Kaitlin Steeb October 4, 2013 Field Work Practicum School Culture Print Essay

Academics, arts, and athletics; these 3 As of excellence as they are referred to, are the guiding principles by which Boardman High School is run. Boardman Local Schools are located in Boardman, Ohio, a suburb of Youngstown. It has a population of roughly 35,000 people, almost 4,500 of those being students. Boardman High School, houses almost 1,500 of those students on a daily basis. The town of Boardman is a high traffic area. It is home to a shopping mall as well as various other department and chain stores. It also houses a large number of well known restaurants and attractions. While Boardman has a reputation for being a wealthy area because of all its amenities, it actually falls below state averages in both household income and home values. At a glance, the high traffic areas of the community are filled with what would appear to be mostly upper middle, and upper class homes. But often the vast amounts of apartment complexes and the lower income areas closer to the Youngstown line are overlooked. According to its 2012-2013 report card, 36.6% of Boardmans students are considered economically disadvantaged, putting the poverty status of the school at medium-low. With my average class size being about 25, this means that around nine students that come through my classroom door every period are coming from an economically disadvantaged home. From an observers standpoint, this number is hard to imagine by simply looking at the students. Because of the readily available shopping, fashion appears to be a high priority among the Boardman students. It is not unusual to see expensive designer purses on the ground by many of the desks in the classroom. It is also surprisingly rare to see students dressed down, in

items such as tshirts, sweatpants, or sweatshirts. Athletes are always seen dressed up on game days, the boys in shirts and ties and the girls most often in skirts or dresses. Ive also found that for dances the majority of the population dont simply go over to the mall and pick out a dress off a rack, but rather have them ordered from the internet or custom fit at the local dress shops and boutiques. This type of environment could prove challenging for students from lower income families and could potentially be a source of division between the students in the classroom. As a teacher I need to make sure to be aware of this financial division and to make accommodations as needed, especially when it comes to projects and homework. While Boardman High School maintains a BYOD policy (bring your own device, i.e. smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) I have come to learn that many of my students dont even have access to a computer at home. So as a teacher I should be cautious when assigning projects or homework that require internet access or the purchasing of products needed to create the project. To accommodate for such an economic gap, I have found that my cooperating teacher usually leaves ample time for in class work, and when a paper is due, reserves the school computer labs for the purposes of typing and printing. I have also never seen her assign homework that wasnt already on a worksheet she handed out or the information couldnt be found in the textbook, which all students are assigned at the beginning of the year. By doing this she is fostering an equal learning environment regardless of the childs economic situation. Closing this economic gap is something that Boardman appears to have done well, meeting 100% of their state indicators and receiving scores of over 90% for both the reading and writing OGTs. They also managed to have their economically disadvantaged students score above the state goal in the AMOs. To add to their list of credits Boardman has a 92.7% four year graduation rate, which only puts them .3% away from having that highly sought after state A.

Which means they will be pushing as hard as they can to earn that A next year. Just because Im teaching freshmen now, doesnt mean I cant add to those numbers. At the freshman level it is important to teach the students good fundamentals, so that they have a solid base to rely on for the remainder of their high school career. It is my hope that if a student has a solid grasp of the material they will be less frustrated and confused in the years to come and more likely to graduate. As stated earlier, Boardman is very much a consumer town. This explains why the second largest industry in the area is retail. This is only second to manufacturing, which can be accredited to the areas proximity to Youngstown, historically a major manufacturing city. With these occupations being so prevalent within the area, it is likely that a high number of students have exposure to these two fields, whether it is through family members, friends, or potentially themselves. Having these two factors weighing so heavily on the community will surely have an effect on my classroom, but Im not sure in which way. In a positive light, my students familiarity with these careers would make it something I could easily relate lessons in the classroom to, in order to make them more realistic and meaningful to my students. On the other hand, at the basic levels, neither one of these jobs require a college degree. As a teacher, I naturally want my students to graduate and pursue a higher form of education. So I think it would be important for me, especially as an English teacher, to open their eyes to a world of possible career fields so that they may be educated enough to make a choice about their future. Because Boardman is such a business and manufacturing oriented town, many parents want better lives for their children. They bring them here to learn, said Mr. Cardillo, the high school principal, in regards to the parent cooperation with the school. According to Mr. Cardillo, Boardman has seen a steady increase over the years of students coming in from the Youngstown

school district. He explained that comparatively Boardman has a lot more educational opportunities to provide students, better funding, and higher state rankings. The 3 As of Excellence seem to be held in high regard in the Boardman community. It is hard to identify one strict culture in an area that maintains such a large sense of diversity. Even though the school identifies as 80.8% white, for a suburban school in that area, thats about as diverse as they come. Demographically, Boardman maintains a high Italian population and well over half of the population of the city identifies religiously as Catholic. But as more and more students and families move over from the Youngstown area, that diversity level is increasing. This has become a source of concern among Boardman teachers and staff, because they are seeing an increase of immigrants, who have yet to learn English and still rely heavily on the customs of their own culture. But just as with anything in education, with time and effort these students are able to easily assimilate into the culture of the school and quickly find their niche. Doing this project helped me to even further realize that I must possess the ability to put aside my preconceived notions in order to be open to teach students from all walks of life. Growing up in the area, Boardman to me always maintained its high class and wealthy reputation. Digging deeper I realize that Boardman, just like any other school district, supports a culturally and economically diverse population. The most important thing though is that they have managed to celebrate those differences and make it work within their school district, which motivates me even more to do my best to become a part of this school system that I so highly admire and respect.