Field Community School

January 26, 2015 - February 6, 2015

Yajaira Guzman Carrero
Aspiring Principal
Executive Summary
Project Statement
In order to experience the impact of Tier I/II interventions on low performing students, the project focuses on
the learning of an EL student and a Special Education student with waived EL services on a typical day.
Rationale
Field Community School and Hale together comprise one school on two campuses. Both sites have surpassed
state and district proficiency levels in the past three years. Although Field Community Schools scores shows
consistent growth, the achievement gap is 30% for Math and 23% for reading. In an effort to meet 8 percent
annual increase in students meeting or exceeding standards in reading and math for MPS lowest-performing
students, they implement Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID/WICOR) strategies. In math,
teachers use formative assessments based on learning targets as identified in Focused Instruction to guide the
instruction and increase math proficiency. These strategies are Tier I expectations at Field.
Methods
In the attempt to gain an insight into strategies employed to increase academic achievement for lowest
performing students, there were learning walks, pulse visits, and shadowing experiences. All leadership
meetings and targeted professional development focused on establishing and developing interventions to
decrease the achievement gap and meet 5-8 Acceleration 2020 goals.
Results
The two students shadowed were Black students. Student KA has an IEP (special education) and waived EL
services. Student FK is a Black English Language Learner. Throughout the day, KA was unsuccessful completing
any of his class work and four out of 5 IEP adaptations were not addressed in the classroom to support the
learning. The fifth adaptation was unclear based on the data collected. FK was expected to do every assignment
without any language support to make the text accessible. Both students worked alone more than 70 percent of
their day. KA and FK were exposed to the chosen AVID strategy less than 30% of their day. They were taught
most of their day without adaptations.
Implications for next steps
Recommendations include consistent implementation of Tier I/Tier II interventions and data collection for 5-8
students; development and implementation of Tier II interventions; and review of students IEPs. Collaboration
time for language support teacher (District), reading specialist and core teachers to support waived EL students
meet 5-8 Acceleration 2020 Goals through AVID strategies and sheltered instruction strategies.