Gemma Cohen

Demographic Profile
The Community
The elementary school where I am completing my student teaching internship is
located in a large Virginia county on the outskirts of the DC metropolitan area. The
school is about an hour away from both the states capital, Richmond, and the nations
capital, Washington DC. It is interesting to note that this county was ranked as the 11th
highest income county in the US in 2009 the median household income is $103,492.
The affluence of the community can, in part, be explained by the countys high levels of
education and its proximity to the nations capital. Ninety two percent of the 134,352
person population has at least a high school diploma and 35% have at least a bachelors
degree. Additionally, the average travel time to work is 39 minutes (significantly higher
than the national average) suggesting that many residents commute to DC for more
lucrative jobs. Although the county is quite affluent and would be described as solidly
middle class, there are many low income neighborhoods scattered throughout, and there
is an unemployment rate of nearly 5%. The racial composition of the county is
summarized below.
Table 1: County Racial Composition
Racial Category
Percentage
White

66

Black

17.8

Hispanic

10.5

Asian

3.1

Two or more races

As shown in Table 1, a sizable majority of the county residents are white. African
Americans make up the second largest racial group but account for less than 20% of the
population. It is also important to note that about eight percent of the countys population
is foreign born. This percentage is lower than the state average (11%) but given the size
of the population, accounts for over 10,000 of the countys residents. This demographic
understanding of the community provides a contextual background for the elementary
school and the specific first grade class that are the focus of this study.

The School System and School

The county school system has a total enrollment 27,461 students and is composed
of 17 elementary schools, eight middle schools and five high schools. The district spent
an average of $9,165 per pupil during the 2013-2014 school year. In the 2013-2014
academic year, the county did well on the SOLs: across the district 78% of students
passed the reading SOLs and 80% of students passed the math SOLs.
The specific elementary school in which I am student teaching has an enrollment
of 539 students 255 female and 284 male. The school has a special education preschool program that serves approximately 15 students. There are between 85 and 100
students in each grade level kindergarten through fifth. The school receives targeted Title
I assistance. It does not operate a school-wide Title I program but it does receive some
funding to meet the needs of specific groups of children (those who are failing or very at
risk).
In the 2012-2013 school year the school met all its AMOs (Annual Measurable
Objectives) and was designated as a Distinguished School. There was an 81% pass rate
for both reading and math (significantly higher than AMO target of 66% for reading and

64% for math. And significantly higher than the state pass rate 75% for reading and
71% for math).
In the 2013-2014 school year, 75% of students passed the reading SOLs and 76%
passed math. But unfortunately the school missed its AMO in one category, and thus was
relegated to School Improvement Status. The missed AMO was in math for one gap
group - black students. The target AMO was 56% and the school had only a 44% pass
rate. But given the relatively small size of the African American population at the school,
the school improvement status seems a bit harsh. The school must now develop and
implement a school improvement plan.
The racial composition of the school is summarized in Table 2.
Table 2: Racial Composition of the School
Racial Category
Percentage
White

59.1

Black

18.8

Hispanic

11

Two or more races

8.5

Asian

White students are clearly the majority but the percentage is a bit lower than the county
percentage (66%). Overall the racial demographics of the school reflect the demographics
of the county population quite closely.
The school also has a special education program and seeks to meet the needs of
all of the students with exceptionalities. The frequencies of various exceptionalities are
displayed below.

Table 3: Exceptionalities
Exceptionality
Number of Students
Hearing Impaired

Developmental Delay

Emotional Disability

Learning Disability

16

Speech

17

Gifted

23

English Language Learner

34

Free / Reduced lunch

178

Based on the information above, 33% of the student population is on free/reduced

lunch. Considering the affluence of the county, that is a fairly high percentage. It is also
interesting to note that about six percent of the student population are English Language
Learners which is comparable to the eight percent that are foreign born in the county.
There are more students identified as gifted than identified in any of the disability
categories.
The elementary school has eleven student service staff members (including ESL,
speech, OT, social worker, psychologist, nurse, counselor, PT etc.). There are also 19
paraprofessionals and five special education teachers, two P.E. teachers, an art teacher, a
librarian a music teacher and a FOCUS teacher. FOCUS is the schools gifted and
talented program.
The school has a very warm and welcoming environment. The administration is
very visible and approachable. It is not uncommon to see the principal walking down the
hall casually talking with a student or teacher. The principal does a good job of including

teachers in decision making, and generally teachers seem very well-respected at the
school. At this school the administration and staff are not afraid to do things their own
way. They genuinely want what is best for the students and they are not afraid to be
different. I have heard teachers describe the school as the red-haired child of [the
county]. For math they use the Investigations curriculum a very conceptual, studentcentered, hands-on approach to math instruction. For science they use Foss kits instead of
relying solely on the textbooks. In fact, the first grade teachers sent their science and
social studies textbooks home with students on the first day of school and told them not
to bring them back. They suggest using the textbooks on snow days. The school uses
Responsive Classroom as a school-wide management program. And they are also
working with the Kennedy Center to become an official CETA (Changing Education
through The Arts) School. The teachers are encouraged to use arts integration in their
lessons.
The Classroom
There are 18 students in the first grade class in which I am student teaching. There
are 10 girls in the class and eight boys. The class started out the year with 19 students but
an African American male student moved after the first month of school. The current
racial composition of the class is displayed below.

Table 4: Classroom Racial Composition

Racial Category Number of Students
White

10

Hispanic

Black

Asian

Middle Eastern

Indian

As with the county and school, a sizable majority of the class is white. The class
has six English Language Learners. These students do not speak English at home, but
their English language proficiency is fairly high. Four of them are reading below grade
level, one is on grade level and one is above. There are two students who receive food
bags on Friday to take home for the weekend. And there are three students who are being
watched for the gifted program.
It is also interesting to note that the class is fairly small compared to the class
sizes at other local elementary schools. During the summer as enrollment numbers were
coming in, the school decided to add an additional teacher to the first grade team. With
only four teachers there would have been 25 or 26 students in each class. But by hiring a
fifth teacher (in August!) the size of each first grade class was reduced quite a bit. Now
the largest class has only 21 students.
The first grade teacher I am working with is a fabulous teacher. She is in her fifth
year of teaching and is one of the most outstanding teachers I have ever worked with. She
is the lead teacher on the grade level and types up almost all of the lesson plans for the
whole team. During grade level meetings she is focused and on task even when the others
are chatting or doing their own grading. The principal chose to have his son in her class
a further indication of how stellar she is. There are also three other students in the class
who are children of staff members.

The classroom is completely Dr. Seuss-themed. There are a lot of resources and
materials in the room, but everything is very organized. Everything has a purpose and a
home and the teacher knows how to find whatever she needs right when she needs it. It
is quite impressive. She spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year (as part of the
Responsive Classroom model) establishing her expectations for behavior and transitions
and as a result, her classroom runs very smoothly. Students know exactly what is
expected of them when they come in to unpack in the morning or when they come to the
group rug or when they line up for lunch.
The teacher also incorporates a lot of music and movement into everything. She
uses music and dance for Brain Breaks in between academic activities. One of her
favorites is the Dino Stomp - a youtube.com video that the class dances along to. On
rainy days the students do an educational fitness video series called Adventure to Fitness
for indoor recess. The teacher also uses songs to teach academic concepts such as the
days of the week, the months of the year, the story of Christopher Columbus and how to
properly write letters (top to bottom left to right).
The classroom environment is very welcoming. The teacher has high expectations
and believes that every student is capable of behaving. She has a Take a Break chair in
her classroom. Students can go there to cool off if they are feeling upset, and the teacher
can also send student there to get their voice or body or emotions back in control. The
students rise to meet her high expectations and she is very well loved and respected.

Reflection
Learning about the demographics of the school and classroom, as well as the
surrounding community offers a rich contextual background for my Impact Study. With

all of this information in mind I was able to tailor my instruction to meet the needs of the
specific class with which I am working. Since most of the students come from middle
class backgrounds and have very involved parents, I quickly discovered that the class had
quite a bit of background knowledge about patterns. I was able to spend less time
introducing the topic and, as a result, we had more time for hands-on application
activities. Additionally, since the teacher has done such a wonderful job of establishing
routines and expectations, I was able to incorporate a lot of open-ended activities into my
unit. For example students were able to find a quiet place in the classroom to work with a
partner to develop a body movement pattern. They understood the expectations for
focused group work, and they knew how to clean up safely and efficiently at the end of
the activity. Understanding the academic levels of the students in my first grade class
also helped me realize that I would need to differentiate my instruction. Learning about
the demographics of the school environment gave me a deeper understanding of the
students in my first grade class, and helped me to tailor my instruction to meet their
needs.