Blog #6

This source provides an argument for collective academic involvement in poor communities. Alameda-Lawson explains that students perform better in school when their parents are actively involved in their education as well. She also states that people from low income communities typically get their strengths, not as individual, but as a community. Thus, her argument for collective parent involvement in the education of children. Alameda-Lawson says that creating a sense of community around students allows them to socially connect with other and gain skills in working with other ideas. It also allows parent's voices to be heard in schools as they are directly involved and can see things from many perspectives. Since William Wells Brown Elementary doubles as a community center for residents of the East End, I hope to use this document as a call to action. My thought is that, if parents are utilizing this community center, and the students are already at the school, why not get them together to form a body of families. This could possibly raise academic achievement at William Wells Brown.

Source: Alameda-Lawson, Tania. "A Pilot Study Of Collective Parent Engagement And Children's Academic Achievement." Children & Schools 36.4 (2014): 199-209. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2015

Clickable Link: Source

Blog #5

This journal article is an experiment conducted on third grade students to see how race an gender affect test scores. The author used the California Achievement Test to prove Grant and Sleeter's conclusion that race and gender cannot be separated when looking at how academia is impacted. 107 test scores were picked at random, 20 were black males, 20 black females, 28 white males, and 39 white females. Over all, the study concluded that "females and whites outperform males and blacks in all 11 academic areas" (Scott p.629). While this article is somewhat outdated, I plan to use it to show how the East End of Lexington has been dealing with the issue of race and academic performance for decades now. 

Source:
Scott, Ralph. "Gender and Race Achievement Profiles of Black and White Third-Grade Students." Journal of Psychology 121.6 (1987): 629-34. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015. <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uky.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=d243f57b-3e96-43f2-8c2f-25af14e8c730%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=5370720&db=a9h>

Clickable Link:
Academic Search Complete

William Wells Brown Photo Essay

William Wells Brown Elementary School is located in the center of the east end of Lexington and doubles as a community center. This is a very poor area in Lexington, but the elementary school was built in order to raise the value of the area, along with new housing. 

This picture was taken on one of my visits to William Wells Brown. Here, Stephanie is reading “Perfect Timing” to one of the kids, teaching him about one of the world’s most famous jockey, who lived right in their neighborhood. You can see that the student is very focused on the reading and engaged in the story. This was interesting because I had always imagined that, since this elementary school had low test score, the students did not want to learn and were very far behind on core learning strategies. This was not the case. Shortly after this picture was taken, we gave the student the option to stop reading and work on other homework. To this, he replied that he already knew how to do the rest of his homework and he would rather continue reading the book. Not only did he continue to read the book, but this student picked up an extra copy of the story and actually started reading aloud to Stephanie, rather than being read to. This was a turning point for me. I had always assumed that these students would not have the same level of focus or desire to learn as other students at other elementary schools do, but these students have just as much of a drive to learn as others, arguably more. One of the other students I spoke with at William Wells Brown told me that he wanted to get really good grades so that he could go to college and make a lot of money. These kids know where they stand in society and they know what needs to be done in order for them to succeed, which is something that I did not expect.

William Wells Brown Elementary School has brightly colored wall and superior technology just like any other elementary school. However, William Wells Brown has the lowest test scores of all elementary schools in Kentucky. When I first heard of William Wells Brown and its reputation, I envisioned a crumbling school near an economically underdeveloped area, that was not the case. While William Wells Brown is the primary elementary school for families in the "East End" of Lexington, a notoriously poor area in Lexington, the school is held to the same standards (financially, at least) as other elementary schools in Lexington. I also found that, while the vast majority of the community still needed work, the community surrounding the school was actually improving financially and architecturally. The photo above was from my first visit to William Wells Brown and I liked how it shows that the school looks like every other school. There are plenty of nice looking cars in the parking lot, the announcement sign is up to date, even the trees look taken care of. These are all thing that I did not expect to find at the school because I had this preconceived notion that their test scores were bad, so they must not have a very nice school.

      This picture was taken while en route to William Wells Brown Elementary School. The community surrounding the elementary school can kind of be in “rings.” The school can be considered the center of the rings. Working our way from the center out, the next ring is a lower-middle class residential area. And the last ring is low class, poor area. This ring is where the above picture was taken and I find it particularly interesting to contrast that with the previous picture.

     The type of situation that William Wells Brown is dealing with, in terms of test scores, is also happening on a national scale. William Trent‘s article Why the Gap Between Black and White Performance in School? observes the impact race has on test scores in St. Louis. He finds that 7% of kindergarten test scores are impacted by race alone (p. 321). He then further examines how other independent variables, such as student background, prior test scores, and the poverty level of schools affect these same test scores. When adding these factors, concludes that 35% of test scores are affected (p.321) He then links the fact that most African American students populate schools with high poverty (p. 324). The majority of students at William Wells Brown are minority races and receive free and reduced lunch. This document very much supports my argument for my documentary, so I intend to use it to factually support my theories and observations

    This article directly addresses race in schools and how the problem should be solved. Kara S. Finnigan, Lesli C. Myers, Shaun Nelms and Kevin McGowan suggest that elementary teachers must ingrain anti-racists beliefs in children at a young age in order for the problem to go away. They also give three ideas of what educational leaders should be doing to end racism. They are as follows “They must address negative stereotypes. They must ensure that educators have the knowledge and skills to create environments that build on the strengths of all communities. Finally, they must reduce institutional barriers” ( p. 1). I plan on using this article as a call to action for those that watch my documentary. While this article addresses how educational leaders should deal with racial differences, I believe the same can be applied to society.

Bibliography

1.      Trent, William T. "Why the gap between black and white performance in school? A report on the effects of race on.." Journal of Negro Education 1997: 320-29. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

2.      Finnigan, Kara S., et al. "Confronting Race, Racism And Privilege."District Administration 51.9 (2015): 80. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

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Blog #4: Primary Artifact #2

         "In terms of demographics, 96 percent of the school's students receive free or reduced-price lunch. About two-thirds of the students are black and 12 percent Hispanic.

With a score of 34.4 out of 100, William Wells Brown Elementary was the lowest rated among elementary schools statewide in Kentucky's testing and accountability program in 2013-14.

It is classified by the state as "needs improvement" as opposed to "proficient" or "distinguished." William Wells Brown also is classified as a "focus" school, meaning that it is underperforming in closing the achievement gaps between poor, minority and disabled students and other students."

These records were found in an article posted be the Lexington Herald-Leader on May 25, 2015. While I have visited William Wells Brown a few times, I was curious as to what the actual demographics were for William Wells Brown. I knew that the school was primarily populated by minority groups, but I felt for this project, it was important to find actual demographics and statistics. I plan on using this excerpt from the Lexington Herald-Leader to prove to my audience that the test scores at William Wells Brown are indeed correlated with the race of the students that the school teaches.

Source: 

Spears, Valarie Honeycutt. "William Wells Brown Elementary Struggles to Move beyond Label as State's Lowest Performer." Kentucky.com. Rufus Friday, 25 May 2015. Web. 01 Oct. 2015. <http://www.kentucky.com/2015/05/25/3869082_william-wells-brown-elementary.html?rh=1>

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/05/25/3869082_william-wells-brown-elementary.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy