ED7900 MD1 Dis1
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Assignment Task Part 2
Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts.
Respond to two or of your colleagues posts, and respond in any of the following ways In 150 word Responses :
· Expand on a colleague’s analysis of change over time, specifically from the perspective of your specialization expertise.
· Explain how a data trend identified by a colleague impacts your particular specialization as well.
· Support or refute a colleague’s selection of a guiding principle from the Fullan (2016) text.
· For this Discussion, and all scholarly writing in this course, you will be required to use APA style and provide reference citations.
Collapse Subdiscussion Katheryn Gonzales
Katheryn Gonzales
Grand City is a community experiencing population growth with strong economic trends due to the growing population of Riza. With these growth trends, Grand City is experiencing crowding in schools, the need for community support, and a greater demand for various educational approaches (Walden University, LLD, 2017a). Mayor Keller has called together a task force that includes many individuals who specialize in different areas of the community. The area that I specialize in is early childhood education. The task force came together to analyze data regarding the school system in Grand City. As an early childhood specialist, I analyzed data regarding early childhood education.
To begin my analysis of the Grand City data, I looked at the overall amount of kindergarten students who participated in Early Childhood programs. The data indicate that five years ago, Grand City showed 49% of 3- to 5-year-old students attended preschool compared to the current 43%. The data indicates a downward trend in students participating in preschool. The current state average of 3 to 5 years old children who attended preschool is 65% compared to the state average from five years ago at 59%. The trend for the state is the opposite of Grand City because the data is trending up for the state and down for Grand City (Walden University, LLC, 2016b).
The data is broken down even further into demographics. The data indicate that five years ago, a more significant percentage of students in Grand City in each demographic area attended a preschool program. The current data shows a decrease in incoming kindergarten students who attended preschool. The opposite is true for the state. The state shows an increase in preschool attendance across all demographics (Walden University, LLC, 2016b).
Looking further into the data, the percentage of families needing subsidized preschool has increased from 34% five years ago to 48% in Grand City. The current state comparison is 35%. Not only has the need increased for subsidized preschool, but also daycare. Five years ago, Grand City showed a 49% need compared to the current need of 72%. The state percentage of families needing subsidized daycare increased over the five years from 35% to 61%.
The trends that have emerged from the data are alarming. The data shows a decrease in children ages 3 to 5 years old attending preschool programs before kindergarten, which appears to be due to economic hardship. As an early childhood specialist, these trends are alarming to me because children benefit significantly in all developmental domains, especially language and literacy, from exposure to preschool programs. Early literacy begins well before kindergarten. Children who enter kindergarten vary greatly in language and literacy skills and abilities. Some children with gaps in school readiness, which occur well before kindergarten, may struggle to be on grade level for reading proficiency much later (National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2021). The gaps in school readiness are due to a lack of early exposure to language and literacy development in a child's life. These gaps occur from birth. The issue that needs to be addressed is the need for language and literacy development for all children, especially those from low socio-economic families. We know that the first three years of a child's life are essential in developing literacy skills through interactions with literacy materials such as books, stories, paper, crayons, pencils, and other writing materials (Bell, 2003). Grand City needs to work together to support the community's youngest members.
According to Fullan (2016), the act of acquiring meaning is individual. However, the real value in creating system change is in shared meaning. Everyone on the task force will need to understand the "why" of what they are doing and the need to share the responsibility with each other to see real change. As a task force, Grant City will need to collaborate to create shared knowledge through working and interacting, which will lead to success. Brenda Stephens, the director of Grand City Early Childhood Center and the Chairman of the Early Childhood Program Association, pointed out that one of the most significant issues facing the early childhood programs is the number of families who cannot afford preschool or childcare. She also points out that these are the same students who will make up the K-12 program and, eventually, the workforce. Each task force member has a shared responsibility to help solve the problem of childcare and preschool access for Grand City's youngest members.
References
Bell, S. (2003, February 23). What We Know About Early Literacy and Language Development. ZERO to THREE.
https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/what-we-know-about-early-literacy-and-language-development/
Fullan, M. (2015). The New Meaning of Educational Change (5th ed.). Teachers College Press.
https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9780807774038
National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) (ED/IES), Regional Educational Laboratory
Southeast (ED), & Florida State University, F. C. for R. R. (2021). Effectiveness of Early Literacy Instruction: Summary of 20 Years of Research. Appendixes. REL 2021-084. Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast.
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2017a). Grand City opening task force meeting [Video
file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2016b). Grand City education and demographic data files [PDF]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Amanda Puryear
Grand City has experienced positive and negative changes in the past five years, greatly due to the large population of refugees from the country of Riza. Grand city has experienced economic growth due to this population increase; however, several infrastructural institutions, like the Grand City school system, are experiencing problems. The mayor of Grand City, Tara Keller, has created a task force to address these problems. My specialization on the task force pertains to the curriculum and instruction and professional development of teachers and students. Data that I will focus on are accountability scores in English and mathematics, attendance rates, special education rates, office referral and suspension rates, home technology access, and student/teacher demographics. This data will also be supported by other sources found in the Grade City's data dashboard.
As members of the task force stressed in the meeting (Walden University, 2017a), the infrastructure of Grand City has been greatly impacted by the sifted population with the refugees from Riza. The Grand City School system is one institution that is struggling. The data provided shows a district that is experiencing an overall decrease in areas such as attendance rates, graduation rates, and accountability scores, coupled with an increase in office referrals and suspensions, special education student rates, and students who are on free or reduced lunches which align with the increase in the Grand City's population rate that is living in poverty. These trends have a major impact on the public and school communities. As the poverty rate has increased, the need for subsidized daycare and preschool facilities has grown, and the percentage of children coming into the school system with foundation skills developed in preschool has decreased. This foundation is needed for students to become successful students (Turdieva, 2021). The lack of subsidized options also prevents a family from becoming a two-income household which can aid in pulling the family from poverty.
Poverty can have lasting effects on a child (Kim et al., 2019). The stress accompanying children in poverty can impact their grades, behavior, and overall health. These stressors can go unnoticed by teachers unfamiliar with life in poverty and lack empathy for their students, leading to misinterpretations of actions and miscommunications. These events lead to a growing number of office referrals and suspensions, which takes the student out of the classroom and farther behind in the curriculum, further leading to the decrease in graduation rates in Grand City and the decline in the skilled workforce that Barney Leonard, a fellow task force member representing Grand City's industrial sector, that is greatly needed (Walden University, 2017a). Dr. Tanya Fuller, superintendent of Grand City Schools, stated that "teachers need to be more open to new and different educational approaches" (Walden University, 2017a). In addition to instructional practices, due to the disparity in the representation of minorities in the teacher population compared to the student population, teachers need to be developed in culturally responsive teaching practices to avoid or soothe such events. A close review of how minorities are represented in the school curriculum and ensuring adequate representation also impacts student academics and teacher relations (Christ & Sharma, 2018).
To address the problems in Grand City Schools, educational change is needed. One key principle from educational theorist Michael Fullan (2016) that should guide change is the concept of subjective and objective realities. In subjective reality, a person's perceptions and experiences impact their interpretation of the world around them; this leads to multiple different interpretations of the world. The demographics of Grand City have changed drastically over the last five years, and each culture group and organization have a different perspective on success, improvement, and what is considered right and wrong, each with their own opinion of how to improve. As members of the task force meet to evaluate Grand City's data, it is important to understand the subjective views of all stakeholders and analyze the data objectively with those views in mind. To do this, the task force should develop a shared meaning as to why change should take place. This shared meaning would later be shared with stakeholders and evolve into a mission to improve through change.
References
Christ, T., & Sharma, S. A. (2018). Searching for Mirrors: Preservice Teacher’s Journey Toward More Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Reading Horizons,
57(1), 55–73.
Fullan, M. (2016). The new meaning of educational change (5th ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Kim, Y., Lee, S., Jung, H., Jaime, J., & Cubbin, C. (2019). Is neighborhood poverty harmful to every child? Neighborhood poverty, family poverty, and
behavioral problems among young children. Journal of Community Psychology, 47(3), 594–610. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22140
Turdieva, M. J. (2021). The role of the ‘first step’state curriculum in the preschool education sistem. International Journal Of Multidisciplinary Research
And Analysis. Volume, 4.
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2017a). Grand City opening task force meeting [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2016b). Grand City education and demographic data files [PDF]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Jermaine White
Grand City is a place that has experienced growth in its population within the past five years. A large part of the growth is due to an influx of the immigrant population. The increase in the population has benefited the city but has also hurt parts of it. One area that has been affected is the schools. Mayor Keller (2017a) discussed that population growth has led to overcrowding of schools. The mayor has formed a task force consisting of people with different specializations to help with the problems in Grand City. My specialization is that of an administrator.
In my role as a high school assistant principal, there are a few areas that I would focus on when looking at data. The areas that would be key focuses for me would be the attendance rates, graduation rates, office referral, suspension rates, test scores, special education, and the student and teacher demographics and funding rates. This data can help give insist as to the possible issue with education. Data use should be integrated into practice and used at all times (Mandinach et al., 2015). Attendance would be one of the first places I would start because if the students are not in the building, then the material cannot be taught to them. When looking at the attendance for Grand City attendance rate was 78% five years ago and is currently at 73%. This is in comparison to the state of 83% five years ago and 84%.
The graduation rate has also gone down over the past five years. It currently sits at 60%, while the state is at 85%. When looking at the demographics for graduation, most ethnicities had an increase in their graduation rate. When looking at the test scores for math and English, that has decreased over the past five years as well. The emerging trend is that the schools are falling farther behind the state. They have always been under the state average, but they have trended further in the opposite direction of the state.
Grand City is in need of education reform. As the task force work, a principle that they need to consider is shared meaning and program coherence. Fullan (2016) shared meaning as when an individual finds meaning, its real value for student learning becomes relevant when it is achieved across a group of people working together. When looking at the coherence of a program, the task force must work together to bring many moving parts together to ensure the education system's success. The task force can be viewed as an agent of change, and as an agent of change, they must stay humble and realize that success is not about just being right but engaging with diverse groups and individuals that may have different viewpoints from your own (Fullan, 2016).
Reference
Fullan, M. (2016). The new meaning of educational change (5th ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Mandinach, E. B., Parton, B., Gummer, E.S., & Anderson, R. (2015). Ethical and appropriate data use requires data literacy. Links to an external site. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(5), 25-27. doi: 10.1177/0031721715569465
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2017a). Grand City opening task force meeting [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2016b). Grand City education and demographic data files [PDF]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
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