COMPETENCY 12: MULTICULTURAL/DIVERSE ISSUES

Related Task: 12.1

Knowledge of multicultural issues and strategies for meeting needs of diverse student
populations.
Specific Task: 12.1.3
Spend a day with a principal in a school serving a population that is decidedly different
from your own school and report the activities of the day in journal form. Compare and
contrast the nature, purpose and variety of administrative activities engaged in by the
administrator in this setting with the administrator in your own school.
Narrative description of Specific Task:
I will spend a day with the principal of a diverse elementary school in a neighboring district
and will report on her daily activities and how they differ from those of my cooperating
principal. I will also interview that same principal about the issues and concerns that are
common in a diverse setting but uncommon in my current placement. I will summarize my
findings and reflections in writing.
SMART Goal:
By April of 2015, I will spend one full day observing the principal of Holland West K-7: a
school that is decidedly different from New Groningen Elementary (based on demographics
and achievement data). I will compare how two different administrators manage their time
while meeting the diverse needs of the students within their schools.
Description and Rationale:
My clinical placement has taken place in my home district (Zeeland Public Schools), where I
have taught for the past five years. My particular elementary building consists primarily of
white (over 75%), English-speaking (93%), upper/middle-class (over 75%, according to
free and reduced lunch numbers) students. In order to experience daily life and observe the

knowledge and skills required of a building principal in a more diverse setting, I scheduled
this job shadow in Holland Public Schools.
My experience:
Job Shadow Summary Holland West K-7
Time

8 am

Event

Brief Description

Building

Mrs. Ramirez was at the main desk in the office when I arrived

Management

to school. She was working with the secretary and helping to get

Task

Relationship

Oriented

Oriented

substitute teachers assigned for the day.

8:10

Interacting with

Mrs. Ramirez met with 4 middle school students in her office

am

Students

and let them choose the Friday song to play over the PA

system. The students gave the morning announcements, then

played the song. Mrs. Ramirez encouraged
all students and staff to go out into the hallways and dance. Mrs.
Ramirez ended the announcements and song by saying, "make it
a wonderful
Friday and remember that we love you!"
8:25

Meeting with

Mrs. Ramirez met with a teacher about changing positions for

am

Staff

next year. She encouraged her to apply for a new job in the

building and assured her that she was the best fit for it.
8:30

Behavior

Mrs. Ramirez sat in the conference room and sent a number of

am

Management

emails regarding a behavior/bullying incident that happened

earlier in the week.

8:50

Parent

Mrs. Ramirez contacted the mother of a student who was

am

Communication

involved in the behavior incident mentioned above. She spoke

with her on speakerphone with Miss Rhoda, the school site

manager. The two women worked together to calm the mother
and try to resolve the situation, but to no avail.
9:30

Community

Mrs. Ramirez and I travelled to the administration building to

am

Relations

conduct the lottery for admission into the Two-Way Bilingual

Immersion (TWBI) program. We interacted with parents,
explained the process, answered questions, and conducted the
lottery. Once the available slots were filled, we began filling a

wait list.
10:40

Behavior

When we returned to West, Mrs. Ramirez and I met with the site

am

Management

manager to update notes on the behavior incident mentioned

above. After discussing the incident again, Mrs. Ramirez and

Miss Rhoda both typed their formal statements to send to the
schools police liaison and the superintendents office.
11 am

Debriefing

Mrs. Ramirez and I ate lunch in her office and debriefed the

morning. We talked specifically about how to handle and

document behavior problems that involve the police and she
shared resources and advice with me.
11:20

Behavior

Mrs. Ramirez was called on her walkie-talkie to come assist

am

Management

with a second grade student who hit a classmate and then ran

into the boys bathroom to hide. We met with both students and
the teacher in the conference room.
11:40

Interacting with

We helped a kindergarten student who fell into the toilet. He

am

Students

needed to dry off and change into clothes that had been donated

to the school by a local church.

12 pm

Interacting with

Mrs. Ramirez and I went to the cafeteria to share popsicles with

Students

the students who had won awards for wearing the most green

on St. Patricks day.

1 pm

Behavior

The superintendent, Mr. Davis, stopped by to talk with Mrs.

Management

Ramirez about the behavior/bullying incident. They recounted

the whole scenario and then did some investigating on the

computer accounts of the students who were involved. They
made a plan for communicating with the families and police
officers and keeping the media out of the situation.
2:00

Debriefing

pm

Mrs. Ramirez shared with me a form that she had created for

staff to document behavior incidents and a school-wide matrix

for determining consequences.

2:15

Teacher

Mrs. Ramirez and I conducted a formal observation in a 7th

pm

Evaluation

grade choir classroom. We used the Danielson model to

evaluate the teacher.

3:15

Debriefing

pm

We discussed the observation and compared our evaluation

checklists.

3:30

Interacting with

Mrs. Ramirez and I went out to the bus loop/pick up line to

pm

Students

connect with students and families at the end of the school day.

Reflections:

Holland West K-7 is located in Holland, MI, just miles from New Groningen Elementary in
Zeeland, MI (where I currently teach and have completed my clinical placement.) I chose to
complete this competency in diversity at West because it is decidedly different than New
Groningen. West has almost two times the number of students as New Groningen, and a
much more diverse population in terms of race, socioeconomic status, and academic
proficiency.

The day that I spent at Holland West was fast-paced, energizing, and eye-opening. While
many of the tasks and responsibilities were the same as what I encountered in my job
shadow at New Groningen, the leadership style, building diversity, and focus on
instructional goals were quite different.
Leadership:
Mrs. Ramirez has been the principal of Holland West for four years; she has brought
incredible leadership, structure, and a sense of family to the K-7 building. From the
moment that I stepped into West, the level of connectedness between the students and staff
was apparent.

Mrs. Ramirez started her day by happily filling in where she was needed (at the front desk
working out a shortage of substitute teachers) and then she quickly moved into interacting
with students. In their article, Inviting Students to Learn, Dack and Tomlinson (2015) stated
that excellent teachers have always been students of their students, understanding that
they cannot teach well unless they know their students (p. 12). The same can be said for
excellent principals. When the 7th grade girls came down to Mrs. Ramirezs office to choose
the Friday song and prepare for the morning announcements, it was like they were her
four daughters. She greeted them with hugs and smiles and the group laughed and
connected in a way that displayed the investment that Mrs. Ramirez had obviously made in
building and maintaining relationships with students. When she played the song over the
PA system, danced through the office (greeting staff members and parents along the way),

and then ended the morning announcements by reminding the students and staff that she
loves them, I knew that Mrs. Ramirez was someone I would want to learn from.

Watching Mrs. Ramirez handle the discipline problems and behavior issues that came up
over the course of the school day was inspiring. At West, 58% of Mrs. Ramirezs day was
task-oriented, and much of this was spent handling the ins and outs of tricky
behavior/discipline issues. (41% of the day was specifically oriented toward building and
maintaining relationships.) At West, I noticed an increase in not only the number of
behavioral infractions, but also in the severity of them. Mrs. Poll (principal at New
Groningen Elementary) has never had to deal directly with the police during her five years
at New Groningen. Contrastingly, Mrs. Ramirez stated that she either contacts or is
contacted by the police on at least a weekly basis. I took note of her professionalism,
confidentiality, and sensitivity while handling student discipline and behavior issues. Mrs.
Ramirez speaks to students, parents, and authorities in a manner that demonstrates
respect; she assumes positive intent and she is thorough and meticulous in her
documentation of every conversation and situation. I also observed Mrs. Ramirez
interacting with the superintendent of the district; I was again impressed. It was obvious
that Mrs. Ramirez is highly trusted and respected by the district administration.
Diversity:
West K-7 has an enrollment of 727 students representing grades Kindergarten through 7th
grade. The student body make-up is as follows:

English sections:
-Kindergarten and 1st grade 2 sections of each grade
-2nd through 5th grade 3 sections of each grade
-6th and 7th grade 3 sections of each grade

Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) Sections:

-Kindergarten 2 sections of each grade
-1st through 5th grade 1 section of each grade

Hearing Impaired:
-1 am session and 1 pm session

Emotionally Impaired:
-1 section of Kindergarten-4th grade
-1 section of 5th-7th grade

Autistically Impaired:
-1 section of limited functional communication students
-1 section of higher functional communication students

West Demographics:
-50% Free and reduced lunch
-48% White
-41% Hispanic
-7% African-American
-4% Multi-Racial
-16% Special Education
-12% Limited English Proficient

West K-7 became a Focus School in the Fall of 2012 due to the achievement gap between
the highest and lowest students in grades 3 through 7. There was a sense of urgency
amongst the West staff when they learned that all their students were not making annual
growth or meeting proficiency on the MEAP test. Wests 3 largest gap areas are (1)
between students who are and not economically disadvantaged, (2) between students who
are and not in special education, (3) between students who are and not English Language
Learners.

Working as a principal in a diverse building has unique benefits and challenges when
compared to working in a more homogenous setting. According, again, to Dack and

Tomlinson (2015), any students learning will be shaped not only by that students culture,
but also by his or her readiness needs, home context, personal talents and interests,
cognitive development, and a host of other factors (p. 13). In talking with Mrs. Ramirez, I
learned that [in her eyes], the biggest challenges she faces by working in a diverse setting
are: behavior problems, parent communication, and the achievement gap. Mrs. Ramirez has
worked as a teacher and administrator in other areas and settings, and these three issues
are what she believes are most impacted by the diversity at West K-7.

The students at West come from a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic
backgrounds and their unique home lives and experiences all come into play when the
students mix and interact in the school setting. Mrs. Ramirez utilizes her support staff to
help with some of the issues that arise. For example: the site manager handles the majority
of the behavior issues in the building, the [bilingual] parent liaison helps with home-toschool issues and parent communication issues, and the content area specialists, title one
teachers, aides, and interventionists all help classroom teachers specifically with closing
the achievement gap. The staff at West reflects the student body in its diversity, and I
believe that this is an asset when helping to meet the needs of the students and families
they serve.
Instructional Goals:
In just a few minutes of talking with Mrs. Ramirez and observing in a classroom at West, it
became obvious that the instructional goals in this building are strong and apparent in the
daily life of the school. The staff members that I observed (the assistant principal, site
manager, parent liaison, secretary, and various teachers) were all focused on keeping
learning targets in front of the students at all times. I witnessed verbal affirmations and
celebrations of student success, teachers discussing instructional goals in the lunchroom,
and reading goals posted with PBIS goals in the hallways. This was encouraging to see
students and staff focused and working together to set and reach specific goals.

The West staff has been working on enhancing and building relationships between both
students and staff and they have turned their focus more directly into increasing student

achievement for all students. The staff has identified three teaching and learning practices
that they want to focus on to help improve their school: (1) improving effective classroom
instruction for all students, (2) using data to drive differentiated instruction, (3) increasing
positive culture and climate within the building. After spending a day job shadowing in the
building, I can say with certainty that the staff of West K-7 is doing a great job of
implementing these goals.

District-wide, Holland Public Schools (HPS) teaching staff has been working on aligning
their curriculum both vertically and horizontally, as well as putting grade level pacing
guides in place. West K-7 has also put a great deal of effort into hiring and creating
positions to match the needs of the students.
During the 2013-2014 school year, West implemented:
- A reading coach 1 day a week
- A math coach 1 day a week
- Tier II Math and Reading providers 5 days a week
- RTI 5 days a week in grades K-5
- Parent Liaison full time
- Read 180 (for 6th-7th graders who are reading below grade level) 4 sections
- System 44 (for students who are reading significantly below grade level)
- Title 1 day reading teacher
- Book Study for teachers
- District RTI specialist

It is obvious that the administration at West takes their instructional goals seriously; that
shows in their willingness to create and fill positions that will best serve the children.
Summary:
The greatest difference between my day at West K-7 and New Groningen Elementary was,
surprisingly, not the amount of time spent dealing with behavior and discipline issues;
rather, it was the nature and severity of the issues. At West, the principal spent a large

portion of her day dealing with a bullying incident and death threat involving two 7th
graders on district-owned technology. At New Groningen, the principal spent a large
portion of her day dealing with a bullying incident where one second grader pushed
another in the recess line. While each of the situations do require some investigating, factchecking, and consequence-assigning, one is clearly more severe than the other. It was
absolutely invaluable to sit side-by-side with Mrs. Ramirez as she interacted with the
police, district administration, and parents in order to determine repercussions and bring
resolution to this situation. The whole scenario taught me a great deal about what is
required of an effective administrator in a diverse setting.

In my professional development, I have read time and time again that an effective principal
needs to balance the roles of building manager and instructional leader; Mrs. Ramirez
appears to be an expert at doing this. She possesses the knowledge necessary to evaluate
where her school is, the vision to determine where she wants it to go, and the passion,
school-wide buy-in, and drive required to take it there. I set out with the hope that this
competency would allow me to experience the ways that daily life in a more diverse school
differs from daily life in my more homogenous setting; I was pleasantly surprised to also
experience the profound impact that a strong, competent, and respected leader can have on
the culture and success of an educational environment.

References

Dack, H., & Tomlinson, C. A. (2015, March). Inviting All Students to

Learn. Educational Leadership, 72(6), 11-15.