The Importance Of Instructional Improvements In College

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.

First, by developing professional learning communities, HSHS primary goal is to establish an organizational culture of shared commitment to academic excellence and exemplary behavior for all students. As evident, in Document 1. Excerpt from Teacher Survey (see attached) revealed that 30% of the ELA Teachers and 37% of the Math and Science Teachers “My academy receives necessary professional development.” In addition, Document 1. Excerpt from Teacher Survey revealed that 38% of the ELA Teachers and 42% of the Math and Science Teachers said, “I feel safe at the school.” Moreover, Document 2. Excerpt from Parent Survey revealed that 68% of the Latino (ethnic) agreeing or strongly agreeing and 87% of the Black (ethnic) agreeing or strongly

2. After reviewing data table 2, the populations that I chose to compare are black, Latino/Hispanic, and IEP. The black population has a mathematics proficiency of 69% and a reading proficiency of 77%, both are below target goal. The Latino/Hispanic population has a mathematics proficiency of 79% and a reading proficiency of 83%. Both are 1% and 2% above the target goal, respectively. The IEP population has a mathematics proficiency of 54% and a reading proficiency of 55%, which are very much below the target goal. I would be the most concerned with the IEP population because it has the largest number of students are below target in both mathematics and reading. There were 432 students that took the mathematics test and 47% or 199

There are many different levels of professional need and growth, especially in the area of ELA which is the basis for all academics. Some people need training on the basics of running a classroom. Many educators still view diverse learners as already having deficits, which is not necessarily true. Others need more time on analysis, co-teaching, collaboration with others, how to identify students with needs or gaps in their learning. Questions that I have asked is: How do you increase achievement with children living in poverty? How do we use current data to close gaps these gaps? If you want to close the socioeconomic achievement gap in your school, what is my first step? Teachers need to learn about diversity. We need to learn about classroom strategies and how to give all students the opportunity to learn. Believe it or not, we need to learn about how to reflect on our teaching, something that was done almost daily during our internships. We need to understand the reasons for achievement gaps, not just what it looks like. Professional development is designed to provide additional support for teachers, both new and seasoned. If the quality

As a leader in urban education, working in under-served communities, I found that KIPP strategies worked! A highly functional learning community is an energizing place for teachers. I share KIPP’s belief that all students can and will learn, and with continued supportive guidance will succeed in life. In my current program, success and growth are the expectation with 100% of 5th graders receiving academic awards annually, and K-2 students growing five levels on the Fountas & Pinnell system during camp. These achievements are the shared results of teacher commitment and student grit.

During orientation in my second year of Teach for America, my school district presented graphs and figures boasting improved standardized test performance and graduation rates. Teachers began cheering and patting each other on the back. Meanwhile, I squinted at the PowerPoint slide, trying to make sense of a glaring error in the bar graph displayed. If such an obvious mistake was overlooked, how could these results be trusted? For that matter, was the data responsibly collected? Information about student performance was too important to be handled haphazardly. I sensed that the results were not being diligently communicated to us; yet, I was unable to pinpoint how to improve the presentation. In that moment, I knew I needed to learn more statistics. The following spring while still teaching full-time, I took an elementary statistics course. I enjoyed it so much, I decided take more mathematics courses. Finally after years of searching, I found my true love: mathematics and statistics.

There is a persistent achievement gap that has continually taken place within the educational system that needs to be secured. The National Center For Educational Statistics indicates, “gaps appear when one group of students out performs another group and there is a statistical difference in scores” (NEA, 2014). There is statistical evidence exhibiting gaps in performance between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts in math and reading. Efforts to reach equivalence should start at home during early childhood and continue throughout the high school years (NCES, 2011).

Today, Florence School District is experiencing growth and academic achievement. This is especially true in low achieving and minority groups where the district has received state recognition for academic improvement. Likewise, the district is having great success in minority subgroups particularly in African Americans and Hispanics in the realm of HSAP. However, the districts needs to have an increase in SAT and ACT scores, and increase in AP/IB exams scores. Additionally, the district needs to increase the four year graduation rate above the state average, and from below the state average. Furthermore, the district needs to see 50% of African American males meet or exceed the English Language Arts and Math state testing scores. With that in mind, the district can create new Math and English curriculum; which reflects

In any school, student learning is the ultimate goal and the focus of an effective learning community. In today’s society, the education system is called upon to teach all students at high levels. It has been established through significant research that teachers have a high impact on student learning, according to the RAND Corporation, “research suggests that, among school-related factors, teachers matter most. When it comes to student performance on reading and math tests, a teacher is estimated to have two to three times the impact of any other school factor, including services, facilities, and even leadership.”

The long-term goal is to significantly close the achievement gap of marginalized student from non-marginalized students by correlating research-based results to instructional practice within a five-year timeframe.

“Educators have known for quite some time that building a collaborative culture in which people work together interdependently to fulfill their shared purpose and achieve their common goals is an essential strategy for sustained school improvement,” (DuFour & DuFour, 2008, p. 173). ISLLC Standard 1, working toward a shared vision is an exemplified in this process; and Sorenson & Goldsmith note that encouraging people to collaborate is a one of the ten most wanted strategies for school a positive school culture (p.

The second iteration of the LTBI Project was situated in a Southeastern United States school in which 71% of the students are categorized economically disadvantaged. This racially diverse student population and their teachers were navigating their very first year of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and English-Language Arts during the yearlong professional development. The professional development format consisted of a 30 hour summer institute that spanned 4 days, monthly meetings during the school year that totaled 24 hours, and 1 full day meeting at the end of the school year. Professional development activities aimed to engage participants in Professional Learning Tasks (PLTs) that provided opportunities to attend to pedagogical

Grades cause students from various schools to look almost identical on paper. Two students may both receive high marks in a particular class, but if the student are from different schools from different financial regions, further analysis can prove that these students are not of the same level of academic ability. The National Assessment of Educational Progress is test to measure the abilities of student in the same grades from various regions. An analysis of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress by the New America Foundation shows that “a higher percentage of 4th graders in the Northeastern United States and the Midwest scored proficient or above in math on NAEP than in the South and the West” (4th Grade Math). Although students in the Northeast and Midwest scored better on the exam, students from the South and West may have received the same grades as the students in the other regions. The sense of achievement that students from poorer regions receive from their grades is disappear since the results of standardized test show how these students actually compare with other students. This harsh reality becomes part of a continuing cycle as elementary students move on to secondary

As the stakes of student performance on standardized assessment increase, the need to accurately predict student performance and focus directed instruction become imperative. New Chapter Four regulations of the Pennsylvania School Code mandate that beginning with the class of 2017, all students demonstrate proficiency in Algebra I, literature, and biology (Academic Standards and Assessment, 2014).

Current nationwide examination outcomes offer continuing paperwork of the should enhance the concentrate on enhancing student accomplishment in mathematics. The National Evaluation of Educational Development (NAEP) just recently launched the 2005 mathematics ratings which mirrored student accomplishment in the locations of dimension, geometry, information analysis, likelihood and algebra. Country wide, just 30 % of 8th graders were considered competent. Although mirroring a boost from previous evaluations, just 69 % of the 8th graders country wide showed a standard abilities level on the NAEP evaluation (Olson, 2005).