School Environment: The Socio-Economic Status of a High School - Essay Example

?  School Environment Analysis Essay       School Environment Analysis Essay Environmental/contextual factors and community needs may have significant effects on the needs of a school. Both environmental/contextual factors and community needs may impact the learning and teaching process in a class room. In addition, student characteristics and class room factors may also have an impact on learning and teaching. It is essential for instructors to take note of both the community needs and environmental/contextual factors in addressing the needs of the school. Moreover, the uneven number of learners from underprivileged family backgrounds who precipitately terminate their education in high school has turned into a significant matter in recent times. In spite the growth of education over the last twenty years, likelihood of accomplishment, level of taking part, and representation all remain substantial among young learners from well off regions and minimal among young learners from underprivileged areas. Therefore, it is the duty of all education stakeholders to consider probable or all environmental/contextual factors and community needs that may have an impact on a school (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009). By being aware of and comprehending the environmental/contextual factors and community needs, stakeholders, for example, instructors may adequately organize their class room instruction so that all students learn properly. This paper will look at environmental/contextual factors and community needs of a high school and for each of the identified needs describe some possible solutions that could be used to deal with the needs of the high school. The environmental/contextual factors and community needs of a high school include socioeconomics and the population of a community. The socio-economic status of a high school may be made up of low, middle, and high class populations. Nevertheless, socio-economic factors and needs have an impact on a high school and instruction when a low achievement is realized due to a low socio-economic level. In a high school, learners who come from households that are underprivileged have a greater chance of experiencing difficulties at school than learners who come from households that are placed in the middle or upper ranks of the social strata. In addition, learners from low social status households are more probable to lessen their level of participation in high school, either by foregoing the chance to continue with learning in high school or by dropping out of school. These learners are also likely to pursue complex paths in high school, such as restarting or repeating their courses due to non-learning issues, or deferring their enrollment in school. In addition, learners from underprivileged backgrounds suffer from poor nutrition. Consequently, poor nutrition can have a negative impact on their memory and attention during instruction thus leading to a decreased intelligence quotient score than learners from high socio-economic positions. Studies indicate that learners who come from low socio-economic status backgrounds have slower and lower academic attainment in comparison to students from high socio-economic positions (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009). Also, when instructors make decisions about learners on the basis of their socio-economic position and class, they are taking the foremost step in stopping learners from gaining an equal chance for academic success. There are a number of possible solutions that could be used to deal with this need in a high school. Instructors need to play a part in dealing with the stigma of poverty. Instructors can accomplish this by not reinforcing a learner coming from a low socio-economic status or having depleted self-esteem. Learners also need to look at the learners as human beings and not as people occupying specified socio-economic positions. Looking at learners in this way will assist tutors not to be biased towards learners of particular socio-economic classes. In addition, enhancing the degree of instruction can also play a part in creating equality in student success. Instructors linking the academic content taught to learners’ previous knowledge and connecting it to existing world encounters can enhance success. Also, instructors need to be frank and talk about socio-economic status and class disparities. It is necessary that everyone is educated, comprehend, and have the capacity to openly talk about socio-economic positions. Additionally, because of the low socio-economic status, the high school may develop programs, for example, reduced or free meals. The intention of this program should be to enable learners to receive meals, consequently, satisfying the basic requirement for hunger (Lareau, 2003). Satisfying the need for hunger will allow the learner to concentrate in the class room and learn what is being taught by the instructor. The population of every community has been escalating over the years and will still continue to grow. Similarly, numerous educational institutions have been developed to meet the demand resulting from the growing population. Nonetheless, because of insufficient financial resources to develop and staff a significant number of high schools to support the community, every high school population has escalated. Rapid population rise has confronted communities and specifically the educational system with several issues. Abrupt, significant rise in number of learners strain the high school budget and crowd school facilities. In addition, elevated population growth rate means abrupt rise of the school-age population that distributes even more thinly the already extremely limited resource for the development of basic high school education. This clearly has an impact on the learning and teaching process as there will be less instructors and insufficient finances to buy necessary commodities for the class rooms in the high school. This frequently leads to learners sharing reading materials or the high school not being able to buy computers or other necessary educational material. In addition, the class rooms are too small to fit the large number of learners who are in every room. The class rooms are restricted for space because of the number of desks, learners, and all the materials and equipment needed in the teaching and learning process (Kraus & Keltner, 2008). The solutions include, one, class reduction. Lessening the average class size may enable instructors to spend sufficient durations working with specific learners, design teaching to match the needs of learners, and ease instructors’ capacity to assess class room behavior. Finally, the high school can develop an early learning program. This will provide young learners with a starting educational point. References Kraus, M. W., & Keltner, D. (2008). Signs of socioeconomic status: A thin-slicing approach. Psychological Science, 20(1), 99-106. Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Race, class, and family life. California: University of California Press. Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why more equal societies almost always do better. New York: Allen Lane. Read More