Marcy's Youth Center Objectives

Miss Kane’s first grade class at Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School (also known as Coates Elementary) has twenty students and seventeen of them are considered English Language Learners (ELL) (E. Kane, Personal Communication, October 4, 2016). This is very frustrating for both Miss. Kane and her students because it is very difficult to communicate with many of her ELLs. Out of Miss Kane’s twenty students eight students are Hispanic, five Indian, five Black, and three White. Miss Kane’s class is very diverse and this allows students to feel more accepted because not all students are similar. Coates Elementary as a whole is very diverse: Asian 28.86%, Black 18.26%, Hispanic 37.32%, and White 12.08% (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). Miss Kane’s classroom reflects similar diversity as Coates Elementary does. Both Miss. Kane and the Coates staff really show their appreciation for diversity and attempt to treat all children equally giving all students equal opportunity. Coates Elementary is a Title I school; about fifty percent of students receive free and reduced lunch (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). This school was placed in the center of poverty and many of these students who participate in the free and reduced lunch program are English Language Learners.

“When we can predict how well students will do in school by looking at their zip code, we know we have a serious systemic problem” (Gloria Ladson-Billings 20). When we are able to forecast how a child will perform by where the child resides, then how can we say that every child is receiving quality education. The unsuccessful educational system infused into the United States is affecting the majority of minorities. In the United States students due to their race and social class, suffer from underfunded public schools, inexperienced teachers, and housing segregation, which in turn inhibit their opportunity to succeed through education. These difficulties plaque students from the very beginning of their public school experience and follow them throughout their academic life. There are a few solutions to these issues but they have to be implemented and enforced with a slow integration.

The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) draws upon promising practices from a national body of work that suggest that dual-generation programming is an effective strategy for breaking the cycle of poverty. Specifically, two-generation strategies that suggest integrating education, employment opportunities, and peer support for parents and academic and support services for their children will produce far more promising outcomes for both the parents and their child.

At Hazelwood High School, they do things differently than at my school. At Hazelwood, most of the people worry about themselves and nobody else. Most of the school doesn’t get good grades and the school does not do anything about it. One day in English class Andy walked out when they were reading Macbeth because it was too emotional for Andy to handle. His friends were concerned and told the school counselor. They said, “But… but… it seems like… like… he needs help or somethin’.” Then the counselor said, “Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you boys this, but he is getting some outside counseling… So you boys can relax and be assured that he is getting whatever help he needs”(100). At Harrisburg High School, if someone had an issue like that, the counselors and teachers would be concerned, even if the person was getting outside help. Another thing about education that is different than mine is the school. In Ronda’s English homework, she wrote, “Our school building must have been built about a million years ago, because it was brown and tall and raggedy-looking, but it fit right in with the rest of the day”(16). At my high school, we are very fortunate to have a very new building to learn inside of. At Hazelwood High, they were not fortunate enough to have a new high school be built. Culture and education are very important pieces of people’s

The East Irondequoit Central School District is a small district with around three thousand students. Eastridge has around one thousand of those students in its nine through twelve building. Out of these students, fifty-one percent identify as being in poverty where, as New York defines it, “the point at which a family would have to spend more than a third of its income on food.” Because of this, many students are given free or reduced lunch. Many students also bring many household problems to school. Many students are traveling from house to house and explaining that their parents are fighting again or in jail. The spirit of these children, however, are extremely positive and they take this issues with great optimism.

Upon a $28 million renovation project, the State Street Elementary building is currently one of the most state of the art school buildings within Northeastern PA. Ironically, this two-story building stands in the shape of a “W” and houses nearly 1,200 students and houses kindergarten through fifth-grade and is labeled as a large suburban Title I School. Intricately, it provides full-day usage-space to the Luzerne County Head Start Program that offers services to the future students of State Street Elementary, which is a county wide support system for low income children. Although the building has only been around a few short years, it consists of historically underperforming and economically disadvantaged

The educational gap between low-income children and the average American presents a serious problem that has only been perpetuated through government-funded public housing projects. Indeed, this divide eventually translates to a disparity of college acceptance rates and job placement rates. Thus, the academic success of children from low-income families directly threatens their upward mobility. A continued shift toward increased tenant-based housing would give families the opportunity to move out of their economically segregated neighborhoods and choose the neighborhood that best meets their children’s needs. Indeed, despite the Housing Choice voucher program’s current flaws, in each of the case studies, the housing choice vouchers have resulted

I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.

Drugs have been known to be detrimental to American society. Commonly known as “ The war on drugs”. Majority of individuals who are incarcerated have been convicted of some type of drug offense and if not a drug related crimes. In many instances, a person can be sent to a jail or prison without receiving the required treatment to help the individual overcome their drug of choice. Remarkably, there is a court solely focused on an individual with a drug problem, which is known as Drug courts.

The overview of these three programs and attaining them is optimal, essentially a cycle of opportunity. By providing these services it develops a base for a long-term goal of achieving self-sufficiency and out of poverty. However, the accessibility of these beneficial resources may be difficult to obtain based on eligibility. New ideas that may help improve or reduce disparities in future programs can begin by concentrating on and expanding educational resources. For instance, a program that holds educational sessions on a monthly base, targeting communities, informing families of available resources and assisting with the application process. Another idea would be collaborating with the school system, specifically low-income based communities. After school program can be initiated to target parents that need assistance with extra resources and services. Lastly, innovating a classroom setting program for the duration of one-year, furthering educational and leadership ability for

Economically oppressed, secondary school aged, African Americans, residing in urban areas are the majorities that are in dire need of immediate Cognitive Behavior interventions within Baton Rouge (E. Stephens, personal communication, August 28, 2015). They are at risk of dropping out of school, experimenting with alcohol and substance abuse, smoking, and institutionalization due to disruptive behaviors and chronic absenteeism. My current internship, Communities In Schools (CIS) located within Capital Middle School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is an agency that implements interventions to decrease abnormally high rates of disruptive behaviors and absenteeism within participating nationwide secondary/high schools. CIS caters to the

If there is no hope to enhance their education there is the hope that it can give the students a support system, they were lacking and decrease the chances of students forming unhealthy habits and behaviors. If the system doesn’t work in the academic sense it can still work in the behavioral aspect. Using MTSS can diminish and replace problematic behaviors, thus creating more time on task and teacher involvement to help the whole student body learn. Education continues to work on “Closing the achievement gap using multi-tiered academic supports requires best practices for universal screening and diagnostic assessment to understand youth academic needs (Benner, Kutash and Nelson)”. The key word in that sentence is focusing on student’s needs. Thus, creating more teachers who work to emphasize and understand the lives of their students and creating the “Down Teacher” that Dance describes and implores teachers to strive to be to meet the needs of their students. This is the best system that has been created yet to work with students. Placing this pedagogy in the hands of teachers and psychologists who work in urban education could change urban education for the better. Focusing on the students’ needs is at the fore front of a student-centered approach. To accommodate and adapt has and will always be a student-centered approach. Teachers who do not adapt and ignore the needs of student to teach required material fall under the teacher centered approach which doesn’t

In the article “Fremont high school”, Jonathan Kozol describes how the inability to provide the needed funding and address the necessities of minority children is preventing students from functioning properly at school. He talks to Meriya, a student who expresses her disgust on the unequal consideration given to urban and suburban schools. She and her classmates undergo physical and personal embarrassments. Kozol states that the average ninth grade student reads at fourth or fifth grade level while a third read at third grade level or below. Although academic problems are the main factor for low grades, students deal with other factors every day. For example, School bathrooms are unsanitary, air condition does not work, classrooms have limited

The next school to present was Floyd C. Fretz Middle School by their principles Mrs. Slaven and Mrs Signor. Overall, Fretz scored an 84.5%. Looking over the information they received from the state, they concluded that the math program was doing well. Mrs. Slaved credited the students for their hard work. In addition to crediting the students, the principle said that the teachers have implemented a new program called HERE. HERE is a program where a teacher “adopts” a student and mentors them whether it is to improve academically or socially. The staff at Fretz feels the program works well with students who are at risk but does not do much for the advanced students. In class we discussed that middle school is a challenging time period for adolescence. I think the program they have implemented will help to greatly ease the challenges students face. In class we

The federal government played a role in establishing and maintaining residential segregation in metropolitan areas. For example, Rothstein states that after the New Deal and World War II, federally funded public housing was explicitly and racially segregated (5). The projects were designated for either whites or blacks, later becoming increasingly black. Neighborhoods that were historically segregated still continue today with the very same characteristics – racially and economically homogeneity. Children who grow up in and attend schools in these neighborhoods encounter what Sherman refers to as “youth disconnection”. In essence, youth disconnection is the lack of exposure to important influences that help with human development. Sherman takes into account statistics about disconnected youth which include being twice as likely to live in poverty, three times as likely to leave high school without a diploma, half as likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree, and etc (“How Disadvantages Caused by Residential Segregation End Up Costing Billions”). How can students thrive in environments that are historically segregated and disadvantaged? Access to a better education along with other influences beneficial to development should to be decided based upon the location in which a student