Group 1
Background/Situation Analysis
1. The Client
Aid for Educators was founded in 2012 and is operated by Greg Meyer, Kathy Meyer, and Ed Farmer. Aid for Educators is a non-profit charity that helps new to five years teachers with economically disadvantaged students. This nonprofit has been running for 3 years and has served as many as 33 teachers. Aid for Educators unfortunately has no company structure and is primarily operated by Mr. Meyer. Since Mr. Meyer is the decision maker and governs himself, he has been unable to support a staff due to slow growth of the organization, and has had no volunteers in the past. A University of Texas at Arlington class helped Mr. Meyer with social media in the spring semester of 2015. Mr. Meyer is currently
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Meyer’s goals is to successfully raise money for low-income schoolteachers. He wants to reach this goal by obtaining more partnerships, successfully applying for grants and hosting effective fundraisers. Although he would like to spread awareness, his primary goal is to conduct a campaign to raise awareness for an organization he is so passionate about. With a successful campaign he will be able to help teachers across the state of Texas. A short-term goal is to increase the donations to be funded to the 16 teachers who are currently waiting for financial assistance. A long-term goal is to encourage people to invest their money and attention to the organization, reduce the amount of assistance teachers need, and to serve as an advocate for the teachers in need. Other long terms goals include expanding the connections; by increasing business partners and potential partners, have more events to increase in awareness, and getting the word out to other teachers. Mr. Meyer has attempted to achieve these goals by sending out fliers, holding small fundraiser, and applying for grants. A list of goals that have been met are being approved for his 501(c) 3, awarding 33 teachers, and still being an advocate for teachers in need. Unfortunately, several goals have not been met such as, reducing the amount of assistance teachers need, and encouraging people to invest their time and money. This is partly because of the minimal donations received, lack of support, and teachers …show more content…
Problems/ Opportunities
The problem for Aid for Educators is that it’s not a big organization and is doesn't have a big and passionate workforce. Many teachers are unaware of the organization, therefore they’re not as many applicants. Others problems include finding donors, writing grant letters, and awareness. The goals can be exploited through social media. Mr. Meyer may not agree to our ideas; such as events and fundraisers, but we will make an effort to communication for what the client wants. However, the client may not be able to fund the events.
• Strengths – This organization is very beneficial and has amazing potential. Mr. Meyer wife was a teacher and he has seen how much teachers have to pay out of pocket. This personal experience is the reason he is so dedicated to helping teachers in need.
• Weaknesses – Many people are unaware of this organization and there aren’t many donors and fundraisers. The client also doesn’t have much knowledge with budgeting. He is currently using third party fundraising groups who are charging him fees such as, GoFundMe.
• Opportunities – this is an amazing organization with a ton of potential. Through the events we plan the client will have the opportunity to grow his organization. When the awareness increases, so will the funds and as the funds come in he will be able to help more and more teachers across
Developing a long-term strategy and performance metrics are Trautwein’s top priorities. With these objectives in mind, this group focused on four components for further analysis. The internal and external factors that the organization is facing were analyzed, which allowed a definition of WTL’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. John Trautwein’s leadership style was observed, which provided characterizations of his traits and helped to identify his abilities as President of WTL. The foundation’s mission and program initiatives were evaluated in an order to determine their effectiveness. Lastly, WTL was considered from a donor’s perspective, in an order to identify motivating, and deterring factors. Further explanation of this analysis is continued below.
This school has had 5 principals in 4 years. I spoke earlier about this school being a part of the I-zone. The I-zone is a special subset of schools within Shelby County that are given the task of leading a school from the bottom 5% to the top 25%. In that there is a high turnover rate with administrators and teachers. I was selected to be a turnaround principal given a certain amount of time with the authority to make necessary changes. The community asked for a principal they could relate to. They wanted to be involved with the school and wanted resources given back to them so they could help their children. I listen to community concerns and established a parent power committee so they could be partners in education with us. We reached out into the community to garner some wrap around services to help and support our students. We gained seven (7) new Adopters who have formally taken the charge to provide resources that all students will need to achieve academically. Life Church gives us food. Bellview Baptist Church comes in and tutors all our 2nd grade students. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity has volunteered to come in and work with our students on STEM projects. We have Omega Psi Phi who comes in an exposes our kids to social and character development. And the list goes on. There just so many programs and organizations ready to work with us because they know
Stakeholder loyalty is a key element to a school organization. Having strong partnerships with stakeholders is a valuable resource. According to Pam Robbins and Harvey B. Alvy, “Studies confirm that when families are involved, more students earn higher grades in English and Math, improve their reading and writing skills, complete more course credit, set higher aspirations, have better attendance, come to class more prepared to learn, and have fewer behavior problems” (2009, p.178). If EMES or WCSD 6 loses stakeholder loyalty, it will have a big impact on student achievement. Another area that would be affected is legislation. WCSD 6 is in need of community support if they want bond issues to pass. According to John Smith, Florida public school districts started to reach out to stakeholders that do not have children in the school district. They were having difficulty passing important school legislation (1998). He goes on to state, “…responsibility that all stakeholders share for the quality of their local schools” (1998, p. 52). With more funding WCSD 6 could buy better programs that could have an impact on student performance. Mr. Ungeheuer (U), EMES principal stated, “I...
Emergence of the Foundation Program Concept-organizational flat rate grant approach to fair education among school districts.
Over the course of my college career, I have involved myself with diverse organizations and have led and participated in various philanthropic activities with these associations. Wor...
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.
Many individuals, teachers or not, only do what they are asked or expected to do. However, going above and beyond and being able to have greater influence on a child’s life is my goal. I know I will love my job and in this position, children and families will be going through difficult and not normative life events. It is essential to extend further assistance to make each individual feel important. Being someone who can help families understand and make their lives a little bit easier by providing support and encouraging optimal development, I can hopefully make a meaningful impact on a child and/or family. The child and family satisfaction would bring happiness in itself and be worth more than
There is no doubt that state policy to advance activities started under the federal grant will be a major factor in the sustainability of STW (Miller and Fleegler 2000). Already, some states have taken the initiative for bringing higher standards to education by offering incentives for business to participate in STW programs. In Colorado, for example, the General Assembly passed a law in 1997 giving businesses a 10 percent tax credit for participating in its School-to-Career program (Eslinger 1998). In Connecticut, efforts to sustain STW have involved the hiring of an STW coordinator whose main responsibility is to focus on community outreach (Cutshall 2001c).
I have been always captivated in education. Education has always been most influential and important aspect of my life. My perspective of education has changed significantly, ever since I started my first internship during my senior year of high school. I was introduced to an organization called Teach for America, which I had no idea of what this particular organization does, what they visualize, I practically did not anything about the organization. Teach for America has successfully recognized children who are living in poverty are not receiving the quality education they deserve in comparison to high income area schools that are receiving a good education. This organization is frankly committed to making sure that every child has an
Collaborating with the school administration team, I was able to gain suffice information about the needs of the school as well as the needs from the community. I was given information about the academic needs of the students as well as the school’s improvement plan, which consists of the school needs assessment. Analyzing the needs assessment and test score data, there is a need for academic improvement is needed in the content areas of English-Language Arts and Math. The school is in need of strategies to improve scores in these areas, but the community can play an integral part in helping to provide the necessary resources, tools, and materials to enhance student learning in these areas. This could be established by community-school partnerships, if the school effectively communicates to the community their need for academic assistance. This can be achieved at PTO meetings, school activities, and local colleges or universities.
...r] to stay on top of [her] grant applications on behalf of [her] students because it is what enables the most students to participate in the program. It is a constant struggle between encouraging [her] students to do well to prove the program’s worth and using the programs worth to earn more funding.” She uses the grants to buy supplies to teach the students in the program and help with costs.
My goal to be a Teach For America corps member was instigated by my family background and experiences in the Waco community as a volunteer tutor. My aunt, who taught high school English in a low-income community in Michigan for over 30 years, has inspired me to teach in order to fight against the inequalities facing low-income students. Her commitment to nurturing and developing students, regardless of the circumstances they were facing, led me to pursue service opportunities in Waco that would allow me to emulate her. Specifically, volunteering at an elementary school in the center of Waco gave me the chance to work and grow with the type of students that my aunt dedicated her life to. In continuing her efforts, I want to help counteract the education inequalities facing our nation.
Every year, a greater number of students enroll into the United States school system. More students increase the need for more schools and qualified teachers. In addition to the population growth, a number of initiatives have been impl...
Giving all of my best, effort, time, passion and care as an educator to children is one big objective goal because teachers today are the people we rely on to our children because they help children find their path, begin their journey, express ...
When I interviewed the Kindergarten teacher she was very eager to share all of the partnerships that her school is participating in. She stated that the biggest challenge facing schools today is the increasing class size, poverty, and cuts in funding. As a result, “sage funding” was put into place to help with smaller classes, but is now being cut from the La Crosse School District. In regards to poverty, she says that schools can help get families in touch with community organizations that can provide them with some of their needs.