Natalie Agostinelli

School analysis paper

3/26/17
ED 299

Highlands Elementary School

Schools around the world are each run very differently. I know no matter where I

end up teaching each school will have a different moto, and different ideas will be

important to each individual school. I think it is important to learn about how different

schools function, along with the positive and negative aspects about how they are run.

As a future educator, I plan to go back home and teach abound the Chicago land area.

Before deciding which school is the right one for me to work at, since I hope to one day

teach in Chicago, I choose to do my analysis on Highlands Elementary School, located

in Naperville Illinois.

From my research, it is clear that Highlands Elementary School is aiming to

make their students impendent learners and people. It is clear through the mission

statement that they also care about the children not only as learners but as members of

their community. They want to teach them not only core curriculum, but also they want

to help them grow and teach them about themselves to allow them to contribute to

society one day. The schools mission state reads, Our Mission is to educate students to

be self-directed learners, collaborative workers, complex thinkers, quality producers and

community contributors. As soon as I read this mission statement I wanted to learn

more about this elementary school. From this short statement, it is clear that the

students are the most important part of the teachers jobs. It shows how curriculum is

important, but also the real world is important as well. This mission statement caught my
attention because I also believe in educating students to be contributors to society is

just important as teaching them about core curriculum. I think a lot of the time schools

focus too much on test scores, and from the first module in class we have learned that

students are much more than test scores. That is why I think this mission statement

stands out compared to others that solely focus on academics. Highlands also follows

the mission statements of becoming lifelong learners, thinking creatively, to enjoy and

be motivated to learn, to become literate in the core curriculum as well as the fine arts,

and to share the responsibility of their education. This mission statement also stood out

to me. I think it is great that Highlands did not leave their mission statement to a single

sentence but expanded it to show more about how their school is run. One part of this

mission statement that it important is when is says that the students should have

responsibility for their learning. If students are taught this and given this responsibility at

an early age I believe they will take their education more seriously when they continue

to get older. I also think by giving students the responsibility of their own learning shows

their capability as young learners.

Highlands school slogan reads, A whale of a school This slogan is after a

fourth-grade student who lost a battle to cancer. Highlands elementary started a

foundation for him and came up with this slogan to honor this student. This shows the

sense of community that everyone at Highlands Elementary has. It shows how much

the school cares about their students and will always honor them. The slogan is also A

whale of a school, because the schools mascot is a whale. From my research, it is

clear that the students take pride in their mascot. Having a mascot gives the students

and teachers a commonality that they can all share. They use this mascot in their
slogan and in their school song. They also have sculptures of their mascot around the

school. This shows their school spirit and their love for their school.

Highlands elementary school is in Naperville 203 Community Unit School District.

This school district has a total of twenty-three different schools. These twenty-three

schools are a mix between elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The

superintendent of this district is Dan Bridges. As a district, the students are not very

diverse. Most students are white. There are also a good number of Asian students

throughout the district. There are only a small number of African American students and

Latino or Mexican students. Lack of diversity is common for schools around this area.

As a whole the district definitely lacks diversity. Enrollment is very high for the entire

school district. Most students do not miss days of school. From my research, students

miss less than three quarters of school. School attendance has to do with the placement

of the school and the schools district. Naperville 203 Community Unit School District is

in a pretty wealthy area. Therefore, there main focus in life is most likely getting an

education. It is not like in more impoverished neighborhoods where families are more

concerned about being able to make it by financially. Obviously, this does not speak for

every student and their family in this district, but is just an observation as a whole. It is

also important to see how a district as a whole did on testing. Here they take the

PARCC. Each school in Illinois takes this exam, which stands for the partnership of

assessment of readiness for college and careers. Each student must take the English

language arts and math portion. Then, they are given a score between one and five.

This district did very well on the PARCC exam. In the entire district, only four percent of

students did not meet the standards. About half of the students met the standards and
about twenty percent exceeded the test standards. This shows that most students were

ready to move up a grade level after taking these tests after finishing their previous

school year.

Naperville 203 Community Unit School district believes that every child deserves

and education no matter what. They believe in each child being different and unique.

Students with disabilities are given as much support as they need to be able to get the

best education possible. Each school gives their students exactly what they need to

succeed and they understand that each child needs something different. They also have

special Olympics program for students with disabilities. These students can compete in

basketball, bowling, and track and field. This helps give all students, even ones with

disabilities and equal education. The districts special Olympics moto is, Let me win. But

if I cannot win, let me brave in the attempt. This moto shows that each student, no

matter what deserves an opportunity to succeed. It also shows how brave students with

disabilities are, and shows students with disabilities that they can succeed.

After seeing the lack of diversity in the district as a whole, I went back to

Highlands Elementary School specifically to see their statistics. I found about seventy

students were white, twenty one percent Asian, five percent Hispanic or Latino and less

than one percent African American. I also saw that the enrollment for each grade level is

fairly high. It shows that most students are at school most days out of the year with few

exceptions. After seeing this information, I researched a little more about Naperville as a

city. The average family income here is, $127,000 a year. Most houses are valued at

nearly $400,000. Almost eighty percent of the community is white, about twenty percent

Asian, and five percent African American, and Latino. These demographics show that
Naperville is a fairly wealthy neighborhood. Therefore, the district exceeds in most

testing and enrollment.

Highlands Elementary school has a total of five hundred and fifty-eight students.

They have thirty-one full time teachers, which gives them an eighteen to one teacher to

student ratio in the classroom. This makes the classes small enough for students to

have one on one time with their teachers and it gives the classroom more of a sense of

community. Highlands Elementary goes from grades kindergarten to fifth grade. In each

classroom, there are between three to four classrooms per grade level. Not many

students receive free or reduced lunches. Only about five percent of students are

eligible. This is because eligibility is based on family income. Because family income is

pretty high, not many students are able nor need to get free or reduced lunches. At

Highlands Elementary there are fifty two percent male and forty eight percent female.

Males also seem to preform higher on the PARCC test as a whole. They are not far in

front of the female population though. Highlands Elementary has many ways for

students to get involved. They have over ten different clubs and a student council. This

is good for students to be able to express themselves in multiple ways. This also helps

them have a break from the school day. It helps students find and express their

creativity and might help students find a talent they did not know they had.

As a whole, Highlands Elementary is a very well off school. They have what

seem to be fantastic teachers and well behaved students. They also seem to have a

good sense of community. From my analysis, it is clear that these teachers care deeply

about their students and want nothing more but them to succeed. I am very impressed

with how Highlands Elementary is run. They have very high test scores and that is
because the teachers who work there and the placement of the school. The school

being in a wealthy area makes them have more resources to do better. They have

involved parents and teachers who help the school be run so well.