Vision and Student Success - Essay Example

School policies play a very big role in promoting success of all students and also shaping the vision of the district. This paper will therefore identify five policies in South Texas school district that promote student success and also shape the vision of the district. This paper will also elaborate on the vision of the district and how the policies relate to overall vision achievement in the district. (Fowler, 2008) There is a further explanation on how community values influenced development of the policies. This paper will also include the policies that can be developed to improve the ability of the school staff to realize goals, vision and mission of the district. One of the policies in South Texas school district relates to child protection. This policy states that all actions carried out within the school have to consider the overall protection of students against any manner of harm. Another policy states that students in the school should have good behavior and maintain high discipline. The third policy relates to equal opportunities where students are given equal opportunities during admissions and general learning. This school also has a homework policy that requires students to do their homework by themselves and to submit within the deadline. This means that students are not allowed to give in late submissions of their homework. The homework is further checked through software to ensure that no plagiarism is carried out. The fifth policy states that students’ outstanding performances have to be rewarded by the school management. All these policies play a very big role in promoting success of all students and also shaping the vision of the district. Analysis of the district where this school is situated shows that it also has a vision. This is to see to it that students are given equal opportunities without favor or discrimination and that they excel in their examinations. It is quite clear that policies in South Texas School play a very big role in achievement of the district’s vision. The first policy illustrated deals with child protection. It is quite clear that unless children are protected from harm; there is no way that they can excel in their examinations. For instance the school management ensures that school buildings are safe for student use. There is also tight security within the school hence ensuring that no strangers can access the school and attack students. There are tough rules on issues like bullying and even sexual harassment. Through this, students are able to concentrate on their studies and excel. This policy therefore promotes the district’s vision of having excellent performing students. The second policy states that students have to have good behavior and maintain high discipline. When students have good behavior and also maintain high discipline, it means that their learning will not be disrupted by strikes or suspension from school. This means that students are able to attend all their lessons without any cases of boycotting lessons hence high performance. When students maintain good morals, they will not harm each other in any way and this encourages the aspect of allowing them have equal opportunities during learning. It is therefore evident that this policy plays a very big role toward achievement of district vision. (Fred and Allan 2006) The third policy is directly related to the vision of the district. It deals with giving equal opportunities to students during admission and also in the learning process. This is exactly what the vision of the district is. Therefore the school policy is working hand in hand with the vision of the district. The forth policy is whereby students have to submit their homework on time and make sure that they personally tackle it. This policy is highly related to overall achievement of the district vision. This is because when students learn to do their homework by themselves they will improve their grades day by day. This means that teachers get to know areas that students did not understand and make time for further clarification. (Howell, 2002) As students hand in their homework on time, teachers are also able to evaluate their performance in good time and make strategies that will ensure improved performance. Students are normally graded in accordance to performance in homework plus other relevant examinations. The best students are rewarded accordingly and this therefore plays a very big role in motivating students to do their best. This policy has therefore been quite instrumental in ensuring that students achieve very good grades hence supporting the vision of the district. The fifth policy deals with student’s outstanding performance and therefore works hand in hand with district vision. Community values have influenced the development of the policies. One of community values is the virtue of hard work. The community values hard work and abhors idleness. This has encouraged the school management to put in place policies that also encourage students to work hard. The community also has another value of eradicating any form of discrimination. This has steered the school management to initiate policies that relate to equal opportunities to all students. This school also has policy statements that encourage the entire community to be involved in shaping students towards a brighter future. One of the statements says that parents, teachers and the government have a role to play in student behavior. Another statement says that ‘student performance depends on what you and I are doing to help them achieve their dreams’. These statements encourage the community to be involved in issues that pertain to the students. Policies also need to be put in place to improve ability of the school staff to realize the goals shaped by vision and mission of the district. (Mayhew, 2004) This includes a policy that rewards teachers whose students achieve the best grades. For instance, a teacher who ensures seventy percent of students achieving the best grades should get monetary reward. Any teacher or any other staff who helps a student change his or her bad moral standards should also be rewarded. This will motivate the staff to do their best in realizing goals shaped by the vision and mission of the district. (Parkerson, 2001) In conclusion, policies in South Texas school district promote student success and also overall achievement of the vision of the district. These policies include giving students equal opportunities and protection of students among others. The district vision is to see students excel and also to give them equal opportunities. Community values have also encouraged the development of these school policies. An example is the hard work value found within the community. The school also has policy statements that encourage the community to be involved in shaping students’ behavior and encouraging academic success. The implementation of these policies has encouraged South Texas school district to have excellent performance. Read More