Pamela Mancilla

EDU222
March 1, 2019
Field Experience #1- Demographic Profile
Part I- Introduction
I’m completing my 20 – hour practicum in a special needs classroom at a school located on the
East side of Phoenix, Arizona. This place is Wilson Elementary School located on 24th Street and
Van Buren, and it belongs to District #7. The district as a whole serves children from Head Start
all the way to eighth grade, but the elementary school covers students from fourth to eighth
grade. At Wilson, all core subjects are covered, like reading, math, language arts, and science.
Also, they receive extracurriculars that includes coding, theatre, music, and physical education.
The unique thing about this school is that it provides students with a program called AVID.
Through this program students are taught how to be better organized to be ready to learn which
creates a greater opportunity to succeed in later high school and college. They are also exposed
to various colleges and their requirements which is beneficial if they aren’t shown this
information at home. This program is of importance especially in this at-risk area because it
gives students hope to continue their studies.
Part II- School and School District
The school district includes one elementary and one primary school, which are across the street
from each other. They currently serve a total of 1, 238 students counting the populations in both
schools. The chart below and data indicates that the district has more males than females by a
few numbers. On the other hand, the elementary school population has more females than males,
with a total of 643 students.
Population of School and School District by Gender
Males Females Total
Elementary School 304 339 643
School District 626 612 1,238

The per pupil expenditure at this school and in the district is $4,009.00. As you can see by the
chart, in the elementary school and in the district, there are currently 6 different races and
ethnicities. Some students may be identified as having two or more races or ethnicities or are
undefined. Numbers indicate that there are more Hispanic/ Latino students both at the elementary
and school district. Additionally, for this school year, 85% of students are receiving free or
reduced lunch. The percentage of students presently receiving special education services is 12%
across the district.
Population of School and School District by Race & Ethnicity
Elementary School School District
 Hispanic/ Latino 583 1, 095
American Indian/ Alaska 3 7
Native
Asian 1 2
African American 42 104
Native Hawaiian/ Pacific 2 7
Islander
White 9 14
Two or more races 1 5
Undefined 2 4

This school district has a total of 78 staff members, which includes principals and other certified
teachers. Comparing the data collected on student and staff population it is seen that racial and
ethnic diversity among the staff does not match the variety the among the students. Counting
both schools, 45 of the 78 principals and teachers have a master’s degree or higher, which is
about 57% of all staff. Also, the average number of years of teaching experience is 9.5 years
among the teachers.
Teacher and Staff Diversity for School District by Race & Ethnicity
District Total
White 75
African American 1
American Indian 1
Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander 1

Teacher and Staff Diversity for School District by Gender

Males Females Total
School District 13 65 78

Part III- The Classroom

The classroom I have been given the privilege to work with is the 5th grade special needs
classroom with Mr. Heuett, my mentor teacher. I participate in classroom activities and
observation every Thursday of the week from 8:00 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. Currently there are 10
students in the class, with more males than females. The whole class, 100%, receives free/
reduced lunch. All students in this class (100%) also receive special education services. In Mr.
Heuett’s class, students are taught all core subjects in the same classroom, except for two
students. These two students receive instruction in other classrooms after some of the subjects
taught are over. Core subjects include, reading, language arts, math, and science. Additional
classes that are added to help students is word decoding and advisory. Word decoding aids
students with word pronunciation and advisory gives them the opportunity to get organized with
their daily agendas. Also, all students in class can participate in enrichment classes with their
non-disabled peers, which includes both physical education and theatre.
The classroom instruction, organization, and tools are designed in ways to aid any style and level
of learning. The desks in the classroom are set up in a horseshoe shape with a desk in the front,
middle of the u-shape which is for the teacher. Not only does this make my mentor teacher more
available to students but he is able to easily see who is struggling and who may be excelling. It’s
a way of keeping track of a student’s level of learning and what style best works for them. In
some occasions my mentor teacher would pair a lesson with videos and visuals that will help
students grasp ideas better. These visuals are often used to explain concepts of science in which
textbook images may not give a clear idea of what is being taught. Also, often during reading
and math students are divided into two groups that are at different levels. For example, one group
may be working on multiplication and division while the second group is identifying the place
values of numbers. I believe this is a way to modify material for students, but it also keeps
advanced students challenged.
Some of the disabilities that are present in the classroom are autism, specific learning disability,
mild intellectual disability, emotional disability, and speech/ language impairment. The resources
available to these students in the classroom includes the presence of two paraprofessionals, a
speech therapist, and instruction from a certified special education teacher. Access to technology
is another resource available to students in the classroom. The programs available through
technology includes Epic, Fast Math, Prodigy, and E-reads. Both Epic and E-Reads are tools to
help students with reading by having a variety of online books that can be read to them. Fast
Math and Prodigy make math fun and easy to understand through interactive games. On another
note, once students reach 6th grade and above they are able to receive instruction from other
teachers who are also dedicated to special education but may teach specific subjects. Overall, this
5th grade class consists of students that show signs of being enthusiastic about learning and have
a great relationship with my mentor teacher.
Classroom Population by Race & Ethnicity
Hispanic/ Latino 9
White 1
Total 10

Classroom Population by Gender

Males Females Total
7 3 10

Part IV- Reflection

Compiling information about students in the school, school district, and classroom will help me
better understand who my students are what they might be struggling with. During my
observation time I have encountered numerous students having difficulties because of language
barrier. This ties in with the fact all teachers at this school need to fully know how to include
students that have English as a second language in the classroom. I better understood this policy
after learning that a majority of students come from Hispanic/ Latino families. Knowing that
students come from homes where Spanish is the only spoken language means that learning
cannot happen if the teacher isn’t ready to meet their needs. Once the struggle is identified and
teachers are prepared to help with that struggle, students can be successful. It all starts with
getting to know who the students are. Additionally, being knowledgeable about a student’s
cultural background makes the environment and learning more inclusive. My mentor teacher
always does his best to tie student’s experiences to what is being taught. For example, once
during vocabulary review, he related the words they were learning to how grandiose a
quinceañera celebration may be. The student’s reactions were quite positive, and they better
understood how the vocabulary worked alone and in a story context. He also opens up to
students about his own experience and how that can relate to the lesson even though it may be
different from theirs. In this way, students can view a different point of view and see how the
same concepts can be applied to both experiences. I believe part of learning where students come
from is opening your mind to what they may or may not be exposed to. These understandings
can then be related to what is being learned in the classroom, so they feel their experiences,
families, and roles are valuable and considered. If students don’t feel that the concepts being
taught are relevant to them, there might be loss of interest and may feel excluded.