XYZ School District: Case Study

The first clause of the first amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (“First Amendment” 1). In Santa Fe, Texas, a student “chaplain” was elected by his or her classmates to give pre-game prayers at high school home football games over the school’s public address system. Several students sued, arguing that such solemnizing statements or prayers constituted an endorsement of religion, violating the Establishment Clause of the first amendment. The district countered that the pre-game invocations were a long-standing tradition in Texas communities, and because the prayer came from

Communication within the Westside School District No. 5 between the school district and the communities and families that it serves is a very dynamic process. I talked with district administrators, community members, researched pertinent information in the Arkansas State University library, and various governmental online sources and found very helpful information to include in this sociological inventory. Westside Consolidated School District No. 5 is a consolidation of primarily three school districts Bono, Cash and Egypt located in Craighead County, Arkansas in 1966 (Westside, 2017). The district also includes parts of Walnut Ridge and Alicia in Lawrence County and parts of Jonesboro in Craighead County. The district has three school buildings housing students from pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade. The elementary school is the school for

Prosper, Texas is one of the last additions to Collin County and has a current population of over 12,000 residents (Minor, 2010). Prosper’s establishment came about from the merging of two farming settlements in 1902, however the city’s name was not incorporated until 1914 (“History”, n.d.; Minor, 2010). According to the city’s webpage, Prosper is committed to being family-oriented and providing every resident an opportunity to experience quality living while maintaining small town ideals (“About Prosper”, n.d.). The Prosper Independent School District’s (PISD) vision to “reach everyone, everyday” (“REACH Philosophy / REACH”, 2002) mirrors the town’s belief in including everyone. Despite the exceptional growth within the city over the past few years, the school district is determined to meet the needs of its student population. One way in which PISD plans to ensure all of its students receive an equitable education, is through its adoption and implementation of the Response to Intervention (RtI) program.

Clay Country Schools are located in the southwest corner of North Carolina. The school district is currently the only that serves the county providing all grade levels, Pre-K through 12th Grade located on one campus. The campus consists of Hayesville Elementary School, Hayesville Middle School, and Hayesville High School. Historically Clay County Schools has not always been the only public school system to serve the county. Below is a case study of the history of the schools in Clay County and the demographic and fiscal characteristics of the current school system along with statewide comparisons and a recent North Carolina school lawsuit.

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.

Payette School District is located in Payette, Idaho and was founded in 1885. Payette is a small town in Idaho right next to the Oregon border with about 7,430 residents. The school district is employing 77 teachers and has a total staff of 81. With around 1,617 students, the schools, in total, currently have a 21:1 student to teacher ratio.

Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) is the largest school district in Southern Arizona and the second largest in the state. It spans across the city of Tucson and is comprised of 56 elementary schools, 14 K-8 schools, 10 middle schools, 1 K-12 school, 11 High Schools and 3 alternative schools. TUSD prides itself on being able to deliver a variety of educational experiences at different sites for the 49,000 students it serves. Families are encouraged to choose schools that offer the learning opportunities to meet the needs of their children. The families that reside in TUSD are from varied socio-economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. 15% of the student population is enrolled in exceptional educational services. Two years ago a new

Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is Maryland’s second largest school system, educating about 130,000 students yearly and employing about 19,000 people. The system has an annual budget of around 1.8 billion dollars and operates over 200 facilities where a wide range of academic and specialty programs are offered the families it serves.

Polk county school district is the eighth largest in Florida and the thirteenth in the country. There are more than one hundred and fifty public school and more than one hundred thousand students. This makes Polk county the largest employer of over thirteen thousand employees. Polk county has a large diversity of students including “43.9 percent white, 20.7 percent black, 30.2 percent Hispanic, 1.6 percent Asian, 0.5 percent American Indian or Alaskan Native, 3 percent two or more races and 0.1 percent native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. There are more than 10,600 students whose primary language is other than

I performed my field experience at Chiefland Elementary. Chiefland is a very small town with the population of six thousand. There are over eight hundred students enrolled at Chiefland Elementary. There are fifty-two instructional staff members and two administers. In those fifty-two staff members, there is one African American teacher and one male teacher; the rest are women. This is a white dominate school. In the school there is 73% Caucasian students, 17% African American students, and 4% Hispanic students. There is only 3% of students that are ESOL and 5% are Gifted and Talented. This semester we learned that in small areas and with low income schools, there are more Hispanics and African American people. In this case, Chiefland Elementary

As a Middle School Coordinator at Roxby Downs Area School (RDAS) I have focused my research on creating an effective implementation plan to support RDAS with a pedagogical approach to project based learning (PBL) in the middle school years. This approach aims to better support students in their senior schooling. As the senior school currently aim to promote an adult learning environment which will incorporate project days, I have focused my direction on preparing students for this environment that will also assist in the development of 21st century learning. The implementation plan details the actions necessary to support the school in implementing and sustaining a PBL approach which serves as one of the key instructional methodologies to support the targeted middle school priorities identified in the school

Saginaw Public School District, located in Saginaw Michigan is the urban school district of Saginaw, Michigan. The district has approximately 7,500 students and operates 15 schools which include, 10 elementary schools, 1 middle school and 3 high schools. Over the past 10 years there has been a drastic decrease in student enrollment. The main cause of the decrease in enrollment include Michigan’s failing economy. The closing of automobile factories has resulted in a huge decrease in the city of Saginaw’s populations. During the past 10 years there has also been closing of many schools in the Saginaw Public School District. The district is also operating in a deficit and has been required by the state of Michigan to decide a plan to eliminate

The case I chose was one that took place in Houston, TX, in the Houston Independent School District. I chose it because Houston is where I was born and grew up, and I wanted to use a case that felt close to home for me. This case was about a student who, throughout the course of about two years, displayed several signs of aggression, defiance, and general misbehavior both in class and at home. The misbehaviors ranged from “pestering and irritating” his/her siblings at home, throwing tantrums, and becoming easily upset or angered. The student also led a lonely life, both in class and school, expressing dislike and resentment towards siblings and other family members, as well as stating that student “feels student has no friends.” In class, the

I strongly disagree with the decision of my school board, Dickenson County School Board, for making the decision to extend the school day an hour and a half. I believe that this decision will not help the students or staff who are affected by this decision. Extending the school day is a horrible decision because we go to school long enough as it is, also students and staff cannot do the activities after school that they enjoy. Lastly, addition to more time at school will cause students to stress more than they already do. I believe the school board should listen to the people who will be affected by this decision before a massive mistake is made.

The current sanctions placed on the York City School District by the Pennsylvania Department of Education have intrigued me since the day I started working at Jackson Elementary there three years ago. YCSD ranked 490th out of 496th school districts in the state of Pennsylvania in 2015. Last school year they did not improve as expected, according to the latest reports just released by the State Department of Education. The district has some goals to meet, which include cutting in half the gap between the district’s reading and math Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) scores and the state average, as well as cutting the gap between the district’s third grade reading scores and the state average.