Maddy Faga

Lincoln Elementary
Context Paper
2/1/2018

District
This semester I am completing my first placement for my student teaching at Lincoln
Elementary in Jennifer Holtzmann’s K-6 mild & moderate special education classroom. Lincoln
Elementary is a public school located in Denver, Colorado, and is part of the Denver Public
School district. When looking at the district there are a total of 207 schools that enroll 92,331
students in K-12 grade. When looking at student membership in the district we see the
following:

Ethnicity Reports Other Reports

American Indian: 0.6% English language learners: 36.7%
Asian: 3.2% Free/Reduced Lunch: 67.3%
African-American: 13.4% Gifted and Talented Students: 11.26%
Latino: 55.5%
White: 23.2% Graduation rate: 64.8%
Other: 4.0% SwD: 11%

Lincoln Elementary
Lincoln Elementary is a split, Montessori and traditional school and enrolls between 360-400
students each year in grades preschool – sixth grade. There is one teacher per grade in the
traditional program, and multiple teachers for different age groups in the Montessori
classrooms. When looking at Lincoln Elementary membership we see the following:

Ethnicity Reports Other Reports

American Indian: 0.6% English language learners: 5.3%
Asian: 1.1% Free/Reduced Lunch: 17.6%
African-American: 4.5% Gifted and Talented Students: 4.29%
Latino: 18.4%
White: 68.2% Graduation rate: n/a
Other: 0% SwD: 6.1%

Overall, we see some differences in reports on the district level and the school level. With a
smaller amount of students on free and reduced lunch, we see that Lincoln is overall a higher
school for socio-economic status. Comparatively, Lincoln is a higher preforming school than
other schools in the district.
Classroom
For my student teaching I was placed in a mild and moderate special education classroom for K-
6th graders with Jennifer Holtzmann. She provides special education services for any student in
the building on and individualized education plan. She also manages each student’s IEP and
works with the classroom teachers to provide any extra assistance in the classroom. While in
her classroom, we will be providing direct services minutes for a very diverse group of 14 boys,
and 3 girls. Her students’ backgrounds range in socio-economic status, ethnicity and areas of
support. Services are provided in math intervention, reading intervention, writing intervention,
and behavior plans. Since this is a smaller caseload, it provides my teacher with time to focus
on IEP’s and other screening data she collects often.

Jen’s class is unique every year because she sees a variety of students with needs in different
areas. This year she has students with a variety of needs including reading, math, and writing.
She also has multiple students on behavior plans that she works with daily.

Assessment
Since I am placed in a special education classroom, assessment is very important, and is part of
the weekly, if not daily routine of the class. Different assessments are used in different areas.
For example, progress monitoring is done every 2 weeks. Data is collect for the beginning of the
year (BOY), middle of the year (MOY), and end of the year (EOY). Since IEP’s require data to
show growth in student performance, this is an important part of the week in the class.

CMASS is used as a school wide standardized test and is required by the district. Many students
in our classroom receive accommodations for the test that helps them be more successful.

A variety of screening assessments are also used when students are referred to special
education through the SIT process, or from parent request. The school can test in several
different areas. In the special education classroom, academics are the area that are usually
tested.

Discipline
Since the school is small, discipline is handled on a situational basis. The school handbook states
the following:

“In order to maintain an environment conducive to learning, students are expected to exhibit acceptable
behavior at all times. Teachers work with students to help them understand expected behavior in the
classroom, lunchroom, playground, bathroom and other places throughout the school. In general,
teachers take responsibility for correcting minor infractions, but behavior that is repetitive, involves
physical or verbal confrontation is referred to the principal and parents will be contacted”

Students at Lincoln Elementary are rarely suspended, and behavior problems are addressed as
needed by classroom teachers, school psychologist, special education teachers, and the
principal.
Resources
https://financialservices.dpsk12.org/student-submissions/