How can we apply the following school factors at Esperanza that research has shown affect the academic achievement of Hispanic learners?
Factor #1: High quality early childhood programs and full day kindergarten
These two things have a greater effect on Hispanic learners and low income students. Research has also shown that as far as kindergarten it is more important what they do during the day than the length of time.
Factor #2: The school has a strong shared vision and commitment.
Factor #3: Class and School Size -- Optimal classroom size is 18 and optimal school size for elementary an elementary school is 350.
Factor #4: Retention--Retention has too many negatives to even consider it for any grade level. Instead it is better to implement effective interventions.
Factor #5: Segregation and tracking: Although both of these can be detrimental, especially to Hispanic learners, there are still some things to consider. Research has shown that Hispanic learners need close relationships with high-achieving peers AND their own ethnicity. A great read about this is the book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum. Although tracking can be detrimental, flexible groupings can be extremely beneficial.
Factor #6: Whole child and learner-centered
Factor #7: Effort and persistence are rewarded-- Both the work of Dr. Glasser and the work of Dr. Carol Dweck about mind-set support this.
3 comments:
I have been thinkinf for a while to have us have an hour or so with Carolyn Turkanis from the Open Classroom in Salt Lake School district. They use research based ideas that very highly focus on the whole child and learner centered education. It might be interesting to see where their research came from, how it has turned out for them, and where they see hemselves heading. Carolyn has also published a book entitled Learning Together.
Many Hispanics come with the idea that edication starts early. Most governments have strong early childhoos intervention and begin sending kids to the "Jardin Infantil" at abt 3 years old.
How can we help maintain a constant vision of where Esperanza is going and what it represents and how we accomplish those tasks? Covey suggests that each new employee to a corporation needs to be brought into the fold in a way where they are quickly brought up to speed and allowed to feel a part of the whole team when yet being allowed to add to that said mission.
A few years ago I worked on an acreditation committee where the school needed to rewrite its vision and develop specific desired results for student learning. Every department, every individual participated, collaborated to accomplish this task. Our job on the committee was to first have discussions abt what was important to each member of the staff, hone in on just the basics, then compile and get a unanimous vote on a school wide basis.
So in this spirit, our family accomplished a similar task and created our own mission statement and then our own DRFL's ( desired results for family living). So just like Hunter we hang it up in every room in our house.
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