connections trends, issues, and challenges

Connections-Trends, Issues, and Challenges

EMD 560

Kayla Jacobs

1. Issue- Number of youth at risk of dropping out of school and who are, in

fact, dropping out.

• I think this has the most influence on secondary students. We want all our students to graduate high school or receive a GED. A diploma opens up many doors and opportunities that someone without a diploma can never have a chance at. This issue affects a secondary student that I know because the top three ethnic groups that are affected by drop outs are Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Black at my current school African American and Hispanic students make up more than half of the school population.

• U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). The Condition of Education 2012 (NCES 2012-045), Table A-33-1.

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/tables/table-sde-1.asp

2. Challenge- Provide a structured learning environment with well

understood and frequently rehearsed procedures.

• I think this is the second most important because once you have that structured learning environment everything else seems to fall in place like classroom management and all the chaos is gone. I think it is very important that students know what to expect when they walk into your class every day, they shouldn’t have to guess at how their classmates are going to behave today. Frequently rehearsing procedures should start on day one and be followed through continuously. Students should know where today’s work is located, where to turn in homework, what to do if they have a question, what to do if they need to go to the bathroom, or need a pencil, etc.

• Kellough, R. D., & Kellough, N. G. (2011). Secondary school teaching: A guide to methods and resources (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Allyn & Bacon.

3. Trend- Elimination of “F” grades, sometimes with the substitution of

the “I” (incomplete) grade, focusing on providing students with continuing and additional

opportunities to succeed.

• I haven’t heard of this trend before but I think this would help with a student’s self-esteem a lot or at least encourage them to keep trying. I have some students that experience difficulty with learning no matter how hard they try. I have even had some that have told me, “What’s the point of trying? I’m already failing anyway.” At least this would encourage students to keep trying and not to give up.


4. Trend- Establishing lower grades and high school partnerships to ease the transition for students

into the ninth grade.

• This would affect all the 8th graders at my school. We are a K-8 school but we operate on an elementary school level. Middle school students have to walk to all their classes with their teachers, they go to lunch with their teachers and they stay with the same classmates from class to class. I feel that this will put our students at a disadvantage when they go to high school next year, they will be given all this freedom that they have never had before. I think it would help if the 8th graders got to visit the high school to take a tour of the campus so they won’t be in such as shock when they get there. The guidance counselors do come around and help them register for classes before they go to the high school but I think more can be done to make the transition easier.


5. Issue- School buildings and facilities that are outdated and needing

upgrading and repairs.

• I picked this issue because the appearance of the school buildings gives our students a sense of pride. This is one issue that is really dear to me because it needs to happen at our school. The school is very old and the building my class is located in has been there since the beginning. There have been many updates to the rest of the schools such as new buildings but there are two that definitely need to be updated. In some cases it can come down to the overall health and safety of the students. One example that happen to me this year, in early September I had the wall unit air conditioner on before the students had entered the classroom and it caught on fire. If students had been there one of them could have been burned because there is a desk right under it.
