Achieving Community Awareness and Commitment, Case Study Example

Part I

 For this assignment, I selected to analyze Grand Canyon High School. The most important information to point out for the school is that it received an overall grade of “A”, indicating its level of excellence. It is also important to consider that since the school only serves 80 children, it is able to provide its students with the resources they require to succeed. The school’s mission statement indicates, “Our mission is to develop within each student the ability to think critically and creatively and then to act constructively in today’s changing society. The unique natural and cultural resources available offer educational opportunities. The school is charged with providing comprehensive, success-oriented learning activities” (AZ Report Cards, n.d.). It is reasonable to believe that the school has achieved a successful implementation of these ideals, as they have a diverse student body and have been able to help their students achieve high grades. The mission statement in addition to related information about the school can be found at the following link: https://www.azreportcards.org/ReportCard?school=4825&district=-1. It is important to point out that according to AIMS Percent of Students Passing, 60% of students are passing their four major academic subjects, reading, writing, mathematics, and science. Furthermore, close to 80% of attendees are passing mathematics and reading. These goals are supported by the fact that the attendance rate is 94%, the dropout rate is as low as 1%, and the graduation rate is 79%. This school has experienced a high level of success despite its status as a Title I eligible school.

The graduation rate may be questioned by the audience, but it is important to indicate that this is a reasonably high rate. Eventually, all students are able to graduate, but some need more time than others. Therefore, while the state expects students to graduate in four years, these individuals may need five, or possibly six in order to gain enough credits for graduation. In addition, these individuals may question why the dropout rate is so low. It is important to emphasize that at this school, children are provided with a wealth of academic support that ultimately allows them to achieve success. In addition, it is likely that they would ask about the school’s ability to improve the grades of their students. The AIMS data indicates that the students have been consistently improving since 2010, and it is expected that these trends will continue to increase into the future.

It was surprising that only 1% of the students dropped out because it demonstrates that the school is performing well in terms of its ability to keep students motivated to stay in school until they obtain the proper credits for graduation. Overall, it appears that this school has a close knit community, so it is important to consider the value of this community with regards to the abilities of the students to achieve success. Both teachers and fellow students are able to provide support for one another, which contributes to their drive to succeed in school and to use this conceptualization of success to go on to excellent careers.

Problem 1: The high school speech department needs a community member speech team coach.

In order to hire an excellent speech coach, it is necessary for the school administration to reach out to potential candidates either in person or online. Teachers and other members of staff should first be asked whether they know someone that would be able to fill this position. If this is not the case, it would then become necessary to being putting requests for applicants on community coffee shop bulletin boards or by positing the position on reputable job board sites such as Indeed or Monster. At the same time, it would be beneficial to reach out to local theater groups to make them aware of this availability because their involvement would ultimately tie together the successes of both the school and the individuals that are involved in these performance groups. An individual should be selected for this position if they are able to demonstrate effective speech and communication skills, the ability to teach, and the influence they have over members of the community. These three factors will be weighed to determine which individual would be the best fit for this type of position.

When interviewing individuals for this position, they should be asked to meet with a group of students from the high school and create a workshop that would teach them how to improve their speaking skills. Ultimately, this will demonstrate whether the new speech coach is able to work with the particular children that would be involved in such a program. After finally selecting an ideal coach that has a degree of influence over community members that do not have children enrolled in the school, it would be helpful to have him or her work with the students to develop a speech that could be used to appeal to other members of the task force and to bring members of the community on board at the district school’s presentation. These students will be asked to highlight why their school should get the award over the competition. Overall, their speech skills will be used to demonstrate the value of the grant to the school and emphasize the types of programs that could be created with the allocated funding.

Problem 2: Recent high-stakes math scores at both middle schools were lower than anticipated.

 The high-stakes math scores at the middle schools appear to be lower than expected because of the curriculum change as of late. Many educators have had difficulty in determining how they should bring their students up to speed with a curriculum that incorrectly assumes prior mathematical knowledge in many settings, but does not allow them time to backtrack and teach them the initial information they need in order to fully understand the new concepts presented to them. Therefore, these problems could be resolved in the future by providing the students who are dedicated to their work but still unable to grasp these skills with tutoring after school that will allow them to learn concepts that will help them bridge these gaps in understanding and excel on the tests in the future (Caritas, 2010).

Despite the problems that some middle schools are experiencing, it is important to consider that the performance on these tests are a problem across the board for all schools. If students are doing better in one particular middle school compared to the others, it is likely because these individuals are able to hire private tutors and dedicate more time to studying these concepts. Often, students need their parents to help them with these topics, but the current curriculum is so challenging that many parents are reporting that they do not have the skills necessary to provide their children with this assistance. This is an unfortunate problem because it demonstrates that children throughout the state do not have an equal access to education. Some individuals are able to excel because even though these extra resources are not provided to them in school, they are able to achieve it through outside means at home. On the other hand, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are completely unable to obtain this extra help. Even if they are putting more work into learning the material, they are not able to master it in the same manner because they do not have the same guidance. Therefore, to close the education gap, it is important to provide schools in lower income neighborhoods with funding that will help these institutions provide the students with additional resources that will allow them to succeed. Tutoring is the first step in the successful implementation of this program, but providing these individuals with online learning material would be a helpful second step.

Online learning programs serve as reasonable resolutions to these problems because many are programmed in a manner that provides adaptive learning, so that all students are challenged independently of their ability level. Furthermore, these applications provide them with explanations of incorrect answers that allow them to develop on their own. While it is still important to emphasize the value of classroom learning, schools could provide students with many extensions to this traditional form of learning that will help them develop intellectually in a manner that will promote not only their understanding of academic material, this will also help them succeed on their exams.

Problem 3: The safety inspection of two of the four elementary schools got a “C” rating in December

 Since many of the schools have received poor safety rating, it is necessary for the board to assess the infrastructure at all schools. Many of the buildings that are used to house schools are old and it is possible for the structural damage to impair the safety of the students in addition to the functioning of the facilities. It is therefore necessary to hire third party contractors that will be able to assess this damage and to make quick repairs when possible. While this method will not help quickly rectify all potentially hazardous situations, it will allow many of the schools that achieved “C” ratings to get at least a “B” until a time in which these problems could be better resolved.

For this work to be done quickly, it would be beneficial to hire individual inspection and construction companies to partner with each individual school. Therefore, this work could be conducted simultaneously and prior to the decision making process for the award ceremony. Teachers will be expected to participate in this process as well, noting any cracks or water damage that they observe in their classrooms, as this is useful information for these contractors to use to determine the source of the problems that are occurring.

Highlights of the District and its Schools

Despite the small amount of funding that is currently allocated to these schools, the report card ratings of these institutions generally receive a score of “A” or “B”, indicating that they are able to meet the state’s educational expectations. This success is thanks to the successful supervision of the administration at these schools in addition to the expertise of these teachers. Furthermore, independently of the requirements that have been set forth by the state, the individuals enrolled in these schools are often able to make significant improvements in their academic knowledge and practice prior to graduation. Even the individuals who are not able to achieve state minimum standards have demonstrated significant growth compared to their status at enrollment. Therefore, it is important to note that these schools have been successfully utilizing the funds provided to them and they would be able to achieve an even greater level of success if additional funding is granted.

Recently, Grand Canyon High School participated in the “Park’s Artist-in-Residence Program”, showcasing their brilliant art abilities (Grand Canyon Schools, n.d.). Many students have developed their current artistic abilities as students within the school and would benefit by receiving increased funding to their art program to buy new supplies, allowing them to engage in an even broader range of projects. To showcase this particular talent, it would be beneficial to provide the community with the ability to view some of the pieces of art that these students have created.

In addition, the music program at several of these schools is superior, and it would be a strong move to invite a school marching program to the meeting in order to demonstrate the love that the children have for the music programs at their schools. Many of the students can use new uniforms and instruments, and these funds would also help the marching bands that participate in competitions and need to travel in order to successfully travel to these meets. Ultimately, it is valuable to showcase the artistic ability of students in the community because not only does this demonstrate the talent of the students, it shows that they are motivated and would benefit from the use of the grant if their schools are selected.

Suggestions for Online Marketing

In order to promote the community schools, each should have a website that can be quickly accessed by members of the public. To demonstrate why each school should receive the grant money, it should subtly display highlights of the school, including the sports offered in addition to various clubs and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, these websites should provide a personalized touch by showing pictures of the students learning and having fun in their after school activities. Some schools would benefit by displaying videos and testimonials from students and teachers.

To enhance the ability of the schools to be selected for the grant, the district board could arrange interviews featuring either the schools’ principles or staff members to be featured in an online article or publication. Increasing the amount of relevant hits that each school receives when the judges search for the school online will improve their opinion about the organization, its students, and its teachers. These articles should be made in a manner that will allow readers to look at the school in a positive light. It would also be beneficial to provide newspaper articles on this issue in order to begin getting the community involved in this effort to raise money for the local schools. Information including the time and location of the meeting should be provided to those interested and flyers should be passed out to all students to encourage both them and their parents to get involved.

In order to encourage the participation of community members that support education but are either not available to attend the meeting or are not motivated enough to do so, it would be beneficial to distribute a petition (Curtis, 2013). One version could be provided online at change.org and shared through Facebook and other forms of social media to support public schools (Change, n.d.). Parents that want to be involved could supplement this practice by tabling outside of supermarkets and other public areas to bring awareness of the cause and to convince people to sign the petition to help the local schools get more funding. Even though not all members of the community have children that are currently enrolled in school, most understand the importance of education and will sign such a petition if they are approached by concerned parents.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Moving Quickly

Overall, the school board already needs us to start moving to address these problems so that we could effectively step up to the plate and earn funding for our schools. If we are able to do this successfully, the infrastructure of our schools will quickly improve, we will have hired an excellent speech coach, our high-stakes test scores will increase, and an argument for increased funding to the schools will be put forth. However, this is a disadvantage because there is little room for error and we must act quickly to put these plans in place. If one of these plans is not successful, it is possible that these schools will not receive the necessary funding and the blame will be placed primarily on the committee responsible for the plan’s implementation.

Outline of Remarks

Broadly, it is important to address the following considerations when implementing the plan. These following highlights are a summary of the above discussed information:

Hire a speech coach that is well respected in the community through online job boards or word of mouth.

Quickly hire contractors to assess and fix major structural problems in all schools.

Hire tutors to help improve high-stakes test scores, and emphasize that the scores were low because of the need to adjust to the new curriculum.

• Start an online marketing campaign that will help the judges see the schools in a positive light.
• Start an in person and online petition to demonstrate the need for additional funding for local schools.
• Invite parents and the members of the community to the community meeting using flyers, newspaper announcements, and online articles.
• Create positive reviews for the schools using online and in print interviews and articles.
• Inform local high school art programs and bands to arrange pieces to display and performances to give at the meeting.
• Demonstrate how the schools will use this additional funding to continue developing the artistic and academic abilities of the students.
• Have the speech coach work with students so that they are able to explain why their school should be provided with this funding.
• Reach out to principals and teachers to get them involved in all of the aforementioned efforts.

References

AZ Report Cards. (n.d.). Grand Canyon High School. Retrieved from https://www.azreportcards.org/ReportCard?school=4825&district=-1

Caritas. (2010). Community & Higher Education Service. Private Supplementary Tutoring of Secondary Students: Investigation Report. Hong Kong: Caritas.

Change. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from https://www.change.org/

Curtis, Dr. Anthony (2013). The Brief History of Social Media. Mass Communication Department, University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Grand Canyon Schools. (n.d.). A Century Later… Retrieved from http://grandcanyonschool.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=175958&se    ssionid=4c301b3f40dae1279c357fa50a142fcc