Running Brook Elementary School, Howard County, MD

Module 1 School Analysis Assignment – SLM506 March 27, 2016Geraldine Palin

Running Brook Elementary School, Howard County, MD

Community

School location:

Running Brook Elementary School opened in 1970 and is located in Columbia, MD. This city was created in 1967 to give the residents of its ten self-contained villages plenty of green space to enjoy, a large mall to offer a wide variety of shopping options, and schools and churches. There is also a lake area with walking paths for the community to enjoy. At the Merriweather Post Pavilion, a 40 acre preserved area within the Symphony Woods, outdoor concerts are offered regularly and are generally sold out. The nearest major city is Baltimore, which is about 25 minutes’ drive away. There is a local bus service for Columbia residents.

Makeup of the Community:

According to the school profile produced by HCPSS, Running Brook has an enrollment of 529 students from PreK-5th grade and 188 PTA members. It is a Title 1 school. The ethnicity breakdown and details regarding special services are listed below:

EthnicityStudents Receiving Special Services 2013-14

American Indian/Alaskan 0.2% Free/Reduced Lunch 47.8%

Asian 6.2% Ltd. English Proficient 7.2%

Black/African American 50.7% Title I >95.0%

Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 0.8% Special Education 11.8%

Hispanic/Latino 13.8%

White 20.6%

Two or more races 7.8%

Many of the students live in apartments and are low income families, often with only a single parent. Consequently, there are many students who do not have access to computer outside of school. As you can see above, RBES has almost 50% of students who receive free/reduced lunch. There is also a free breakfast provided for all students each day.

Cultural Backgrounds:

There are churches serving various denominations, including Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian and Lutheran, in the Columbia area. Muslim places of worship are found close by in Ellicott City, Laurel and further away, in Washington DC. There is a large population of Spanish speakers, with many parents needing translators when visiting the school. There are also students who speak Arabic, who generally come to Columbia for a year or two and then move back to their home country. Running Brook hosts an International Evening every year and invites parents to share their culinary and craft skills, and cultural dress with the community.

Access to Public Library Service:

There is a public library a couple of miles from the school and another one a few miles further, still in the Columbia district. A relatively small percentage of students regularly visit the public library, but many more have difficulty getting transportation or parental involvement in visiting the local libraries.

The School

Running Brook has just had its 45th birthday, being one of the first elementary schools opened in Columbia. It underwent a major renovation in 2014 to create a new wing at the back of the building, on two floors, to accommodate 4th and 5th grade. This allowed the county to remove the many portables that were previously needed.

School Mission Statement:

“Our mission at RBES is to provide a positive school environment where quality teaching and successful learning are prized and supported. The Running Brook staff takes pride in knowing each student as a learner, and instilling in all children a love and respect for learning. Our diversity is our strength and we continually work to provide a culturally inclusive environment for all of our students and their families. The Running Brook Elementary School community will share the responsibility for fostering optimum achievement and a positive learning environment for all.”

The ratio of teachers to students at Running Brook is 529:68. The teacher figure represents certified staff. In addition, there are 20 support staff also working directly with students. The school PTA is small, but strong and involved helping to organize school events, arrange breakfasts and dinners for teachers during conferences and at other times during the year. They also subsidize the school budget. To support the student population, RBES offers a Bridges after school program, which provides homework help and various academic and recreational clubs. This is possible through the Bridges Over Wilde Lake grant. During the summer, the school joins with another local school and offers an academic program with morning snacks and lunch provided. This runs for the first four weeks of the break.

Other Integrated Programs:

• The Black Student Achievement Program (BSAP) is well run and provides wonderful support to its families, inside and outside of school. Families have a designated mentor and family liaison, as do the ESOL families.
• Math Tutoring Program
• Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program
• Reading Recovery Program
• Alternative Education Program
• School Psychologist
• Guidance Counselor
• Regional Early Childhood Center (RECC)

Elementary School Program:

The main change that Running Brook has undergone is due to its involvement in the Elementary School Program (ESM). This program has radically changed the way students are taught in six of the county’s elementary schools. Reading and math are now departmentalized, meaning teachers specialize in one the subjects only, Spanish is integrated for every grade, PreK is now a full day program, and Telehealth allows parents, health nurses, doctors and students to assess a child’s symptoms simultaneously and remotely. It also brought Smartboards to every teaching area and laptop carts per grade, as well as one each for media and the special education program.

Test Scores:

The official MSA scores for the 2014 school year are as follows:

MSA Reading – 59.8% average score for grades 3-5

MSA Math – 57.3% average score for grades 3-5

These figures represent a 7.6% improvement from the previous school year for reading, and a 2.9% decrease in math for the same period.

Media Center:

The school library is located centrally between the two main hallways that run through the building. There are 24 classes held in there each week, with the media specialist and assistant.

• Class periods are all 45 minutes long and include 15 minutes for book checkout. The only variation on this schedule is for PreK, who have a 30-minute period, with 10 minutes allocated to book checkout.
• The media center is open to students and staff from 8.35 AM until 4.05 PM each school day. Students may check out books before classes begin, during the day with teacher permission, and at the end of the day. There is a teacher sign out sheet for times when the specialist or assistant are not available to check out books, videos and dvds. At any time that there is not a class being taught, the space is available for small group work, interventions, individual student assessment, and other events, such as parent meetings or presentations. It is also used for after school clubs four evenings a week for over half of the school year.
• Students have access to a Symbaloo page which provides them with educational games to play after their classwork is complete.
• Teachers, students and parents have access to databases and the internet for research needs. The county has put firewalls in place. Teachers can also monitor collaborative chats as students are working. Teachers may also access the internet for personal information needs via their laptops, tablets, or the computer lab. There are printers available in the computer lab and workroom for educational purposes. Microsoft Office is provided by the county to students and staff at no cost.
• There are 4 desktops computers set up for PAC access and use by staff and parents.
• There is a designated laptop cart with 30 laptops for the sole use of the media center.
• A Smartboard and projector is available to use during media periods and for presentations and meetings held in the space.

The Current Library Collection

Library Media Mission Statement:

“Running Brook Elementary Media Program will provide students with equitable access to all library resource materials. They will be encouraged to explore and learn and to become confidently independent. We will strive to promote and nurture readers and researchers. Our staff will on hand to support and guide all students, teachers and the community.”

The present collection comprises 14,068 titles. It includes fiction (2592), nonfiction (5690), everybody(3384), reference books (104), magazines (76),professional (1606), and audio visual (401). On average there are 96 check outs per day.

The collection is well set out and clearly labelled, with each area having new 3D wooden letter signage. The current media specialist made significant layout changes to the space, which have really opened it up and has received many positive reactions to the new look of the media center. Previously, the space was divided by a large shelf area, which really did not make the media center inviting or easy to manage. Popular everybody and graphic novel titles are well worn and need replacing regularly. Overall though, the collection is in good shape and inviting to patrons. After close assessment of the computer and space books in 629.4, the currency of the collection needs to be updated, with about 60% of the titles having copyright dates pre 2005. Since removing the graphic novels from the tops of the shelves, that space is successfully being used to promote a variety of book titles and circulation of those items is increasing. When new books are introduced, they are placed on display with signage to highlight them.

Current/Future Media Specialist Goals:

• Last school year she updated the graphic novel collection significantly and re-shelved them in their own large shelf area.
• She weeded a large amount of outdated videos and replaced some of them with dvds, as well as weeding a significant number of fiction titles for the same reason.
• She designated an individual shelf area for books in Spanish.
• This year she has continued this process and has added additional iPads and wireless speakers.
• Going forward into next school year, she intends to target the science and technology titles, weed more videos and replace them with dvds, as well as updating the puberty series for 5th grade.

Yearly Budget/per pupil allotment is $5,044 total budget for 529 students, which equates to $9.54 per student.

Assessment of the Data

All of the research that I carried out revealed extremely important data regarding the current standing of Running Brook Elementary, and will be vital to improving the library collection in the future. This process fully meets AASL standard 3.4, strategic planning and assessment. As can be seen above, the community that feeds into the school is diverse and so are their needs. Using this analysis, I would be in the best position possible to improve resources for the whole community and to make the media center a place for students, parents and staff to feel supported in their learning, teaching, and technology experiences.

The collection clearly needs to support our Spanish speaking population, our special education program, and full time PreK students. It should also represent our cultural diversity by including resources that represent a variety of ethnicities. I would expect that the library will continue to update and improve its graphic novel collection to meet the voracious need of its students, weed out fiction, nonfiction (particularly focusing on computer science and space), and everybody well-worn or outdated titles, to replace as many outdated videos as possible each year with modern dvds, add more iPads for class use, and offer professional development opportunities to teachers to prepare them well to utilize county provided databases and new online tools to support deeper learning. The special education department gets a significant budget to support their students with technology, in addition the technology department has added further technology, such as robots and a couple of Google Expedition cardboard googles to use for one to one situations.

There has certainly been some considerable effort in the last 3 years, since a new media specialist has taken over, to begin this long and expensive process and the result has definitely increased circulation figures. Spanish books have significantly increased, as have graphic novels, Black Eyed Susan titles have been added, dvds are slowly replacing videos, and more technology has been added. I would like to see a student and a teacher suggestion box introduced to allow for the community to have some input into the purchase of new resources in the future. I do feel that the collection is getting closer to representing the population of the community and will continue to do so. In addition to the general book sections, the professional section is constantly receiving new materials to support the curriculum. With teacher recommendations, the general collection can add even more curriculum related resources.

It should be pointed out in this analysis that the involvement of the school in the ESM pilot program has significantly enhanced the resources available in technology terms, along with adding to the requirements of the book collection to meet the needs of the new full day PreK program.

Works cited:

Interviews with Lauren Atwood, Library Media Specialist, Kristina John-Gabriel, Technology Teacher.