...Running head: GENERIC BENCHMARKING WORKSHEET The Foundations Schools Generic Benchmarking Worksheet Deanna Fields, Kicia Gaines, Edward Thaxton University of Phoenix MMPBL/510 Implementing Organizational Initiatives Professor Joel Maier September 20, 2010 Task A: Problem/Opportunity Statement – Edward Thaxton The objective of our research study is to employ a team-based approach to identifying problem opportunity statements, effectively conduct generic benchmarking research, identify successful and unsuccessful generic benchmarking companies and recognize potential solutions to our problem opportunity statement and end-state goals. The design of the study includes peer-reviewed references, and utilization of a generic benchmarking worksheet. The team's approach to the research methods was to research the generic benchmarking information individually and incorporate our findings into one manuscript. Furthermore, the team-based research approach will provide enhanced solutions from three different perspectives and allow us to be more successful in our research, generic benchmarking methodologies and solution identification for California School Districts and Princeton Review. Task B1: Benchmarking - California School Districts – Kicia California’s 978 school districts receive the majority of their funding through a formula known as “revenue limits.” Revenue limit funds can be used by school districts for general purposes, unlike funds received through categorical...
Words: 1547 - Pages: 7
...speaking students learn English and still prosper in schools. However, more recently we have seen hostility towards languages other than English being the language of instruction. After the devastating events of 9/11 and the more recent increase in legal and illegal immigration, many Americans have become weary of anything that appears to be un-American. Fears of foreigners coming over to “their” country and taking over are being exacerbated by the media and various laws have been proposed and enacted to outlaw non-English instruction in American primary and secondary schools. The articles, The Politics of Bilingual Education Expenditures in Urban School Districts and The Proposition: English Only for Educating Children, touch on just how controversial and complex this issue has become. The issue of bilingual education started to gain more attention in 1998 when the state of California proposed an act that would end all bilingual education in that state. This proposed act was called Proposition 227. After the proposition was announced to residents of California, the state government received numerous lawsuits and criticism from people who were in opposition. In the wake of this controversy, many politicians continued to support funding for bilingual education programs. “On the federal level, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, composed of seventeen Latino Democratic members of Congress, continued to support increased funding for bilingual education programs” (Leal and Hess 2001)...
Words: 988 - Pages: 4
...RUNNING HEAD: TEAM B – The Foundation Schools Generic Benchmarking Worksheet The Foundation Schools Generic Benchmarking Worksheet Tiesha Brewster, Christopher Jones, Jonathan Moreno, Kicia Robinson University of Phoenix MMPBL 510/Implementing Organizational Initiatives Jennifer Brodie April 11, 2011 Table of Contents Introduction.……………..…………………….…………………………………………. 3 Generic Benchmarking Worksheet.…..….….…………………………………………. 3 Individual Contributions…………………….………………….………………………… ? References..………………………….……………………………………………………. ? The Foundation Schools Generic Benchmarking Worksheet Task A: Problem/Opportunity Statement | Instructions for Task A: In the Response row, write out the problem/opportunity statements for the scenario for each of the team members. | Response to Task A: Tiesha: Foundation Schools are serving over 1,000 students and wanting to increase enrollment by 5% per year. The board has great ideas of adopting a new strategy that uses business development as the model to increase funding sources and revenues. Using the three year strategic program plan the board will include a number of new projects, visions, and plan. The board can continue with the new visions, projects, and plans for the schools by keep raising money, new ideas of raising money and keeping the directors educated with the innovations need to be the leaders in this field. Christopher: Foundation Schools is a non-profit schooling system created to benefit those students...
Words: 4303 - Pages: 18
...VOTES ON CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS Taking the voting season spirit, I would like to share my opinion toward 3 propositions which appeal me most as follows: 1) Proposition 30: a. What is Prop 30? i. Sponsors / Proponents: The prop 30 is sponsored by Gov. Jerry Brown; California Federation of Teachers; and California Teachers Association ii. Effect on taxes: 1. Prop 30 would increase rates on taxable incomes above US$500,000; 2. Prop 30 would increase sales tax rate by a quarter-cent. iii. Impact on state budget and implications for school funding: 1. Raise on taxes would result in gain of revenues. These revenues would be deposited into a newly created Education Protection Account within the State’s General Fund 2. Revenues would also increase funding for K – 12 schools and community colleges b. My stance on this proposition: as a college student, I would be absolutely voting YES because of the following reasons: i. Stop another $6 billion in cuts to our schools this year. ii. Prevent steep tuition hikes for college students and their families. iii. Invest in our schools and colleges so we can prepare the next generation for the jobs of the future. In conclusion, if this prop does not pass, our classes will become enormous, our teachers will be removed and stripped of their livelihoods, and our education will suffer immensely. 2) Proposition 34: a. What is Prop 34? This initiative shall be known and may be cited as “The Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California...
Words: 590 - Pages: 3
...The California system of higher and secondary education is one of the largest in America. Just the California Community Colleges System (CCC) serving 2, 6 million students representing nearly 25 percent of the nation’s community college student population. California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) are serving more 700 000 students. Another 360,000 students attend private colleges and universities. Despite these impressive figures, and the constant growth of graduates, the education system does not meet the needs of California's economy. According to the report of meeting California’s Need for College Graduates of Hans Johnson, an associate director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California and Ria Senguptawith, the project manager of the Expanding College Opportunities initiative at Stanford University and a former research associate at PPIC, contributions from Patrick Murphy, “ If current trends persist, California will have one million fewer college graduates than it needs in 2025—only 35 percent of working-age adults will have a college degree in an economy that would otherwise require 41 percent of workers to have”. If legislators and educators leaders don't act quickly, the future will look grim for the state in the years to come. In this situation sufficient education spending is a necessary condition for increasing the number of graduates. Extra money invested in education will allow creating additional classes...
Words: 1549 - Pages: 7
...officials that the government is supposed to exist to serve citizens not the other way around. One state in particular, California, is a prime example of state overspending. Figure 1 demonstrates California’s Total Expenditures from 1995-2012. There are five main areas where the California legislature failed their citizens when it comes to spending. The first area is their complicated institutional framework. Having a complicated institutional framework increases the cost of operating the government. For example, California pays for multiple administrators to do the same type of work in different departments. They also have additional administrators to coordinate the overlapping work of the different departments. Another area where California fails is their lack of coordination for their health and human services, this lack of coordination results in the second largest source of California’s government expenses. There are 33,000 employees in the health and human services organization of the government, $83 billion is budgeted and $24.95 billion is used from the state’s general fund. (Storms, 2011) These funds are being spent, and there is no efficiency to the programs. A third area is overspending in prisons. California spends about $47,000 per prisoner annually; this is 50 percent higher than the national average. The current prison population in California is still greater than 100,000 inmates. The...
Words: 2134 - Pages: 9
...reading the chapters about California, South Dakota, and New York I was able to identify several differences in regards to the issue of accessibility of a college education. The state of California policymakers are focusing on affordability and providing the funds needed for students to afford an education. With financial aid assistance and low cost public institutions, students are able to access education. There was a decrease in 2005 state financial funding, which significantly reduced student aid awards and increased tuition costs at higher education institutions. As a result, the average cost of tuition, fees, and room and board are above the national average. In addition, due to the budget cuts state schools in California, such as CSU’s & UC’s have had to deny admission to qualifying candidates. Because of the recession,...
Words: 661 - Pages: 3
...California: Assessment of a Diverse Community California, also known as the golden state and a melting pot of the United States because of a diverse culture and a large immigrant population. To some Americans, it is a paradise and an ideal tourist destination because of sunny weather and easy access to oceans, mountains, and deserts. California integrates foods, languages, and traditions all over the world. According to, People of California 2006 census, California has an appraised population of 377,172,015 and is the thirteenth quickly-growing state. The population consists of 61.9% White American, 6% Black or African American, 10.4% Asian American, 18.4% other race, 1.7% American Indian, 2.1% mixed race, 38.5% are Hispanic or Latino, and 40.3% of the population is non-Hispanic Whites. The leading industries of California are agriculture, manufacturing, biotechnology, and tourism. In terms of politics, Californians are more liberal, especially those who live in the inland states. Based on California Political Parties there are six political parties, the American Independent, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Peace and Freedom, and Republican. California experiences frequent and devastating wildfires. During the last decade in 2003 and 2009, California experienced devastating wildfires that affected countless lives. Thousands of families were left homeless and hundreds of lives were lost. California officials have made strict laws against unsafe practices that may cause accidental...
Words: 2271 - Pages: 10
...our corporate bylaws and appointed our initial directors. Our first board meeting was held and all necessary licenses and permits have been obtained. With the completion of these, we need to take the next step and the most crucial one which is fundraising. When it comes to fund raising, individual donors contribute the largest amount.There is also available funding through grants offered by federal, state and local government. (cite source SBA) The catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) provides a database of all federal programs available to state and local government (cite sources gsa.gov). Upon trying to find funders you need to look to many different resources and not focus on just one. Treating a funder like you would any type of business prospect is key, keep things professional. (Foundation center) The foundation center is not a resource to supply funds, but there to help you in research providing information on how to receive grants and other resources to fund your non-profit. When trying to get funding make sure that you do your research about the organizations you are approaching to request funding from, you need to find out what approach works best with them for considering your request, such as phone calls, emails or a full proposal with supporting documents. You can go to the following web site http://www.usa.gov/Business/Nonprofit-State.shtml provides the documents needed to file with a...
Words: 1807 - Pages: 8
...consistently moving forward. The Wisconsin school system also claims to have a proud history of progressive education. Wisconsin was granted statehood on May 29, 1848, becoming the 30th state. It was in this same year that Wisconsin first recognized public education, and began dialogue on ways to finance it. Wisconsin Constitution, Article X, Section 3 states that, “The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable.” Established school districts were handed the authority to govern the schooling in their region, and were given the power to tax in order to fund school development. According to Maher, Skidmore and Statz (2007) it was decided that the school districts should be funded through local property taxes, which presented further challenges. This created a heavy reliance on local property taxes, leading to frustration for taxpayers. The second major challenge was that all districts were different in size and demographic, therefore this created a disparity between districts in their ability to raise money through taxes. The state was forced to provide financial aid due to the inequity in dollars that could be raised between districts. The state set up financial aid, the Common School Fund or Library Aid. Maher et al. (2007) state that, “Initially, this support was provided to every school in the form of a flat amount of aid per pupil. This original aid, the Common School Fund or Library Aid, had as its purpose...
Words: 2056 - Pages: 9
...Rights Act of 1964. The purpose of ESEA was focused mainly on eradicating poverty, providing equal education services to all students, and implementing high standards for students and teachers. The ESEA also provided funds for state established educational programs and low income students ("Elementary and secondary,"). Although the ESEA benefited many deserving students in bad economic areas, it did not specifically benefit English language learners. Making matters worse, ESEA was reauthorized as The No Child Left Behind in 2002. NCLB required states to align their standards/requirements with the federal NCLB standards/requirements. Although it looked good on paper, requiring schools to meet what is known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) forced schools to do the opposite of what the name suggests. Schools were forced to ‘leave children behind’ by removing them from testing reports in order to make their statistics look better. Creating a bit of hope, the Bilingual Education Act was the first piece of federal legislation to finally recognize the needs of English language learners. This act required some instruction for English...
Words: 1274 - Pages: 6
...Final research paper on “Education vs. Prison Funding” The government is responsible for security of its citizens and it is also responsible to provide a safe socio-economic environment to its people, and in this context; Jails and schools are two important institutions of any society, which need regular monetary support from the government. Thus government has to be very careful in allocating funds to both of the institutions; as one punishes the convicts and other makes the people skillful, and wise enough to get a job and earn money for family. Government has to be very careful in allocation of funds to them, as it is very critical to decide which institution should be allocated more money. The report, “Prison Spending Affecting Higher Education in California” states that in 2008 one of every 48 adults was in jail; this data states the very reason that why prisons are getting so much funding against education. We need to take very stringent and effective steps to reduce the population of prisons. The article, “Education and Public Safety (2007)” mentions that the lack of proper education is directly proportional to increase in prison population; the fact that most criminals are from some particular areas, where the high school dropout is maximum, proves this theorem. It is dangerous for the future of the society that the education in lack of subsidy and proper funding is becoming unaffordable for more and more students. The prison data shows that around 50 percent population...
Words: 2146 - Pages: 9
...The California Budget Challenge gave me an opportunity to balance the budget for California and gave me further insight on what types of programs and services that we spend our money on. According to my budget for 2013-2014, I have a $.90 billion surplus by spending $109.20 billion and earning $110.1 billion. The goal in this challenge was to cut taxes so that the total amount of revenue can increase and allow more money to be used on education. Starting with taxes, I decided to leave most of the taxes at the same rate. Income tax should stay the same because in 2012, income tax rate had already increased. Similar for sales tax, in 2013, sales tax increased by about a fourth a percent. In contrast to sales and income tax, I actually decided to raise corporation taxes by about $.80 billion because many corporations have increased in profits, and a small raise in taxes will help California without compromising the success of the corporations. Although I raised corporation tax, I decreased individual tax credits by $.10 billion. The reason for this is because this encourages college students to take out loans for a college education. I left car tax and property tax as they were. Next, the majority of my spending went towards education. I spent $4.4 billion on K-12 education because I believe that funding these schools will encourage young children to put more effort in their education. In addition, there are many children who do not have the opportunity to have a solid education...
Words: 698 - Pages: 3
...Response Paper 3 In the New York Times article, “What’s the Matter With Kansas’ Schools?” by David Sciarra and Wade Henderson published on January 7, Kansas is facing a rigorous challenge on inadequate and unfair school funding for public education. Governor Sam Brownback who is a Republican and the Kansas legislature, which is led by Republicans, have made an excess amount of harsh budget cuts in addition to the cuts that they made several years ago. Parents filed a lawsuit to protest these funding cuts. The Kansas Supreme Court will have to decide whether the state will continue cutting funds or restore them. “The Judges called the school funding cut destructive of our children’s future” (Sciarra and Henderson, 2014). Federal education policies have ignored the issue of poverty for years. There are a number of research studies that have been found that the majority of students in public schools come from low-income families. Referring to the current school system, I think these large cuts in school funding would not only affect the children’s future, but also help to impoverish society in the long run. Poverty is a substantial factor when it comes to education problems in the United States. According to the Washington Post (2013), low-income students made up at least half the public school population in 17 states, including some wealthy states such as California in 2011, which was a marked increase from 2000 (Strauss, 2013). Furthermore, social science research also has shown...
Words: 734 - Pages: 3
...Racism and Schools Author: D. E. Campbell Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall Students of different ethnic groups (Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, African Americans, and European Americans) learn to read at dramatically different rates in our schools. The ethnic group you belong to makes a substantial difference in school achievement. Mexican Americans leave school at a higher rate than other Hispanics, and Hispanics drop out at a higher rate than do non-Hispanic Whites (Ramirez & de la Cruz, 2003). There has been a dramatic increase in the rate of segregation of Black and Latino students from White students in the nation’s public schools (Frey, 2006; Orfield & Lee, 2007). We are becoming a more divided nation. The reason for this is relatively straightforward: Schools for poor children and children of color are inadequately secure, staffed, and funded. Economic choices—for example, to unequally and inadequately fund schools—produce most of the differences in achievement that are used as evidence of racial superiority and inferiority. In May of 2001, a coalition of civil rights groups filed a class action lawsuit (Williams v. California) that documented the deplorable and even unsafe and unsanitary conditions in many of California’s schools that serve large numbers of students of color. What causes these unequal conditions? Among the causes is a sustained pattern of underfunding of these schools. These are deliberate decisions to maintain some schools well...
Words: 1142 - Pages: 5
