Introduction Our issue is the lack of mentors in our community, specifically for low-income children in Wake County. There are 46 Title One schools in Wake County. In Title One schools, 40% of the population are low income kids. “The Title I program in Wake County provides supplementary instructional support in the areas of reading and math. Schools qualify for Title I funding by demonstrating economic need among its population”. (Wake County, 2016) We are interested in this topic because we want all kids to meet the high academic standards, after all it is not fair for the low income kids. We are also interested in this issue because we believe that everyone should have the same opportunities. We want everyone to be successful for the greater good. With mentoring, everyone can have the same chance. That is, as long as mentors are accessible and affordable for the families who need it most. We are recommending that other people in our community should help the kids that need help to meet the school standards. It is helpful that all kids in the school can meet the school standards because it will be part of developing the school and the learning skills of the students. Having mentors would also help the children become more prepared for life. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2017) You should care about this issue because what if, one day, your kid is the one that is falling behind, or if you see a classmate struggling because they have no mentor or no tutor. What if in university, you need a tutor, and there are none available to help you. This is a problem. We don’t want to leave others behind just because of the lack of resources which they cannot do anything about it. Discussion of the Issue Every day students in Wake County fall behind on schoolwork due to a lack of role models in their life. We believe that it is important for every child to have an important adult or mentor in their life to look up to. This issue affects parents, students and the community around us. Students lacking a role model has been an issue in Wake County for a very long time. Students are being valued less and less each year (Beller, 2016). According to the Public Schools First North Carolina Organization students in Wake County Public Schools are not getting full attention through education. This leaves them falling behind and needing tutoring and help with school work.“In 2016, 31% of third graders in Wake County were not reading at grade-level,” (WakeEd Partnership, 2017). This statistic quote shows that students (especially third graders) are below grade level in reading. This mentor issue could be struggling with school therefore falling behind in schoolwork or it could be struggling with family problems and at home problems also affecting their schoolwork.With our plan of reading to third graders at Stough Elementary we are hoping to decrease this percentage. Students without a role model or a mentor is a problem in Wake County because it affects the way our community reflects on other communities or counties. This can affect how our community grows and becomes a better society. As you can see the lack of mentors is causing many different problems in Wake County. These problems are affecting our community to react in such ways. For instance when a student does not have a good role model who influences them they fall behind in schoolwork. This causes the school board to decrease in education levels. This then causes the county to look bad in comparison to other school boards in communities. If this issue is not taken care of in an efficient way it could cause our community to not be successful. With our school system being the largest school district in the state, (Hui, 2016), it is important that the students are successful as they will play a big part in the future of our state. Discussion of Solutions There are many different programs in Wake County that help children with lack of mentorship, or with tutoring. One organization has two programs, the YMCA. They have Y-Learning for tutoring and Community HOPE for mentoring. Community HOPE is targeted towards the children that live in affordable housing. They meet throughout the school year. Community HOPE is for kids K-12. (YMCA, 2018) Y-Learning, the other YMCA program, wants to “bridge the educational gap”. Y-Learning is for elementary-aged children. Unlike Community HOPE, the focus of Y-Learning is tutoring, rather than mentoring. It is one teacher for every six kids. (YMCA, 2018) Another program is WakeEd Partners Read, which puts mentors in 1st and 2nd grade classes to help kids read on grade level by third grade, because, according to their website, “can change a child’s life”. They also want to help fill the home libraries of many kids. (WakeEd Partnership, 2018) One that you might know is Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle. An organization that pairs people 18 and up with kids. The “Bigs” are regular people, and so are the “Littles”. According to a study done by Public/Private Ventures, after 18 months with their “Bigs”, “Littles” were 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 27% less likely to begin using alcohol, 52% less likely to skip school, 37% less likely to skip a class, and 33% less likely to hit someone in comparison to those not in the program. It was also found that “Littles” were more confident in school work, and got along better with their families. (Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle, 2017) There is still a need for mentoring in our community because in 2015 49% of North Carolina children lived in low income families. If these organizations and our day of service do something, hopefully we can decrease this percentage, if it has already hopefully fallen over 3 years. (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2017 It isn’t good that almost half of the children in North Carolina live in low income families, the number needs to drop and we can be apart of the change. For comparison, the national average is 43%. The average of one state should not be bigger than the 49 other states combined. If we don’t do anything the average will begin to climb. A lot of these organizations have volunteers who do the majority of the helping, so if you fit the target age, then you can be apart of the solution. But the main way people are helping are through these organizations, by volunteering and directly helping the kids. If you want to help indirectly, you can donate to these organizations as well. Conclusion Our plan to help this issue in Wake County is to go to Stough Elementary to read to 2nd and 3rd graders, and to give fifth graders advice about 8th grade. There will be about twenty students volunteering and two chaperones. We will meet at Martin around 9:00 AM in the lobby. Everyone will get on one bus and leave at about 9:10, we will arrive around 9:20. When we get to Stough Elementary school we will split into two groups. We will transition and set up from 9:30-9:40. The first group will be talking to fifth graders about social problems in middle school such as, making new friends, lunch, school events etc. We will also be playing a few games and icebreakers with the students at the beginning to get to know everyone and to make the students feel comfortable with the volunteers. The second group will be reading to 2nd graders. They will ask the students questions such as, “Who are the characters?” “What is the setting?” and more questions based on the book. After we read the book we will give the students an option of retelling the story in their own way by either acting it out, drawing it out, or telling the story in their own words. At 10:45 the groups will switch tasks. The second group will talk to the fifth graders about academic work such as electives, homework, grading, etc. The first group will be doing the same thing the second group did when they read to the 2nd graders but will ask them more advanced questions about the book, and they will be reading to 3rd graders. We will leave around 12:30. Some requirements that the volunteers need to keep in mind is to be good role models for the students you are working with, be responsible and have a good behavior. We need to make sure the volunteers are energetic and positive when working, especially with children. The volunteers need to work well with children and enjoy being around them. Another requirement is to make sure the volunteers know the information they are giving to the fifth graders and be prepared to answer questions. Our goal for this project is to provide more understanding to the children so that they feel more prepared about eighth grade and reading. This project should be picked because many children do not have mentors/role models at home. Usually kids are scared to go to middle school, because all they’ve known is elementary school. Middle school can be a very big change for a lot of them, especially if they aren’t well prepared for the stress and responsibilities that come with it. Middle school can be very different than elementary school and there can be changes that students might not be used to in their new schools. Many students don't have a role model to look up to so therefore students are falling behind in their school work and are struggling to get an education Works Cited Beller, Kristin. “Schools Our Students Deserve: Per Pupil Spending is Everything.” Public Schools First NC Supporting Public Schools through information, education, and engagement. 24 January, 2018 <https://www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org/ red4ed-teacher-forum/schools-our-students -deserve-per-p upil-spending-iseverything> Hui, T. Keung. “Wake County school system seeing fewer new students than expected.” The News & Observer. 09 December, 2015. 24 January, 2018 <http://www.newsobserver.com/news/ local/education/. article48670670.html> Hui, T.Keung.”Wake County is now the 15th largest school district in the country.”News & Observer. 2016.24 Jan 2018<http://www.newsobserver.com /news/local/education/article122995664.html> Moziru.”Puzzle Clip Art Hand ”.Pin Art.2018. 31Jan2018<http://moziru.com/explore/Puzzle%20clipart%20hand/> Stephens, Henry.”How to Deal with Students Frustrated at their Slow Progress.”The Teachers Handbook.2008. 31 Jan 2018.<https://www.listenandlearn.org/the-teachers-handbook /how-to-deal-with-students-frustrated-at-their-slow-progress/> University of Nebraska-Lincoln.”Why mentoring is important.” University of Nebraska-Lincoln.2017.24 Jan 2018<https://.www.unl.edu/mentoring/ why-mentoring-important> Wake County Public School System.”Title I.”Wake County Public School.2018.24 Jan 2018<https://www.wcpss .net/domain/110> WakeEd Partnership. “Partners Read”. WakeEd Partnership. 2018.24 January 2018. <http://www.wakeed.org/programs/early-literacy/> YMCA. ”Community HOPE.”YMCA of the Triangle. 2018. 24 Jan 2018.<https://www.ymcatriangle .org/programs-services/tutoring/community-hope> YMCA.”Y- Learning.” YMCA of the Triangle. 2018. 24 January 2018. <https://www.ymcatriangle.org/ programs-services/tutoring/y-learning>
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North Carolina has a plan to turn around its struggling schools: the Innovative School District. As of September 7, 2017, there are 47 schools in the district. It is a group of schools which are advised by someone not involved with NC Public Schools. A problem that came up recently with the ISD is with Southside Ashpole Elementary School in Robeson County. They had to make a decision, they could either close the school or turn it over to the ISD. The Robeson School Board decided not to close it for the good of the children. This relates to our community because it has to do with the state of North Carolina, also known as the state we are all in right now. What if one of the schools you were to go to was one of the ISD schools? I am interested in this topic because I believe that no school should be underperforming, that a child’s level of education shouldn’t vary depending on the school. I think that when they say “underperforming” they probably mean in terms of standardized test scores. People in our community (that being the students in the schools of North Carolina) are affected by this issue because they might experience sudden changes if their school ever becomes a part of the Innovative School District, and they might not know if these changes are good or are bad. Others should care about this issue because they might end up to going to one of these schools, or their current school might become one of them. They should care about their peers. Now, here’s what I think we could do. I think that maybe instead of having something else run the school district, perhaps not have the performance of the school be based on standardized test grades. Or, to see if maybe it is just a test problem (since some people just circle and bubble whatever and don’t take it seriously) maybe NC could take away standardized testing for awhile at these schools (or just chunk them up into little, period long tests) so that they aren’t as big. Then they could see whether these schools need to be whipped back up into shape. You can’t really judge a school by their test scores. Another option could be to send the students from these schools to other schools, and send students from high performing schools to ISD schools to see whether it is the student or the teacher. So, I don’t think there is a whole lot we could do about this issue, maybe we could have the School Board take the EOGs and see what grades they get (just kidding). What are your thoughts on this issue? Let me know in the comments and I will reply. Here are some links if you want to read more about the ISD or Southside Ashpole Elementary: List of schools in the Innovative School District About the Innovative School District Older article about Southside Ashpole ES and the ISD (Originally posted Nov. 7 2017, updated Jan. 10 2018) More recent article about Southside Ashpole ES and the ISD (posted Jan. 10)wunc.org/post/robeson-county-schools-votes-turn-over-elementary-innovative-school-district#stream/0 I couldn't get it to link properly for some reason, sorry! https://www.robeson.k12.nc.us/saes Southside Ashpole ES website (again, couldn't get it to link properly) |
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