EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations Lindsay Harris ET 8032

Week 2 Assignment

Overview

You have described and analyzed two of your school’s community involvement programs, their goals, their levels of participation and various aspects that prevent and promote their success. In this week’s assignment, you will design a new, or strengthen an existing, community partnership that integrates school, family, and/or community resources to more effectively support student achievement.

As you brainstorm the development of your partnership, consider the following questions:

·  What will the partnership accomplish?

·  Who are the partnership’s stakeholders?

·  What broad and specific goals do you hope the partnership will achieve?

·  What community resources will contribute to this partnership?

·  How will the partnership procure the required resources/approvals?

·  Who should lead the program, and who should be involved?

·  How will information be communicated to all stakeholders?

·  What other people or organizations are already working on this issue/need?

·  How much time will it take to establish the partnership?

·  What steps must be taken to establish and launch the partnership?

·  What research supports investing time, money, and personnel in these tasks?

·  How will the proposed partnership be evaluated?

Rubric

Use the following Rubric to guide your work on the Week 2 Assignment.

Tasks
ê / Accomplished
15
The evidence suggests that this work is a “Habit of Mind.” The educator is ready to mentor others in this area. / Proficient
12
The evidence suggests that performance on this work matches that of a strong educator. / Needs Improvement
9
The evidence does not yet make the case for the educator being proficient at this task.
Gathering Data / Student clearly identifies data that supports the need for the proposed family-school-community partnership. / Student cites school data, some of which supports the need for the proposed family-school-community partnership. / Student provides a minimal description of student need, the proposed partnership, and /or research supporting the proposed partnership activities.
Initial Partnership Proposal / Student introduces and provides a detailed scope of the proposed family-school-community partnership, and provides a compelling, evidence-based rationale for the recommended partnership activities. / Student identifies the project and provides a general scope of the proposed partnership, and provides some evidence-based resources in support of the proposed partnership activities. / Student does not identify an appropriate project, provide a scope of the proposed partnership, and/or provide any evidence-based rationale in support of activities.
Assignment Mechanics / Responses are relevant to course content; no errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. / Responses are relevant to course content; few errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. / Responses do not reflect knowledge of course content, lack clarity and depth, and/or include multiple errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation, including APA errors.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 1: Gathering Data

To complete Part 1 of this assignment, answer the questions provided.

Current Reality: Identify a current student issue or need that interferes with academic achievement at your school. Cite data that supports the need. This could be data that relates to academic achievement, student attendance, discipline, or other sources. Look at trends of data and disaggregated data, where available.

I think that the most interesting problem that is facing my high school is the over abundance of cheating we have going on in our upper levels. The kids are extremely competitive with one another and for that reason, we have caught a lot of kids cheating on tests, stealing other’s work and lying to get ahead. This is an epidemic that is not only affecting our school but many across the country. According to Rick Nauert PhD, the Senior News Editor of the Mid-Western Educational Researcher, almost all high school students interviewed admit to cheating at least once on a quiz or a test while in high school. He mentions that after doing a study of 100 anonymous surveys from student attending a Midwestern school during their junior year, 87 percent of the students admitted to glancing at another person’s answer during a test and 74 percent said they had actually given answers to another student during an assessment. More surprising still was the number of kids who thought certain acts were not cheating. Only 47% of student polled said that they thought it was cheating to provide test questions to a student who hadn’t yet taken that test. Nauert concludes his article by saying that understanding what students believe when it comes to cheating is a teacher’s number one defense to stopping the behavior from continuing (2010). This data helps show the seriousness of the problem. At my own school, I and two of my colleagues took a survey of students last spring to see what their beliefs surrounding cheating were. Every single student surveyed said they believed that cheating was a major problem for Clement High School and 95% of students thought that there was nothing teachers could do about it. This was motivation enough for a lot of our staff to begin looking at ways to change this radical and illegal epidemic.
Nauert, R. (2010). Is Cheating in High School Normal? Mid-Western Educational Researcher. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/17/is-cheating-in-high-school-normal/13876.html.

Vision: How will the family-school-community partnership that you are proposing resolve the issue by meeting the demonstrated need, and how will it support student achievement?

To combat this serious issue, myself and several of my colleagues began to look at existing guidelines for handling cheating. We found that several years earlier, there was a policy drafted and never officially put into place. The policy outlines steps that teachers are to follow when they suspect a student of cheating. These steps are rather severe and involve a specific set of actions to be taken by both the teacher and the administrators involved. After this policy was discovered, we realized that without parent involvement, we would not be able to fully roll out the plan. This is why we are working hard to print a copy of the policy for every parent to have in their hand by the time our Parent Open House rolls around at the end of the month. Each parent will then have to sign that they are aware of the situation and understand the consequences as they have been laid out by the staff and administration.
Hopefully, by making parents part of the solution; we can assure that the kids will be held accountable for the actions. The pressure our students are facing to be successful can sometimes be magnified by parents and we want everyone involved to understand that cheating is never an acceptable method of achieving desired grades. I believe that also getting the input of local businesses and colleges could help kids see the seriousness of the situation at hand. If they were to get caught cheating in college, they would be kicked out. If they got caught lying at their job, they would be fired. This is all important to helping students understand that cheating is never the answer.
As far as impacting student achievement, cracking down on cheating might actually show up to have a negative effect, statistically speaking. If students previously cheating to get A’s are now making B’s by studying, this will look like a decline in student understanding. However, from a teaching standpoint, this is a positive swing toward better academic behavior. We would rather have kids study and learn to make a B, than cheat, make A’s and retain nothing of value. Then eventually, the state testing scores and overall academic outcome would certainly see an upturn.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 2: Initial Partnership Proposal

The first step in establishing either a new family-school-community partnership, or strengthening an existing one, is to clearly articulate your idea. While your idea will probably evolve as stakeholders contribute their perspectives, you will use this assignment to solidify your initial concept.

To complete this assignment, fill out the chart.

Describe the need for the new or improved school-community partnership. Summarize the strategies/ activities you are recommending.
I am recommending that the community of parents and beyond become more involved in the issue of cheating and make clear to students from all angles that cheating is never acceptable. I am also proposing that as a school and community, we define what is and is not cheating by making those things clear to each and every student through a well drafted document that they can refer to.
Reference the research that supports the strategies/ activities you are recommending.
Ballew, C., Roig, M. (1994). Attitudes toward cheating to self and others by college students and professors. The Psychological Record, 44 retrieved from http://www.questia.com
/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000198166.
Foss, K., Lathrop, A. (2005). Guiding students from cheating and plagiarism to honesty and integrity. Westport CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
McCabe, D. (1999). Academic dishonesty among high school students. Adolescence, 34. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001882636.
Compose three or more measurable goals for the school-community partnership.
1.  The school should, with the input of parents and community, draft am acceptable plan to deal with cheating when it occurs.
2.  The plan should clearly outline what constitutes cheating as it has been agreed upon by all parties involved.
3.  The document should be printed or made public using an online forum for all parents and teachers to sure they are in agreement.
4.  Parents, teachers and students should sign to agree that they understand what cheating is, what happens to them when they get caught and why they should stop doing it altogether.
How will the school-community partnership increase student achievement?
Student achievement, as I mentioned above, might actually appear to decrease at first. But in the long run, students will certainly learn more if they are being held accountable for their own work. If they are cheating and making an A, this education has less tangible value than a student studying and earning a B. Certainly, the student will retain more information and then end up performing better on state testing and college entrance exams where cheating is a lot harder to do.
Identify the school-community partnership’s stakeholders.
Stakeholders include teachers, administrators, parents, community members, college recruiters and business people who are trying to recruit an honest work force from the school. The superintendent as well as the school board members are also stakeholders here as the school and district’s reputation is on the line with every child that gets caught cheating in the classroom.
What are the steps to approval and implementation of the partnership? What are possible sources of funding?
Since this is something we are already working on, the approval has already been sought out and awarded. The building principal was in full support of the initiative and has given input at every level. Parents and students were asked for input early in the process and all idea were included in the plan. We had to ask for approval to have the plan printed and included in the Parent Open House activities and this was approved. Funding for the printing came from our office budget, all work on the project was done on our own time and for free. No other costs will be incurred.
What resources are required for the partnership?
The resources included students, parents and teacher who were willing to participate. This was the first thing, but after that it was most just time. We also needed to funding for printing, but this was granted by our principal.
How will you market your school-community partnership idea?
We used statistics from the national scene as well as the results from the student survey to make the faculty see the importance of the problem on campus. This was done in a meeting setting. The general community will be made aware of the issues through paperwork being handed to them or sent home through their student. We will also be making the problem known through the digital media that our school uses to communicate with the larger community and stakeholders.
How will you evaluate your partnership’s outcomes?
This will be tough to evaluate. Over the next few years, we will have to continue to monitor behavior records and see how many students are being reprimanded for cheating and what if the policy is being adhered to. We can also continue to poll students and parents and see if they feel their needs are being met.