XYZ Elementary is a Title I school that currently serves pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students. The student demographic of this school includes the following subpopulations: socioeconomically disadvantaged, at-risk, African-American, Hispanic, Emergent Bilingual learners, and students served by Special Education, Section 504, and Response to Intervention (RtI) programs. Such a diverse group of students across multiple grade levels presents unique challenges for teachers and school leaders. The cultural, linguistic, social, and economic diversity reflected in this school community requires educators serving these students to adopt, nurture, and maintain at the core of their individual philosophies the belief that learning environments should be non-threatening, self-actualizing, and non-judgmental, where both intellectual and emotional needs are met.
Principal Goals, Outcomes & Stakeholders
The purpose of the educational organization XYZ is to form a general culture of students’ personality based on the assimilation of the mandatory minimum content of general education programs. In addition, a special role is assigned to their adaptation to life in society, and the creation of a basis for conscious choice and subsequent development of professional educational programs. The results for the organization should be a change in the set of motivational, operational and cognitive resources of the personality of students (Assari & Caldwell, 2018). They are determined by student’s ability to solve significant cognitive and practical tasks, or an increment in the student’s resources. The stakeholders are the teaching and management staff of an educational institution interested in the success of students. The students themselves and their parents can also be attributed to stakeholders, since the achievement of educational goals depends on their involvement in the educational process.
Problem For Investigation
Student data illustrates that reading achievement on the yearly state standardized summative assessment has been on a steady decline in third-fifth grades over the past three school years. According to the most recent state accountability assessment, 36% of fourth-grade pupils achieved the grade-level reading proficiency in 2021. Reading teachers have consistently complained that students are entering third-grade reading below grade level and this has had a spiraling negative effect on achievement scores in testing grades. Administrators have decided to examine the extent to which instructional delivery at XYZ Elementary considers the varying needs of the students represented in the school’s demographic. Although there is a district expectation that the reading curriculum is implemented with fidelity in the classroom, there is a disconnect in curriculum implementation/instructional delivery and student reading achievement. As such, school leadership seeks to explore the relationship between instructional delivery and student achievement by investigating the cultural responsiveness of the learning environment.
Primary Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats, & Opportunities
The primary strengths of XYZ school are an established teaching staff with a high professional level and creative potential. In addition, the strengths include having experience working with various groups of students and establishing contacts between them. At the same time, the educational organization XYZ has quite serious weaknesses. This is the predominance of traditional approaches to the learning process in the team. Due to the peculiarities of the ethnic affiliation of students, its use is ineffective (Heineke & Vera, 2022). In connection with these weaknesses, there are a number of threats to this educational institution. These primarily are a decrease in the amount of funding for subventions for the implementation of general education standards due to a decrease in student results. There are also some opportunities the organization is dealing with in reference to the identified problem of practice. The most important of them are the creation of conditions for the implementation of educational standards of primary general education. Moreover, among the opportunities is increasing personal responsibility for the result of education.
Impact of Systems, Complexity, & Change Theories
Systems of multicultural education in relation to such disciplines as history, geography and literature can influence these problems of practice. These systems will consider the development of human civilization as an integral flow. Such complexity means the study of American and world culture as a single and diverse process. It ensures that students of different ethnicities are introduced to national and universal values (Kisbu-Sakarya & Doenyas, 2021). At the same time, the use of complexity will help to eradicate nationalistic stereotypes in the learning process. Change theories consonant with multicultural education will be the start of a dialogue of cultures. Through the application of these theories, an approach to each of the participants in the educational process will be established. This will improve its effectiveness and improve academic performance.
Organizational Improvement
The theories will contribute to the cohesion of the children’s collective, which will create comfortable conditions for all representatives of the multi-ethnic contingent at school. In such conditions, it will be easier for students to focus on their studies, and academic performance will improve. The system will be flexible enough to be able to rely on various systems of worldview and ways of sensory perception of students (Craike et al., 2018). The second aspect that the system will take into account is religious affiliation. Change theory that applies to organizational improvement will be aimed at creating a comfortable and safe educational environment for students. Change theory does not consist in a sharp immersion, but a gradual enrichment of the existing experience with ideas about the traditions and customs of a culture alien to the student.
References
Assari, S., & Caldwell, C. H. (2018). Teacher discrimination reduces school performance of African American youth: Role of gender. Brain Sciences, 8(183), 1-14.
Craike, M., Wiesner, G., Hilland, T. A., & Bengoechea, E. G. (2018). Interventions to improve physical activity among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups: An umbrella review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 15(43), 1411-1420.
Heineke, A. J., & Vera, E. M. (2022). Beyond language and academics: Investigating teachers’ preparation to promote the social-emotional well-being of emergent bilingual learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 73(2), 398-406.
Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & Doenyas, S. (2021). Can school teachers’ willingness to teach ASD-inclusion classes be increased via special education training? Uncovering mediating mechanisms. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 113(7), 108-120.