Need Help With Module 4 Discussion

Trident International University

James Newton

EDD 634

Assignment SLP 4

Dr, Micheal Trimmell

September 14, 2019

Deer Creek Elementary School

Introduction

Deer Creek Elementary School (DCES) is a public institution affiliated to Deer Creek District Schools. The District was founded in 1921. It consists of four other elementary schools, a pre-kindergarten, Deer Creek Intermediate School, Middle School, Freshman Academy, and Deer Creek High School. DCES is located in Edmond, Oklahoma. The school is one of the top-performing schools in Oklahoma and has diverse student demographics. As of 2019, DCES enrolment was 482 students where 69% were White, 8% Asian, 6% Hispanic, 3% American Indian, 2% Black, 1% Pacific Islander and 11% are other two races (Great Schools, 2019). The school’s academic report shows that year-over-year student performance is above average.

Accountability Assessment

School accountability report is an important document for tracking student and school progress. The report tracks students’ academic achievements and other critical data such as dropout rates, graduation, curriculum, and financial information. Deer Creek Elementary Schools uses the Academic Growth report to assess students’ academic progress. The Academic Growth has been adopted in Oklahoma as an achievement indicator for students in elementary and middle schools. The report also complies with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This accountability report is accurate for DCES because it measures academic growth of the school, academic achievement, ELP progress, and absenteeism.

This indicator measures students’ performance in math and proficiency in English language arts (ELA). A student is expected to score a maximum of 30 points. The average points for DCES in 2017/2018 were 26.8 out 30. The school scored 15 out of 15 in growth in English and 11.8 in math. The indicator shows that Deer Creek Elementary School average growth in 2017-2018 was higher than that of the district and the state. While the average growth of DCES was 89.2%, that of the state of Oklahoma was 49.5% and 67.6% for the district. Moreover, the school scored 30 points out of 30 in academic achievement (Oklahoma School Report Cards, 2019). These statistics demonstrate DCES’ excellent academic performance.

Absenteeism is an academic challenge in the state. The level of absenteeism predicts the success of the student and the school. The chronic absenteeism indicator shows that DCES scored 8.79 of 10 points. The attendance report implies that student absenteeism in school is below a constant level. The regular attendance of the school is 97.13%, which above 94.5% and 86.51% registered in the district and state respectively (Oklahoma School Report Cards, 2019).

Area of Excellence

Deer Creek Elementary School excels in academic performance. The school performance has improved tremendously over the years. In 2016, the students’ proficiency in Math was 70% which was higher than the state average of 35%. The school also recorded the same percentage in reading and English arts proficiency. The academic achievement improved to 74% in both Math ELA in 2017 (Public School Review, 2019). The school report card shows that DCES score in academic growth was 26.8 of 30 points in 2017-2018 academic years. The impressive performance is attributed to the fact the school has low chronic absenteeism and student to teacher level. According to the Public School Review (2019), the student to teacher ratio is 16:1, which is lower than that Oklahoma state of 17:1. Deer Creek ES has also been recognized as a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S Department of Education because of its superior standards of academic excellence. The Blue Ribbon award recognizes private and public schools that have made significant progress in closing achievement gaps among different groups of students (U.S. Department of Education, 2019).

Area of Improvement

Deer Creek ES needs to improve on the infrastructure to accommodate the student population. In recent years, the number of students enrolling in school has increased drastically. This has led to the school space to diminish. Today, there are more than 400 students in the school, and the number is expected to exceed 600 in future. According to Tapia (2017), the increasing population in elementary school requires 84,000 square expansions. Therefore, DCES should address this issue to avoid overcrowding.

Although the DCES report has addressed essential indicators of student achievement, it failed to include the information showing the number of students moving one class to another. Graduation rate is a critical part of the accountability report because it depicts the ability of the school to retain students. It is difficult to account for academic achievement without this information.

Community Partnerships

Community-school partnership is a crucial initiative for ensuring that the students achieve academic excellence. The collaboration between schools and communities improves student outcomes and strengthens the quality of the program. The collaboration support also facilitates student positive behavior and access to learning opportunities (Little, 2019). Deer Creek ES has a robust parent-teacher partnership that has helped to improve academic performance in the school. This partnership has enabled parents to follow up their children’s academic progress since they are always in contact with their teachers. Furthermore, parent-teacher relationship has accelerated implementation of school policies and prudent use of resources.

References