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Indicator 3.  INCREASE THE USE OF RESTORATIVE PRACTICES IN SCHOOL AND OFFICES

Indicator 5. INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS WHO READ ON OR ABOVE GRADE LEVEL BY THE END OF SECOND GRADE

Indicator 6. INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS IN GRADES 3-8 WHO MEET OR EXCEED EXPECTATIONS ON STANDARDIZED READING, LANGUAGE ARTS, AND MATHEMATICS ASSESSMENTS

• Attendance Rates
• Discipline Rates
• Number of FARMS students
• Special Education student enrollment (Early Childhood Intervention students)
• Academic Achievement for All status (Triple-A)

• Socio-Economic issues (Employment status, income levels, housing availability)
• Student Mobility
• Families in Crisis (mental, physical, emotional, financial)

Key Challenge #1: Socio-Economic community issues (employment, income levels, housing availability)

Contributing Factors:

Struggling to meet basic needs such as food and shelter directly affects school readiness, which is detrimental to academic achievement. Research shows that brain development during a child’s first few years of life lays the foundation for later growth and learning capacity. Therefore, early experiences are crucial to academic progress; nonetheless, our students often arrive at school with little exposure to vocabulary, literacy, and numeracy. More and more our school families are experiencing significant trauma. The struggle to find adequate housing leads to families living together in multigenerational households and/or homelessness. Many of our students are being raised by their extended family members, and one or more parent is absent from the family dynamic. Many parents are unemployed and/or are working at jobs that pay below the poverty level.  Students in our school are also struggling with food insecurity. Due to limited family funds, Ferndale is now providing identified families in need with take-home backpacks filled with food for the weekend. All students receive free daily breakfast during school days. The percentage of students at Ferndale receiving Free and Reduced Lunch is 68.5%, which is 7 out of 10 students in our student population of 127. This high number is influenced by our large enrollment in Pre-Kindergarten, which is provided for students living in economically disadvantaged households.

Families in our school lack the knowledge of how to seek help when their household is struggling.  We have arranged services for parents with community-based outreach programs such as: Early Childhood Community Resource Initiative Care Team (EC CRICT),  Villa Maria Behavioral Health Services, St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, Ferndale United Methodist Church, Toys for Tots, Faith in Action Weekend Food BackPack Program, and Hope for All Weekend Food Boxed Lunch Program.  These services provide much needed assistance in the areas of food, clothing, furniture, Christmas gifts, school supplies, counseling services, and parenting classes. (Indicators 1, 2, 4, 5, 10)

Key Challenge #2: Number of FARMS students 59% Free lunch, 9.5% reduced-- For a total of 68.5% of FEEC students- (87/127)

Contributing Factors:

As a school with only ECI and two academic grade levels, one of which is federally funded Pre-K, the majority of our population is enrolled based on qualifying as a Category 1 student (economically disadvantaged households).  Many of these students also qualify for a free or reduced lunch. Research indicates that there is a high correlation between poverty level students and academic and behavioral performance. For our students, this is exhibited early while adapting to classroom and school routines and following classroom expectations.  

Our students coming from low-income families tend to be lagging behind, significantly in their school readiness skills. Our FARMS students are highly represented in Ferndale’s academic intervention groups, social emotional strategy groups, and school-wide discipline data. In addition to academic needs, a growing number of our students have experienced trauma through exposure to violence, divorce, substance abuse, incarceration of a parent, or other family crises.  Prior to entering school, our students have limited access to books, educational toys, music, and activities that promote cognitive development. Students enter school requiring additional social-emotional support and coping strategies to regulate behavior and allow them to be available for learning in a classroom environment. As a result, the staff is often seeking relationship building strategies to help meet student needs and increase student achievement. (Indicators 1, 2, 5, 10)  

Key Challenge #3: Student Mobility (majority new student population every year, high Pre-K out of area enrollment)

Contributing Factors:  

As an early education center, we experience unique challenges that differ from those of other comprehensive elementary schools.  Our school houses ECI, Pre-K, and Kindergarten, which means there are no students in grades 1 through 5. Due to the fact that we only have the youngest students, many Ferndale families who have not had children in school previously, do not know the school routines, procedures, and rules.  Ferndale’s norms and expectations must be communicated and explained to a fresh set of parents every school year. Many of our students only attend one year at Ferndale, since our Pre-K students attend their home school for Kindergarten. Our staff spends a great deal of time communicating those procedures, as well as fostering and building strong relationships, even if it is just for one year. While we only have our students for a short period of time, the connections and relationships which are established between our staff and students’ families are extremely meaningful and positive.

The Ferndale teachers and administrators would love to increase parent involvement through volunteers. Some parents are reluctant to invest time and energy to be involved within the school community due to the short timeframe their child attends our school. Additionally, the Ferndale PTA is a shared collaboration with with George Cromwell Elementary, our feeder elementary school.  Furthermore, many of our students reside outside of the school community which can present a challenge for some parents to volunteer. As a result, we rely on our partnerships with our local high school and college to assist with educational events and to volunteer in our classrooms.  Our staff works hard in many aspects to make up for the lack of volunteers. (Indicators 1, 2, 3)

• Socio-economic community issues (employment, income levels, housing)
• Significant changes over time in student/community demographics