SCHOOL-WIDE SPECIAL

POPULATION PROGRAMMING
REPORT

Tom Bennett
Introduction
Since I am not currently teaching at a school I decided to do a school special program report at the
school that my children attend in Bloomington which is Normandale Hills Elementary. To complete this
assignment, I conducted a series of interviews with district administration as well as gathered data from the
district date site. Through these interviews and data investigation I have compiled a report that examines the
demographic make-up and success measures of the school as a whole and then broken down by special
programming. For success measures I will be looking at Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test scores
as well as sharing insights from the administration.

Normandale Hills Elementary School

Normandale Hills is a suburban K-5 elementary school in West Bloomington. The enrollment of NH is
508 students for the 2015-16 school year. The school has fluctuated in enrollment between a low of 493
students (2014-15 school year), and a high of 574 (2011-2012 school year). As the Racial/Ethnic Trend data
shows, NH has gone through a significant demographic shift over the past decade going from a diversity of
29% during the 2008-2009 school year to 47% during the 2015-2016 school year. There was a boundary
change in 2011 that resulted in an increase of diversity at NH.

Below is the breakdown of groups as compared to the district average that I will discuss throughout this report.
NH Demographics

Group 2013- 2014- 2015- District

2014 2015 2016 K-5
Avg.

Free/reduced 39% 43% 41% 44%

price lunch
 Special 8% 6% 13% 12%
Education
English 17% 16% 17% 20%
Language
Learners
Percent 74.9% 74.2% % 76%
attending
95% of days
Percent 1.1% .2% % 3.8%
Suspended at
least once

The percentage of Free & Reduced Lunch has increased through the years from a low of 18% in 2008-
2009 to a current 41%. As the graph shows there was a big spike in 2011 during the boundary change and it
has continued to trend upwards as has the district as a whole.

As far as gender is concerned, it has been about 50-50 over the last decade with the 2015-2016 school year
having slightly more female students.

NH Gender 2015-2016

253
258 50%
Male
50%
Female

When it comes to staff diversity, there is a significant gap between the diversity of the staff and the students
both by gender and race. Of the classroom teachers, all are white and all but four are female. In addition, NH does have
an African American female PE teacher and a male music teacher.
 General Ed Teaching Diversity
1 White Female
5
4%
18%
White Male
22
78%
Africian American
Female

Special Education
When it comes to special education there are 3 different programs at NH: a district Setting III Severe
and profound DCD program known as the Strive Program, a district Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, and a
multi-categorical Setting I&II program. The first 2 programs are district wide, whereas the 3rd program is made
up of students that either live within the NH attendance area or open enroll to NH. Here is the breakdown of
students by disability group:

Disability Group
30 29
25
20
15 11
10 4 6 5 5
3 1 1 2 1
5
0

The breakdown by gender is 58.8% male and 41.2% female. By comparing to NH overall gender split,
male students are over identified by about 9%.

SpEd Gender

28
41%
Male
40
Female
59%
 The breakdown by racial/ethnic is pretty similar to that of the overall school population. For white,
black and Hispanic students the percentage is the same: 53% white students in the school and 53% white
students in special education etc. This came as a surprise and I had to check the numbers several times to
make sure it was correct. There is a slight over identification of American Indian students in special education
with 4% being in special education when they only make up 2% of the school population. Being that there are
only 7 American Indian students in the school, the sample size is pretty small. There is also a slight under
identification of Asian students with the overall population being 9% of the school and only 7% of special
education.
3
4% SpEd Racial/Ethnic
5
7%

10 Am. Indian
15% Asian
36
53% Hispanic
14
African Am.
21%
White

Students receiving special education services that are eligible for Free/ Reduced Lunch are 48.5% F/R
and 51.5% full price. This is an over identification of students that get F/R by 7.5%.

SpEd by F/R Status

33
49%
35 Free/Reduced
51%
Full Price

Students identified as English Language Learners make up 13.2% of the overall special education
population. This is an under identification since the EL population of the school is 17%.
 SpEd EL
9
13%

EL

59 Non EL
87%

1 SpEd Home Language 1

3 1% 1 2%
4% 2%
7
10%

Arabic
Mandarin
English
Spanish

55 Somali
81% Urdu

When it comes to staff diversity in special education all of the teachers are white female. The OT, SLP
and Ed Psych are also white female. The DAPE teacher is a white male. This is in line with the schools
diversity and gender gap of white female teachers which is also in line with the district and that of the state.
When looking at the school data the population of special education has increased over the past
several years, but this is due to the increase of district programs and increase in open enrollment both from
other schools in the district and other school districts. The amount of NH students being identified has
remained steady.

Gifted & Talented/ Enrichment

There are currently no Gifted and Talented programs at NH. The district has 2 Gifted and Talented
programs for elementary students at different school sites which include students from the NH attendance
area. For high achieving students that either do not meet the district requirements for these programs and for
parents who choose to keep their children in NH even though they qualify for said programs, NH does have
enrichment to meet the needs of those students. Much of the enrichment is done in the classroom through
teacher differentiation, but NH also has an enrichment teacher that pulls kids out and works with them in
small groups to give them extension exercises in reading, writing and math. Students are identified for
enrichment based on MAP scores, classroom data and teacher referral. Unfortunately, I was unable to find
any demographics on the students receiving extra enrichment at NH. The teacher that provides enrichment is
a white female. Here is a link to a video that provides an overview of the G&T/Enrichment opportunities at NH
and in the district. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=520G-HHtPRk&feature=em-share_video_user

Intervention
Normandale Hills uses the RTI (Response to Intervention) multi-level of support structure to help meet
the needs of all students. It provides enrichment for those that are high achievers and intervention supports
for those that are struggling. The school has a reading/intervention specialist that helps teachers make
modifications within the classroom to meet the needs of their struggling students and she also pulls out
students in small groups to give them the support that they need. The school also has a reading and a math
Americorps member who works in small groups with students. NH also has before and after school
opportunities for extra support with homework, assignments and school related activities. Like the
demographics of enrichment, I was unable to get anything about students receiving tier III intervention
services. The intervention specialist would probably have this information, but being that the teachers are out
of summer break I was not able to get this from her. The intervention specialist is a white female and the 2
Americorps members are male with 1 being African American and 1 being white.

English Language Instruction

There are currently 87 students at NH that are classified as EL. Like that of racial/ ethnic and F/R, EL
saw a considerable jump due to the boundary change going from 9% of the population to 18% of the
population in that year. In the 5 years since the change the percentage has remained pretty steady with it still
being 18% of the school population. The demographic information is as follows:

EL Gender

43
49% 44
Female
51%
Male
 EL Ethnic/Racial
1 13
1% 15%

28
Asian
32%
Hispanic

45 African Am.
52% White

EL F/R Lunch
15
17%

F&R
72 Full Price
83%

1 1 2
1% 1 Home Language 1% 2%
1 1% 2
1% 1
1 3% 1% Arabic
1% 1 Cambodian
1%
Mandarin
26 Lao
30%
Russian
Spanish
Vietnamese
45
52% Somali
Swahili
Telugu
5
6% Urdu
Filipino

When looking at the data, the gender breakdown is consistent with the overall population of NH, but the
ethnic/ racial and F/R status is not. Only 1% of EL students are white and 83% of them are eligible for free or
reduced lunch. EL students are broken down into 5 different proficiency levels based on their English ability.
The amount of services provided is based on what proficiency level they are at. I do not have any numbers of
how many students are at each level. The teachers that serve EL students are both white female and there is
a Latino male who is a cultural liaison that also works with these students and their families. Interpreters and
translators are also used for parent meetings and when information is sent home.

Where within the school do these programs exist?

The majority of these students receive their education and special services in their general education
classroom. The only exception is for the students in the districts Strive Program where many of these
students are medically fragile and require massive amounts of individual care. Some of them are in the
program all day, some are on homebound instruction and some are able to attend their general education
classroom for short times throughout the day. The classroom is by the front office next to the art room. The
rest of the special population students that receive pull out services, work with their specialist teacher either
in a classroom or a large office that works well for groups of 3-5 students. Americorps members tend to work
with individual students or small groups where they can find a quiet location such as the library and lunch
room during off peak hours.

In my opinion, are the programs successful in meeting the needs of the students?
Yes, and I say this with confidence because through my exploration during this assignment I reviewed
data and talked with administrators which helped me form this opinion. The building principal believes in RTI
and meeting the needs of all his students. There are multi-tiered support systems in place to help all the
students reach their full potential. He lives this philosophy and expects it of his staff. He also believes that
data drives instruction and if data shows that something is not working then he is ready to try something else.
In speaking with the director of special education she said that NH has so many interventions in place and the
teachers there are so good at implementing them that they may not even know theyre doing it most of the
time and they are able to support their students and keep them in the classroom because of their ability to
differentiate instruction and meet the needs of their students. This has kept special education referrals down
in NH and helps keep students with IEPs in the gen ed classroom. In looking at the MAP data I can conclude
that progress is happening with all populations.
In looking at the MAP reading data, progress was made at all levels, but the biggest increase was in special
education improving about 30%. Progress for African American students was minimal, but progress
nonetheless. When looking at the MAP math data most groups took a step backwards, except for special
education which had a significant increase.

Overall Assessment of the programming at Normandale Hills

It is my opinion that Normandale Hills is doing an excellent job at meeting the needs of all their
students especially students in special population programs. It is my belief that the building principal has
created a culture where all the staff in the building feel that they are responsible for all the students in the
school. I do not get the feeling of your students or my students but rather just our students. Through this
exploration I have learned that whether students are struggling or are advanced, they are given services that
help them meet their own potential. I feel that all students are welcomed and valued at NH. There are no
students in the basement or isolated in the back of the school. My one criticism would have to be the lack of
diversity in the staff at NH. This isnt just a NH problem, or a Bloomington problem because the problem is
also prevalent throughout the state and county. We need to do a better job at attracting and retaining
teachers of color. I am also concerned with the lack of progress for African American students as compared to
other racial groups.
References:
BPS Data site: https://re2.bloomington.k12.mn.us/results/
Dr. David Heistad, Ph.D., Executive Director Research, Evaluation and Assessment Bloomington Public Schools
(952) 681.6486