Description+of+Setting

Back to Home **Map of School:**



Click on map to see full size.

**Pictures of Media Center:**

media type="custom" key="12445070" align="center"

=** Community Analysis ** =

Greensboro is located in the Piedmont area of North Carolina which covers the central third of the state. The city is also part of the Piedmont Triad with Winston-Salem and High Point. The Greensboro Coliseum Complex and the Aquatic Center are within blocks of the school (Greensboro North Carolina). Peck is located near the center of the Glenwood neighborhood and just a few miles from the downtown area (USNaviguide). Many of the students live within walking distance from the school (Mallory & Jones-Hunt).

Peck opened in 1929 and was named after Greensboro’s first public health nurse, Clara Jane Thorton Peck (Peck Elementary School). The building sits on 37 acres donated to the city for education. Several buildings have been added over the years including a Media Center (1983), and two annexes (1984 and 2006) but most of the school is in the original building.

The library’s funding comes primarily through Title 1 (L. Sua, personal communication, October 2, 2011) and is inconsistent. This year funding has been granted only for continued subscriptions. No monies have been allotted as yet for new books. The library does have a high books to student ratio at 49 (NC School Report Cards). This number is more than double that of the district or state average. Past Title 1 funding is credited for this well stocked library (L. Sua, personal communication, October 2, 2011).

The Clara J. Peck library does not have a unique mission statement. The media specialist uses the library mission statement from Guilford County Schools, “the school library media program strives to ensure that students, teachers and staff are effective users of ideas and information” (Library Media Services). This library mission statement is concise and to the point, but would certainly be more inclusive if it were expanded to contain parents, and a bit broader if relevant information and preparation for 21st century life were mentioned.

Guilford County Schools is divided into five regions. Peck is in their Central Region (Central Region). Each school’s library is an entity into itself and the media specialist is responsible solely to the principal. This enables the media specialist to make purchases that support the school’s curriculum without losing time with an approval process (L. Sua, personal communication, October 2, 2011). The principal and curriculum facilitator also purchase books to be added to the media center. There may also be rare county-wide mandates for purchases.

** Governance of Media Center **

Guilford County Schools require all employees to follow United States Copyright laws and fair use guidelines (Library Media Services). Peck’s media specialist can quickly explain copyright nuances and periodically emails copyright reminders. Internet bandwidth is controlled by the district. One hundred percent of the classrooms have computers with internet connections. The library houses eight computers with six of them available to students (L. Sua, personal communication, October 2, 2011)

Peck makes great efforts to be a dynamic organization to help meet the needs of students and families. Battle of the Books is coached by the media specialist. The school subscribes to Accelerated Reader and hosts an annual Science night in addition to many parent make-it and take-its. The Communities in Schools coordinator organizes afterschool events for students. Events include extra-curricular programs, teams and clubs and national organizations like the Girl and Boy Scouts. We Can and ACES provide after school care and tutoring. Peck has also been awarded a Fresh Fruits and Vegetable grant from the USDA. In addition, there are Saturday Academies which provide extended learning opportunities for struggling learners as well as opportunities for non-English speaking parents (Mallory & Jones-Hunt).

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro provides a strings program for third, fourth and fifth graders (Mallory & Jones-Hunt). The Glenwood library, which is down the street, houses all of Greensboro Library’s ESOL materials (Hoppen & Goodman) and is a wonderful asset for the neighborhood. Grace Community Church also provides free tutoring and recreational activities for Peck’s students after school (Mallory & Jones-Hunt). More recently, the Aquatic Center has chosen Peck second graders to receive swim lessons (District News).

=** Library Patrons ** = Peck is a small school with 365 students (NC School Report Card). The following graphs show the comparison of the school population (Priority School Plan) to the Glenwood area (City-Data). The school population does not correspond closely with the community demographics. There is a slightly larger representation at the school of African-American students and much larger Hispanic and Asian school populations with a smaller White representation.

** Comparison of School Population to Neighborhood Population **

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Educational backgrounds are varied. Almost 12% of the area did not complete high school, 6.24% have an associate degree and 27.34% have a bachelor’s degree (CLRChoice). This information represents the entire area, however, and not the Glenwood area specifically. As a Title 1 school, Peck has high numbers of students on free or reduced lunch at 96% (Mallory & Jones-Hunt). The percentage of people in Glenwood below the poverty level is nearly 18% with housing prices falling at 44% of Greensboro prices (City Data). Median income is at 76% of Greensboro’s.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Traditionally, Glenwood has had nearly double the crime of the United States average (City Data). While there were no serious acts of crime or violence noted at Peck, the number of students at Peck with short-term suspensions during 2010-11 was 57 (Priority School Plan) compared to the district average of four (NC School Report Card).

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Parents have access to the library and the media specialist offers a two ways they can check out books. They may use their children’s accounts or may establish an account of their own. This year, seven parents have used their children’s accounts and one parent opened her own account (L. Sua, personal communication, October 2, 2011).

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Glenwood has a large population of non-English or struggling speakers. Five percent of Glenwood’s population does not speak English well or at all (City Data). The Hispanic population is very close to the state average; however, the Asian population is almost double the state average. About 11% of Glenwood residents were born outside of the United States. The school provides one and a half English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Teachers. They also provide a full-time Spanish interpreter. To help with the other language needs, Title 1 provides for interpreters of other languages, like Vietnamese (Mallory & Jones-Hunt).

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Peck students have a higher transient rate than the general area which is at 1.8% (CLRChoice). The 2010-2011 ABCs School Report shows that 25% of Peck students did not remain at Peck for 140 consecutive days.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">** Tests Taken Verses Scores Counted **

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Peck has 27 classroom teachers (Priority School Plan). One hundred percent of those teachers are highly qualified and 91% are fully licensed. Fourteen percent of Peck’s teachers hold advanced degrees (NC School Report Card). No teachers currently hold National Board Certification (Priority School Plan). Teacher turnover rate is at 19% compared to the district’s 8% (NC School Report Card).

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Peck falls in NC’s Priority School status with 50-60% of the students passing the state End of Grade tests. This past year, composite scores were at 56.6% which put Peck into a new category in Guilford County. The school and teachers get extra help and are under more scrutiny to ensure the scores rise above 57%. Even with low performance scores, Peck students traditionally show high growth (ABCs School Report). Below are the school’s EOG scores for the last two years (Public Schools of NC). These scores show fairly consistent low reading scores which is an area of concern mentioned in Priority School Plan.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">** End of Grade Test Scores **

=<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Reflection ** = <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Peck is a neighborhood school that has been classified as a priority school by North Carolina for the last several years. The surrounding area houses low income families and has higher crime rates. The lack of reflection in the school of the surrounding population may mean that some parents are choosing to send their children to more successful schools. Peck’s diverse community brings some needs to light that could be addressed through the media center. Books in various languages could be available for both students and parents. Better advertisement on the media center’s availability would be beneficial for the patterns. The area’s low income status helps to perpetuate the digital divide. While students have access to technology at school, most do not have access at home.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In many ways, Peck has benefited from its Title 1 status. The school offers programs and the media center is certainly print-rich. However, even though students are showing high growth academically each year, they still maintain low proficiency rates on state tests. Low reading scores are a concern and could be helped by more opportunities for students and their families to utilize the library. Peck is open a great number of hours during the week both after-school and on Saturdays, but the media center is only open during the school day and for library-related after school events like Battle of the Books. Since the media specialist works alone, staffing would be an issue. Creative thinking may provide opportunities to open the Media Center to parents during the school day.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">That Peck is now on a Priority School Plan is intended to be an advantage to the school. Guilford County’s actions indicate that they support improvement. This assistance is concentrated in the tested grades, however, and not the school as a whole. Professional collaboration with the media specialist could help provide new ideas that could help increase scores.

=<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Works Cited ** = <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">2010-11 ABCs school report: Peck Elementary. (2011). Greensboro, NC: Guilford County Schools.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Bishop, K. (2007). //The collection program in schools: Concepts, practices and information sources,// 4th edition. Westport CT: Libraries Limited.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">City-Data. (2011). Glenwood neighborhood in Greensboro, North Carolina (NC), 27403 detailed profile. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CLRChoice. (2010). Greensboro, NC 27403 demographics summary. Retrieved from [] []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">District News 2011-12. (2009). Learn to swim program debuts in September. Greensboro, NC: Guilford County Schools. Retrieved from [|http://gcsnc.com/]

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Education First: NC school report cards. (n.d.) Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Greensboro North Carolina: Convention & visitors bureau. (2011). Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Guilford County Schools. (2009). Central Region. Greensboro, NC. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Guilford County Schools. (2009). Library media services. Greensboro, NC:. Retrieved from [|http://gcsnc.com/]

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hoppen, M. & Goodman, A. (2009). Improving cultural literacy at the Glenwood Library. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mallory, F. & Jones-Hunt, J. (2011, September 21). Annual Title 1 meeting.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Peck Elementary School. (2011). Greensboro, NC: Guilford County Schools. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Priority School Plan: Peck Elementary School. (2011). Greensboro, NC: Guilford County Schools.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Public Schools of North Carolina. (n.d.). Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA) and School Performance Data for 2009 – 2011. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">USNaviguide. (2010). Retrieved from [|http://www.usnaviguide.com/zip.htm 27403]

<span style="background-color: #00ffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Back to Home