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An Introduction to My School and District

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An Introduction to My School and District

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When looking into the processes and programs used at my school it was clear to me that while academically there were some holes the biggest problem came with how we deal with behavior. As this is a new school for me this year I was able to really step back and take an outside looking in approach and found that the resources used were not seemingly research based and tended to be reactionary instead of proactive. In initially researching needs within our school community the idea of how to hold students accountable as well as how to get ahead of student's behavior and set them up for success came up repeatedly with teachers.

My goal for implementing the changes within our school is to lessen explosive behavior and promote higher student engagement and buy -in. My project will look to create an alternative program  for students that removes them from their regular education classroom for a temporary period of time, to help support them in social emotional learning, personal accountability and academic work habits. The goal will be to support them in a smaller environment and build their toolbox to be able to implement these skills in their regular education classroom. I will look to use resources already present at our school to help support this program. I think that by using our Dean of Students and several ed techs from our special ed program we can implement this program with little need for extra resources.

Looking ahead the largest obstacle for the project will be teacher and student buy in. Change is very difficult to implement but often very rewarding to all involved.

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In 2020, Maine had a population of 1.34M people with a median age of 44.6 and a median household income of $59,489. Between 2019 and 2020 the population of Maine grew from 1.34M to 1.34M, a 0.399% increase and its median household income grew from $57,918 to $59,489, a 2.71% increase. The 5 largest ethnic groups in Maine are White (Non-Hispanic) (92.6%), Two+ (Non-Hispanic) (2.4%), Black or African American (Non-Hispanic) (1.32%), Asian (Non-Hispanic) (1.13%), and White (Hispanic) (1.04%).

5.97% of the households in Maine reported speaking a non-English language at home as their primary shared language. This does not consider the potential multi-lingual nature of households, but only the primary self-reported language spoken by all members of the household. 98.4% of the residents in Maine are U.S. citizens. In 2020, the median property value in Maine was $198,000, and the home ownership rate was 72.9%.

Most people in Maine drove alone to work, and the average commute time was 24.3 minutes. The average car ownership in Maine was 2 cars per household.

https://datausa.io/profile/geo/maine#housing

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Oakland, ME Demographics - Median Household Income

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Oakland, ME Demographics - Median Household Income

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Oakland has a median household income of $42, 717 which places it significantly below the United States median household income of $64, 994. A notable fact is that in 2019 the median household income for Oakland was $57, 794 which shows a -26.1% annual growth. This data is from 2020 so one might speculate that that mean income would come up as the pandemic lessens but it shows 100% that families from this town are significantly below their equals around the country.

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Oakland Maine Demographics - Types of Jobs

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Oakland Maine Demographics - Types of Jobs

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The two most common jobs in Oakland are Building and Grounds Cleaning and Educational Instruction. The majority of jobs in the area are service based. When looking at jobs of this type in this area you see that these workers have less control over there schedule and are generally working longer hours for less pay then same aged people with a higher background of education. All of this leaves these parents less able to support their child)ren academically.

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Oakalnd, ME Demographics - Education Level

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Oakalnd, ME Demographics - Education Level

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Income by education level as well as gender

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Oakland, ME Demographics - Income by Education Level

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Oakland, ME Demographics - Income by Education Level

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Oakland, ME Demographics - Poverty Rate by Education Level

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Oakland, ME Demographics - Poverty Rate by Education Level

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District Demographics - RSU 18 - Educational Attainment of Parents

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District Demographics - RSU 18 - Educational Attainment of Parents

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District Demographics - RSU 18 - Home Life Overview

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District Demographics - RSU 18 - Home Life Overview

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Student Enrollment Demographics - District Level

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Student Enrollment Demographics - District Level

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The goal for my leadership for improvement project is to figure out what is needed to provide equity in education to all students.

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Think about what story you are telling. How do demographics describe your context? | The story I am trying to tell is that the population of families and students at our school are from a lower socio-economic class. While families struggle with more basic needs due to their income and type of work they are less available to be a part of their child's education but tend to focus more on their child’s safety. Many families work hard but do not have the time or the background knowledge to help their children with challenging school work or behavioral issues.

Select facets of the demographic data that apply to your context. Focus on a small sample of demographic data. | The data that has most driven my argument is that of household income, profession, family size and level of education. These are the factors that seem to most directly affect student outcomes and behavior at school.

Provide a brief narrative that describes the selected demographics; questions to consider (just ideas, not required): why are these data important? Why did you select these data sources? What connections or interactions do you think those demographics might have on your instruction?  | This data frames how each child comes to school each day. When a child is worrying about whether they will eat at home they have less out of school time to worry about their educational needs. These same students bring concerns from their home life to school and that affords them less time then their peers to focus on learning at school as well. Each of these occurrences is lessening the amount of the time the student is present for their own education on their best day. When you add in the internal emotional struggles faced by these children it is clear that there needs to be support in place for them to be able to access the same level of education as their peers of all socioeconomic classes.

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I chose to look at the curriculum that we use because the accessibility and level of engagement within the curriculum is directly related to the behaviors that appear in the classroom. Looking at the discipline strategies and the break systems that we have put into place is important because it will force me to decide if we are being proactive or reactive in our behavior mediation. This year our school started using the SRSS surveys to make sure that we have a better picture of EACH child in our school. I am looking forward to seeing the data from these surveys more closely. Another new initiative that we have started this year is student council. I think that this is going to be a great tool to give students more ownership over their school experience. Looking at this inventory showed me that their are many great things happening and many that need a closer look.

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I chose to look at the curriculum that I implement in my intervention program as well as the behavior system we currently use. I also chose to look at the student rating scale we have just implemented at a school wide level. Finally I looked closer at student council and what implications adding the program would have for students.

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https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/oakland-me-population

https://datausa.io/profile/geo/oakland-me

https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/2314779

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/maine/districts/rsu-18-107374

Bernhardt, V. L. (2018). Data analysis for continuous school improvement (3rd ed.). New York,
NY: Routledge.

Street data: A next generation model for equity, pedagogy, and school transformation, by Shane
Safir and Jamila Dugan (2021).

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Click her for a more detailed demographic data refelction

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Click to read my Perceptions Data Profile

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RSU 18 District Vision and Guiding Principles

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RSU 18 District Vision and Guiding Principles

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I think that while we still do adhere to all of these expectations and principles COVID has made some of them more difficult than others. We are just now starting to have the community come back into our schools. We have started a new program called PAWS - which is parents of Atwood(our primary school) and Williams to invite parent volunteers into our school. We have had a good number of volunteers but the problem now is the teachers reception. Teachers have gotten used to parents and community members being on the outside and it is a hard adjustment back.

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Williams Elementary School Assessment Calendar

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Williams Elementary School Assessment Calendar

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Example of one 4th grade classes RTI data

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During RTI meetings once a month teachers place their students in tiers based on their NWEA (as seen above) and DRA data. Students in tier 3 are reported out by the title one instructor and students that fall into Tier 2 are reported out by their teacher. Teachers are responsible for including them in WIN (what i need) time and coming back the next month with progress data. Teachers used to switch students for WIN time which was to the best interest of the students as there were more options to group together but that has become another "one more thing" and does not happen anymore.

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Click to read my Aggregate Implications 

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Click to read my Problem Identification and Intersections

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Click to see more about the Mission and Vision of my district

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I have found this project to be extremely difficult but at the same time rewarding. It is difficult to begin an assignment without knowing the end goal. It is also difficult for me to focus work over such a long period of time. Typically in my day to day life, and this profession in general, I am someone who sees a problem and finds a solution. This works in the short term but when carrying plans out over the long term it is much more adventitious to have data to back up your experience.

In my current role I am in and out of many different classrooms. With this outside looking in role I can see that our staff is made up of professionals with many different teaching styles and behavior management strategies. It is also clear that there are a significant number of classrooms where behaviors of a small number of students effect the learning environment of others. I think that I can use this insight to help the administration, who do not have the same opportunity to see classroom behavior though an unbiased lens, problem solve. My transition from classroom teacher to title one specialist has given me a particularly useful way to think about things in my school community through the lens of an administrator without actually being one. It has been eye opening to be able to see the big picture instead of just focusing on one small piece of the puzzle.

While researching what a relevant solution would be to this behavior problem I was excited to be able to create real change and exhilarated to be able to be a part of the solution for so many children. What I know at the very least is that I want to be a part of the solution. I want to be the one that teachers and students count on. I can not wait for the opportunity to be that for many classes of students moving forward.