Running head: ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 1

Action Plan for Decreasing the Achievement Gap

Johnny Hughes

Capella University

ED5504

September 11, 2017

ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 2

Part I: Action Plan for Decreasing the Achievement Gap

Action Plan Review

The following section of this project will show how the author plans to decrease the

achievement gap at his school. The author will first give an overview of the culture of the school

and surrounding area, associated issues, and give the reasoning for those plans. It will conclude

with a vision of a potential plan to help the students and of the author's role in that plan.

Background

The school that I (the author of this written work) teach at is a public charter school

located on the outskirts of Aiken, SC. The school used to be located in the old mill area of the

city before moving three years ago to a new building several miles away. Most of the former

students moved with the school, and the school attained a large number of new students from the

new and old area upon moving.

The school is classified as a Title-1 school with a majority of the students qualifying for

free or reduced lunch. Ironically, the school does not serve lunches or have buses, so that

decreases the number of students coming from lower income homes. The surrounding

community is an extremely poor part of Aiken County. The Aiken County per capita income is

$23,113, but the income in the school's immediate area would be lower than that and would be

around $17,000-$20,000 for the parents who work (World Media Group, LLC., 2013). The area

has a high substance abuse problem with meth being the rising trend. Warrenville/Aiken County

is one of three “meth pockets” in South Carolina (Johnson, 2013). The high school graduation

rate for this school system was 85.2 percent last year. That is a little higher than the state-wide

average of 80.3 percent (Wood, 2015).

ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 3

Assessment of Circumstances

Children coming from low-income homes are often under-fed which leads to low birth

weight, poor health, stunted growth, and low grades. They run the risk of long-term health

problems as well, along with obesity, mental and physical health problems, and failure to thrive

academically (Children with Poor Nutrition, 2017).

Purpose and Rationale

I propose to intervene with a program that would increase the nutrition levels of our

students, most of which come from low-income homes. Simply put: better nutrition in a child

equates to better grades and better health such as proper brain development and correct physical

development (Hatter, 2017).

Vision

I live in this community and have taught here for ten years. I know what I am up against.

The kids who do not have food in their houses are in a situation where that will not change. A

few of the schools in our district have invited the Golden Harvest Food Bank in to offer children

backpacks of food on Fridays so they will have food to eat during the weekend (Backpack

Kickoff Sheds Light, 2015). Many children at my school are not properly fed at home, but we do

not offer lunch service, so they are expected to either bring food from home or buy junk food

from the canteen. This is not a positive situation for many of these kids, so there needs to be

some way our school can offer them nutritional food for free.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers schools a “Fresh Fruit and

Vegetable Program.” This program offers schools money to purchase local fresh fruits and

vegetables to give to the children of the school. The fresh fruits and vegetables are given to the

students for free during the day (Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, 2017). I went to my school
ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 4

principal in May of last year (right before the start of summer) and got permission to apply for

the grant to get this program started at our school.

Goals

Measurable goals and objectives of this program would be relatively easy to set up.

Students eligible for free or reduced lunch (Title 1) would have their scores and grades compared

to the same time the year before. These scores would include but not be limited to SRI scores,

MAP scores, overall subject grades, physical education grades, and any health statistics the nurse

may have for the students.

Self-Assessment

My role would be to apply for the FDA grant and coordinate staff members for

appropriate roles. Once the program is approved, the school would get $50-$75 per student per

year to purchase the food. A staff member would have to purchase the food from the local

farmer's market (one of which is five miles away) then submit the monthly forms for

reimbursement. I would have to get our food service staff member to do that food trip and file the

forms. Then, I would set up a schedule where a staff member delivers the food to the classrooms

at certain times on different days. Our parent volunteer coordinator told me she may be interested

in that role. Afterward, food waste must be collected and disposed of properly. Our middle

school science teacher told me he is interested in creating a compost heap which would tie in

nicely to this endeavor.

Part 1 Conclusion

I have been toying with this plan for over a year now. There are many moving parts in

this proposed idea to benefit the children. Regardless, it is a solid idea with no cost to the

students that would undoubtedly help decrease the achievement gap that is affecting them.
ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 5

Part 2: Action Plan for Decreasing the Achievement Gap

Action Plan Literature Review

Every community and region in the United States has its own sets of problems to face and

address. The prevalent problem in the area this project focuses on is malnutrition caused by the

low socio-economic statuses of the families and students in this school's area. That ultimately

leads to lower grades, lower learning abilities, and lower graduation rates. Because this is such a

diverse and complicated situation, one must look at multiple aspects such as community and

culture issues and related research showing if this could action plan could potentially help the

students. The following section will entail issues to address and use relevant literature to show

how this plan could potentially work and why it was chosen.

Why This Plan?

Countless studies have linked nutrition to learning abilities. Capano (2009), “University

of Alberta (Canada) researchers evaluated the lifestyle and performance of some 5,000 children.

Students who ate an adequate amount of fruit, vegetables, protein and fiber, with less calorie

intake from fat, did better on their literacy tests than those eating foods high in salt and saturated

fat.” This shows that the proposed action plan is relevant for this area, particularly since it

consists primarily of low-income households and families.

Will it Work?

Carroll (2014) writes of multiple tests that show direct correlations between nutrition and

grades of students. In one such study given in South Korea, male elementary students attained

higher grades when they started eating breakfast five days a week. Also, a study in North Dakota

involving 800 public school students showed those who ate breakfast more regularly achieved

higher grades in standardized math testing compared to the students who skipped breakfast.
ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 6

Similar studies consistantly show a direct link between nutrition and grades, and it would stand

to reason that if it is working everywhere else, it will work at this school in Aiken, SC.

Issues to Address

Student successes culminate from partnerships and efforts from the schools, the

community, and the households. This hearkens to the old saying “It takes a village to raise a

child.”

The School's Role

The most important job a teacher has is to create a safe, welcoming, and nurturing

environment in the classroom. The classroom must be a haven for the student to feel happy and

loved. If the classroom is welcoming, the student will tend to increase investment in the

assignments and learning material, thus decreasing his or her chances of lagging behind

academically (Farr, 2010).

This is not a simple thing to achieve, however. There are multiple levels of building

relationships with students. A teacher must spend time and effort on gathering information,

individualized communication, spending time with the students, and being available to the

students during and after school time (Farr, 2010). This can be a daunting task for teachers and

students in communities where obstacles are varied and complex.

A successful action plan would contain a plan for the teacher to create a classroom where

the students feel valued, safe, and successful. As described by Farr (2010), that classroom would

have a welcoming environment, a culture of achievement, and (successful) instruction and

learning. The author's yearly plans always include developing that warm, nurturing environment

to increase student contentment and success.

Partnerships with the Community

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Schools that wish to help students overcome achievement gaps should also look at

community resources and organizations and create partnerships to help the students. One strong

source of help and goodwill available in the Aiken, SC area is its large group of churches. The

Aiken area has over forty large churches and dozens of smaller, unlisted ones (Sciway .net LLC,

2017). There is also an active group in the area called ACTS, which is a coalition of churches

that work together to perform acts of community service. The ACTS organization has provided

over two million free meals, clothing for over 70,000 people, and utility assistance for over

16,000 homes (ACTS, 2011-2016). Also, the Golden Harvest Food Bank offers a “backpack

program” at several schools that sends home backpacks of food to needy students so they have

food to eat during the weekend (Golden Harvest Food Bank, 2017). These groups work with the

schools and could be contacted to help students with their various needs.

Parental Involvement

Teachers and schools only get students about a third of each weekday. If the students are

coming from homes where their needs are not being met, they will not succeed academically or

socially. Partnerships between the homes and schools are detrimental to the success of the

students.

Family dynamics have changed dramatically over the past few decades. Nine percent of

children lived with single parents in the 1960s. That figure increased to 28 percent in 2012 (Scott

et al., 2013). That number has grown since 2012, with large dispensaries being seen in minority

populations. The Black population in the United States, for example, is in a situation where 72

percent of black children are born out of wedlock (Jacobson, 2013). Amato et al. (2015)

“Research shows that children in single-parent households score below children in two-parent

households, on average, on measures of educational achievement.”

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This presents many challenges when deciding upon an action plan to empower students.

A teacher cannot come into a household and change the family dynamics or even fix perceived

problems in the home. The teacher can only open the lines of communication so the parent(s)

feels comfortable asking for help and expressing his or her concerns to the educator.

Appropriate action plan possibilities regarding this would include aggressive

communication efforts through venues such as phone calls, texting, email, and programs such as

Remind.com . These would hopefully lead to the parents coming to open houses, meetings, and

other community-outreach efforts which ultimately empower the parents to better provide

support for their children.

School Involvement for Decision Making

All programs such as this are reported to the school board. As a charter school, this

school board is over only one school, so the connections to the school are real and understood.

The school board is very involved and aware of what is going on with the school. Success or

failure with this program would be seen by the board, which would make suggestions regarding

its continued use. Overall though, administration would be the final decision on continuing this

program. If it gets positive results, the administration would choose to keep it going. Ultimately,

I as the person who initiated this program would communicate its successes and value to

administration in hopes of keeping it going (if it proves successful).

Conclusions for Part 2

There is nothing more valuable in our society than our children. The school systems and

educators in them must create innovative and compassionate plans to educate those children and

provide for their physical, emotional, and intellectual needs. The above section entailed a plan

that will potentially help a large group of students achieve each of their personal best.
ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP 9

Part 3: Action Plan for Decreasing the Achievement Gap

Action Plan Steps and Implementation – Step 1

The following essay will show the author's plans to decrease the achievement gap at his

school. The author is proposing using a plan offered by the United States Department of

Agriculture that offers schools money to purchase local fresh fruits and vegetables to give to the

children of the school. This would potentially raise students' test scores and increase their health

and well-being (Hatter, 2017)

Action Plan Steps

The school principal approved the plan last year when I told him about it. I did also tell

him that it involves a lot of “moving parts” and is actually a reimbursement plan rather than one

where we are directly sent money or food. That makes implementation a bit harder when a

school has to spend money and wait to get that money back later.

The first step would be for a school employee to apply for the program. I would do that

and expect to be approved since our school meets all needed criteria. Upon approval, a team of

me, the school canteen director, and the parent services coordinator would decide upon who goes

to actually buy the food. Our school does not offer food service and only offers a “canteen,”

which is a large area of junk food and packaged food. The canteen director goes to SAMS

Warehouse every other week to purchase items to sell, so she is accustomed to the steps of

purchasing items for our school. She would go to the historic Aiken Farmer's Market which

“sells fresh produce including corn, tomatoes, beans, fruit, baked goods, and local meats and

cheeses” (Aiken County Farmer's Market, n.d.). This farmer's market is approximately five miles

from our school and would be a good way to get fresh food while supporting local vendors. I will
ACTION PLAN FOR DECREASING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
10
verify that we can get a receipt or purchase order of some kind to send in with our monthly

reimbursement paperwork before we choose that location, however.

The food will be made available to the students of the school by our parent volunteer

coordinator walking to each classroom around 9:00 am and offering each room food. For

example, she would go to each classroom either daily or a few times a week and offer each

student an apple, orange, or whatever fruit or vegetable is the offering of the day. Leftovers could

be placed on a table for students to grab on the way out the door each day so they could eat it in

their car (we do not have bus service) or at home. Waste food would be collected in the recycling

bins that I got from a different grant last school year. The middle school science teacher would

take that food and add it to a compost heap project he is starting soon.

Strategies

The monetary reimbursement forms would be filled out and turned in by our financial

director. She is part of administration, so she and I would have periodic meetings with the

involved personal to ensure all financial aspects are being adhered to. We also would follow up

with personal to see that the plan is working so we can make changes and tweaks to this

program. Those meetings would also involve our school nurse, who is aware of all dietary

restrictions and allergies of the students at the school.

Stakeholders' Roles

While this plan only involves four or five staff members, the entire school should be

aware and involved. Teachers would be told to come to me or the canteen director with ideas,

questions, and concerns. They would also be asked of any potential leads on better deals. Our

school is in farming country, so some teachers may know of farmers who would sell us food at

better rates.
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11
The parents could also be involved by allowing them to earn needed volunteer hours by

passing out the food or by simply informing them of the plan, which increases good will and

communication between the school and parents. This would also be a good opportunity for

public relations with the community, which would be announced through local media, thus

giving the school positive news coverage and increasing its reputation.

Managing Resources

The school is a “one school district” since it is a charter school. Everyone we need for

legalities and questions is in the building at all times. The financial officer/director of operations

does an excellent job at knowing and following monetary procedures and the school's executive

director has an extensive knowledge of other related legalities in all areas. All of these people

work with the staff on a regular basis, so I am confident they would be supportive in helping

with allocation of funds and supplies, conflict management, and support in general.

Part 3 Conclusion

If this plan can be enacted correctly, it would work. The students at my school have

horrible eating habits (as seen during lunch time when no fresh food is seen being eaten). This

plan would help them feel better and get higher scores. It would also be a positive move

regarding community and parent relationships. On its surface, the plan has no negative aspects; it

is just a matter of implementation and getting it to work.

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Part 4: Action Plan Steps and Implementation Part 2

Assessment Strategies

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers schools a “Fresh Fruit and

Vegetable Program.” This program offers schools money to purchase local fresh fruits and

vegetables to give to the children of the school. The fresh fruits and vegetables are given to the

students for free during the day (Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, 2017). This program would

be an appropriate solution to some of the issues the Title 1 charter school I work at in Aiken, SC

deals with.

Step one of this action plan entailed involving parents to distribute the fruit and

vegetables each morning. This creates a positive and inclusive school culture that involves both

students and parents. Also, since the food is available to all students (and not just students who

receive free or reduced lunch), there would be no social shame or stigma attached to grabbing an

apple or a carrot each day, as all students would be doing it.

Activities for Promoting Improved Instructional Practice

Teachers at the school will be given suggestions to incorporate nutrition information in

the lesson plans. This is already done by the two health teachers, so they would be a potential

resource in this area. They could suggest concepts and ideas to the other teachers as they are

trying to create lesson plans and projects around nutrition.

The school has an assistant principle who oversees curriculum integration in the school.

She ensures the lesson plans of teachers are appropriate and aligned to state standards. She would

check for proper use of activities and lessons that integrate the action plan material into the

students' lessons.
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Progress Monitoring

One strategy to assess the impact of this action plan on the school's culture would be to

measure the students' scores and grades to the same time the year before. These scores would

include but not be limited to SRI scores, MAP scores, overall subject grades, physical education

grades, and any health statistics the nurse may have for the students. Our school has a stable

population compared to other schools in the area, so most students are returning ones from the

year before. This would help keep the yearly results relevant.

All programs such as this are reported to the school board. As a charter school, this

school board is over only one school, so the connections to the school are real and understood.

The school board is very involved and aware of what is going on with the school. Success or

failure with this program would be seen by the board, which would make suggestions regarding

its continued use. Overall though, administration would be the final decision on continuing this

program. If it gets positive results, the administration would choose to keep it going.

Also, information regarding all aspects of the program would be shared on the school's

website, the school's social media platforms, and through the local newspaper. The school has a

track record of open and frequent communication with the community, and this would not be an

exception.
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References

ACTS (2011-2016). “About Us.” Retrieved from http://actsofaiken.org/about_us

Aiken County Farmers Market (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.visitaikensc.com/whattodo/detail/aiken_county_farmers_market

Amato, P. R., Patterson, S., & Beattie, B. (2015). Single-Parent Households and Children’s

Educational Achievement: A State-Level Analysis. Social Science Research, 53, 191–

202. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.05.012

Capano, J. (2009). Nutritious Meals Make Better Grades. Retrieved from

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-health-nutrition-better-grades-story.html

Carroll, C. (2014). Better Academic Performance — Is Nutrition the Missing Link?

Today’s Dietitian. Vol. 16 No. 10 P. 64. Retrieved from

http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives100614p64.shtml/

Children with Poor Nutrition (2017). Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved from

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/children-poor-nutrition-6555.html

Farr, S. (2010). Teaching as leadership: The highly effective teacher's guide to closing the

achievement gap. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 9780470432860.Fresh Fruit

and Vegetable Program. (2017). USDA. Retrieved from

https://www.fns.usda.gov/ffvp/fresh-fruit-and-vegetable-program

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. (2017). USDA. Retrieved from

https://www.fns.usda.gov/ffvp/fresh-fruit-and-vegetable-programGolden Harvest Food

Bank (2017). Backpack Kickoff Sheds Light on Child Hunger.

Retrieved from https://goldenharvest.org/blog/2015/10/backpack-

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kickoff-sheds-light-on-child-hunger/

Golden Harvest Food Bank, (2015). Back Pack Kickoff Sheds Light on Child Hunger. Retrieved

from https://goldenharvest.org/blog/2015/10/backpack-kickoff-sheds-light-on-child-

hunger/

Hatter, K. (2017). The Benefits of Eating Healthy Foods as a Child. Leaf Group Ltd. Retrieved

from http://www.livestrong.com/article/246591-the-benefits-of-eating-healthy-foods-as-

a-child/

Jacobson, L. (2013). CNN's Don Lemon says more than 72 percent of African-American births

are out of wedlock. Politifact. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-

meter/statements/2013/jul/29/don-lemon/cnns-don-lemon-says-more-72-percent-african-

americ/

Johnson, B.C. (2013). New methods blamed for rise of Aiken County meth labs. Retrieved from

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/crime-courts/2012-09-23/new-methods-blamed-rise-

aiken-county-meth-labs

Noguera, P. A., & Yonemura Wing, J. (Eds.) (2008). Unfinished business: Closing the racial

achievement gap in our schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN:

9780470384442.

Sciway.net LLC. (2017) Retrieved from http://www.sciway.net/org/religaiken.html

Scott ME, DeRose LF, Lippman LH, Cook E. Two, one, or no parents? Children’s living

arrangements and educational outcomes around the world . Child Trends. Retrieved from

http://worldfamilymap.org/2013/articles/essay/two-one-or-no-parents
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Wood, L. (2015). County's Student Graduation Rate Tops State's Average. Aiken Standard.

Retrieved from http://www.aikenstandard.com/news/county-s-student-graduation-rate-

tops-state-average/article_0106ca15-3cfe-5def-9bf6-a77e64a4b89c.html

World Media Group, LLC.. (2013). Aiken County Income and Careers. Retrieved from

http://www.usa.com/aiken-county-sc-income-and-careers.htm