a fellow diverse

America’s schools are challenged to meet the academic and interpersonal needs of all students regardless of culture, race, or ethnic background. Hawley and Nieto (2010) claim that race and ethnicity significantly impacts students’ learning in their article, “Another Inconvenient Truth: Race and Ethnicity” (p. 66). They contended that educators should be “race and ethnicity -responsive” to effectively understand the challenges students from diverse races and cultures face (Hawley & Nieto, 2010, p. 66). Moreover, the article noted that schools should have practices in place that promote an inclusive, supportive, and enriching learning environment for all students including students from different races and ethnicities.

Equal access to educational opportunities for all students was a primary goal of education reforms during the time of the Civil Rights Movement and it still remains a problem today. Today, we are focused on a broader range of ethnic groups and in a higher goal than simply “letting people in,” we ask questions about how to create educational institutions that serve all students equally well ("50 Years After Brown v. Board of Education: The Promise and Challenge of Multicultural Education"). In 1954 we did not ask whether schools’ would welcome and nurture students of color or whether the schools would adjust to a curriculum that made equal sense to all groups. Today, we ask such questions. Research shows that multicultural education and curriculum

Their vision statement is to prepare all students to meet the academic, creative, and social challenges and responsibilities of our society. Their mission statement is to provide the students with learning environments that are safe and conducive to learning, and to embrace school and community partnership. The core values and beliefs of the school is that every individual is entitled to an emotionally and physically safe and respectful learning environment. Schools that stimulate progress will produce students who will become great critical thinkers and problem

One hundred years ago, people did not leave their hometown, much less move their families into multicultural neighborhoods filled with diverse children from all over the planet. However, that is changing. With a more globalized world, minorities are finally represented throughout the country, and diversity is becoming more important than ever. In schools, some has been done to address this drastic reduction in prejudice and increase in opportunities. While completely integrating diversity into classrooms is a challenge due to differences in cultural behavior, and misconceived notions of diversity education, there are many studies which are benefiting multiculturalism and strategies created by these programs to create a truly

Essential to the work of school administrators and other school leaders is the support of diversity, equity and accessibility within a school’s culture. In order to do so, they must set the tone for how to consider diversity, equity and accessibility with faculty, students, parents, school stakeholders and themselves. Throughout this course, Diverse Learners, our learning has focused on conducting and applying research as it relates to the education of diverse learners. In this reflection, I will discuss what I have learned about diversity and student achievement.