The Cabot School District Strives to Meet the Educational Needs of Every Student

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

The purpose for this intervention is to solve the racial tension between our students and make our schools safe for every individual despite their race, gender, age, or ethnicity. Although there are some routes that we can take to defuse some of the racial activities and behavior problems that are taking place in our school, the desire to change has to come from within each student. The goal is to promote diversity in our school and to help students, teachers, and our entire staff, regardless of their race, gender, age, or ethnicity to overcome this racial tension.

Growing up in the Portland-Metro area, I often heard about Portland Public School District, but only ever saw a Portland public high school when the football team I was a member of had an away game at Grant. I heard that Portland schools were rough, poor, and simply “not as good” as the suburban schools my friends and I attended. I grew up in the Beaverton School district went to Aloha high school – socially considered the “poor school” of the district and in fact the most ethnically diverse. * As a whole, the students of Aloha were distinguished as “others,” set apart from the more affluent and white high schools within our school district. Despite being labeled as “others,” there was an overarching social force that determined Aloha High still superior to any of the Portland Public schools. Now I have the chance to be a member of one of these Portland Public Schools that was constantly looked down upon as lesser by the kids within the Beaverton School District – and I love the opportunity.

Although demographics are excellent, there are still learning challenges that confronting the learning community. For example - 10 students and their families recently joined the school after migrating from overseas. These students and their families require a range of

Hazelwood School District is committed to providing an equitable education to our diverse learners with culturally responsive instruction. Through our commitment, we have formed a Strategic Diversity Planning team that consists of district and school administrators. The team reflected on the district mission, vision, student demographics, and performance data. Our extensive reflection revealed the need for improvement in educating each student. In response to the change in our student population and performance, the planning team volunteered countless hours of their time to create this Strategic Diversity Plan.

While construct 3 (14.1) is a good strong point administration continues to lack the promotion of school activities for students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds that make up construct 3 (14.5). This, in turn, falls back to the lack of diversity on the campus and the failure to acknowledge and embrace the little of it that exists. Bennett (2014), as cited by Madsen and Torres (2016), says, "If leaders are culturally competent, they will understand the complexity of cultural influences and its impact on the organization" (p.

Public schools across America face the daunting responsibility of providing a free and appropriate education for all students. Riehl (2000) examined the role of school administrators in responding to the myriad of needs within a diverse student population. Three particular administrative tasks were explored: cultivating new meanings and acceptance of diversity, nurturing inclusive school climates and instructional programs, and facilitating positive and productive relationships between schools and communities (Riehl,

representation from the district and from various schools to ensure a broad range of perspective during this collaboration. Consideration for

Our district has instituted a diversity committee that works with teachers and staff to promote

One of biggest things I gained from reading the chapters is that diversity has been and continues to be an issue in the public school setting. What can I do as a leader to enhance diversity in my school and what can I do to make the climate more multicultural? Those are questions that must be addressed and answered. As Koppelman (2014) states, “The challenge confronting us today is how to become multicultural individuals. In the teaching profession, that question will be answered by white-middle class individuals- primarily women” (p. 337). He is right. If the issue of multiculturalism is being addressed in schools by white middle class individuals, then they must take a stand in enacting and implementing a climate that promotes the goodness in all individuals and embraces the various cultures and beliefs that make up our students body. We also can’t look at it as something that is just race. We must teach the importance of understanding religion, people with disabilities, socioeconomic status, gender and sexual orientation.

Throughout this study and this semester, I have had the amazing opportunity to spend my time at Rockingham County High School. This school, as the name may suggest, is located in Rockingham County within the city of Reidsville, NC. There are an average of 1,160 students who are attending this school year. After a school demographics report for the year was released it was estimated that 82% of the school was primarily White/Caucasian, 13% African-American, and 5% of students fall into the category of other. This other category includes other ethnicities such as: Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islander, and Etc.

think anything of it. I grew up in Harrisburg, South Dakota and began kindergarten in 2004. From what I can remember there was little to no diversity, we all looked the same and everyone did the same things. Everyone who lived in Harrisburg either lived in the same housing development or in the country on a farm. I think this could have to be because at that time, Harrisburg was a relatively small town with one school that housed K-12. Now there is six elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school, there is also talk of one more elementary school, one middle school and one more high school being added on to the district. With growth undoubtably comes more diversity, which I believe is great for the school district to have. I don't think I really learned many ‘messages’ about diversity when I was younger. One thing that sticks out to me is my parents always told me to remember the ‘golden rule’— treat others how you want to be treated. I took that to heart and it became my life motto. I was never mean to people and I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. If a person doesn't give me a reason to be mean to them, I won’t.

When I first walked into Longfellow Elementary I did not think that it was very diverse. However, Mrs. Cota informed me that Longfellow is indeed diverse. The school is a mix of cultures and races. The school is an estimate of 45 percent Caucasian, 10 percent African American, 35 percent Hispanic and 10 percent other. With such a mix of cultures in the school it is important for students and their families to feel comfortable, safe and accepted in the classroom and school environment. The world is becoming more and more diverse therefore classrooms and schools are also becoming more and more diverse. “Students of color now constitute approximately 40 percent of all students enrolled in public schools, and this population is expected to grow considerably in the coming years” (Cooper, 2011, p. 189). With this said Each child and family needs to feel a sense of belongingness, regardless of the commonalities and differences that exist between them and others in the group. Students need to feel like they can be themselves at

Schools within the United States are progressively becoming more culturally diverse. Because of this, it is critical that educators and school personnel are aware of the difficulties and types of support individual students from diverse cultural backgrounds may need. Research has shown that minority groups are

More than ten years ago, I began my career as an educator in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland; a suburban area of limited cultural or ethnical diversity. A few years later I, transitioned to Anne Arundel County, Maryland where I worked at a Title I school in Annapolis, this school was an urban suburban school with more cultural, ethnical, and social economical diversity. Currently, I work in Prince George’s County, Maryland, at an urban school located in Hyattsville, with a large amount of cultural and ethnical diversity. Each school was different in so many ways, I found it easy to adapt to the different population with a similar level of enthusiasm, never losing sight of my reason for being an educator, to educate young people to become productive, successful, contributing members of a global society.