Demographic Profile Part I Introduction While receiving a Masters of Science in Elementary Education at the University of Mary Washington, I interned

d at Skylar* Elementary School in Northern Virginia. Skylar Elementary School was located in a suburb of the City of Fredericksburg. Cloud* County is in the Piedmont region of Virginia halfway between the nations capital (Washington, DC) and the states capital (Richmond, VA). Cloud County, a suburb of the city of Fredericksburg, is home to many government workers and business owners. Located right off the east coasts primary transportation highway, this county provides easy access to quickly growing markets. Cloud County is also located within an hour of the University of Mary Washington, Germanna Community College, George Mason University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Skylar Elementary School serves about 700 students in grades Kindergarten through fifth grade. The school functions with 30 regular education teachers, 14 special education teachers/para-educators, and 4 administrators. I had the honor of teaching a classroom of 23 second-graders and working with a teacher who has been teaching for 14 years. *Names changed for confidentiality reasons Part II The School and The School System The Cloud County Public School system has 5 high schools, 7 middle schools, and about 20 elementary schools. In 2013, Cloud County public schools enrolled about 24,000 total students. Skylar Elementary school enrolled about 700 kindergarteners through fifth graders. The table below outlines the gender framework of the county and the school in 2013. Gender of Students in the School System and the School Number of Students in Number of Students in Cloud County Skylar Elementary School Males 11,366 390 Females 12,082 340 The following chart shows the ethnic and racial diversity of Cloud County Public Schools and Skylar Elementary School as determined in September of 2013. Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the School System and the School Race/Ethnicity Number of Students in Number of Students in Cloud County Skylar Elementary School Asian 642 40 Black 4,249 170 Hawaiian 29 0 Hispanic 2,852 100 Indian 65 4 Multi-Race 1,200 55 White 14,411 350

At Skylar Elementary School, 34.47% of the students qualify for free-and-reduced lunch; 33.85% of Cloud County qualifies for free-and-reduced lunch. The per-pupil expenditure for the 2012-2013 school year in Cloud County Public Schools was $9,950. At Skylar Elementary school, the per-pupil expenditure was $10,969. Only one out of the 30 classroom teachers at Skylar Elementary school was male in the 2013-2014 school year. The rest of the teachers were female. The following chart outlines the ethnic and racial diversity of the teachers in Cloud County Public Schools and Skylar Elementary School for the 2013-2014 academic school year. The chart will show that 94% of the teachers at Skylar Elementary school were white. Teacher Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the School System and the School Race/Ethnicity Number of Teachers in Number of Teachers in Cloud County Skylar Elementary School Asian 15 0 Black 53 1 Hispanic 26 0 Indian 4 0 Multi-Race 22 1 White 1,107 35 Part III My Classroom I was a white, female, student teacher educating 23 second-graders in with diverse interests, abilities, strengths, and learning styles. Below is a chart that outlines the gender makeup of my classroom. There was an even split of boys and girls in the classroom. Gender of Students in My Classroom Gender Number of Students Male 11 Female 12 Total 23 The children in my classroom represent four different racial/ethnic backgrounds as outlined in the chart below. My mentor teacher and I are both white females meaning the racial/ethnic majority in my classes matched the racial/ethnic majority of our teacher population. Ethnic and Racial Diversity of My Classroom Race/Ethnicity Number of Students Asian 1 Black 4 Hispanic 6 White 12

The diversity in my classroom extended well beyond racial and ethnic appearances; each student possessed unique learning needs. Four students in my class received pull out services for SCOPE, which was Skylar Elementary Schools program for students who are labeled as gifted. Five students in my class qualified for SCOPE extension, which served high achieving students who had not yet been labeled as gifted. Six students in my class were pulled out four days a week for extra reading services because they were low achieving students. I had one student who was an English Language Learner (ELL or ESOL). She was pulled out of the classroom three times a week and was labeled as Level 3: Developing by the WIDA Standards. I had one student who was an English Language Learner but she was proficient and no longer qualified for language services. Two students in my class had 504 Plans for ADHD and they were accommodated with space to move around. One student was medicated for his ADHD and the other student was not. There was only one student with and IEP in my classroom and he received Speech Therapy because he had verbal and oral processing issues. This student also had some undiagnosed special education needs that were determined after I finished working with him. One of my students (student 16) left on an extended trip to India for three weeks in the middle of the unit that I taught. Parents volunteered to come in and help with crafts, donate food for parties, or help organize parties. Many parents of the students in my classroom were heavily involved with the PTA and other parents enjoyed having lunch with their students or helping out in the classroom whenever they could. However, the parent volunteers generally involved the same few parents because many parents worked during the day and did not have time to come into their childs classroom.