EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

Klein ISD/ McDougle Elementary Demographic Study

Historical Background of the Community and the School

In the 1840s, in Harris County on a major area of Cypress Creek, an agricultural

community was created by a group of German Immigrants, named Big Cypress. In 1854, a

couple from Stuttgart, German, Adam and Friederika Klein, settled in the area after having

success in the gold rush in California. After about twenty years of being in the area, they

established the Trinity Lutheran Church with the help from other families in the area. These

families were the Bernshausen, Benfer, Brill, Kaiser, Klenk, Lemm, Strack, Theiss, and

Wunderlich, which are all names of elementary and middle schools in the district. After being

established, the Trinity Lutheran Church became the center of educational, religious, and social

life in Big Cypress. A post office was also created by Adam Klein in 1884, which was located in

a general store owned by William Blackshear on the famous Spring-Cypress road. The area in

which the post office serviced was named after Adam Klein in honor of his efforts to the

community. In July 1928, the present boundary lines of the school district were and the official

name became Rural High School District Number One. 582 was the total number of students

enrolled at the time of establishment (Klein Area History, n.d.). In 1938, the community’s rural

school district was named the Klein Independent School District and was officially designated by

the state legislature as Klein, TX in 1977. As mentioned before, the schools were named after the

early settlers, whose descendants still resided in the area (Duke, 2010).

At the present moment, the District is currently comprised of four high schools, nine

intermediate schools, thirty-one elementary schools, one early childhood & pre-kindergarten

center, one high school program, and one alternative school program for a total of forty-seven

schools and six administrative buildings (Klein Area History, n.d.). McDougle Elementary was

1
EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

opened in 2004 and was named after the McDougle family who settled in the area in 1838.

George McDougle purchased land in the John House survey and served as a ranger in the Texas

army. Many of the McDougle descendants served as teachers or on the school board for Klein in

its early stages. Living descendant, Anita McDougle Richmond, played a crucial role by writing

a letter to the superintendent of Klein Independent School District as the school was being built

asking for her family to be considered in the naming of the school.

Campus Governance

Principal

Assistant
Principals

Counselor Specialists
Teachers Professional Staff

Students

At McDougle Elementary, the chain of command starts with the principal, Kathy Rachal.

Her fellow administrators are assistant principals, Madelyn Villegas and David Menendez. When

all of our administration is off campus, our counselor and two of our experienced reading

specialists are left in charge. This is a rare occasion and these experienced teachers only deal

with behavioral issues or assist in meeting with parents if they must speak with the

administrators. The campus site-based committee is assembled by voting at McDougle and is

called the Campus Instructional Development Council (CIDC). The district sends out all of the

information to our principal, who then sends the information out to each grade level. Each grade

2
EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

level then votes on a member of their team to participate on the committee. CIDC is comprised

of a member from each team; the librarian; bilingual, gifted and talented, and special education

representation; a parent; and a community member. The committee meets to discuss basic areas

involved with the campus. They review the District Instructional Development Council report,

the Superintendent’s Council Report, curriculum, budgeting, campus improvement planning,

staff development, staffing, and anything that would fall under school organization.

Enrollment/Growth/Achievement

The following graphic displays the district enrollment data for Klein ISD during the

2016-2017 instructional year.

3
EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

This graphic displays the campus enrollment data for McDougle Elementary during the

2016-2017 instructional year. These graphics are from the Texas Academic Performance Report,

which also contains student data and performance on the state exam, State of Texas Assessments

of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Upon reviewing the STAAR data for McDougle, the stronger

areas of our students are Mathematics across the testing grade levels and Science for fifth grade.

Impressively, our fourth graders jumped from 94% to 100% on the Mathematics STAAR.

Looking at our weaknesses, though progress has been made throughout all grade levels, Reading

is a weaker area for our students on the STAAR exam. Writing is also another weakness that our

students have in fourth grade.

Political and Geographical Characteristics of the School Attendance Area

4
EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

Klein ISD covers a large area of north Harris County at around 88 square miles with no

significant geographical characteristics that may affect McDougle students or their families.

McDougle Students, though diverse, come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Of the 631

students that attend McDougle Elementary, 550 are considered economically disadvantaged.

Around 80% of the students that attend McDougle receive free or reduced meals. McDougle

tends to have a large population of parents who are active in various school activities. During the

“Pride” nights, which are family engagement nights, we usually see around 100-120 families

show up to support their children in their learning. The Parent and Teacher Organization (PTO)

is organized and planned in conjunction with the parent liaison, who works alongside a parent

president. The PTO is open to any parent wishing to be more involved around the school.

Professional Staff

At McDougle, there are 59 teachers, 7 professional support, and 3 administrators. The

average years of experience for teachers in our school according to the 2016- 2017 TAPR report,

is 12.1 years. Of those 59 teachers, 39 hold a bachelor’s degree and 20 hold a master’s degree.

There are currently 5 males and 64 females working on our campus. The ethnicities of all

professional staff are 7 African American, 21 Hispanic, 41 White. I believe that in some

instances there may be cases where professional staff demographics may affect student success,

in those situations where some teachers may have difficulty connecting and bonding with their

students. At McDougle, I have not seen any of those instances, because there is a good mix of

minority staff and an openness to provide the best learning environment for our students. This

openness also helps to build relationships amongst teachers and staff, which helps to foster a

school culture that promotes respect and diversity that is modeled for our students.

5
EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

In my 4 years of working at McDougle, I have seen the working environment improve

greatly since my first year of teaching. Our administration is constantly coming up with new

ways to motivate and support the staff and I believe that is the first step in overall improvement.

If I were to suggest an area of improvement, it would have to be the willingness for teachers to

try new planning and teaching techniques and veer away from sticking to old ideas, just because

they work. I’ve witnessed it first hand, that if teachers want to change the working environment,

they must be willing to try new things and risk there being added stress or chances of failure. We

provide learning environments for our students to explore new ideas and encourage them to

make mistakes to become better learners, so teachers should be willing to do the same. As a

future leader, I would try my best to ensure that our working environment provided these

learning opportunities, where teachers could take the lead in their teaching journey. I believe the

key stakeholders in our school and community are the parents and teachers, aside from our

students. Teachers can best utilize the parents to help their students grow and better prepare them

for the future. Our students should always be on a path of learning and discovery and this should

not only happen in the school environment.

6
EDAD 6191 Joshua Orrego

References/ Artifacts

2016-17 Texas Academic Performance Report. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2017, from

https://tea.texas.gov/Home/

DUKE, P. M. (2010, June 14). KLEIN, TX. Retrieved November 6, 2017, from

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrk19

Klein Area History. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2017, from

https://www.kleinisd.net/district/klein_area_history