Running head: CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

Characteristics of Effective Schools How Does SCCLC Stack Up?

Virginia Reidy
2-13-16
Culture and Inclusion, Reflection #3

Alderson

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

Research indicates that schools that effectively serve a diverse student population promote
literacy, deliver grade-level curriculum/content, organize instruction innovatively, protect and
extend instructional time, expand teachers roles and responsibilities, address students social
and emotional needs, and involve parents in their childrens education.
Rate your school using a Likert Scale from 1 to 5.
5 - having most of the characteristics of an effective school, 4 - having many of the
characteristics of an effective school, 3 - having some of the characteristics of an effective
school, 2 - having less than 2 characteristics of an effective school, or 1 having no
characteristics of an effective school.
Why did you rate your school as you did?
What are the best characteristics your school exhibits?
If you could redesign your school, what would you do to make it more effective? Use your
readings to defend your position.
In his book, Student Cultural Diversity, Eugene Garca emphasizes the shifting cultural
demographics of the U.S. population, and the challenges that schools face meeting the needs of
racially and ethnically diverse students. Chapter 8 focuses on effective instruction strategies for
these culturally diverse students. He says, Schools today are being asked not simply to improve
their functioning but also adapt to new populations, new societal expectations, and new
intellectual and employment demands (p. 323). Through research and numerous case studies,
Garca illuminates the characteristics of effective schools (p. 325). I attempted to rate my
school on a 1 5 Likert Scale against these characteristics.

The K-8 school I work for, the San Carlos Charter Learning Center, is a progressive
school with research-based curriculum. Our mission statement says we are a community that
educates, nurtures and inspires learners to be independent thinkers as well as socially and
personably responsible citizens. We pursue academic excellence guided by research, innovation
and continuous review. Our staff is committed to implementing ideas from current research into
how children learn and best teaching practices. Additionally, SCCLC emphasizes curriculum
and instruction informed by constructivist learning theory, multiple intelligences (as outlined by

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Howard Gardner), and a multi-age learning environment. SCCLC holds the distinction of being
the first charter school in California. I scored our school on Garcas characteristics as follows:

Promote Literacy: 4.5 Literacy instruction is very rich at our school. We use the Lucy Calkins
writing and reading workshop model to deliver instruction. We use Fountas and Pinnel methods
for teaching phonics and interactive writing. Our classrooms are full of books and we have a
librarian and library. In the afternoons, we have an 11:1 ratio for our first graders, since the
kindergarteners go home at noon. Thats when we have our guided reading groups and targeted
phonics lessons. We employ a reading specialist who works with slow-progressing readers. We
encourage the students to become authors and life-long readers, who can share ideas and
discuss literature deeply. An area that could be improved upon is intentionally including more
diverse literature in our school and classroom libraries, and integrating it into our curriculum
more fully.

Deliver grade-level curriculum/content: 4.5 Although we may shift learning goals up or

down based on what we feel is developmentally appropriate, we adhere to the national Common
Core standards and aim to have every child meet those goals. Our curriculum is not static, and
changes with current research. We continually review and reflect. Our educators are offered
professional development opportunities every year. We recently endeavored a three-year project
of mapping our curriculum using an online mapping tool to better define and understand what
we teach at each grade level, and to be able to better follow the progression of the curriculum
through the grades. The tool was offered to the parents to inform them as well. This project is
ongoing. Another unique feature to our program is called the Personalized Learning Plan. This

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project is an opportunity for students to explore personal interests outside of school and present
to their classmates and teachers. The projects grow in scope as children progress through the
grades, and the school and parent community support the learners through the process. In her
article, The Importance of Multicultural Education, Geneva Gay states most educators will
agree that learning is more interesting and easier to accomplish when it has personal meaning for
students (Gay, 2003). Our PLP projects aim to serve this purpose.

Organize instruction innovatively: 5 I think our school really shines in this area. Although we
adhere to standards, we are given a wide berth in our methods for delivering instruction. Much of
our delivery is in the form of hands-on learning experiences, which build comprehension and
analytical thinking. Students often work in teams and share their learning regularly with each
other. We take several field trips throughout the year, including overnight milestone trips. We
are a multi-age school, and therefore keep our students for 2 years allowing us to know them on
a deep level. We organize cross-grade activities such as our Families groups, which include
one child from each grade level, K-8. We strive to coordinate our curriculum to roll up
consecutively.

Protect and extend instructional time: 4 With the pressures of meetings, paperwork,
assessments and planning time, it can sometimes feel like instructional time gets squeezed in. We
are expected to attend several off-hours events throughout the year, which also adds to our
workload. The students benefit, however, from all of the extra events and programs. We have
daily (fee-based) before/after care right on campus, which is closely linked to our instructional
program, and shares our teaching/child care philosophy, hence the name Educare. Educare is

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open nearly year-round. In the summer, several programs are offered at school, such as robotics,
math, cooking, etc. We research and offer online support in literacy and math. Our school takes
students on many field trips, several overnight experiences (up to a week long). There are
scholarships for those who cant afford it. The fact that some of our extra curricular programs are
fee-based keeps some families from utilizing them.

Expand teachers roles and responsibilities: 4 Ours is definitely not a top-down

organization. Our director views the staff as innovators and collaborators in nearly all matters of
our school. Educators sit on our general counsel (GC) board and responsibility for keeping up
on research and best practices is expected. When new staff is hired, current educators are
responsible for training and guiding them. One educator holds two jobs at our school. Shes a
5th/6th language arts teacher and our Director of Special Ed. There is an expectation that we will
all do what it takes to get things accomplished. With the time pressures, it can sometimes feel we
are in a reactive mode.

Address students social and emotional needs: 5 This is a strong area for our school. Our SEL
curriculum runs K-8 and is considered as important as the academics.
We employ our own school counselor, school psychologist, special educations teachers, inclusion
specialists, speech therapist and occupational therapist. We have had training in areas such as
mindfulness, yoga, and executive functioning. Our awareness has been raised regarding issues
around gender identification and we have received training in this area. From kindergarten on,
students are taught conflict resolution skills and dialogue, and these ideals are interwoven into
the curriculum. The educators deliver the same message of peaceful resolution, dialogue, and

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inclusion throughout the grades. There are also some programs the children participate in, such
as The Mosaic Project, that specifically target increasing cultural awareness and acceptance of
diverse populations.

Involve parents in their childrens education: 5 Before the new law, we required parents to
volunteer 80 hours a year for one child, and 120 hours for two or more. Volunteerism is
tantamount to the success of our school. Our instructional programs are designed to include
parents and we cant deliver them without their help. For example, in my K-1, I have a staff
(!) of over 12 parents I manage each week in my classroom. They teach small group lessons in
math, science, cooking, phonics and social studies. They teach art and music. They drive on
field trips. They support me with materials preparation and keeping the classroom organized.
There are also myriad opportunities to be involved outside of the classroom such as being on the
tech team, or the parent resource team (PTA). There are parents on our general council (GC) who
are of equal stature to the group that participate in the governance of our school. Although we
can no longer require parent volunteer hours, parents seek out our school knowing a high level of
involvement is desired. Its our vision to keep parents connected to their childs learning and
progress and to educate them as well. I have seen many of our parents to continue involvement
with the childs education throughout high school.

I believe our school does an excellent job carrying out its mission, so I would rate it an
overall 4.5 as having many characteristics of an effective school. However the diversity in our
school is so low this theory cannot be effectively measured on how these characteristics support
a diverse student population. We do have a significant population of special needs children who

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are well supported by our school. One component that would need to be added to support ELL
students would be the ability to deliver content in the first language of the student for part of the
day. Our second language learners mostly speak Chinese, Russian and Hindi or other Indian
language. We have only a few who speak Spanish first. In her book, Other Peoples Children,
Lisa Delpit implores us to learn about and understand fully the lives of the children we are
teaching. If we plan to survive as a species on this planet we must certainly create multicultural
curricula that educate our children to the differing perspectives of our diverse population (p.
177). Since we have proven largely successful so far with the goal and mission of SCCLC, to
meet the needs of all learners, I am confident that our instructional practices will shift to continue
to do so as our diversity increases.

Sources
Delpit, L. D. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New
Press.

Garca, E. E., & Garca, E. E. (1999). Student cultural diversity: Understanding and meeting the
challenge. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Gay, G. (2003). The importance of multicultural education. Educational Leadership