One Year Action Plan based on based on Epstein's 6 Types of involvement - Essay Example

?NARRATIVE OF THE ONE-YEAR ACTION PLAN Feasibility of implementing the Plan This is a 3-way action plan that pivots around the axles of behavior, academic and partnership climate. The action plan is built based on based on Epstein's 6 Types of involvement. It took the developer great work of feasibility studies in selecting the core areas of the action plan. Such feasibility studies were done to ensure that the action plan was measurable, specific, time-bound and achievable. These factors were not considered only in the selection but also in the implementation of the plan. As much as possible, over elaboration and sensationalism were avoided. To this effect, the action plan comes with specific activities on what needs to be done to achieve the set targets. These measures indeed make the implementation of the 3-way Action Plan feasible as there are clearly stated measures for achieving the objectives. In the academics for instance, it is stated for example that ways of achieving goal one would be “Parent involvement, increase in Benchmarks, six weeks test, report cards, TAKS testing”. With measures of this nature running through all the goals, the implementation of the plan is indeed feasible. Factors that will Support the Plan As suggested by Epstein, there have been specific factors picked from the home, community as well as the school as supporting factors for the successful implementation and achievement of the action plan. From the home, factors like giving parents orientation on the need for them to serve as partners for the achievement of the Action Plan and making room for parents and guardians to bring on board their own suggestions on ways to achieving the goals have been put in place. Most of the factors from the home to support the plan where centered on the behavioral goals. In the community, plans have been put in place to ensuring that there are series of meeting with community stakeholders especially on the need for cultural diversity and unity as well as giving such stakeholders the freedom to define their own set of goals to achieve. It must be reiterated that factors from the community to support the plan where mostly championed in the area of the partnership climate. Factors considered in the school has more to do with the academic goals where students will be taken through reinforced lessons in the areas of reading, spelling and the organization of academic competitions to boost students’ desire to learn more. Factors that will Hinder the Plan Not withstanding the carefully crafted factors above, there is no denying the fact that there are still foreseeable factors that may possibly hinder the successful implementation of the Action Plan. Some of these factors include the fact that there may be conflict of targeted goals between the home and the school in one hand and the community and the school at the other hand. This is to mean that there is the likelihood that goals that the home may want to achieve in this period of one year may not just be different from that of the school but opposite to it, causing a lot of inconvenience in striking the balance of pursuing both goals. The same is true for the community. Again, since Epstein suggests that the implementation of the action plan should be out of a collaborative effort between the school and other stakeholders, it is expected that there will be maximum cooperation from the home and community. However, there could be the likelihood that these agents or stakeholders may not have enough time to participate in the implementation of the Action Plan. There could even be apathy on the part of some stakeholders. Financial inadequacies are also hindrances that cannot be overlooked. Extent to which the action plan already supports the Partnership that already exists in School Farlex (2011) explains that “a relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal” As the adage goes, “there is nothing new under the sun”. As a matter of fact, Action Plans work even easier when they are built around existing partnership between any two stakeholders involved. In this case, the Action Plan focuses on the home and community as partners of the school. Indeed there are partnership programs and activities between the school and the home and community already. For instance there are school Associations like Parents Association, School Management Committee and Board of Directors that in one way or the other involve the home and community in the affairs of the school. The school also has activities such as Annual Games, Quiz Competitions, School-Community Social Intervention Programs, Open Day, Speech and Prize Giving Day and Parents Day that all ensure very healthy partnership between the home, community and the school. Happily, the Action Plan has been geared towards supporting all these partnership programs and activities between the school, home and community. This has been done by building the implementation of almost all the goals around these programs and activities. This is to mean that the Action Plan seeks its implementation directly and indirectly through these school-home-community activities and programs. Fills a void to create Partnership that does not already exist The above points not withstanding, there are new partnerships that will e created by the Action Plan that did not exist already. Quoting Epstein, leadership, teamwork, plans for action, implementation and facilitation, evaluation, funding, support and network connections are all essential elements in the implementation of an Action Plan. A careful analysis of the elements reveals that there should be close collaboration between the school and selected members of the home and community to make the Action Plan work. For this reason, new partnerships have been created by way of instituting Chair and Co-chair members to aid in the implementation of the plan. This is particularly with the academics goals. With regards to the climate of partnership, there have been portfolios such as campus administration and counselors and Representatives of the local domestic violence sherlter2 who have been partnered into the whole Action Plan to serve as a new breed of partnership to fill the void that existed. How the Action Plan meets the Mission/Vision of School Drafting an Action Plan for a school with goals that are set outside the mission and vision of the school would be like trying to bait a dog with grass. There will not be any positive outcome. For this reason, the goals of this action plan were set primarily with the school mission and vision in mind. Broadly speaking, the school envisions raising children who would be academically sound, morally upright and fit for societal challenges. The academic goals of the Action Plan seek to help in the achievement of the school’s vision of raising academically sound children. Education is indeed of inevitable and undeniably vast advantages. However for any student to achieve these advantages, there are basic academic standards and maturity that the student must show. These standards are considered in grading students’ end of semester and end of course examinations. It is these grading systems that also determine the kind of job placement that a student is likely to get. To focus the Action Plan on improving academic performance is thus in consonance with the school mission and vision and a step in the right direction. On the school’s mission or vision of raising students who are morally upright, the behavioral goals seek to help in achieving this. This is because the behavioral goals define specific character conduct for students that would ensure that at the long run, students are not just academia but morally fitting beings. Finally, the climate of partnership would go a long way to ensuring that students are brought closer to the society and how the society functions. This way, students will be readily available to integrate themselves into the society and function just as the society does. Role of the leader in designing, implementing and maintaining this plan in the future in the future The leader is going to be a facilitator rather than dictator of the implementation process. This means that much room is going to be given to all other people who have a stake in the Action Plan. By the means created for the leader to work with other people, he is going to be offered the opportunity to learn a lot of new things from a lot of people. Some of these new things learnt are what are going to be a guiding principle for the leader in the designing and implementation of future plans. How the leader will engage the staff in buying into the plan and involve both external and internal stakeholders in the implementation The leader will engage the staff in buying into the plans by involving them directly in the implementation of the Action Plan. This is going to be done by apportioning to them roles to be played. Most of these roles are going to be leadership roles. Surely when the staff are made to be involved in the Action Plan, they are going to be seen as active partakers of the success of the plan rather than passive on lookers. This way, they are going to be concerned with the success of the plan because they will see the success of the plan as their own success and the failure of it as such. How the plan will be evaluated to determine whether the goals have been effectively met “As defined by the American Evaluation Association, evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness” (Evaluationwiki, 2011). Evaluation is an important component of Action Plans such as this one. Evaluation allows for periodic assessment of the success or otherwise of the Action Plan. The evaluation of this action plan is going to be done on two major bases. First, there shall be an internal peer review team in place and second, there shall be an external peer review team in place. The internal peer reviewers are going to be tasked with weekly assessment of the progress of the achievement of each major goal. Their meetings and programs are going to be documented and passed on to the external peer reviewers who would authenticate the findings of the internal peer reviewers. The external reviewers shall be people who hold neutral positions from all people who would be involved in the running of the Action Plan. This would be done to ensure fairness. REFERENCE LIST Evaluationwiki, 2011, American Evaluation Association, Retrieved July 2, 2011 Farlex, 2011, ‘Partnership’ The Free Online Dictionary. Accessed July 2, 2011 Read More