Entry #3: It's not always rosy in 'Oz':
"We have our challenges like any school."
6:00 a.m. in the morning... I'm walking in with my head custodian as he
opens up the building, a large black coffee in hand and a breakfast bar
tossed in my leather bag to start the day (I'm "low maintenance").
Obviously, I'm a morning person. School doesn't officially start until 7:50
a.m. My Dean of Students, Joe, is usually either right behind me or already
sitting in his office catching up on the previous day's work to make way
for what the new day will have to offer. Pat, my Assistant Principal, is
busy at home taking phone calls for substitutes and typically has everything
in place when she arrives at 6:50 a.m.
I have quite a few staff who arrive by 6:30 a.m., so they get a good glimpse
of a very committed administrative team, which has the office lit up and
the Xerox machine warmed up for them as they head to their mailboxes in
the main office. I think we all energize off of one another when we see
each other up and ready to meet the day's challenges on a united front:
support staff, teaching staff, and the administrative team.
On the other hand, I'm digging a little deeper into my Mary Kay puffy-eye
gel and under-eye concealer, which is my way of knowing that we're into
full swing with multiple projects on the burners. My staff is feeling the
workload as well. I know, though, that I can't expect to ask a lot from
my staff, if I don't ask a lot from myself. Five weeks into first quarter
has brought its "highs" and "lows." While we're preparing
for the National Forum site visit team to come in for three days next week,
we also have a video crew from the University of Alabama coming up the following
week for two days of taping and interviewing. Our Blue Ribbon application
is due the end of October, and we're preparing to take a team down to Orlando
for the NMSA conference at the end of the month as well. Toss in our 1st
Annual Jefferson Golf Fundraiser Outing this weekend, and it's all very
exciting, to say the least!
But all is not rosy either in "Oz." As I mentioned early on, we
have our challenges like any school. We have approximately 150 students
in a special reading support program to raise their reading comprehension
levels, including building an extra 40-minute reading support period into
our master schedule. Unfortunately (and I'll never understand it), I fielded
phone calls from several parents who did not want their child in the extra
reading support class, regardless of many good reasons I had to offer. I'm
sure some of the kids may have felt "different" being part of
the extra reading class, but here is this wonderful opportunity for students
to have extra support in a small class setting in an area which has such
significant implications for their overall success, as we all know. I simply
can't fathom parents who acquiesce to their kids on such an important need
in their lives. Thankfully, we're only talking about a handful of such students.
Another area that is a goal for us this year is to look at reducing our
suspension rate. Although we reduced our suspension rate by one-third over
the previous year, there still seems to be a disproportionate number of
African-American students being suspended. We're doing individual student
profiling this year, and I'm personally going through each suspended student's
cumulative folder to extrapolate information that may give us a better handle
on the characteristics of these most serious cases and also any correlation
to reading performance, among other variables.
Here's a good example of the type of suspension we are currently running
into. School had not been in session for even one week before two eighth
grade female students started a fight outside in front of the school. Their
profiles? One girl is an out-of-district transfer from a neighboring school
district and the other girl is in a recent foster care situation and has
only been with us for six months. Are these significant factors in understanding
not only what spurred the fight, but also how to prevent such in the future?
Maybe, maybe not.
On one hand, we don't suspend students without intensive scrutiny of all
the facts and background involving the offenders. On the other hand, we're
not unlike many urban schools searching for solutions to neighborhood social
problems that spill into the schools. We're also profiling our discipline
referrals this year by student demographics, teacher, location, time of
day, day of week, and type of incident. We're working closely with our district
Director of Educational Technology to develop a software tracking system
using our district's student management system in conjunction with Excel
software to really provide us with some focused feedback in these areas.
I'll be anxious to share this design with colleagues as soon as we get it
cleaned up. I think we're on to something new and different in data analysis
in this area.
I guess if we didn't have our setbacks we might have to question whether
or not our goals were set too low. If that's a healthy perspective on analyzing
unsuccessful efforts, then I'm proud to say that Jefferson will continue
to take two steps backward to move one step forward. I'll just replenish
my Mary Kay supply. Thank goodness I have a best friend who gives me product
at cost every now and then!
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