La nueva amenaza: Fundamentalismos religiosos

Specifically in addressing the organizational change plan for the ISS program at Eminence High, four main areas were revised to make the program operate in the benefit of the students and the school. Using the research and data gathered throughout this study, my change plan offers suggestions to the school administration and to district leaders on how to improve the use of ISS so that academic instruction for those students assigned to ISS remains at the quality and consistency that Eminence High students deserve.

Strategies and Actions

Please refer to (Appendix H) for a detailed charted outline of the strategies and actions I have proposed for the improvement of the current ISS program at Eminence High. The chart provides four distinct strategies for enhancement. First surrounds creating an environment in ISS that promotes learning. Second, requires teachers to become data diggers. Third, requires direct instruction to continue when students are in ISS. Lastly, describes how ISS should be a part of the school community and not operate in isolation from the school.

Strategies that I have suggested for Eminence High surround developing a sense of community among the student body to deter and curb the constant behavioral

infractions. “Students’ perceptions of their school surroundings shape their response to schooling and their investment in their education” (Taines, 2012, p. 54) Encouragement of all students is important, but especially of those students in ISS. By incorporating restorative practices with students in ISS, conflict resolution skills and social and

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emotional learning can occur. The ISS facilitator, restorative practices committee, or school counselor, will work with students and teachers to bring healing and closure to the school community. This simple act can determine if the student re-integrates back into the student body after the offense.

Along with community, it is also important that all stakeholders on campus create environments that imply that it is okay to learn in this area. All classrooms, including the ISS classroom should suggest upon walking in the room that learning is the expectation, encouraged, and acceptable in this space. When students are in ISS, they should expect that they will learn and not have their education halted while in ISS. Manifesting this expectation should remove the stigma that ISS is for catching up on missing work and reviewing. Students have an expectation that they will be present in their core subject classes and participate in the lesson provided for the day. This further helps builds community, because it helps students support each other in the learning process.

Another strategy I have suggested is for administration and teachers to become data diggers. “The proper use of data centered methods in education is a clearly defined and incredibly effective pathway to academic excellence” (Bambrick-Santoyo, 2010, p. xxii). When educators rely on the data they can observe trends and make predictions about ways to correct and close the achievement gap. Similarly, we can use data trends to observe inappropriate behavior occurrences and ISS assignments. Relying on the

previous strategy to develop relationship and community with students, will allow

opportunity to ask questions surrounded around thought process, feelings and emotions at the time the offense occurred. Again, relying on data, educators can help to eliminate

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those triggers or create barriers to prevent the triggers from manifesting in the academic environment.

The last strategy I offer to Eminence high is that administration incorporate technology into every lesson. This is an integral strategy that works well with the other three strategies. This is a natural occurrence in the life of a teenager. “Today’s kids are always multiprocessing – they do several things simultaneously – listen to music, talk on the cell phone, and use the computer, all at the same time” (Brown, 2000, p. 13). This multiprocessing that Brown suggests, is how students’ today learn. It just makes sense that educators should and would take advantage of this opportunity to merge content knowledge with technological advances that students already naturally adapt and respond to positively. Within the Millbrook district, every student has an email and portal account with which students’ can save and receive documents and even access their course textbooks. A campus wide expectation is that when a student receives an ISS

consequence, the student’s classroom coursework is uploaded through their portal via google documents. Therefore, students would have access to their work immediately upon entering ISS. The classroom teacher would be able to monitor and track when assignments are completed. This would eliminate classroom teachers relying on the ISS facilitator’s report on whether or not the student completed the work. It also eliminates the need for the teacher to send any work via third party, and run the risk of it not being delivered, or student saying I did not receive it. This option allows the ISS facilitator to have a streamlined process of how students should be obtaining their work.

Specific actions should occur because of my strategy suggestions. Building administrators should work with faculty to incorporate restorative practices in every

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classroom including the ISS classroom. Instructional coaches can incorporate restorative practices and teachers can weave these fundamentals into the lesson presented each week. Peer mentoring and mediation programs should be developed and encouraged on campus to help build community and promote positive connections to the school and student body. By using classroom circles educators can assist with trust and relationship building among students and teachers. “When there is trust between students, it creates a social environment in which students can safely risk self‐disclosure, authenticity, confrontation, and expressing affection” (Clifford, M. A., & Center for Restorative Process, 2015, p. 14). This action can also include administrationand teachers taking a consciously authoritative and supportive role in each students’ life.

Similarly, creating classrooms and student spaces that promote learning is essential. Signage in the rooms should endorse and encourage students to take academic risks and struggle through conflict and frustration. Each classroom should be equipped with technological devices (iPad, Chromebooks, Tablets, etc.) that allow for integration of guided technology into the classroom lesson. Likewise, the expectation amongfacility needs to be that technology will be a part of every lesson. This means that students who do receive ISS consequently should be able to log in and participate in their class via computer, webcam, skype, zoom, etc. This has to become an instructional practice, norm, and expectation among faculty and students. Continuous direct instruction is the

expectation. It should also become expectation and normal practice that within content departments, a rotation list exists, that allows each content area department has

representation in the ISS room weekly to answer questions and assist the students with projects or specific assignments not completed via the live session with the classroom

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teacher. Each department chair can create and monitor this list. Instructional coaches, along with Administration will ensure that the list is fair and that compliance is

occurring. These students should feel, as much inclusion and support as the students not assigned to ISS because truth be told they probably need it more.

My last action step involves administration leading professional development sessions assisting faculty with technology as well as with data interpretation, analysis, and intervention. “The practices of data driven instruction are inextricably bound up with the process of assessment” (Bambrick-Santoyo, 2010, p. 6). Data can reveal a wealth of information for educators; however, without a solid foundation on how to disaggregate this information, it just remains in its raw form, data. Data that requires a special eye and foundational knowledge of what it all means. Administration can provide internal

professional several times a year to faculty as whole group and as departments to ensure all faculty understand how to look at the data they collect. Becoming data diggers as I refer to it, allows educators to look deep into the makings of each students. Not just looking at the test scores, but rather fishing out the patterns and gaps that are blatantly obvious, yet, blindly hidden unless glimpsed with a trained eye.

Conclusion

The four strategies provided for Eminence High school weave together quite eloquently. Each on its own can provide major change in school culture; however, collectively the strategies and action plans can offer faculty, staff, administration, and students, tremendous benefits. It is imperative if Eminence high administrators want to curve the chronic revolving door of behavior infractions, close the achievement gap, and correct the attitude gap, while simultaneously increasing test scores and school grade;

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these strategies and action steps outlined can assist. In chapter seven, I address policy implications and this affects my organizational change plan and program evaluation.

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SECTION SEVEN: IMPLICATIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS