Running Head: School Profile

Running Head: School Profile

School Profile: Hawthorne Elementary

Stephanie L. Chattman

Georgia State University

Abstract

This profile tells the story of Hawthorne Elementary. It addresses the four places of learning; students, faculty/staff, community (including environment and other shareholders), and curriculum. It gives a detailed description of each aspect of the school. It also focuses on the strengths of the school as well as the needs for improvement.

School Profile: Hawthorne Elementary

Hawthorne Elementary is a non-title one school located in north DeKalb County in a small suburban neighborhood. Hawthorne was established in 1961 and in 1995; Hawthorne became the first Theme School of Technology and Communication. It is committed to enhancing the educational experience of its students with its state of the arts Apple Learning Lab. Hawthorne is very community based with strong parental involvement. Teachers and administrators work rigorously to establish a partnership between home and school that maximizes students’ social, emotional, and academic growth.

Students

Hawthorne’s student population represents 35 different countries and many different cultures. Hawthorne celebrates its diversity each year with International Night. Students and staff dress in native costumes and bring native dishes to share. Hawthorne serves grades PreK-5 with a total population on 402 in 2008.

Census Info / Value / Year
White, non-Hispanic: / 34.36% / (2008)
Black, non-Hispanic: / 29.62% / (2008)
Hispanic: / 26.07% / (2008)
American Indian/Alaskan Native: / 0.24% / (2008)
Multiracial: / 6.16% / (2008)
Asian: / 3.55% / (2008)
Student Teacher Ratio: / 10.55% / (2008)

Another unique aspect of Hawthorne’s student population is the number of special education students. The majority of Hawthorne’s classrooms are co-taught. This means there is a general education teacher and a special education teacher in each classroom to allow the school to serve more special education students. Most of the special education teachers are in the general education classrooms full-time so the special education students can be served in the general education classroom. Hawthorne has a special partnership with Coralwood School in which children being served at Coralwood with an IEP have the option of going to Hawthorne to be served in the co-taught setting. Coralwood also has co-taught classrooms so this allows students to continue to be served in a classroom they are familiar with. Hawthorne also serves students who are non-English speaking and those involved in early intervention programs.

Enrollment in Compensatory Programs
Program / Program
Enrollment / % of Student
Population
Special Education
(Grades K-12)
(PK) /
87
6 /
21.5%
N/A
English to Speakers of
Other Languages (ESOL)
(Grades K-12) / 54 / 13.3%
Early Intervention Program (EIP)
(Grades K-5) / 54 / 13.3%

Faculty/Staff

Hawthorne’s faculty and staff are dedicated to student’s growth personally and academically. The administration of Hawthorne continually places teachers in leadership roles so the school can benefit from teacher’s expertise and the teacher can grow professionally and feel like he/she has more invested in the school. Therefore, teachers invest more time and effort into the school. The teachers at Hawthorne are continually improving their craft through professional development. At least half of the staff hold a master’s level degree or above. Also, all of the special education teachers are considered highly qualified. This enables them to learn more strategies to improve student progress.

Another aspect of the Hawthorne staff is the teacher/student ratio. Since most of the classrooms are co-taught, the student/teacher ratio is very low, averaging 11:1.

Certified Personnel Data
Administrators / SupportPersonnel / PK-12Teachers
Positions / Number
Average Annual Salary
Average Contract Days
Average Daily Salary / 2.00
$87,834.00
223.00
$393.87 / 2.13
$55,708.24
190.00
$293.20 / 36.89
$47,484.96
190.00
$249.92
Personnel / Full-time
Part-time / 2
0 / 2
0 / 35
3
Gender / Male
Female / 0
2 / 0
2 / 5
33
Certificate
Level / 4 Yr Bachelor's
5 Yr Master's
6 Yr Specialist's
7 Yr Doctoral
Other * / 0
1
1
0
0 / 0
2
0
0
0 / 19
18
1
0
0
Race/
Ethnicity / Black
White
Hispanic
Asian
Native American
Multiracial / 0
2
0
0
0
0 / 2
0
0
0
0
0 / 7
30
1
0
0
0
Years
Experience / < 1
1-10
11-20
21-30
> 30
Average / 0
0
1
0
1
26.00 / 0
1
1
0
0
13.00 / 2
25
8
2
1
7.95
*Includes One- and Two-Year Vocational Certificates.
Certified Staff Position Ratios
Teacher/Administrator Ratio
18:1
Teacher/Support Person Ratio
17:1
Teacher/Staff Ratio
9:1
Student Enrollment/All Teachers
11:1

Community (environment and other shareholders)

The community, including parents and shareholders, are very involved in the success of Hawthorne Elementary. It is supported not only by the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) but also various businesses within the local community. Some businesses that support Hawthorne include but are not limited to Kroger, Publix, and Chik-Fil-A. These businesses support the school buy giving cash back to the school and donations for various school functions.

Hawthorne received the PTA’s School of Excellence for Parent/Family Involvement. This celebrated the school's commitment to making parent involvement a priority within the school community. Parents are continually working to improve the school. In October, 1996, a new MAC computer lab was opened up in Hawthorne. This was made possible by the PTA, parent donations, and various fundraisers. Each classroom uses this computer lab at a minimum once a week to integrate technology into the learning process. The school offers an annual Tech Night for the parents and community to showcase student’s technology achievements.

Hawthorne hosts several activities throughout the year to promote parent and community involvement. Open House and Curriculum Night are held at the beginning of the school year to familiarize the parents with the school and the expectations of the teachers. International Night, Tech Night, various musicals and concerts, and Parent University are held throughout the year to promote parent and community involvement as well as celebrate student achievement. Consolidated improvement meetings are held once a month to promote collaborative decision making between school personnel, shareholders, and parents. This gives everyone the opportunity to express thoughts and opinions about the school’s strengths and areas of improvement.

Curriculum

In 2007, Hawthorne Elementary was awarded the Georgia Platinum Award for Making the Greatest Gains. It also made AYP last year in all areas. Part of Hawthorne’s vision statement is all students can learn, achieve and succeed when given the appropriate environment. Its vision statement also includes that instructional practices should be developmentally appropriate and engaging. If you were to walk down the hall of this school, you would see that these statements are proven to be true in all of the classrooms.

Since Hawthorne has such a large population of special education students and non-English speaking students, curriculum and instruction are differentiated throughout the day using various forms of teaching. Since there are two teachers in the classroom, small groups are used throughout the day to ensure all of the student’s needs are being met. Various forms of learning such as tangible, auditory, and visual are used to enable all students are able to master concepts being taught.

Since so much emphasis has been placed on the Special Education population, the Enrichment program is often unrecognized. Hawthorne participates in the DeKalb County’s Discovery Program for gifted students. Parents voiced more emphasis should be placed on this aspect of the school so an Enrichment committee was formed to ensure gifted students were being challenged in the classroom as well as the Discovery program.

All of Hawthorne’s curriculum and instruction are based on the Georgia’s Performance Standards with emphasis from the Marzano 9 strategies. Expectations of the students are very high and only four were retained last year. The percentage of students meeting and exceeding standards was 85.81%.

1st Grade - Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT)
Percentage of Students at Each Performance Level: Comparison For All Students
2nd Grade - Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT)
Percentage of Students at Each Performance Level: Comparison For All Students
3rd Grade - Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT)
Percentage of Students at Each Performance Level: Comparison For All Students
4th Grade - Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT)
Percentage of Students at Each Performance Level: Comparison For All Students
5th Grade - Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT)
Percentage of Students at Each Performance Level: Comparison For All Students

References

(2007). Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/schools/elementary/hawthorne/

Georgia’s Office of Student Achievement, (2007). In Georgia’s Report Card. (Hawthorne Elementary CRCT Scores and Certified Personnel Data). Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://www.gaosa.org/

(2008). In Census Information Regarding Student Race. Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://www.helloatlanta.com/schools/Public/1300741/Hawthorne_Elementary_School.cfm