Case Study on "School Improvement"

>

In terms of the low-level of performance in the school's population of student's with disabilities, similar steps need to be taken to evaluate and audit this particular curriculum. Special focus needs to be placed on the role of inclusion, finding areas where inclusion could be implemented or where inclusion is currently implemented but not producing the desired effects. In such areas, more one-on-one focus will be needed, perhaps including the hiring of more specialists who can also work with the particular student outside the regular classroom in order to ensure they have the skills needed to succeed in the classroom.

Before any real change can occur in the school, issues of staff discontent need to be addressed. In order to solve the problem of staff discontent, one first must discover the cause of the discontent. To do this, the administration must establish a protocol, or reputation, of being available for open communication and discussion of any issues a staff member may be experiencing. Perhaps the best way to start is to both create and issue a staff survey regarding areas where they would like to see improvement. To supplement this survey, a written policy on the administrations process on receiving and handling complaints can be issued to ensure the staff that they should feel safe in being honest in their responses.

After the surveys are entered, the administration should meet to review the results and evaluate what can be done. This evaluation should be transferred into an action plan that clearly states what the problem is and how the administration plans on solving it. This action plan should then be distributed to the entire staff so that they know their ideas are being acted on.

Next, the action plan must be implemented. It would be highly beneficial to create a committee of administrators, staff and perhaps even students who are in charge of overseeing the policy changes. Further, the administration should make a concerted effort to meet with each staff member individually at least one time a semester to discuss how they are feeling as part of the school team. At this meeting, both the administrator and the staff member should be able to critique each other and offer suggestions as to how each other can improve.

Finally, the information gathered from the staff should be communicated to the district level administrators. Many of the areas of discontent may be as to district policies, as opposed to school policies, and therefore cannot be properly addressed by the school administrator.

Another issue of concern is the student and parent concern over the safety of the school. This concern seems to be mostly centered on the bathrooms and other sparsely-used and non-monitored areas of the school grounds. Although the school has implemented numerous safety initiatives over the past year, which, as the statistics show, have been successful at reducing student violence and other safety issues, one cannot ever be satisfied with the overall safety plan. Thus, it is important to continue to evaluate the current safety status of the school and implement ongoing changes to meet the ongoing changes in safety concerns.

To accomplish this, two steps need to be taken. First, the school needs to do a better job at communicating its safety successes with students and their families. It seems that much of the concern is unfounded and that if the school made an effort to keep the students and families informed of all safety statistics and measures, that much of these safety-related concerns would be satisfied. This communication can be done via regular newsletters or even community media-based news stories.

At the same time, the school cannot create an image of not caring about safety concerns. Because specific concerns have been raised, the school has an obligation to investigate, evaluate and address them. As part of the ongoing safety initiatives, the school should provide a forum where students and parents with concerns have an easily accessible method of addressing them.

When a concern is raised, the school needs to have a standardized process of addressing them and, if needed, making the necessary changes. For example, because concern has been raised as to the bathroom areas and other unregulated areas of the school property, the school should evaluate these concerns and then, if needed, make changes to address them. For instance, perhaps expanding the video surveillance to the unregulated areas of the property would suffice. Further, having more staff supervision in the restroom area, along with surveillance on the outside entrance of the door, would alleviate some of these safety concerns.

One of the most important aspects of a school is the interaction between the students and the teachers. Without a trusting, professional bond between the student and their teacher, learning will suffer. It is when the student has a close, respecting bond with their teacher that they feel comfortable and open up to the learning experience.

According to a recent survey, both students and staff have remarked on a general lack of student and teacher bond existing at our school. A large segment of the students responding as to the lack of bond are minority students.

To ensure that a bond is established between the minority students and their teachers, several steps need to be taken. First and foremost, all teachers must make a concerted effort to evaluate their teaching styles to ensure that this is not creating a wall between them and minority students. For example, does the teacher tend to focus on the white students? Does the teacher focus behavioral issues on the non-white students? Does the teacher interact equally with all students? Does the teacher employ materials that are culturally sensitive? Does the teacher refer to the non-white student to answer questions that typically relate to minorities? All of these issues could potentially prevent the non-white student from bonding with his or her teacher.

Second, the school needs to ensure that minority educators are hired and are placed in the actual classroom. Evidence has shown that non-white students are more trusting and comfortable with teachers who "look like them." Even if every non-white student had one non-white teacher in their daily schedule, they could at least learn how to teacher and student bond is suppose to work and thus be able to emulate this relationship with all of their teachers. The intended result would be that both teachers and students would feel that they had a better bond with each other, thus leading to a fuller and more engaging learning experience for everyone.

Another aspect that relates to improving school morale (both student and instructor) and the overall learning experience is to increase interaction between the school and the community at large. Because the community is becoming a more and more important player in the school's success, both the staff and students must become an intricate part of the community. Further, this will assist with teaching the concept of community, which will also benefit in getting students and staff more involved in the school community.

For this reason, it is imperative that all become involved in both civic and school level organizations, volunteer programs, arts, and sports. In terms of the students, this will allow them to gain a better understanding of the role that the community will play in their entire life. Further, it will instill in them the concept of civic responsibility, allowing them to understand how they will play an… READ MORE