Laura Tzunun

March 30 2015
Dr. Forrest C. Crawford
Diversity in Education

6020 School Commitment to Social Justice Survey

School: Lincoln Elementary: Ogden School District
Position: Student Teacher

1. The school population is purposefully diverse and inclusive. (D)

I Disagree with this statement because I have yet to see any evidence of diversity being

embraced as a part of the school. While it could be worse, It still has a lot of room to grow.

I am not familiar with the exact numbers, but I would say that the school is about 60% white and

39% Hispanic with 1% black. There is not a lot of support for the Spanish speaking parents. The

school is great at giving support to the students in the ESL program but provides very little

support for Spanish speaking parents. During the parent teacher conference a lot of the parents

had to wait a long time to wait for a translator. Because most parents did not have a lot of time

to wait they simply just tried to get by on the little English they knew. Some parents did not even

show up to the conference because of this problem. Parent involvement is vital to student

success. Permission slips get sent home and they are strictly in English. There is no Spanish

versions available. One student brought back a waiver for her to not be included in any photos.

The parents were confused and thought they were signing for her permission to be in the

photos. This could have simply been solved by sending the waiver home in Spanish.

Some solutions to this problems could be hiring staff that speak Spanish. There needs to

be an employee that is in charge of translating for Spanish parents and creating documents in

Spanish. Perhaps one of the secretary workers would need to be able to speak Spanish. Also

the school needs to provide more translators at parent teacher conference and advertise to the

parents that there will be more translators available.

 2. The school climate and school rituals and practices reflect a commitment to diversity

and inclusion. (A)

Lincoln Elementary has been making an effort in creating a feeling of school community.

Some of the things that they have been doing is they have a family night activity once a month.

They invite the whole family over for a dinner and a movie, game, or scholastic event. The

school is trying to get the family more involved with the students and their learning.

Lincoln does a character trait of the month and we have an assembly at the end of the

month. We chose one student who has demonstrated that particular character trait and they

invite their parents for a student of the month breakfast. This helps build a community at the

school because it is something that the school is working towards as a whole.

Lincoln also invites parents and grandparents to come participate in student learning.

One of our student’s grandmother would come once a month and read to the students. They

loved this and it was a great way to involve family members in the class.

I think that Lincoln could improve the school community by offering events that were

applying to all diverse groups of families. They could have Spanish workshops for the Spanish

speaking parents to try to get them more involved at the school. They could have staff that

speak Spanish at activities to give instruction and guidance to Spanish speaking parents. There

could be fun activities where students get an opportunity to learn about other cultures and their

holidays, for example the Day of the Dead. This would give students the opportunity to learn

more about their cultures and the cultures of their classmates. This would help students unite

and be more accepting and understanding of each other.

3. The curriculum reflects a commitment to social justice and diversity. (D)

The Curriculum at Lincoln Elementary is mostly focused on Language arts and Math. Most

topics studied in Language arts are about American history. They rarely include things of other

cultures. Students and teachers are in a very Ethnocentric learning environment. Even Though

about 40% of the school is hispanic, many of them don’t even know facts of their own culture.
Many students refer to Spanish as “Mexican” and are totally unaware that there are other

countries in Central and South America other than Mexico. Most students don’t know anything

about other groups of people simply because they are not taught about it. Also other viewpoints

are rarely discussed such as the thoughts of Native Americans when America was colonized. I

don’t think that this is a problem only at Lincoln elementary but nation wide.

This could be changed by including different viewpoints when discussing the popular

viewpoint. Also cross cultural curriculum can easily be integrated in to a class. Teachers will find

that students will become very engaged in the learning of other cultures. Like a mentioned in

question number two events can be held to celebrate different cultures holidays. Learning about

other cultures diversify us and make us more accepting of differences. It helps us realize that

there is not always one right way of doing something.

4. Pedagogical practices are driven and informed by social justice issues. (A)

I have seen many teachers, including myself, using differentiated instruction as much as they

can. We know how beneficial it is to students to provide different learning styles in our lesson

plans. I always am sure to do so. As a school we are required to use tiered instruction to make

sure that all levels of learning are being met. We always start with our tier one teaching and

then we assess which students need extra help and we do small group intervention (tier two).

This gives us the chance to instruct students in small groups so that individual needs can be

more easily met. The one thing that the school could work on is providing opportunities for

higher performing students. They are often forgotten because we are so worried about our

struggling students.

We could increase opportunities for our higher performing students by creating tasks for

them to do. We group our students by levels in reading groups but the only students who

receive these services are the low performing students. Students who are high performers

should have a group that can help them grow more and challenge them.
 5. Extracurricular practices reflect a commitment to diversity and inclusion. (SA)

Lincoln Elementary does a great job at creating equal opportunities for all students in

afterschool programs. One example of this is the running club. All students are encouraged to

do it. No one is discriminated. Students are highly motivated to participate because they are

rewarded by having a picture taken of them and placing it on the wall. Students are competing

between grade levels to see who can run the most miles total.This is a great way to include

everyone. There are no requirement of being a fast runner or there is no segregation. Boys and

girls are equally included in this activity. It is a great choice a the person running the program

does a great job at including everyone.

6. Zero indifference, not zero tolerance. (A)

While I am not aware of gender identity in elementary schools, I’m sure it excites and that

students may be targeted as “gay” and they may be bullied. This was not seen in my classroom

so I was unaware of this at Lincoln Elementary. I have seen that there is a lot of bullying based

on race. Hispanic students and white students have been known to use racial slurs between

each other. The school has a great policy for this behavior. Students meet with the principal and

talk to him why this is wrong. They are taught that we need to treat each other equally and with

respect. He gives students a chance to get to know each other better. Parents are contacted

and they are informed that their child was bullied or that they bullied a child. If it becomes

necessary the parents are asked to come to school and have a meeting with the principal and

their child. This helps bullying in our school to be less frequent. I also made a point in my

teaching of the importance of treating others how you would like to be treated. To treat them

fairly and kindly. To never make jokes about others to gain friends or laughs, because in the

future they will have problems to deal with this. I taught them that all actions have

consequences.
 7. Teachable moments of social justice are seized, not ignored. (D)

I am referring to myself in this statement and not Lincoln Elementary because I am

unsure of what they do in this statement. I do however know how I am and that I could use

some improvement in this. An example of an event that occurred in my classroom was a boy

told a group of hispanic girls to “go back to where they came from” and “I hope that president

Obama deports you and your family back to Mexico.” I had a stern talk with this student about

how this was wrong and how he should not speak this way to people. I didn’t use it as an

opportunity to teach him more about immigration and the reason that people immigrate. I didn’t

take the opportunity to help him understand this group of people to help him learn and grow and

hopefully not call out this group again. I was personally very offended because my husband is

an immigrant. I could have used that opportunity to teach him. Instead I got mad and offended

and didn't take the opportunity.

I now know that this would have been a great opportunity to teach him. I am glad that

this happened early in my teaching career so that it would not happen again. I know that as

teachers we get busy and we feel like we do not have time to spend teaching lessons like this

and that its is easier to just cover things up. But we need to take action if we want to see a

change.

8. Students and their parents have active roles in the school. (A)

As I mentioned before in question number two, the parents and students are involved with the

school and they do a lot at Lincoln elementary to include parents and families at the school. The

one thing that they could do to make it better is by including a place for Spanish speaking

parents to become more involved. They could do this by having a family night where parents are

invited to the school (Spanish or not) and they could have activities that have instructions in

Spanish and aids that speak Spanish to help guide and direct parents.
 9. Teachers are well supported for addressing social justice issues. (A)

As I mentioned before in question number six, the principal is very supported when it comes to

social justice issues. He is willing to teach the students about social justice himself if needed.

He supports teachers and staff in their efforts to create social justice. He teaches the teachers

how to use social justice in their classrooms.

10 . Administrators seek and structure ongoing support for themselves. (A)

I believe that the Ogden has a great system of support for social justice because it is such a

problem here in Ogden. They are fully aware of the problem and they take action in being a part

of the solution to creating social justice in the school They have a special focus on helping

principals create social justice in their schools. When a principal needs extra help getting

support the district is ready to get involved and they have a list of set procedures to follow to

help principals achieve social justice.

Over all I think that Lincoln Elementary does a good job at being fair and just in a diverse

community. They would greatly improve if they were to provide more support and resources for

Spanish speaking parents.