Reference no: EM13106223
Article Comparison Paper
Article 1
Schools efforts to close the gap in academic achievements between minority and white students have been largely unsuccessful to date (Schwartz, 2001). Differences in educational performance can beevident in all achievement levels, with the gap greatest between students of colorandWhite Americans. The need for a solution to this problem has new urgency, with the increase in diversity in the United States. There is a strong demand for the development and implementation of educational goals which reflects the needs and values of the community in which it serves to foster a shared commitment to excellence in the education of students.
In this article, researchers review the educational policies and practices that have been proven effective in closing the achievement gap. The focus is placed on state and district roles, school climate, school organization; teaching and learning, school management, and community involvement. Schwartz articulates that there is a greater potential for closing the achievement gap as more attention and focus to guidelines the address the issue of achievement for all students. An upsurge in concrete steps to improve minority achievement in schools across the nation is encouraging, since the efforts are knowledge based-informed by the existence of proven and promising strategies and by new research pointing to additional innovative measures (Schwartz, 2001). In recent years more schools districts are recognizing that schools, communities and families must be committed and supportive. Schwartz believes that we must begin educating students when they are very young and must make a long-term commitment to educational improvement. In today's society, the importance of creating an overall atmosphere for a child that prepare them for the 21st century workforce is a priority nationally and a wide range of supportive resources are being deployed. Personally, I have notice through my years in K-12 education the huge disparity between the children of color and other students.
It is very essential for school districts to implement programs or evaluate the different learning styles, examine cultures of the students to enhance the student's connection between the curriculum and everyday life. Will school districts ever develop the urgency to realize that it is mandatory to provide relevancy between the curriculum and student population? Many urban students in my school are very bored with the information and can't find the relevancy of the instruction. These student's generally ask why do we have to read Romeo and Juliet opposed to other stories that can depict the same theme.
An effective strategy to address student achievement is for educational leader, community and teachers to create a professional learning environment to establish a platform to communicate. Professional Learning Community can be excellent asset that can enhance the achievement of aschool community and address issues toclose the learning gap. There are many different areas that a professional learning environment can support a school district and bring anarsenal of stakeholders to the table.PLCs understand if they are achieving and meeting the needs of all students, and if not, why? It is important for a PLC to gather data and analyze strategies that focus on the vision/mission of the school, for which it is the core essence of everything that is done. Administration and stakeholders must have a clear process of improvement for better results to decrease the acts of sporadic or the loss of directions. School cannot just focus on student achievement measures alone for continuous school improvement because the meaning is missing (Schwartz, 2001).
This article has given me the perspective that, if we want to get different results, we have to change the system that creates the results. To do that, we must look at intersections of demographics, perception, student learning, and school process data. Through that view, the professional learning communities can help school districts can bring together a once distance family to help strive to reach a collective goal. Depleting the learning gap for students!
Article 2
The issue of a student's behavior in schools has been a hot topic that has stemmed many conflicts within school systems. Angus MacNeil and Doris Prater stated that keeping schools safe while preserving a productive learning environment is a shared concern among educators nationwide. Effective schools generally have similar strategies that promote regular attendance, respect for teachers and a clear discipline plan. Within the discipline plan principals need to acknowledge the teacher's perspective to help address the infractions that interfere with instruction.
MacNeil and Prater created a survey in which they compiled data that ranked 11 identified problems that teachers and principals encounter with students. The results marked absenteeism and tardiness as their highest rating and the lowest being the possession of weapons. The survey was able to also surface the issue that teachers and principals are having conflicts with the agreement of behavior that is perceived acceptable in classroom. Overall, principals viewed more problems as minor issues as opposed to teachers rating the same problems as moderately serious to serious.
Student conduct is very important issue within a school and needs to be analyzed from every angle of the school's faculty. Teachers, principals, and extracurricular advisors all see students in different setting because of the range or change of the school environment. Teachers have students in classrooms with other students. Principals generally deal with students on a one on one basis and extracurricular advisors have to interact with them in a less structured setting. On one hand, teachers may consider certain misbehavior major and the principal considers it minor, often causes a discrepancy. For example, a teacher may have a student who is considered the class clown and is constantly disrupting instruction by joking and talking. This may be a minor outburst problem to a principal because of the things the student said are not considered bad or derogatory to anyone. However, the teacher may consider the behavior a major concern because it happens daily during class instruction. Principals may have different view because of the focus on state laws requiring things such as high achievement on standardized test that may take priority. If the student is not causing grades or test scores to decrease in the class by his or her constant disruptions, then it is not going to be considered a major issue to take a strict consequence.
In my perspective, education needs to be restructured and evaluated in a detailed approach for individual schools and its uniqueness. The perspective of having a professional learning community is an excellent tool that can enhance teacher and principal relationships to foster a shared expectation for each student's behavior and development. If educators want to get different results, then they have to change the system that creates the results. To do that, we must look at each individual school's demographics, perception, student achievement, and school processed data. Effective principals listen to others, which will assist in finding ways to solve problems, help kids and parents and support teachers. Having everyone in the school building involved in making rules and development would help build moral and promote togetherness.
Article 3 Access for All Students
This digest discusses strategies for providing students with disabilities with access to the general education curriculum. It begins by presenting educational principles that are needed to be accepted to ensure successful student access, including: (1) responsibility for learning outcomes of special education students should be equally shared by the classroom teacher and the special education teacher; (2) the classroom teacher should not only be aware of the student's Individualized Education Program goals, but also play a significant role in determining those goals and providing instruction to help the student reach them; (3) the classroom teacher should be concerned with each student's strengths and needs; (4) Global Leaders should understand that teachers need time within their contracts to prepare standards-based activities and materials designed to meet diverse needs; (5) teacher collaboration should be valued; (6) expectations should not be set according to a student's classification; (7) it should be understood that good instruction incorporates variation in delivery, activities, expectations, and assessment; (8) accountability should be considered a challenge, not a treat; and (9) parents should be considered a part of the them (MacNeil, 2003).
The keys to developing this "critical mass" are found in the three Cs communication, collaboration, and culture(MacNeil, 2003). Collective vision often grows out of collaboration, teamwork, and empowerment(MacNeil, 2003). Many schools should broaden this goal by establishing collaboration and partnerships with outside agencies that serve students and their families. The teacher's vision also can incorporate values and goals related to equity and justice, respect, appreciation for multiculturalism/diversity, and concern for the academic success of special education students. These views of the school determine how people spend their time, what problems they solve and how resources are distributed. A clear understanding of the school's vision and mission statement may lead to greater parent and community support. A successful school will have a clear, defined and communicated vision supports active improvement and accomplishment for all students.
It is very essential for leaders and teachers to evaluate their population of students and set expectations and guidelines for the students to excel. Students are not responding to the expectations and guidelines those students should have positive accommodations made to help maintain an effective learning environment that all students with different styles learning can still perform at a successful level.
Reflection
The business of schools is to educate students. The Global Leaders must create an environment where the instructional program is the main focus of the school. Students and staff must identify this and work towards it. The global leader needs to be an advocate for learning and growth of not only students, but the instructional staff as well.
A successful school has to have a dynamic learning environment for all for participates in the learning cycle. It is important for the staff to grow professionally. The Global Leader must provide opportunities for the staff to expand their areas of expertise. Too often teachers' work in isolation and it is difficult to develop on their own skills or try best practices. Instead teachers need to participate in activities where they feel comfortable, but at the same time they can grow and become more effective educators.
The key components of within successful school are trust, safety, and consistency. They are simple, but yet exceedingly powerful aspects of classroom management. Trust can be defined as the act of having reliance or faith in another person. For any relationship to be successful trust must be established and presented from all parties involved and in the classroom it is even more significant. Safety is the teacher being the eyes and ears for each and every one of their students. This means they must be aware of all situations that occur within their classroom. As we learned from our readings, safety is everything! The students, classroom and school safety should always be the number one priority for educators. Finally, consistency is another very essential element for a teacher to have. Students perform well when they have a routine to follow. Teachers must remember that they have to be consistent in their actions.
There are various environmental and internal factors that have huge impact on a student's behavior. From day to day, student's behaviors will alter depending on their current situation. Teachers must be aware of such issues to get a full understanding of why they may be behaving in such manner. For example, you may have a child that's loud and difficult in your classroom as well as a student who is quiet and extremely nonresponsive. Rather than jumping to conclusions and making judgments, teachers should be open-minded to factors that may be leading to such behaviors. The behaviors that student' exhibits are meaningful and teachers must learn to decode them to fully understand why they are behaving in certain ways. Decoding will be vital in determining the most effective way of responding to and changing behaviors. As taken directly from my chapter notes, "Behavior is, above all, meaningful language. Behavior is an attempt, in or out of the student's awareness, to tell someone something important. Teachers are not the victims or the targets of students' behavior. Teachers must learn to translate and interpret student behavior."