EDLD 5311 Fundamentals Leadership

WRITTEN BY DR. GARY MARTIN OCTOBER 2019 CASE STUDY #2

Bayview Elementary School is located in an old industrial neighborhood and has a student enrollment of 600 students. There are 24 teachers and 6 teaching assistants in the school. The school’s student population has the following characteristics: 25% African-American, 30% Latino, 30% Caucasian, 15% Asian. 70% of students receive free/reduced-price lunch.

Mr. Kelly is beginning his second year as the principal. At the request of the Assistant Superintendent, he attended a two-week training in the summer on a new and highly regarded literacy program. Following the training, he agreed with the Assistant Superintendent that the program should be implemented in his school. He is now committed to implementing the school district’s new literacy policy.

As he reviews Bayview school’s reading test scores, he realizes they are significantly lower than the district and state average. 25% of students score highly competent on state tests overall. 65% of students start at least 2 years behind, on average. Five of the 24 teachers have consistently produced 1.5 years of student learning growth annually for the previous 2 years. At the beginning of the new school year, he schedules a 2-day training on the new literacy program.

After the first 6-week period, teachers at Bayview believe they are working extremely hard to meet the literacy needs of their students. When Mr. Kelly visits their classrooms, he sees teachers working very hard. However, he does not see evidence of effective teaching strategies that will better serve the students’ needs. He also does not see the spirit of the district’s literacy initiative being implemented in teachers’ classrooms. The feedback to the teachers following walk- throughs, is predominately negative and teacher morale is declining rapidly.

1. While teachers are always expected to be professional and uphold professional standards of practice, they also have to make decisions that sometimes do not have a clear response. In these situations, teachers must turn to the ethical standards and relevant laws and policies to guide their decisions. The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to practice making some of those difficult decisions.

For this assignment, read “Case Study – Danny,” In a 500-750 word essay, provide answers to the following questions related to the case study:

1. Summarize the key issue from the case study.
2. What are the ethical considerations? How could Ms. Rodriquez have better responded to Ms. Tang?
3. What are 2-3 possible alternative responses?
4. Out of the possible alternatives, which do you recommend and why?

Support your findings with a minimum of three scholarly resources, in addition to the textbook. Be sure to cite the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment we well.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

2.

In 150-250 words, reflect upon your attitude towards family engagement and the effect it can have on students. Consider the following questions in your reflection:

1. How can a teacher’s attitude toward family engagement ultimately affect student development and achievement?
2. What insights did you gain about your own attitude toward family engagement?
3. What areas do you feel are your strong points?
4. What areas do you feel you need to develop further?
5. How will you find development opportunities to improve these areas?

APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.

3.

Create a matrix of 10 possible family structures, traditions, cultures, languages, and/or religious practices that you may encounter in a classroom. Address the following within your matrix for each area identified:

• Briefly describe the family structure/tradition/culture/language/religion.
• Discuss one engagement strategy you would use to encourage parents/families with that background to participate in the classroom.
• Discuss classroom environment considerations you will keep in mind. This should include both routines and visuals around the classroom.

In addition, beneath the matrix, describe a classroom activity you could create to respect and honor diversity within your classroom in 100-250 words.

Support your matrix with at least three scholarly resources, in addition to the textbook.

While APA style format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

4. In your opinion, what challenges are presented with a class full of children from diverse backgrounds? What are the benefits of having a diverse group of students? How can you promote diversity and be sensitive to differences, while still maintaining a cohesive classroom environment?

5.  How might you respond to a parent who alerts you that their religious practices prohibit their child from participating in activities that you regularly engage in? (For example, the child whose family does not celebrate any holidays or salute the flag or the child whose religion prohibits girls from interacting with boys)? How could you ethically and respectfully include the child in the class while still continuing your daily activities?

6.  This reference guide is designed to help you be successful after the end of this course. Use the attached document titled “Reference Guide” to complete the assignment.

7.

During the past few weeks, you have had the opportunity to develop a plan for success as a student here at GCU and beyond graduation. Use the attached document titled “Reflection” to complete the assignment.

Attachments

It had been a long day already as Ms. Rodriquez looked at the clock. Danny’s mother, Ms. Tang was 15 minutes late for the conference meeting Ms. Rodriquez had scheduled to discuss Danny’s struggles in math. Danny was having a hard time memorizing his multiplication facts and also struggled to apply concepts learned to solve word problems. He seemed to have a hard time determining which operation to use. Danny also wasted a lot of time fiddling with his pencil and doodling instead of doing his work. Ms. Rodriquez was sure that with more discipline to complete work and additional practice he could become more successful. Ms. Rodriquez always believed that the parent was a child’s first teacher and played a critical role in their children’s academic progress.

Ms. Rodriquez wondered if Danny’s parent was one of those parents who did not value their role in their child’s education. Ms. Tang rarely signed Danny’s agenda that was sent home nightly. She doubted that Ms. Tang actually supervised Danny’s homework. She looked at the clock anxiously and wondered if she would be able to make it to the day care on time to pick up her daughter on time or if she would need to pay extra. She was already under pressure to improve student progress and just purchased some additional resources with her own money to support ongoing instruction. She was prepared for the meeting with a plan for homework and a plan to discuss the importance of the agenda and helping Danny learn to manage time.

Ms. Tang entered the classroom and apologized for being late. She was a working single parent who had a child with a disability. She had made arrangements to leave work early to come to the meeting, but on the way to school learned that the respite worker was not able to pick up her son at his special school so she had to pick him up and drop him off at his grandmother’s house before coming to the meeting.

Ms. Rodriquez reflected on the meeting as she drove to day care. It had not gone as well as she had expected. Ms. Tang expressed concern about the amount of time Danny was required to spend on homework. She expressed concern about needing to schedule additional time as she already struggled to provide for her family. Danny’s sister needed rides to soccer practice a few times a week. Danny’s disabled brother needed to be driven to private therapy and additional doctor appointments after school. She already had Danny bring his homework to work on while his brother was receiving therapy. Then it was time to prepare for dinner, baths, and the normal evening routine. She worried about finding extra time to complete additional work while meeting the needs of her children.

Ms. Rodriquez did feel sympathy for Ms. Tang. She had referred her to a time management course online and a parent involvement workshop being offered by the school counselor that meets every Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. She also offered a copy of a homework schedule and recommended she could revise it to meet her family’s needs while still providing extra support to Danny. Ms. Tang took the resources provided and agreed to meet with Ms. Rodriquez next month to review Danny’s progress. She also agreed to make a more concentrated effort to remember to sign the agenda every night before putting it back into Danny’s backpack. Ms. Rodriquez hoped that the suggestions and resources would help Danny’s progress, but wondered if Ms. Tang would follow through.

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