A. Summarize an action plan your school organization has implemented.
Based on the School Performance Profile system implemented by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Agora Cyber Charter School received a designation of focus school. Like all schools that receive that designation, Agora was required to design and implement a school-wide improvement plan. The strategic improvement plan, which was developed by a committee of more than seventy stakeholders who met over several months, was implemented in June 2014. The strategic plan addresses the obstacles that impeded Agora’s ability to meet its annual measurable outcomes (AMOs) and identifies strategies to help Agora meet the goals and objectives so that it can move forward in meetings its
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The strategic plan identified one key goal, based on the requirements of the Department of Education includes a needs assessment, assurances of current practice, and an analysis of the school’s strengths and the challenge. The plan also outlines leadership accountabilities and pinpoints resources. This strategic plan prepares the school to meet the AMOs determined by the Department of Education, and provides a clear path for improved student achievement and growth, and improved attendance and graduation rates.
B. Identify an innovative educational program in your school organization that has impacted the action plan summarized in part A.
The core of Agora’s strategic action plan is to increase student achievement. In order to better prepare new students for the transition from a traditional school to a virtual program, and be more successful, the Strong Start program was created. Strong Start is a comprehensive orientation program. Although its primary audience is newly enrolled students, a
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Additional funds were released from the general fund and the unassigned fund to pay for additional staff and funding. The school also assigned much of the revenue from the NCLB (improving the academic achievement of disadvantaged) line item to fund new initiatives (Strong Start Program, supplemental learning materials, diagnostic and placement assessments and progress monitoring materials and other services related to Title I students; it is important to note that seventy percent of Agora’s student body qualify for Title
School funding is a recurring issue in the modern era. Debates ranging from give schools more money, to get rid of the system in place and reform a new idea have been plaguing the world over the years. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in 2009, provided more than $100 billion in education aid to offset budget cuts..” (School Finance). Later, “Congress provided an additional $10 billion in 2010 to avert mass teacher layoffs (Education Week, "Total Recovery Act")” (School Funding). These numbers are just a sample of the struggles in school funding, that is costing a ton of money to keep afloat. “There are many ways schools fund varying from state to state and even school to school. Income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other fees provide 48 percent of the elementary and secondary school funds. 44 percent of local districts draw money from local property taxes. The federal government makes up approximately 8 percent of state education budgets. These funds are a dealt out on a per-student basis, and categorically to ensure enough resources for each special program or facility” (School Funding). These funds play a huge role in every student's education, either positive or negative. The three main areas that need to be addressed in the school budget are extracurricular funding, building and equipment maintenance, and last but not least staff funding.
The Board is committed to meeting these goals through expansion into a new facility, fostering play based school readiness efforts, opening access and stabilizing program funding, and investments in staff education, training and expertise. The Board plans to meet these goals through:
Early Grants and Allocations –a supplemental tax was given to schools to enhance school programs.
Overall, the general fund ending balance increased by approximately $2 million dollars in 2014-15. The unrestricted balance increased by $4.7 million and the restricted balance decreased by $2.6 million. On the restricted side the balance was increased by closing fund 14 (deferred maintenance) and decreased by the common core professional development implementation. Mr. Anderson noted that salaries and benefits are 86% of the budget. The general fund ending balance is $37,264,430 and the total reserve is 9.5%. The next steps include updating 2015-16 beginning balances, analyzing enrollment, analyzing and adjusting salary and benefits and preparing for the 1st interim report on 12/8/15 and the external audit presentation on 1/26/16. Board member Hurd and Mintz thanked Mr. Anderson for the detailed report and for the behind the scenes work done by his
I believe that our school initiative can work if all of the components of the action plan are executed properly. Effective communication is the ingredient missing out of our recipe to increase our test scores. Based on our approaches and strategies the students will be able to acquire the skills needed to conquer any hurdle, as an educator I must believe in their progression.
Canada has made great progress in addressing the issue of homelessness in the country, however there hasn’t been much thought into long term solutions to the problem and prevention. On any given night there are anywhere around 30,000 Canadians are homeless and 50,000 considered to be part of the “hidden” homeless population, who instead of sleeping outside stay with friends or relatives temporarily (CBC news, 2013). Researchers have found that certain factors may put someone at a higher risk of becoming homeless, however because every person’s story is different it is harder to categorize these risks (Echenberg, 2012). Homeless is defined, according to the Canadian Homelessness Research Network, as
Standard 1 of the Florida Principal Leadership Standards (2011) describe the priority of the school leader as, “effective school leaders demonstrate that the student learning is their top priority through leadership actions that build and support a learning organization focus on student success”. Our number one priority and focus is and always should be our students. They are the reason behind our professions. It is the faculty the ones who should be supported by the administrators. The leaders should celebrate their success, encourage them, support their assertive instructional decisions, and motivate them each day to create the right conditions for learning. The principals must plan to project growth the most accurate possible, employing all the help that they could get for this challenging task. Students should not be affected because qualified teachers are not available. Strategic schools use the resources at had to relocate, and alleviate the human resources problems.
Fall prevention needs to be the target of many hospitals. Falls occur each year in hospitals and can be detrimental to the patient, especially the elderly patient (Peel, Travers, Bell, & Smith, 2010). Falls can lead to broken bones, longer stays in the hospital and potentially can lead to death. Falls are expensive to both the patient and the hospital (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014). This paper would like to take a look at a strategic action plan that would help to prevent falls. This plan of action will includes organizational changes that are geared towards fall prevention. The second part of this paper will include an evaluation plan that is designed to measure and monitor the plan.
Assessing the environment is the second part of step four in the strategic planning process. The organizational internal assessment is important in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of Brendel Elementary School. By providing an organizational assessment, the planning team can clarify the aspects that help in accomplish the mission and fulfill the mandates in the organization. This part of step four enriches the management information system (MIS) with more qualitative data in order to make MIS more effective. Moreover, the organizational assessment clarifies the organization’s competencies, distinctive competencies, and core competencies. (Bryson 2011, 166)
Caruso, C. (2008). Bringing Online Learning to Life. Educational Leadership, 65(8) 70. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
One of the topics in organizational development today is leadership. Leadership is what individuals do to mobilize other people in organizations and communities. According to Kouzes & Posner, there are five practices and ten commitments of exemplary leadership. The five practices of exemplary leadership include: Model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. In the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner found similar patterns and actions of leadership that created the essentials to achieve success. Utilizing the research conducted by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, I have created a leadership plan that would apply to the Admission Department at Texas Wesleyan University.
The CIP plan is separated into specific sections, and the AIT team reviews and the CIP plan to determine PD topics. The purpose of this Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) is to communicate the goals, strategies, and actions a school is taking to improve academic achievement and school climate. The plan is written to inform a variety of stakeholder audiences including, district and school leadership, family and community members, state and federal education agencies. The intention of the school’s CIP is to show progress on the level of teaching and learning of the students in the school. The school’s CIP provides an outline for examining instructional concerns in the school that has not made adequate progress in student’s achievement. Consequently, the school’s continuous improvement plan emphasizes the achievement in the core academic subjects and the strategies used to teach them, followed by professional developments to ensure that students are accomplishing
The popularity and availability of online schooling, also referred to as virtual schools, cyber schools, e-learning, and distance learning, is growing rapidly throughout the U.S. I think the idea of virtual schools is wonderful, especially for those who are home bound or have medical conditions. Students at virtual schools can learn at any time and any place about any number of subjects, which is quite convenient. Students from rural areas can have the wide selection of courses usually only available to students in large suburban or urban schools.
Today’s generation is like no other. The nation as a whole has completely evolved from past times, with technology being one of the greatest improvements. Traditionally, schooling takes place in a classroom setting, but, with the many modifications in our world’s system, we are able to assimilate more modern means of education, such as online learning. However, with many changes comes differences and requires adjustments. The online learning system has proven to be just as effective as traditional learning, with some minor differences, however, nothing of great significance. A few of those insignificant differences include online learning being convenient, especially for the non-traditional students,
We all come from different cultures, backgrounds, religions and economic levels; however, we are all joined by one mission of achieving a well-rounded education that will help us make a positive contribution to society. I then tried to find out the mission statement was framed, and discovered that it spelt out, in one sentence, the vision and the goals of the founders of the school. What was their vision? What were these goals?...