What Specific Policies And Strategies Are In Place

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Schools are responsible for meeting the educational needs of an increasingly diverse student population, and ESEA programs must provide a wide range of resources and support to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed in college and in a career. ESEA includes programs that help schools meet the special educational needs of children working to learn the English language, students with disabilities, Native American students, homeless students, the children of migrant workers, and neglected or delinquent students. In addition, the federal government has a responsibility to provide assistance to certain high-need regions and areas, including rural districts and districts that are affected by federal property and activities. Districts and schools need to strengthen the ability of classroom teachers to effectively address the needs of English Learners. Youths served through the Neglected and Delinquent Children and Youths Education program face significant educational challenges, but in recent years have shown increases in their academic achievement. Students served by the current Prevention and Intervention Programs for Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent, or At-Risk are typically three years behind in grade level and often lack job skills.

Native language and cultural programs in schools are associated with improved academic performance and a variety of other important benefits. Native students develop stronger identities, knowledge of their tribal cultures and their individual role in and deep appreciation for that culture. The explicit distance indicators offer the opportunity to identify and differentiate rural schools and school systems in relatively remote areas, from those that may be located just outside an urban core.

The minority and low-income children often perform poorly on tests is well known. But the fact that they do so because we systematically expect less from them is not. Most Americans assume that the low achievement of poor and minority children is bound up in the children themselves or their families. "The children don't try." "They have no place to study." "Their parents don't care." "Their culture does not value education." These and other excuses are regularly offered up to explain the achievement gap that separates poor and minority students from other young Americans. But these are red herrings. The fact is that we know how to educate poor and minority children of all kinds—racial, ethnic, and language—to high levels. Some teachers and some entire schools do it every day, year in and year out, with outstanding results. But the nation as a whole has not yet acted on that knowledge.

However, many schools do not have the opportunity to work with children at such a young age. Thus, they must start work closing the achievement gap in later years. Burris and Welner (2005) documented changes in schooling practice that closed the achievement gap between black and Latino students and white and Asian students in middle and high school in the diverse Rockville Centre School District in New York. The district institute accelerated learning by gradually eliminating remedial classes and offering all students rigorous classes in mathematics, global history, International Baccalaureate English, and history—classes previously offered only to the highest achievers. Today as in the past, teachers are being challenged to broaden their repertoire of teaching strategies to meet the needs and strengths of students from a tremendous diversity of backgrounds and cultures. These learners—African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and many others—face societal discrimination, live in conditions of poverty, or both. The ways in which we teach these young people exert a powerful influence on their linguistic, social, cognitive, and general educational development.

Surely a diverse classroom is the ideal laboratory in which to learn the multiple perspectives required by a global society and to put to use information concerning diverse cultural patterns. Students who learn to work and play collaboratively with classmates from various cultures are better prepared for the world they face now—and the world they will face in the future. Teaching and learning strategies that draw on the social history and the everyday lives of students and their cultures can only assist this learning process. Teachers promote critical thinking when they make the rules of the classroom culture explicit and enable students to compare and contrast them with other cultures. Students can develop cross-cultural skills in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. For such learning to take place, however, teachers must have the attitudes, knowledge, and skills to make their classrooms effective learning environments for all students. Given the opportunity, students can participate in learning communities within their schools and neighborhoods and be ready to assume constructive roles as workers, family members, and citizens in a global society.

II . Review of literature

A) Themes and standards for effective pedagogy

1. Culture

Culture is the sum total of experiences, knowledge, skills, beliefs, values, and interests represented by the diversity of students and adults in our schools. While culture is often defined and perceived by schools as the celebration of important people, religions, traditions, and holidays, as well as an appreciation of the customs of different groups, it is also more than that. Culture is as much, or as little, as the everyday experiences, people, events, smells, sounds, and habits of behavior that characterize students’ and educators’ lives. Culture shapes a person’s sense of who they are and where they fit in their family, community, and society. Helping learners

make the link between their culture and the new knowledge and skills they encounter inside school is at the heart of ensuring that all students achieve at high levels. In addition, appreciation of diverse cultures is a philosophical concept built on the American ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity, and human dignity. This is acknowledged in documents as varied as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Knowledge and understanding of the varied cultures represented in our public schools:

a) affirms our need to prepare students for their responsibilities in an interdependent world.

b) recognizes the role schools play in developing the attitudes and values necessary for a democratic society.

c) values cultural differences and affirms the pluralism that students, their communities, and teachers reflect; and

d) challenges all forms of discrimination in schools and society through the promotion of social justice.

Understanding culture in our schools advances the practice of placing students and their life histories and experiences at the center of the teaching and learning process. Furthermore, infusing cultural knowledge into instruction promotes pedagogy that occurs in a context that is familiar to students and that addresses multiple ways of thinking. As advocates for cultural understanding, teachers and students join as partners in critically analyzing oppression and power relations their communities, society, and the world.

Approach

1. Establish a Community of Learners and Leaders.

2. Know Your Students and Families.

Strategy

1. Incorporate student perspectives in creating a classroom community.

2. Establish classroom procedures and routines.

3. Identify unspoken classroom cultural norms and assumptions.

4. Gather student/community data.

5. Implement community service projects.

6. Engage families as a resource for learning.

7. Establish positive communication with families.

8. Explore cultural identity

Activity

1. Community Agreements.

2. Template for Procedures Lesson.

3. Educator Reflection—Mismatches in Cultural Expectations.

4. Educator Reflection—Power Relationships.

B)Individualist Perspective

1. Student should "achieve her potential" for the sake of self-fulfillment.

2. Student should work independently and get his own work done. Giving help to others may be considered cheating.

3. Student should be praised frequently. The positive should be emphasized whenever possible.

4. Student should attain intellectual skills in school; education as schooling.

5. Student should engage in discussion and argument in order to learn to think critically.

6. Property belongs to individuals, and others must ask to borrow or share it.

7. Teacher manages behavior indirectly or emphasizes student self-control.

8. Parent is integrally involved with student’s academic progress.

C)Collectivist Perspective

1. Student should "achieve her potential" in order to contribute to the social whole.

2. Student should be helpful and cooperate with his peers, giving assistance when needed. Helping is not considered cheating.

3. Student should not be singled out for praise

in front of her peers. Positive feedback should be stated in terms of student’s ability to help family or community.

4. Student should learn appropriate social behaviors and skills as well as intellectual skills; education as upbringing.

5. Student should be quiet and respectful in class because he will learn more this way.

6. Most property is communal and not considered the domain of an individual.

7. Teacher has primary authority for managing behavior, but also expects peers to guide each other’s behavior.

8. Parent believes that it is teacher’s role to provide academic instruction to student.

2. Ability

The challenge facing every educator is ensuring that each student reaches her or his fullest potential. Often we cannot clearly see what that potential is, but it is still our responsibility to coach, guide, encourage, and support a student to achieve at the highest possible level. Robert Sternberg (2001), a noted testing psychologist at Yale University has said, "There is no test that can tell you what a child’s potential is. It can only give a glimpse of what the child currently knows and can do." Standardized achievement tests give only a snapshot of what a child knows and say nothing about the child’s potential for learning and growth." We all know what intelligence is. You either have it or you don’t. Whatever a child’s IQ is, well, that’s it." Despite much debate, research,

and opinion, we really do not know what intelligence is. All we really have are theories about intelligence, and some researchers suggest there are multiple kinds of it—all kinds equally useful and supportive of student achievement.

Gardner’s is not the only theory of intelligence that suggests that 1) intelligence has more than one major aspect; and 2) intelligence can be developed—that you are not limited by what you are born with. Other researchers suggest that intelligence is something that can be grown, developed, and learned(Perkins 1995; Sternberg 2000).

When we consider the central importance of language in learning and in understanding culture, we find a need to become more familiar with our students’ everyday lives, beliefs, and values. In their cultures, we are likely to find a foundation for students’ grasping of complex concepts and processes. These common misconceptions about abilities often stand in the way of educators being fully successful, resulting in students missing the opportunity to meet their highest potential. This guide offers practical classroom and school strategies, coupled with suggestions for partnering with families and communities which enable educators to challenge these beliefs with action.

Approaches

1. Promote Higher

2. Order Thinking

3. Assessment

Strategies

1. Comprehension strategies

2. Student goal-setting/portfolios

3. Hold high expectations for all students

4. Multiple measures

5. Multiple intelligences

Activity

1.Venn Diagram

2. Models of Different Types of Paragraphs

3. Text Representation

4. Learning and Assessing

5. Educator Reflection—Educator Expectations

6. Student-Generated Rules for

7. Educator Reflection—Formative and Summative

8. Educator Reflection—Multiple Intelligences

9. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

3. Effort and Motivation

We have each, at some time, taught a class that just did not go over well. What went wrong, we wonder. We prepared carefully, knew the material well, delivered the information precisely, but our students didn’t get the information, and didn’t care. We may have walked away assuming the students just weren’t motivated; they j just didn’t try to understand. How do our personal experiences and viewpoints color what we see in our students? Let’s examine some of the assumptions we share about the effort our students exert and what energizes them to learn. We may find out that nothing went wrong—except our assumptions about effort and motivation. It’s easy to jump to this conclusion when we look at the papers that are handed in by some of our students. But demonstrated achievement doesn’t necessarily equate to the amount of effort that a student puts into his or her work. Recent surveys of middle and high school students

found that African American and Hispanic students often put in the same amount of time on their homework but are less likely to complete it because they understand less of what is taught or what they read (Ferguson 2004). As a result, many of us assume that an incomplete or missing homework assignment always means less effort was made when it may not mean that at all. From another view, we have learned over the years that students perceive their capacity to while others do work quite differently. Some students see capacity in terms of their innate ability. while others see it in terms of effort educators have a critical role in helping students and encouraging parents to emphasize the role of effort over ability when students confront new or difficult tasks. (Corbett, Wilson, and Williams 2002).

motivation to learn is a competence acquired "through general experience but stimulated most directly through modeling, communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by significant others— especially parents and teachers" (quoted in Lumsden, 1994). Thus, we find that there is something educators can do to help increase students’ intrinsic motivation:

• Be explicit in what you expect of students, letting them know what excellence looks like;

• Communicate through action and words that you will not give up on the student;

• Encourage students to help each other when they are having trouble.

we know that motivation depends on the extent to which teachers are able to satisfy students’ needs to feel in control of their learning, feel competent, and feel connected with others. Ferguson (2004) counts as one of the central tasks of classroom social and intellectual engagement the balance between teacher(educator) control and student autonomy. When educators allow students to have significant input into learning goals, classroom activities, and daily routines and procedures, students are likely to feel more autonomous and motivated to participate. You can learn from parents about what motivates their child, and what levels of effort they are seeing at home when their child is working on homework, family responsibilities, and hobbies. You can help parents how to help their child do their best work. But as you talk to families, you need understand what’s going on in the classroom and to be careful not to fall into the trap of making assumptions about what is influencing the student based on their culture– not all poor students have parents who are uninterested in what happens in school and not all Asian students are motivated to be straight "A" students. Effective family-school communication requires us to shape our conversations carefully with families to enlist them as partners in their child’s success.

Approaches

1. Build on Students’ Unique Interests.

2. Incorporate Authenticity in the Curriculum.

3. Differentiate Instruction Based on Students’ Academic Needs and Their Interests.

Strategies

1. Cooperative learning.

2. Promote intrinsic motivation.

3. Incorporate curriculum and activities that draw on students’ lives and experiences.

4. Use multicultural literature and materials.

5. Assess and activate students’ prior knowledge for each lesson.

6. Implement activity centers for diverse learners.

Activity

1. Carousel Brainstorm.

2. Think-Pair-Share.

3. Numbered Heads Together.

4. Educator Reflection–Praise vs Encouragement.

5. Say Something, Write Something.

6. Educator Reflection—Diversity in Literature.

7. K-W-L.

8. Educator Reflection—Guidelines for Designing Effective Activity Centers,

D) Developing a Systems Perspective for School Organization

Every school is unique in how it is affected by diverse factors such as the socioeconomic level of students, the experience level of the staff, the condition of the physical facilities, levels of funding from local, state, and national programs, the diversity of languages and ethnicities in the school community, and other characteristics. Even while district, state, and national policies drive many of the systems of schools (e.g., personnel, purchasing, transportation), each school shapes itself to meet the needs of

the population it serves. Every school needs a unique method of organizing the work of educating its own students. What do we need to keep in mind as we think systemically about the structure of our schools and how they operate? First, we have to recognize that in any system, one part has an impact on all the other parts – they are interdependent. Next, there are several important features of a system that, when working well together, result in high productivity (read: high achievement in schools) and greater satisfaction among the people in the system (students, staff, families, etc.). Let’s look now at what several strands of research tell us about what contributes to making schools highly productive and satisfying to the people who are a part of them.

 Leadership

Schools where all students achieve have good leadership at many levels: school-wide, department, classroom, and other parts of the school. Good leaders create and sustain clear and visible values, an environment for innovation and learning, and they focus on the needs of all stakeholders in the school community. They connect to families and key community groups to address issues and concerns, and promote communication and collaboration. Leaders encourage careful planning geared toward success.

 Planning

Schools and classrooms that set and meet high goals develop strong, highly focused plans for improvement that are living documents, not something that is written and filed away on the shelf. Plans are developed collaboratively to reflect the views and needs of all groups. Classroom plans drive instruction by being aligned to state and district standards and community expectations, providing direction for the work of teachers, education support professionals, and students. In this way, all the parts of the school community have a stake in the school’s success.

 Information systems

Effective schools have systems to manage and use data and information for improvement, not just as once-a-year snapshots of testing results. also determine if the school community’s results are lining up closely with their core values. Well-functioning systems have all these aspects working together, supporting each other, aligning with each other so a change in one reinforces a positive change in the other. Schools that seek to be successful with culturally and linguistically diverse students are most in need of making sure that these parts of the school’s system work well and harmoniously. One to approach ensuring that this occurs is by developing a ‘culture of continuous improvement.

 Keys to a quality school

In order to implement the C.A.R.E. themes, each school could consider several of the elements that research shows are essential for creating a quality school. research has identified six "KEYS" made up of 42 indicators of a quality school.

The six KEYS are

Key 1: Shared Understanding and Commitment to High Goals.

Key 2: Open Communication and Collaborative Problem Solving.

Key 3: Continuous Assessment for Teaching and Learning.

Key 4: Personal and Professional Learning.

Key 5: Resources to Support Teaching and Learning.

Key 6: Curriculum and Instruction The focus.

The focus of the KEYS2.0 approach, as distinguished from the strategies, described in the other

chapters, is the emphasis on collective action to improve teaching and learning. While the C.A.R.E. theme chapters highlighted what individual educators might do in their respective classrooms, the following indicators, activities, and questions are intended to be considered by the entire school community, either as a whole or in small groups. In this way, the school can become organized to address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students systemically and move them to their full potential as learners.

III . Conclusion

There are many surveys available for gauging "customer satisfaction" their daily experiences in school. as a simple way to periodically monitor their classroom atmosphere. The data are used by the teacher to make improvements or address classroom issues – they are not reported or shared with anyone else. You can adapt the language to reflect the reading level of your students. Develop survey questions that will provide you with the information you need in order to improve your classroom. This survey could be adapted for use with address classroom issues – they are not reported

or shared with anyone else. You can adapt the language to reflect the reading level of your students. Develop survey questions that will provide you with the information you need in order to improve your classroom. This survey could be adapted for use with parents to gather data on how they feel about their connection to your classroom.

IV . Reference

Braus, Nancy, and Molly Geidel. (2000). Everyone’s kids books: A guide to multicultural, socially conscious books for children.

Corbett, Dick, Bruce Wilson, and Belinda Williams, eds. (2002). Effort and excellence in urban classrooms: Expecting–and getting–success with all students.

Carol Dweck and E. Elliott, "Achievement Motivation," in P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology. Vol. 4., Socialization, Personality, and Social Development (New York: Wiley, 1983), 643-691.

David Perkins, Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence(New York: The Free Press, 1995).

Davis, Barbara Gross. (1993). Motivating students. In Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Available online at http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/motivate. html.

Ovando, Carlos J., and Virginia P. Collier. (1998). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts. Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw Hill.

Robert J. Sternberg, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity, Synthesized (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Silver, Harvey, Richard Strong, and Matthew Perini. (2000). So each may learn: Integrating learning styles and multiple intelligences. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.