Running head: COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE

The Community and School Profile and Comparative Analysis Madeline Webb Ivy Tech Community College Central Indiana

COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE 1. Based on the data you have collected, what are the similarities in the schools and communities? Use specific examples from the data

By comparing the data there are a few similarities between the IPS schools I have chosen and the private schools which are similar to what I attended in Australia. The first similarity between the four schools is the teacher to student ratios. When looking at Charity Dye Elementary the ratio for students to teachers equals about 16:1 this is similar to the ratio found at Our Lady of Mount Carmel being 17:1. In the high schools there is a greater difference but still quite close with 15:1 for T.C Howe Community College and a student teacher ratio of 11:1 at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. When researching the ratios of teachers to students you begin to question if the students of both the private and IPS schools have roughly the same ratios why is there such a great differences in school results. Another similarity between all four schools was the webpage content and mission statements. Each is striving to make their students to be a successful as the can be and to encourage them to take pride not only in their work but in their communities, school and their country. The two private schools do emphasize religion as they are both religious based but the underlying vision is the same. Although the private schools web pages have extra features, the main information including misson statements, parent centers, media centers, alumni, and school information can be seen in all four schools websites.

2. Based on the data you have collected what are the differences in the schools and communities? There are a vast array of differences between the IPS schools and private schools I researched. In the data collected you can see differences in areas such as free vs. paid meals, ethnicity, graduation rates, and ISTEP scores. To attend private schools a person needs to be financially able to pay the tuition fees, books, and other necessary fees that are required to attend. This

COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE

equals a large amount of money each year to send a child to one of these schools. However the data highlights that students that attend these schools have a higher graduation and success rate than those who attend public schools. As discussed earlier it costs a lot of money to attend a private school. This is because everything is paid for by the parents and not by the government. This difference can be seen in the data when comparing free meals vs. paid meals between the four schools. For the private elementary school of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 98% of meals are paid for. Compare this to the IPS school, Charity Dye Elementary, with 82% of meals are free. The same results can be seen when comparing the two high schools as well. 100% of meals are paid for at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. At Thomas Carr Howe Community High School the percentage of paid meals is only 13% with 79% of meals being free. Another area that highlights the differences between IPS schools and private schools is ethnicity. In private education the percentage of white/Caucasian students attending are the majority. At Our lady of Mount Carmel 95% of students are white with the other 5% being made up of Hispanic, Asian/pacific islander and multiracial. When we compare the statistics to Charity Dye Elementary the ratio differs dramatically. The data states the major ethnic group the schools students at 86% are black. The white ratio is only 3% in this school. Similar results can be seen with the high schools as well. Public schools tend to have a higher ethnic population compared to private schools where the majority of students are Caucasian. The graduation rates differ dramatically when comparing the public high school with the private. T.C Howe Community Colleges graduation rate for 2009 was 78% of its students. Compare this to the data from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School with 99% of students graduating. These results are also reflected in the ISTEP scores of the schools. By comparing the

COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE

two public schools scores to the private schools scores a large difference in results are shown. For elementary the Charity Dye Elementary had only 32.52% of students pass the ISTEP exam. That is the equivalent of 40 students out of the 315 that attend the school. Compare this to the 96% of students who passed at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and it can be seen that the public schools are struggling to bring about results. In the high schools the data reflects the same with 98.1% from Brebeuf passing ISTEP to only 23.36% of students attending T.C Howe.

3. How would a teacher benefit from this community and school information? Provide specific examples Teachers will benefit from this information as they are able to see the strong and weak points of each school. Some teachers find it more rewarding to work in schools that are struggling. Others prefer to work in schools where they know they will be able to provide the resources students need to be successful. Greater understanding of the community and the schools within the community will lead to a better understanding of the type of students the teacher will encounter. This may mean that they will teach students in different ways due to the resources available. For instance, teaching in a community that is impoverished would require more common knowledge learning for the students than for an area where students have greater social capital. IPS schools do not have great resources that private schools have. Therefore you need to think of different ways to teach the subject manner effectively to increase success rates of these children. To exemplify this point I can use an example from my own service learning experience. As I am from Australia the children in the IPS school 27 Charity Dye Elementary could hear that I sounded different and therefore asked where I was from. They have heard of Australia but had no idea where in the world it was. The following week I brought a world map to show the

COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE students where I lived. They were fascinated by the map and asked many questions. Some of

these included, what were the oceans? Where was Mexico? Also where is America on the map? Hearing some of these questions surprised me. This was the first time for some of the students that they ever saw a map and could identify where countries that friends and family were from. The experience of watching their minds absorb the knowledge from the new resource in the classroom shows how simple additions can aid in teaching in these areas.

4. Look back at your pre-reflection. How have your perceptions changed regarding the community and the families served by your service. My perceptions have changed due to my service learning in the IPS school system. I was fortunate to be able to attend private education throughout my schooling and therefore I had many opportunities to learn different subjects and because of this I gained more social capital as well as making school more enjoyable. By working in the public system I can see that it is not that the students are unable to succeed, but it is difficult to teach and keep students enthusiastic about school when there is a lack of resources and educational aides to encourage and excite the children about learning. A lot of work is being done to get parents involved in their childs education. I believe this is very important especially in the public system. Children that are going to private schools usually have educated parents with social capital that allows them to make informed decisions about where they can send their children to school. Unfortunately in areas that are impoverished or for children whose parents may not have completed school, the choices of educational facilities are small. The teachers at the IPS schools are amazing and really want to make these children succeed in life. They do struggle as they do not have the resources that private schools can afford. I was scared about going into the public system. But after working in the school the

COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE children want to learn, they want to be successful. I am now excited each week to go into the classroom and help my teacher teach these children.

References Indiana Department of Education. (n.d.). Indiana K-12 Education Data. Received from http://www.doe.in.gov/data/

COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL PROFILE Indiana Department of Education. (n.d.). K-12 School Web Sites. Retrieved from http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/dg/schools/welcome.html

Charity Dye Elementary School 27. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.27.ips.k12.in.us Thomas Carr Howe Community High School 420 (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.420.ips.k12.in.us Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brebeuf.org Our Lady Of Mount Carmel School. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.olmcschool.org