vision

2035 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is the importance of academic performance

Woodside Avenue School is an institution that is known for high academic achievement and continuous student improvement. This paper documents research and data analysis of student proficiency scores while considering crucial demographics and challenges that contribute to our strengths and areas in need of improvement. The student proficiency scores that were studied focused on both the general Woodside student population as well as student sub-groups. Through this research we discovered that although our school has notable academic strengths, the language arts proficiency of our special education students in grades 3 & 4 needs to improve. Interviews were conducted with parents, teachers, students, and community members to put together a school vision that represents the values of all stakeholders. It was discovered that the attitudes, beliefs, and values of stakeholders consistently stressed the importance of student achievement as well as educating the whole child. These findings led to the establishment of a school vision for next year. Instructional as well as scheduling changes were developed with a strong focus on improving language arts proficiency for our special education students, while still providing them with the social and emotional benefits provided by mainstreaming. Implementing these changes will require exemplary leadership and participation from all stakeholders, along with consistent and frequent assessments and evaluation of our progress. Once implemented, evaluated, and potentially improved upon, these changes will help our students and teachers to grow in a way that will contribute to sustaining our vision over time.

Vision Paper
Vision: At Woodside Avenue School, we have a clear-cut vision for ho...

... middle of paper ...

...fe, they can evaluate the need to reshape or reinforce it” (Deal & Peterson, 2009, p. 199). It is understood that the beliefs and values shared within the Woodside community are rooted in high academic achievement as well as the social and character development of our children. Woodside Avenue School is already a strong representation of what we value, however our ideal future would be one where our children grow academically and as people. Through conversations with our students, staff, parents, and community members about the type of school they would like Woodside to be, our vision for Woodside School is clear. We will improve student outcomes in language arts proficiency, focusing on our special education students, while still providing these students with the necessary mainstreaming that is important to building character and educating the whole child.

Show More
Related

  • Shadowing Superintendent Shirley Hall Of The Maplewood School District

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Connecting people to the success of the district is one matter, but asking them to support it financially is another. The district is growing in size and is in need of new facilities and internal academic structures to support the growth. As the district continues to grow she is challenged with ensuring that the schools continue to interact with each other and do not return to the independent silos they were when she arrived. Ms. Hall realizes that she is the internal and external face of the district. She takes that very seriously and therefore, tires to view challenges as opportunities and successes as building blocks and

    Read More

  • I Interviewed An Assistant Principal, Ms. Katis Romig

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    School leaders and faculty are responsible to ensure engaging, rigorous, and coherent curricula in all subjects, accessible for a variety of learners and aligned to Common Core Learning Standards and/or content standards. As a special education program for severely disabled students including all these requirements in curriculum that is differentiated for the array of needs in the school isn’t easy. In response to the suggestions made by Ms. Joseph the principal decided that the best way to address it while still attending to the needs of the school would be to created an inquiry team that will research the findings in order to help with the decision making.

    Read More

  • Improbable Scholars Summary

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    That broader conception of school allowed those schools to better support the students and address social issues that prevent students from accessing their full potential. This conceptual shift can only be spurred by a clear vision of “good education”—which then caused an improvement in their community’s education

    Read More

  • Disproportionality In Special Education Essay

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    A longstanding national issue that continues to concern the public is the disproportionate representation of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in special education. The fact is that the proportion of minority students in the population of school-age children has risen dramatically to over 35%, which is increasing the diversity of students in many public schools throughout the nation. This makes the phenomenon of disproportionality especially troubling. With a growing population of minority children comprising a greater percentage of public school students, we must be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society. The overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been posed as an issue for more than 3 decades, but it is worth asking whether the efforts of legislative actions, educational reforms and legal challenges have really made improvements to this issue. More importantly, disproportionality should be examined as a correlation to underlying conditions that can pose a great effect upon not only the quality of a child’s education, but also ______.

    Read More

  • ED Population Essay

    2080 Words  | 5 Pages

    Novel ideas in special education have unlocked the gate for developing a more heterogeneous and comprehensive approach of thinking about agendas in special education. While a number of topics have captured the attention of educators and advocates, perhaps one of the most anticipated areas of discussion continues to be the ED population. The overrepresentation of United States minority students identified ED in special education programs plagues schools and challenges researchers and practitioners. While Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 (IDEA) does specify guidelines, the process of identifying learners as ED and thus qualifying them for services can nevertheless be a subjective process. Research emboldens this subjective process and the issues surrounding the robust inequities among the ED population (Oswald & Coutino, 1999). Additionally, the next step is to openly critique, discuss and debated the issues and foster policy change. Moreover, this paper discusses the ED population and the critical issues regarding eligibility/labeling, FAPE, access to the general curriculum and continuum of placement.

    Read More

  • My Personal Philosophy of Special Education

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    The students in our classrooms, both special education and general education classrooms, require individualized education to reach their full potential. Each child’s potential is different just as each child’s road to reach it is different. Our job as teachers is to be there for the student’s to help them reach their potential through their own unique way.

    Read More

  • Unequal Education in America: Urban vs Suburban Education

    2470 Words  | 5 Pages

    Money will not solve or make this problem go away, no matter how many social workers are hired. Schools will succeed despite their financial circumstances if they have the basic components of motivated students, parent support, caring teachings, and strong central leadership. While this is the typical model of a suburban school system, Wilson High School proves that it can work anywhere. When ones thinks of urban public schools, overcrowded classes, underpaid teachers, and a lack of resources often come to mind. The fact is these problems can happen anywhere. While the environment at Kennedy could never be compared to the worst DC high school, the assumptions made against these schools are the same. By erasing these notions and confronting the problems one by one, we will be one step closer to reaching equal education for all.

    Read More

  • Failing Urban Schools

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.

    Read More

  • Minorities and Special Education

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    Donovan, M. Suzanne and Christopher T. Cross (2002, August). Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy2.library.drexel.edu/lib/drexel/-docDetail.action?docID=10032383.

    Read More

  • Interview With Middle School Principal

    1840 Words  | 4 Pages

    An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the Colorado Growth Model to help guide them to determine if students have made adequate yearly progress. Together, they created the plan that included the district goals mentioned above as well as continuing to include new technology skills, information on special education changes with Response to Intervention (RTI), maintaining current staff implementation of literacy goals and a new goal of raising achievement in math.

    Read More

  • Minority Students in Special Education Programs

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    The term special education is hard to define because recently, it has taken on many new meanings. During the 1960’s people were trying to get the Federal government to fund efforts to provide a free and appropriate education for children with disabilities. Also during this time and into the 1970’s, parents of children with disabilities began to address state laws that would require local education agencies to give special education services to students with disabilities (ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education [ERIC], 1998). Even after the passage of these laws in many states, children still ...

    Read More

  • Student Engagement

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...her ups, and then once their ideas of education update, so can school systems, then teachers themselves. Maiers “Keys to Student Engagement” shows the raw potential that school systems already have. It also shows that students need the drive and ambition to succeed. Tristan’s article on edutopia provides ideas that are already in motion. His ideas and tips have already started to work in public high school in his community. With the guidance and vision of these three authors public school issues could cease to exist. Even though there’s a lot involved getting administrators (and some teachers) on board, it is possible, and in the near future, a reality.

    Read More

  • Mainstreaming Special Needs Children

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    The debate of mainstreaming children with a disability challenges the idea of having an enclosed environment where they can effectively learn. University of Missouri, College of Education states, “The term ‘special needs’ is used to collectively define those that require assistance due to physical, mental, behavioral, or medical disabilities or delays” ( .) Opponents who encourage mainstreaming argue that mainstreaming special needs children is beneficial. They claim children with a disability should receive equivalent access to public education and not be left behind because of an impairment. Many also dispute attempts should be made to develop tests to measure academic achievement. Aron and Loprest state “Reforming special education cannot be done in isolation; it requires integration with reforms being made in general education” (116). However, there are many problems the education system is going to face if children with a disability are integrated into standard classes.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Special Education

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, it still met with inconsistent criticism due to the myth that “positive intervention” doesn’t work and draining resources of regular courses. However, evidences shown prove the opposite effect. Special education is constant need of more funding – especially when it constantly gets budget cuts from congress and thus, schools are unable to keep up with the afford to provide the necessary need of special education (Wall 2014). So the myth of special education draining resources is the no way the truth. How could they be able to drained resources from other students if the programs themselves are in limited supply? Lack of understanding and easy to become a scapegoat for the blame of overall score of a school being poor is quite easy to pit the blame. Another reasoning is due to socialization—the label of being placed in special education is rather an unfortunate burden that could follow the child (Huerta 2015). Often times, stereotypes are attached and are considered inferior to other students, potentially adding onto potential fears. In order to improve any form of education for special education, funding a provided them resources should be considered the first thing to look

    Read More

  • My Core Educational Values

    1709 Words  | 4 Pages

    When all stakeholders share similar core values and agree on the aims of education, reform efforts stand a better chance for success. Knowledge, skills, critical thinking, and citizenship are core values found at the heart of my beliefs for education. I also believe it is the aim of education to prepare students as contributing members of society. In schools where core values and education aims are revisited due to reform implementation, strategies are identified along with a plan for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The federal government, state, districts, school leadership, teachers, students and parents all have significant responsibilities to make reform efforts a success.

    Read More

More about vision

Open Document