Nathan Brandsma

EDUC 687D
08/30/14
Context and Setting
The city of Fort Collins, Colorado, is located at the border between the Rocky Mountains
and the Great Plains, an area known as the Front Range. It is found roughly halfway between
Denver and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The population in 2013 was 151,330 people, with a median
age of 29.1 years. The median household income from 2007 to 2011 is $51,446. Approximately
51.5% of the population has completed four or more years of college.1 As of the 2010 census,
Fort Collins is 83.1% white, 10.1 % Hispanic, 3.1 % Two or more races, 2.9% Asian, and 1.2%
black.2 Fort Collins is home to Colorado State University, which is also its largest employer.
Hewlett Packard and Advanced Energy also employ a large number of Fort Collins residents.
Fort Collins, as well as several of the surrounding communities, is served by the Poudre School
District (named after a river that runs through Fort Collins). Poudre School District is the 9th
largest school district in Colorado, serving approximately 27,000 students and containing 50
schools.3 Their stated mission is "Educate...Every Child, Every Day." Of the students attending
Poudre School District, 74.31% of the students are white, 17.93% are Latino, 3.06% are Asian
and 1.37% are black. 30.79% of the students participate in free/reduced lunch, 8.03% are in
special education programs, 11.57% are in gifted and talented programs and 7.55% are in
English language learner programs. The graduation rate in Poudre School district is 89%, and
89% of their graduates complete at least one post-secondary class prior to graduation. 4
My practicum and student teaching were completed at Fossil Ridge High School, which the
newest of seven high schools in Poudre School District, opening in the fall of 2004. The school
is 290,000 square feet in size and houses close to 2000 students. Their stated goal is "Excellence,
1 Fort Collins Facts (2014) Retrieved September 12, 2014 from Fort Collins Government:
http://www.fcgov.com/visitor/fcfacts.php

2 Fort Collins, Colorado (2010) Retrieved September 12, 2014 from United States Census
Bureau: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/08/0827425.html
3 About Us (2014) Retrieved September 12, 2014 from Poudre School District:
https://www.psdschools.org/about-us
4 PSD Demographics (2012-13) Retrieved September 12, 2014 from Poudre School District:
https://www.psdschools.org/about-us/psd-demographics

Everywhere."5 The Fossil Ridge students who took the ACT averaged 23.6 on the test.6 On the
state standardized test, known as TCAP, Fossil Ridge 10th grade Students averaged 86% in
reading, 73% in writing and 57% in math.7 Each student receives a laptop for use during their
time at Fossil Ridge. Fossil also supports a large number of athletic teams including football,
basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, swimming and diving.8 Fossil Ridge also supports a
thriving number of clubs, including book clubs, science clubs, language clubs, and various honor
societies.9 Twenty three advanced placement classes are offered at Fossil Ridge, giving students
many opportunities to obtain college credit in high school.10
The school is supported by volunteers, parents and the community. One example of this
community involvement is the School Accountability Committee, which meets quarterly to
review and approve the school improvement plan. This group is comprised of school
administrators, teachers, parents and community members. Another related group is the School
Improvement Committee, which works to write the school improvement plan which is reviewed
by the SAC.11
Fossil Ridge is committed to a positive and inclusive community, participating heavily in
programs such as Rachel's challenge and RTI or 'Response to Intervention'. RTI monitors student
performance and if grades begin to drop, interventions are undertaken to try to help the student
improve their performance. Each student also enrolls in a program called advisory, in which
students learn critical life skills, including "academics, post-secondary planning, civic
5 About Us (2014) Retrieved September 12, 2014 from Fossil Ridge High School:
https://frh.psdschools.org/about-us
6 Colorado Department of Education
7 Colorado Department of Education
8 Athletics (2014) Retrieved October 5, 2014 from Fossil Ridge High School:
https://frh.psdschools.org/athletics
9 Activities (2014) Retrieved October 5, 2014 from Fossil Ridge High School:
https://frh.psdschools.org/activities
10 AP Courses at Fossil Ridge HS (2014) Retrieved October 5, 2014 from Fossil Ridge High
School: https://frh.psdschools.org/webfm/3513
11 School Accountability Committee (2015) Retrieved March 17, 2015 from Fossil Ridge High
School: https://frh.psdschools.org/school-accountability-committee

engagement, and service training."12 Each class of advisory stays together for the duration of
their time at Fossil, and is designed to strengthen community through established relationships.
The classroom in which I worked was spacious, clean and well stocked with technology,
including a smart board. The classroom is arranged in three blocks of desks, two facing each
other and one facing the blackboard. The classes were three eleventh grade United States History
and two ninth grade World History. Both classes had roughly 30 students. The demographics of
these classes reflects the larger demographics of Fort Collins, with predominantly white students
as well as several Hispanic students and Asian students. The classes are close to evenly split with
male and female students.
Fossil Ridge employs a code of conduct entitled the Fossil Code, which encourages
learning, respect, compassion, responsibility, service and excellence. This framework extends to
the classroom I student taught in, where respect for one another, compassion for differing views,
responsibility for learning and striving, service to the class and community, and excellence in
instruction and interaction. The classroom management begins with the establishment of norms
at the beginning of the year, followed by continual reinforcement of those norms.
To ensure a safe school, Fossil has policies in place for a variety of situations. In addition,
I attended a day long training about different potential crises in school, including active shooter
simulations led by police using blanks to simulate weapon fire. Fossil thus employs not only
policies, but training and simulation to work to ensure a safe school in any contingency. In terms
of behavior, Fossil utilizes the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support, or PBIS,
specifically a program called Response to Intervention or RTI.13 This program emphasizes
positive teaching of expected behaviors, rather than negative responses after the incident. This
system establishes a school-wide system of discipline to ensure that all classrooms and teachers
follow the same guidelines. Additionally, the system utilizes a tiered approach to intervention.
The first tier is school-wide support, the second is classroom level support, and the third is
individual support for students who have difficulty in maintaining the expectations of behavior.
For students with special needs, Fossil Ridge has a system called integrated services. Integrated
services is a collaborative project between teachers, specialists, parents and administration.
Inclusion is the standard, and accommodations are provided based on student needs. Individual
education plans (IEPs) and 504 plans are created collaboratively and utilized to ensure that all

12 About Us (2014) Retrieved September 12, 2014 from Fossil Ridge High School:
https://frh.psdschools.org/about-us
13 Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (2015) Retrieved March 25, 2015 from Fossil
Ridge High School: https://frh.psdschools.org/pbis

students can participate in the same class and with the same content, though with appropriate
accommodations for the students who need them.14

14 Integrated Services (2015) Retrieved March 25, 2015 from Poudre School District:
https://www.psdschools.org/department/integrated-services