School Environment Analysis

Vanessa Kawa

Grand Canyon University

* * * * * * Phillis Wheatley Elementary school is located in Miami, Florida and is a part of the Miami-Dade County Public School system. The school is located in the center of Overtown, one of the most poverty stricken communities in Miami Dade County. The majority of people that live in the community live in government subsidized housing. According to Urban Mapping (2011), Overtown is made up of 75% African Americans, 20% Hispanic, and 3% Caucasian. The average income per family is approximately $13,355 and the crime rate is 27% higher than the actual city of Miami (Urban Mapping, 2011). The buildings are dilapidated, graffiti and trash is ramped, and many vagrants live along the streets. Phillis Wheatley Elementary school is one of one hundred and eight schools that are a part of the Education Transformation Office (ETO). ETO is a support team that is committed in growth and improvement of schools that are deficient in the state assessment test. They use data to drive instruction, send curriculum support specialists on a weekly basis to provide guidance, and provide academic resources for our school, such as technological resources, books, equipment, and so on.
The students at Phillis Wheatley Elementary school have many social/emotional issues related to their life outside of school. The students come to school angry, hungry, unkempt, poor hygiene, and academically unprepared for their grade level due to the lack of parental support and daily struggle. These kinds of personal problems tend to affect the students behaviors at school and ability to focus on their studies. Due to the disruptive patterns of behaviors, the school has tried to implement the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model as a school-based intervention to target disruptive behaviors. According to McCurdy, Mannella, and Eldridge (2003), “positive behavior support is a general term that refers to the application of positive behavioral interventions and strategies, including the use of functional behavioral assessment and antecedent manipulation, to effectively address the needs of individuals with serious and chronic problem behavior” (p. 166). The PBS team meets twice a month to analyze behavioral data such as, behavioral patterns per grade level, where and when disruptive behaviors take place within the school, referrals, suspensions, and so on. Based on this data, the PBS team develops a positive approach to address behaviors. The PBS team also creates school-wide incentives with a Class Dojo program, where students collect points based on positive behaviors, completion of homework, and team work. The program is intended to be used with a reward store where students can exchange points for low cost rewards. At my school, the PBS team named it the PBS store. At the beginning of the year, students were extremely motivated to earn points and be allowed to purchase items from the PBS store. However, due to the lack of implementation and inconsistency from the PBS team, students have not been able to visit the PBS store this year. This inconsistency has led students not to believe in the program and has led them to become unmotivated. Members of the PBS team blame budget restraints and minimal stocked items for not allowing students to exchange their points for reward items this year. Although these are valid reasons for the inability to follow through with the much needed behavioral program, there are possible solutions to strengthen the program. According to McCurdy, Mannella, and Elridge (2003), in an effort to ensure continuation and expected outcomes, team members of the PBS team must assume responsibility for organizing and running, meetings, motivation systems, procedures, monitoring effects, and reporting progress (McCurdy, Mannella, and Elridge, 2003, p. 162). In addition to having a committed PBS team, the school must provide staff members with classroom management training and positive behavior support training. The school should also increase the level of community partnerships (agencies and businesses) that are dedicated to making donations to schools. Community partners may possibly donate reward items for the PBS store as well as fund group activities such as, movies, field trips, field days, and so on. McCurdy, Mannella, and Eldridge’s (2003) study found that a motivation system is a highly effective way to strengthen rule-governed behavior. Within their study, they established a motivational program where students who earned reward points were invited to join a club of high-performing students, which entitled them to enjoy various group activities. The data showed that the implementation of an effective motivational system decreased the number of office discipline referrals in one academic year (McCurdy, Mannella, and Eldridge, 2003, p. 161).
Based on the socioeconomic and geographic factors, Phillis Wheatley Elementary school not only faces disruptive student behaviors, but lack of parent involvement as well. Students from low-income families are at a higher risk of neglect and abuse and less likely to have access to a quality lifestyle. Aside from a low-income, parents have little to no motivation, lack an education, and do not consider education as a top priority. Therefore, have no desire or minimal experience in playing a role in their child’s education. Students tend to inherit these traits from their parents, especially when there is little to no parental support. According to Smith (2008), “creating a community of families, students, teachers, and school administrators provides additional support for children’s learning. Further evidence suggests that academic success may be predicted by the quality of these connections” (p. 44). In other words, parent involvement as well as a connection between the stakeholders is vital for student achievement and to develop students into productive members of society. Currently, Phillis Wheatley Elementary school addresses these issues by providing counseling services for our students by our school counselor, providing a community support specialist that connects families with outside resources, partnering with community agencies such as, the Overtown Youth Center and Miami Rescue Mission who provide students after school tutoring services, mentoring programs, sports development, and after school transportation. Although these resources are known to support the school and student achievement, there is still little to no parent involvement. In my opinion, there is a plethora of school-based programs that have been developed to support families and their involvement in their child’s education. Evans and Carter (1997) found “an expanded role for counselors in urban school settings that can improve the linkages among families, schools, and communities: School Based Family Counseling (SBFC)” (p. 366). They describe SBFC as an approach where counselors work simultaneously with schools and families in order to positively affect student development and behaviors. In other words, students are mostly influenced by their families. Therefore, the school should make the upmost effort to engage families to target the psychological, social, and emotional needs of students. This can be accomplished by hiring more counselors and preparing them to mentor students and their families. According to Evans and Carter (1997), counselors must be able to confront and resolve the heavy conflicts and highly emotional situations that students face on a daily basis. In addition to family counseling, the counselors must be actively involved in parent-teacher meetings, and directly involved in creating events that increase family involvement at the school (Evans and Carter, 1997, p. 367). In today’s times, budget restraints seem to have a negative effect on necessary school functions. However, there needs to be more of a linkage between families, schools, and community agencies. According to Evans and Carter (1997), “this includes school agency collaboration, identification of funding sources, grants, and sponsorships, and school volunteer recruitment and training” (p. 368). In order to create positions for more counselors in our budget restrained school system, it is vital for schools to create a partnership with outside agencies that will provide support in implementing an effective system for the community’s youth and their families.

References
Evans, W. P. (1997). Urban school-based family counseling: role definition, practice applications, and training implications. Journal of Counseling and Development, 75(3), 366-374.
McCurdy, B. L., Mannella M. C., Eldridge, N. (2003). Positive behavior support in urban schools: can we prevent the escalation of antisocial behavior. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 5(3), 158-170.
Smith, J. G. (2008). Parental involvement in education among low-income families: a case study. The School Community Journal, 16(1), 43-56.
Urban Mapping Incorporated. (2011). Overtown detailed profile. Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Overtown-Miami-FL.html * * *