Vargas 1

Ali Vargas

Professor Tietjen St. Magnus

CSS-100-02

11 Dec. 2023

Specific Job Research

For my research project on a job, I did a Mock interview as if I was applying for a job as a first

grade elementary teacher at Farmingdale Elementary School In Pleasant Plains, IL. I feel that I

have a good idea of what the school is like because I went to fourth grade there, and I also

worked there for about a year. While I worked there, I worked at the afterschool program called

Passage. It’s for ages kindergarten through fourth grade. As a Passage worker, my responsibilities

included watching the children, giving them snacks, making sure behavior is good, helping them

with any homework, and many more tasks. Farmingdale Elementary School has a lot of great

qualities that I am looking for in a place to work. Farmingdale Elementary school is a smaller

school, has great resources, and is becoming better and better every year.

Farmingdale Elementary school has less than five hundred students from pre-kindergarten

through fourth grade. I also enjoy how many resources that the school has and that the kids are

able to use. Every student is provided with a Chromebook laptop at the beginning of the school

year, and they get to keep it for school related subjects untill the end of the year. I find that great

because not all schools can afford for their students to get chrome books. I was also able to

interview a former teacher there who is now the principal of Pleasant Plains High School. She

was my teacher from fourth grade year, but I asked her some of the statistics and here is what she

said. I asked her about the testing scores, and the total ranking in the state of Illinois. For the
 Vargas 2

testing scores she said for the 2020-2021 the math proficiency rate was 40-44% which was

higher than the Illinois state average which was 28% for the 2020-2021 school year. She said the

reading/language arts proficiency was 35-39% for the 2020-2021 school year, which was also

higher than the Illinois average which was 32%. She also told me that Farmingdale Elementary

School placed in the top 30% of all schools in Illinois for overall test scores (math proficiency is

top 20%, and reading proficiency is top 30%) for the 2020-21 school year.

I also feel that the location is something that I love about Farmingdale Elementary School, It is in

the country, so it’s not as populated, and because of that I also feel that the Farmingdale

Elementary School staff get to grow a more unique and personal bond with the students who

attend the school. I think that relationships are something that are very important, especially in a

school setting, and Farmingdale does an amazing job at making sure each student feels cared for

and loved and because of this, I feel that the student turn out rate is higher because they know

they are in a safe place and that the staff and teachers are there trying to help them set themselves

up for success in their future. I can say this from both a personal and professional standpoint, that

Farmingdale Elementary School would be a phenomenal place to be employed.