Local School Community

Marshalls Community is diverse. The ethnic background is primarily Hispanic

with 77% of the population. Students identifying as Asian account for 7.3% of the

population, while White students are at 5.4% and Black or African American are at

2.1% and Students identifying as Pacific Islander account for only 1% of the

population.

This poses an interesting insight into Marshalls data because one would

expect that students identifying as Hispanic would also be English Learners.

Currently, there is a stigma in the community that stating you speak your primary

language at home is seen as a potential harm by the school. At every opportunity, I

tell parents that their students have an advantage in speaking two languages and

that they need to encourage their students to become fluent in both English and

Spanish.

The cultural of Marshall is one that revolves around respect. Students are

unique in this way in comparison to students who have similar socioeconomic

backgrounds. Marshall hosts several walkthroughs a year where administrators

from around the district help find trends in our school. One of the primary

conclusions from every walkthrough is that the students are very respectful of the

staff members and of each other. They are seen working their best and being as

compliant as one could hope their students to be. This is not a rare occurrence.

Students have been trained by their parents to be respectful of each other and of

adults. Teachers help to reinforce that by teaching character traits adopted by the

district and by teaching the Peace Builder Curriculum. Where there could be

potential issues is the language barrier between English only speaking teachers and
Spanish only speaking parents. The school and district address this issue by having

two full time translators available every day during office hours.

The schools strategy to meet the needs of limited English students is to have

English Language Development embedded throughout the teachers instruction.

This means that teachers are expected to use SDAIE techniques and use the ELD

standards to assist in moving students towards resignation. On top of this, the

school as developed an intricate intervention for reading that will assist the

students in progressing towards becoming fluent proficient readers. This year,

Marshall was able to have grades 1-4 students, a total of about 375, participate in

intervention. Intervention ran for 40 minutes a day and class sizes range from 5-22

students. The neediest students were in the smaller groups and as the students

were closer to grade level reading, they were placed into larger groups. Post data

reveled students made significant progress and the school was able to successfully

eliminate its need for preprimer reading instruction during intervention. Both the

principal and I believe that the changes occurring schoolwide to assist with English

Learners is beneficial to English Only students as well. This is due to the fact that

99% of Marshalls population is low income and because of that, they are not

exposed to rich language as their more well off counter parts.

The parents and community are very involved in the educational process.

This is largely due to how the district now receives its funds. Parent participation

has increased in our district because principals were asked to send one parent

representative to the district parent participation LCAP planning committee. This

was to ensure that all stakeholders had input in how our funds are being spent. In

doing so, our parents have shared with me that they feel that their contributions

and opinions make a difference. They play an extremely active role in the decision
making and the LCAP process. At the site level, we have several committees where

parents participate and assist in the decision making at the school. The first

committee is the School Site Council. Parents are elected and hold a seat for two

years. They approve the principals expenditures from our categorical budget. Other

committees where parents participate is the English Learners Parent Partnership,

Safety Committee and Parent Helpers.

The English Learners Parent Partnership is made up of parents of ELs and the

Vice Principal. These parents receive training in various areas and they assist with

relaying to other parents initiatives that the school is moving forward with. Some

examples of initiatives this past year were Saturday School and Reading

Intervention for grades K-4. Saturday School started last year and required both

teachers and parents to have a change in mindset. Previously, Saturday was ran for

discipline purposes. Currently, I run it as an attendance makeup. In doing so, I was

able to raise the attendance rate at Marshall to number 1 in the district. This initially

required a lot of communication to home. Parents were concerned that students

were being disciplined and it was through phone calls and notices home that they

now understand that it is an opportunity for students to makeup the absences. The

reading intervention that took place this year also had to be clearly communicated

to parents. They were questioning why their student was not with their home room

teacher and having issues with a teacher who was not officially theirs. Through

administrator to parent conversations and teacher to parent conversations, the

Marshall parents now have a clear understanding that their students are getting

intense reading instruction to help them become more proficient readers. Both of

these initiatives required the use of site funds and staff which means that parents
had to approve of expenditures and give input towards future decisions that the site

was making.