Brittany+H

__School Phase I__
This school shows the commitment to their students in everything they do. Random Lake is a great school for a lose feeling of companionship and community in both the school and the local community. ||< Fox Point-Bayside Schools 2010-11 District Direction and Goals 1) Foster a school community culture that promotes and embodies respect, responsibility, accountability, and civility. 2) Provide an educational environment where students are fully engaged and learning at their individual maximum capacity. 3) Effectively use resources (time, talent, finances, technology) to enhance the capacity of the school district to deliver a high quality, showcase educational experience for all students. || Male 50% Female 50% Race: White 99.1% Other: .9% Population 1,602 ||< Population by gender: Male 47.3% Female 52.7% Race: White 90.1% Black 4.2% Asian 2.4% Hispanic 2.3% Other races 1% Population 6,903 || No information available ||< Grade 3 Reading – Black: Basic- 28.6% Proficient-28.6% Advanced- 14.3% White: Basic- 1.6% Proficient- 23.0% Advanced- 73.8% || Basic- 22.2% Proficient- 55.6% Advanced-22.2% ||< No information available || Random Lake has great facilities for students with disabilities. Sheboygan County does not have a large number of students with disabilities and it shows. The 2010/2011 school year had just over 20% of the school population with some kind of a disability. At Random Lake, the WKCE testing was significant in the fact that over 50% of the students with disabilities scored proficient or above on the WKCE. I think that is a positive number that shows the school does a great job at working with students with disabilities. Sheboygan County is located just north of Ozaukee County. Random Lake has a low number of students with a low economic status.Compared to Stormonth Elementary, the numbers look pretty similar. Both schools are in areas where median income in higher than in surrounding areas and the school philosophies and the testing outcomes show this. Random Lake has little diversity in the school district. According to my research, over 90% of Random Lake’s population is Caucasian. Stormonth Elementary in Fox Point is not much different. More than 50% of the population is Caucasian. Both demographics are very similar to each other. Until the 2007/2008 school year, there was little LEP language barriers in school. It goes along with the little diversity that is in Random Lake. The language that is spoken besides English is Spanish. While in the classrooms, I did not ever experience any language barriers. There is much more diversity in the Fox Point School District. In the 2010/2011 school year, white and black ethnicity was the over powering number of students in the school district. This is the major difference between the two schools. Random Lake did not have much diversity at all, nor did the community. I am very surprised to see that there were no students with disabilities in the Stormonth Elementary School in the school year 2010/20011. In the past years, about 10% of the population had disabilities. In the WKCE test scores, the students who had some sort of disability did not have information available because there were no students with disabilities who took the WKCE test. Students with economic disadvantage in the school never rose above 9%. The school district of Fox Pont is a wealthy community with a median income of about $70,000 a year. Research showed an increase in the current school year of students who speak another unknown language (according to the graph) in the Stormonth Elementary School. I would like to know what the other is considered in the above information. It shows that Spanish, Hmong, and English are the languages that are spoken the most at Stormonth.
 * <  ||<  Field 2  ||<  Field 3  ||
 * < Mission and goals of the school ||< Random Lake Elementary School staff is dedicated to ensuring that all the students in our community receive the best possible start on their educational journey. The staff understands the importance of working together with families to meet the needs of young children.
 * < Demographics of the community ||< Population by gender:
 * < School Race/Ethnicity ||< 1% Asian 1% Black 8% Hispanic 90% White ||< 8% Asian 13% Black 3% Hispanic 74% White ||
 * < Student Performance on WKCE by Race/Ethnicity ||< Grade 3 Reading-
 * < Student Performance on WKCE by Disabilities ||< Students with disabilities Reading-
 * < Student Performance on WKCE by English Proficiency ||< No information available ||< No information available ||

__School Phase II__
I was able to interview three special education teachers at my cooperating school. I chose to do all three special education teachers because I am most interested in how they work with students and ensure that students have some experience with diversity in the school. I also wanted to know how involved parents are to the students with special needs at the school.

Stormonth Elementary is in a great area. The school has a low rate of diversity- 74% white, 8% Asian, 13% Black, and 3% Hispanic compared to area schools. I was really pleased on the answers that I received from the teachers. I have worked closely with all three teachers and I would love to work with them someday. They are a great knowledgeable and compassionate group of teachers. I thought they gave me very thorough and complete answers to the questions I asked.


 * Interview Questions:**


 * 1) Based on the demographic statistics of your school and classroom (discuss), what are the differences that exist between you, your students and their families? What implications does this have on student learning in the classroom?
 * 2) Background knowledge of students is lacking, even in the students’ IEP’s. RTI is high in the elementary school, roughly 220 of the 500 students on tier 2 or below. Diversity should be looked at more in depth with students.
 * 3) What “funds of knowledge” have you gained from your students’ families?
 * 4) Some parents are very active. There are students with autism whose parents send along magazines and books about how to explain autism to classmates and will pay for the teachers to go to autism seminars. I-Pads were purchased for all students in the special education program by the parents- they have been a huge benefit to teaching and learning. It was nice to hear that families moved to the Bayside/Fox Point area because of the school.
 * 5) Have you noticed any patterns of achievement within your students by group membership (gender, ethnicity, etc…)? If a particular group is always lower in achievement than another, what adjustments have been made in your practices?
 * 6) Back to question 1- background knowledge is lacking in all areas. They do not receive much information about testing and group participation.
 * 7) How do you promote cultural awareness within the class and/or school environment?
 * 8) No Christmas at this school, everything is holiday- Holiday Program. About 40% of the student population is Jewish so the school is dismissed for all Christmas and Jewish Holidays.
 * 9) How do you integrate knowledge about diverse cultures in the community into your teaching/work practices?
 * 10) Not too sure of that question
 * 11) How do you integrate the 21st century skills into the curriculum and instruction?
 * 12) Trying to become a school of the 21st Century. All classrooms have WI-FI and there are separate computer labs with desk tops and lap tops available to students to take home to work on school related tasks. All classrooms have a smart board and again, many students have their own I-Pads that they can use in school.
 * 13) Do you know of any outreach services this school provides to meet the needs of families?
 * 14) There can be some programs, but the school cannot promote them or it will be up to the school to pay for them. They can advertise for them but a person of contact cannot be from the school. There is a three-week special education program that is available during the summer.
 * 15) What evidence do you have that prove students at your school are culturally competent?
 * 16) No answer
 * 17) How do you support __all__students in the school into an understanding of cultural competency? -this would include students with special learning needs.
 * 18) There is a no-bully act with posters all over the school. The school is aware of respect, appropriate behavior, and have signed a contract stating how they want to be treated at school is how they should treat people.
 * 19) What impact has the increase in students learning ESL made to classroom practices?
 * 20) There is no ESL teacher so it has been difficult to communicate with some parents and students. The ESL students are tested once a year to see how they have increased their verbal language in school.
 * 21) How much of what is going on in the state, the country, and the world is included in the curriculum of the school?
 * 22) Not too much at an elementary level- very negative news most of the time
 * 23) How do you mentor teachers towards an understanding and respect for cultures to which they may have not been previously exposed?
 * 24) No need to here. There have been speakers brought into the school to talk about poverty, ect. Some teachers chose to read books and do fun activities about diversity and culture.

=__School Phase III__= Both Stormonth Elementary and Random Lake Elementary School are two schools with little diversity. Random Lake is in a small community with less that 3% of it’s’ population a minority. Stomonth Elementary is in the Fox Point/Bayside school district and also lacks in diversity, although does show more than Random Lake. While I went through the questions for Phase 2 with the teachers, I was not surprised with many of their responses. There is not much diversity and there is even less talk about it. Test scores do not show a correlation with ethnicity background and test scores. The school has a high percentage of Jewish students so it was cool to hear what that the school gets off for both Christian and Jewish holidays. They also chose weeks during the school year to study another culture. They have Spanish class for every grade, even kindergarten, and will continue getting it through middle and high school. I was also happy to hear about parent involvement and communication. My coops even mentioned jokingly that some parents are too involved. The parents of students in the special education classroom bought all of their kids an I-Pad for learning and free time and will pay to have the teachers go to seminars of teaching students with disabilities. I would love to work with students whose parents are so involved and are willing to do what it takes for their children to have the best quality of life. I can see where there is some correlation between test scores and ethnicity, especially in the Milwaukee Public Schools. I am doing a clinical in an elementary school in south Milwaukee now and I notice that there is a huge difference in learning in different cultural groups. I believe that as future teachers, we will have the right to stop this cultural diversity and correlation of testing and believe that every student has the right to learn and the ability to do it.

__References__ //Fox Point, Wisconsin//. (2011). Retrieved from Onboard Informatics website: http://www.city-data.com/city/Fox-Point-Wisconsin.html //Random Lake Elementary School//. (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.randomlake.k12.wi.us/SitePages/Home.aspx //Random Lake, Wisconsin//. (2011). Retrieved from Onboard Informatics website: http://www.city-data.com/city/Random-Lake-Wisconsin.html //Stormonth Elementary School//. (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.foxbay.k12.wi.us/els/ //WINSS//. (2012). Retrieved from Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction website: http://dpi.wi.gov/sig/index.html