Awareness of Culture and Diversity: EFP1 Task 2
Brittany Kennedy
Western Governor’s University

A. Introduction
Meridian High School is currently the only public high school in the city of Meridian, Mississippi. MHS has approximately 1,400 students enrolled from 9th grade to 12th grade. Some of the most noticeable demographics of this school is, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and the dropout rate.
A1. Local Demographics
Staff and faculty members treat homosexual students differently than they do heterosexual students. Some educators don’t agree with their sexuality, and tend to favor the heterosexual student more. Student homosexuality is an uncomfortable subject to handle in a classroom setting. Some teachers feel LGBT students disrupt the learning experience with their outburst and flamboyant behavior. There are also educators who take pride in maintaining respect for all students in the classroom no matter what their sexual orientation is. (Duncan) curtails that “Just because you’re intervening on a homophobic comment doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily trying to be an activist. You are just trying to make sure each child has a safe and supportive learning environment.” Teen pregnancy seems to be an epidemic this day in age. Mississippi is currently ranked # 2 in the U.S. for teen pregnancy. (Lewis, 2013). Lisa Silliman is the Teen Pregnancy Director for the Meridian Public School District. This program serves as the Teen Parent Academic Liaison. Mrs. Silliman sends out monthly progress reports on attendance, grades, and teacher comments about the teen parents. There is a three member support team within the Meridian School District, including 1) the school nurse who works with the teen mother with prenatal care. 2) The academic liaison who works with the mother and father, in keeping the parents in school, and 3) once the baby is born, a parent educator works with the baby and parents. (UAB Civitan International Research Center, 2000).
Lastly, the dropout rate is another sore subject of Meridian High School. Most classes start out with a least 400 plus students beginning in the 9th grade. With the drop rate of the district, by the time a class reaches the 12th grade they only graduate half of the class. In 2014, the Meridian Public School District implemented a new Dropout Prevention plan. In this plan the district must complete each step of the outlined framework to increase graduation rate to 85% by 2018-2019; decrease dropout rate by 50% by 2014, and lastly reduce the truancy rates by 60% by 2014-2016.
A1a. Demographics across the United States
Homosexuality continues to show its trends across the United States. Three percent of high school students describe themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Over five percent report they are either lesbian, gay bisexual, or have had sexual experiences with individuals of the same sex. (SIECUS, 2010). Most of LGBT students have discovered their sexualities as early as 6th grade. When they “come out” they usually confide in a close family member, or friend. These students carry around the burden of wondering if they will be accepted in their family as well as their peers. (Whitlock) writes “Lesbian, and gay youngsters face painful choices. How are they to choose between honesty and possible loss of friendship or parental love? How are they to experience such normal adolescent rituals as dating, dancing, or holding hands with someone special? Even just spending time with others who are “like me” poses tremendous risks in predominantly heterosexual settings.” They face many trials and tribulations to remain respected by their fellow peers. School is a scary place for these students, they experience bullying, harassment, and being in physical altercations. LGBT students are more susceptible to harmful behaviors such as suicide. Living an open lifestyle is not easy for them. At least 40% of the LGBT community are homeless. The number one reason for this results in them running away because of family rejection of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act has existed since 1974. It is provides services and interventions for out-of-home youth (Ford 2012).
The dropout rate in the United States is immeasurable. Each year more than one million kids will leave school without a high school diploma. That is equivalent to 7,000 students during an academic year. Students have their own personal reasons for deciding to drop out of school. Dropping out is sometimes about students being bored and seeing no connection between academic life and “real” life. They feel disconnected from their peers and from teachers and other adults at school. It’s about the schools and communities having too few resources to meet the complex emotional and academic needs of their most vulnerable youth (Furger 2008). When students drop out of high school it has a serious effect on the individual, economy, and society. Each group of 18-year-olds who fail to graduate from high school forfeits $156 billion in lifetime earnings and costs the nation $58 billion in lost income tax revenue. Dropouts are less likely to vote or volunteer in their communities, they also drive up criminal justice costs (Dianda 2008).
Teen Pregnancy is another concern for our female student’s. Although teen pregnancy numbers have decreased substantially over the last two decades, this is still a major issue for our school district. Meridian Public School District is made up of 92% of African American students. Research shows that teen pregnancy rates are even higher for some groups. Forty-five percent of African-American teen girls and 40% of Latinas will have a pregnancy before they turn 20. It is still the case that nearly 1 in 4 girls will get pregnant at least once before they turn 20 as well. The rates in this country are by far higher than other industrialized countries (National Campaign 2015). Most teen pregnancies are unplanned. The majority of teen girls who get pregnant don’t want to be pregnant. They stand a chance of their parents paying to terminate the pregnancy. A decision such as that is made because the parents do not want to face the embarrassment, or because the family can’t afford to feed another mouth. Most parents will allow their child to proceed with their pregnancy. These are the parents who are against the termination of pregnancy. They also feel that even though the pregnancy has happened, it will teach their child responsibility. With those things in mind parents will still ask themselves, “What did I do wrong”? In retrospect they did nothing wrong. The choices made by those teens are strictly their own.
A1ai. Two Sources
One source that was helpful in supporting these demographics trends related to homosexuality is Study: 40 Percent of Homeless Youth are LGBT: 2012 by Zach Ford. It reports concrete numbers and percentages on homeless LGBT youth, and the situations in which they became homeless. Teen pregnancy rates by state: 2015 supports how teen pregnancy affects all races groups. The most prominent race included in that number is African-American which makes up over half of our school district. A2. Benefit of Diversity The district can increase diversity in our school system by offering sign on bonuses to entice teachers of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds to teach. Students relate to teachers that know they come from the same socioeconomic back ground. Those students tend to trust building a successful student to teacher relationship. This strategy will also lure in bilingual teachers. There is a major shortage of these teachers across the US. Having them on staff gives the school diversity within itself. This converts into English language learners (ELLs) instruction method. A teaching force that represents the nation’s racial, ethnic, and linguistic cultures and effectively incorporates this background and knowledge to enhance student’s academic achievement is advantageous to the academic performance of students of all backgrounds, and for student of color specifically (Graham 2014).

B1: Culturally-Based Communication Practices
Like other school districts that are becoming more diverse and suffering from growing pains, Meridian is no different; we have an influx of students whose native language is not English. These students tend to speak to each other in their native language and tend to excel when teachers to provide them with more group centered work opportunities since they seem to favor a collaborative classroom environment. This culturally based mode of communicating has made teachers feel uncomfortable since they do not understand the students and perhaps even assume that they are being talked about in their own class since the students are not speaking in English. This clash of languages has led to some tension in many classrooms and needs to be addressed so that both teachers and students feel more comfortable and are therefore successful.
One was to deal with this culturally-based communication practice and the hostile environment it is creating would be to conduct student forums. This will allow students of all back grounds to gather in one common location to talk about the stresses, and difficulties that come from being English Language Leaners. Additionally, teachers would be provided professional development workshops which would provide them with more tools on how to teach students who are not native English speakers. Teachers should attempt to create a warm and inviting classroom environment (Kauchak & Eggens).
Teens that are pregnant seem to need support from faculty and staff members. If they can’t get the support from us they tend to congregate with other girls who are in the same situation as they are. This results in a culturally-based communication practice where they skip class. This situation, then leads to poor school attendance. One way to address the situation would be to implement a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. In our district we have a program that prepares and helps the teen parents cope with becoming parents at such a young age. However, a prevention program it will dissuade students from becoming parents before they are ready.
B2: Stereotypical Assumptions
No matter how we try to elevate from stereotyping people and situations the opportunity still presents itself. Stereotypical assumptions are assimilated by many of the staff and faculty members of Meridian High School. One common stereo type is that teen mothers will automatically become a statistic. Students lead to believe that they are not able to stay on track to graduation and then move on to higher learning once they have completed high school. Teachers who operate from this stereotypical assumption may find it difficult to communicate with pregnant students and may use language that is disparaging to the student. This would lead students to resent the teacher and may cause them to withdraw from classroom activities which in turn would have a negative effect on their grades. This assumption is far from the truth and discourages teen moms in becoming a part of the Teen Pregnancy Program within the district. Educators need to encourage students that one mistake does not outline their future success.
Another stereotype is pegging student who are underperforming academically and who are on the verge of dropping out as dumb, lazy, or just having poor academic work ethic. This assumption may lead teachers to ignore these students, instead of engaging them and trying to figure out how they could help these students succeed. This assumption is yet again untrue. Students don’t just drop out because they cannot comprehend the academic curriculum or they just have a lack luster attitude about learning. One of the reasons is the non-existent immutable relationship with their teacher. Teachers have to always remember that each student learns differently, and be open to implementing several strategies to engage them student in learning.

B3: Potential Barriers
One potential barrier to communication can stem from cultural biases and/or homophobic views. When students have narrow beliefs about what they consider normal this often results in students not understanding the life style that homosexual students want to live. Additionally, homosexual students may be ostracized and ill-treated by heterosexual students. Most all children are dramatically affected by anti-gay prejudice, and most, by a relatively young age, already have had “exposure” to LGBT-related information, unfortunately most of it is misleading and harmful (Grounds Park)
Ethnocentrism is another potential barrier that can bring misunderstanding. Ethnocentrism is people criticizing others and their cultures. Students that consider themselves of “normal” behavior and sexuality may show resistance in being in group activities with a homosexual or pregnant student. They may feel that they have nothing in common with them and are above them. This could create tension within the classroom, and disrupt the learning environment.
C1: Ways to Better Serve the Needs
The diversity of Meridian High School is not uncommon across the United States. School systems approach tackling diversity differently. Within MPSD, we need to focus on offering the opportunities for students as well as parents to stay aware of the oppression that each one of these diversity brings. One way is to encourage parents to become more involved with their child during the difficult times of their teenage years. Parents can attend summits which will discuss the importance of their child’s education, parent support, and the safety of the children.
Another way to better the serve the diversity in MHS, is to be supportive of students who feel they don’t belong. This can include organizing support groups. By organizing this, they will know that they are not alone and have other peers who share the same life situations.

C2: Cross-Cultural Communication
One resource that the teachers and administrators of our school should could benefit from is Dropout Prevention Plan: Meridian Public School District. The web address is. www.mpsd.k12.ms.us. The second resource is www.nea.org.
C2a: Summaries of Resources
This will serve as a constant reminder to keep themselves on track with the required framework to decrease the dropout rate. The framework will assist the assuring that the drop out plan is followed to ensure the success of the district as well as the state. It will also allow for additional modifications of the plan for previous school years of parts of the implemented plan proves to be unsuccessful.
The National Education Association lists great resources on how a teacher can stay competent in keeping his or her classroom diverse. NEA outlines four basic competence skill areas. They apply to individual educators, to the schools where they work, and to the educational system as a whole. Those skill areas are: 1. Valuing Diversity 2. Being culturally self-aware 3. Understanding the dynamics of cultural interactions 4. Institutionalizing cultural knowledge and adapting to diversity. (National Education Association).
C2b: Benefits of Applying Information Learned
The environment of Meridian High School will change once teachers and administrators execute the instructions learned from the DPP. One major benefit is that teachers will be able to implement these tactics with each grade level from K-12. With teachers executing the same plan for each grade level the level of student success should be at an impeccable levels. Students should be on performing on their grade level, and they will also be able to pass state tests with flying colors. Teachers will also improve their instructional and delivery method of lessons. By doing so, it will increase students class participation. They will also more engaged in the lessons and understand its relevancy.
Teachers at MHS can benefit from National Education Association by becoming a member. Being a member of NEA, teachers will have a constant professional development tool at their reach. This vision of the NEA is to provide a great public school for every student. Teachers will be able to keep their classrooms as diverse as possible, while teaching their students how to respect and adapt to cultures other than their own. They will also have classroom resources or supplies available for them to purchase at discounted rates. This will give teachers the option of keeping the classroom vibrate and engaging for each learner.

References

Dianda, M. (2008, November 1). Dropout Prevention. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
Duncan, J. (2012, June 30). Discriminating against LGBT Clubs Violates Law. Retrieved May 6, 2015 from, www.usnews.com/education
Ford, Z. (2012, July 12). Study: 40 Percent of Homeless Youth are LGBT, Family Rejection is the leading cause. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
Furger, R. (2008, December 3). How to End the Dropout Crisis: Ten Strategies for Student Retention. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from www.edutopia.org/student-dropout-retention-strategies.
Graham, E. (2014, May 16). Lack of Teacher Diversity Jepordizes Student Achievement.
Retrieved May 15, 2015, from www.neatoday.org
Grounds Park. It’s Elementary. www.groundspark.org
Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth. (2010, April 1). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from www.siecus.org
Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2008). Diversity. Introduction to Teaching (3rd ed., p. 86). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Meridian and Lauderdale County Early Childhood Innovative. (2000, April 1). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from www.circ.uab.edu
McMullen, L. (2012, Jan 30) How to address Anti-Gay Remarks in Classroom. Retrieved May 6, 2015 from http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2012/01/30/how-to-address-anit-gay-remarks-in-the-classroom Whitlock, K. (1989). Bridges of respect: Creating support for lesbian and gay youth, Philadelphia, PA: American Friends Service committee.