1. Akshara Raina
COMM 157SL
5/10/16
Students still being left behind
I. Social issue/SOCIETY
As a student volunteer for the Santee Elementary school program hosted by the Catholic
Charities, I have noticed that many students are being left behind in many skills because
of the time spent reading and working on skills as well as their own level of
understanding. The U.S. education rank in the world as of 2016 is number 14 (Chatin,
2016). The children will eventually be left behind and not be able to catch up in future
years of schooling without the crucial skills that they learn during the first couple years of
elementary school. This is a definite problem as there is a stigma of repeating years when
a child is not ready to join the peers and government also does not enforce more ways to
help children who are being left behind. I think with more parent involvement and
specific guild lines and materials for at-risk of being left behind children I think that they
can also be able to catch up to their peers and continue learning and possibly not be
discourage in the future by educational obstacles. “Those who cannot read are less likely
to graduate from high school. Consequently, those who cannot read are more likely to be
unemployed and adjudicated, and therefore require government supports.” (Connor, et.al,
2014) Giving every child the foundation they need from elementary school will help
them become better critical thinkers as well as help them with the future careers and
educational opportunities. Parents need to know and also be educated on how to be able
to work with their children at home and how to improve their skills or have affordable
ways that can help their student reach their ultimate potential in their education.
“Understanding how parents can provide effective early reading instruction with fidelity
is very important. Also with the high-stakes associated with learning to read and the
positive results demonstrating parents can teach their students reading skills” (McConnell
& Kubina, 2016).
To improve education standards the state government of California has imposed
the no child left behind plan enacted in 2001. There a specific methods stated by the
California Department of Education such as improving principle and teacher quality,
assessments to collect data, improve parent involvement, and finally integrating different
programs with local services to help improve student education. The Santee Elementary
school hosts a number of programs for both parents and children to get the help they need
with their homework as well as other skills that they need to improve on. “From this
perspective, we propose that positive school attributions is a proximal indicator, as this
measure deals specifically with variables that report school engagement and interest in
school. Using this same rationale, the other outcome measures (e.g., program attendance,
math and reading standardized test scores) may be more distal in nature than initially
hypothesized and need more time and long-term exposure to school supports like an
after-school program to make an impact on these outcomes “(Watts. Et al. 2008). Having

2. these after school programs do create a way for students to be able to get the help they
need that they may not necessarily have at home and is crucial to get more funding and
tutors available so that any student can take advantage of getting a better educational
opportunity.
II. Your service SITE
This service site gave me the opportunity to interact with children in the first grade as well as
help the teachers with the specific tasks that they needed. Some of the tasks that pointed me
towards this social problem was testing the children on lists of words that they should be able to
sound out and read as well as grading their pervious homework packets. I noticed while testing
some of the children that they had problems focusing, comprehending how to sound out basic
words and sometimes giving up all together because they just didn’t understand how to read
properly. Reading comprehension is an extremely important element needed for future years of
schooling and I could easily see these children struggling in the future with their school and
having the possibility of being so discouraged that they drop out. This is the reality for so many
children who are constantly left behind in the classroom when they need active on one
interaction to understand basic skills that they haven’t been able to grasp yet. Many of the
students speak Spanish at home and are often very confused because the languages often clash
against each other. I have also noticed that the other skills needed besides reading like basic math
skills are often neglected and some of the children are falling behind quickly and not able to keep
up. You can notice the huge difference in their homework and how confident they become when
doing class work if a child spend time at home reading and going over basic skills with their
family members. I have noticed that there are some programs that some of the students go with
to help improve their reading skills and the teacher does the best she can to help the children
understand the different lessons with songs, activities and workbooks. The teachers that I were
assigned to also voiced their opinions on how they knew how some of the students were being
left behind in the material because it simply did not click with them. I think the parents need to
be educated on how important spending time with their children with certain lesson plans and
guidelines of what to work on with their children will only help them boost their opportunities.
In America we also sugar coat how far behind a student can be because we don’t want to be left
behind as their peer’s progress. There are some students that clearly also have other problems
such as ADHD that can stop them from focusing on learning and I have noticed a child in my
classroom that has to constantly move around limiting his ability to focus on certain tasks and
keeping him learning the material. There should be more programs as well as education for
parents at an early age that are specifically tailored for students with these issues to help them
catch up with their peers. The school does host a number of programs for both parents as well as
after school activities for children to continue learning till their parents can pick them up. The
extra time and programs allows the children to not only do homework but try to catch up and
focus on problems they are stuck with. Hearing about other student volunteers experiences with
working with the children has shown me how important these programs are and without them
many more students would fall behind and not be able to catch up. Having the ability to converse
with Spanish speaking parents makes it really easy for parents to know exactly what things that
their children need to improve on so that they can also provide them with the best education
possible and help them also not be discouraged for their future educational plans such as going to

3. college or having good careers. All the skills that students need are essential for their future in
America and makes a difference of where their lives can lead to. With proper educators and
patience every student will not be left behind and America will be able to improve their rank in
the world in education.
III. Your SELF
I was a volunteer for a first grade classroom and often had various tasks like helping the students
catch up on reading comprehension tests as well as helping the teacher create various visual aids
and hang them around the classroom. The one on one time I had with the children to work on
their reading comprehension as well as grading their papers really made me realize how far
ahead and how far behind some of the students were. I tried to help teach the students little bits
like how to sound out certain words, do math problems and spend time with the students who
needed the most help by drawing out and creating little visual aids that they could refer to and try
to understand rather than constantly just working on worksheets and workbooks. I think making
a kid understand a concept and have it click in their mind, rather than making them do a hundred
of the same types of the problems is way more useful for a student and allows them to also have
the confidence not to be scared to try harder problems. The students that had these issues with
understanding basic skills I tried to start at the very beginning and try to go through the steps that
they needed to be able to come to the conclusion themselves rather than just telling them the
answer. I like to think that I made some impact in letting the kids that I worked with problem
solve and not be discouraged when failing and not getting concept. I think that children need
constant reassurance and often become more and more confident in their ability to take on basic
skills that they may have not been able to do before if you let them know making mistakes is
normal and that they should keep trying. Some of the challenges that I faced was trying to keep
the students with little attention spans and who clearly had problems like ADHD focused on the
task ahead and have enough confidence to be able to try themselves to solve the issue rather than
looking for the answer from me. I tried to explain to the best of my ability in some way that they
could understand as children such as incidents that they could have on the playground with their
friends and trying to little visual aids to be able to see clearly rather than just hearing words. I
know as a student I was a visual learning and needed to have something in front of me to be able
to understand a problem. I tried to apply the same way to other students who may need a better
visual representation than a verbal method. I noticed how students are able to learn and what are
the different ways that are necessary for them to be able to learn like not letting them walk all
over you and learning how to be stern as well as compassionate and understanding at the same
time. I had to learn how to say no to a lot of students that initially was difficult because it was a
new environment. I also learned how better myself, to become more vocal as well organized as
those are some main skills needed to operate a classroom. I had a great experience volunteering
at the Santee Elementary school and it definitely let me see the huge gap of basic skills that the
students have at even such an early age. It always made me wonder what are the different ways
that every single student could be able to have all the educational and career opportunities as all
their peers. I think I would like to learn more and find out what I could do to further educational
programs in elementary schools so every student is able to grasp the basic skills like reading
comprehension, and math skills for their future years of education. I think the programs that they
have at school are available but maybe do not have as many resources for the parents as well as
individual students needs to be met that’s being left behind

4. IV. References
McConnell, B. M.,& Kubina, R.(2016).Parents using explicit reading instruction with their
children at-risk for reading difficulties. Education & Treatment of Children, 39(2),115-139
Chatin, J. (2016). 20 Best Education Systems In The World. May 10, 2016, from
http://www.mbctimes.com/english/20-best-education-systems-world
Watts, C.E. Witt, P.A., &King, T. (2008). Predictors of outcomes for after-school program
participants. Journal of Park &Recreation Administration, 26(2), 134-145.
Schoolwide Programs. (2015, October 21). Retrieved May 11, 2016, from
http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/sw/rt/index.asp