Ch.

4 : Structural and organizational

Issues in Classrooms and Schools

Katie, Michaela, & Adrienne

What’s Discussed in Ch.4
● Tracking
● Retention
● Standardized testing
● Curriculum
● Pedagogy
● Physical structure
● Disciplinary policies
● Limited role of student
● Limited role of teachers
● Limited family and community involvement
A FEW THINGS to Know
1. Tracking: Refers to placement of students in groups that
are perceived to be of similar abilities within classes
2. Retention: Holding a student back a grade
3. The Curriculum: What is being taught in the classroom
4. Pedagogy: Refers to strategies, techniques and approaches
used by teachers in their classrooms. This includes what
teachers do to help students become critical thinkers and
moral human beings.
5. Climate and physical structure: Climate refers how
learning can be done, which can encourage or restain
those from learning
More About Retention
Let’s Discuss

1. Is retaining a student in kindergarten more beneficial

for them down the road?
2. This academic year, are there any of your students you
would retain? If so, why?
Promote Family Outreach
● Encourage families to become more involved in the
day-to-day life of the school
● Communicate with families regularly (weekly, monthly)
● Provide translations into the languages spoken (Remind,
lesson plans)

Let’s Discuss:
● What are ways to encourage family involvement in the
classroom? (Considering some families are unable to be
involved due to cultural and economical differences.)
Case Study 1 - Avi Abramson
Talbot: The town was once thriving with modern views, but has quickly fading over the past few decades. One of
the elementary schools was even turned into a condominium. Talbot was home to many Italians and Irish people
as well as smaller concentrations of European American immigrants.

Lived in Talbot. Avi is Jewish and there is a very small community of other Jewish people in town. Most of
Avi’s peers that went to church with him were 85 or older and there were only about 10 other Jewish kids at
his high school. At Christmas time, his house stuck out because it was the only house on his street without
Christmas lights strung all around. His mom was a Hebrew teacher, but due to the lack of people trying to
learn Hebrew, she had to stop teaching and began studying computers so that she could get a new job.

● Avi had a strong sense of responsibility to not only himself but also his family and community.
● He was very persistent on keeping his culture and language alive for him and his family. He felt he
needed to keep that culture alive.
● The role of positive pressure from peers and family was also really evident for Avi - they wanted him to
participate in school activities.

Questions to think about:

1. Do you think Avi’s school life would be different if he wasn’t on the track team?
2. Avi mentioned that “friends are like a power source” how can teachers use this power source to
advantage?
3. How could schools build on positive peer pressure?
Case Study 2 - Jasper & Vienna Alejandro Quinn
● Jasper (13) and Vienna (16) are brother and sister who live with their parents on an American Indian reservation in
Washington near Canada. They were asked what they identify with ethically and culturally and they both said that they are
“Filipino and Native.” To which Jasper then added that they are “technically Native American” and then they named their
tribe affiliations.
● They both like many things that many U.S. teens like as well: hip hop, R&B, and rock music. They both also really like
many Filipino dishes as well as burritos, chicken, and steak.
● Vienna likes Twilight books and playing soccer while Jasper likes to read fiction books with characters that he can
connect with.
● They go to school with mostly White students and less than 25% of the student body is considered Native Indian/Alaskan
Native.
● When Vienna was in kindergarten, she attended a school on the reservation that served Native students exclusively.
However, their parents took her out of that school and moved them to a public school that had higher expectations. They
also did not like that at the Native American school, the teachers were mostly White who had little experience with
Native students.
● They both excelled in school despite the differences to their classmates that they had.
○ They did however face many problems that many other American Indian/Alaskan Native students faced: navigating home culture versus school culture,
preserving identity with the support of their family, and fighting the false assumptions that people have about them.

Things to think about:

1. In an interview, Viena commented: “I don’t have any teachers that really know anything about my culture at all. They
should educate themselves more about the minority students who go to our school.” How can you educate yourself more about
your students? What would be those steps? - “decolonize your curriculum”
2. Jasper likes to read books with characters that he can relate to… How can teachers learn about their approaches to
selecting literature and supporting their students’ choices in literature? My teacher for example reads many children's
books so that she always has places to pull from when students need a book or ask for a book. What else could we do?
Conclusion
● The organization and structures of schools are contrary
to the needs of students, the values of their
communities, and to providing equal educational
opportunities for all students.
● Students from historically disadvantaged groups have just
51% of the opportunity to learn that White students have
● Both in classrooms and out, there is much for teachers
and educators to do
● “Schools cannot, by themselves, become an oasis of equity
in a land of inequity”