There are two options for this assignment. The first option was designed for peo

There are two options for this assignment. The first option was designed for people who are familiar enough with a public school to have a good sense of some issues that it faces. The second option is for people who are not familiar enough with a specific school to have ideas about ways that it could be improved. If you are especially interested in Head Start or preschool and want to choose option one, I suggest that you focus on an issue related to early elementary school education since that is where the children you you work with will be headed next .
ONE: As you completed the readings and visited the links in this module, you may have already thought about a public school or school district that you are familiar with and how it could be improved. If you are especially interested in Head Start or preschool, I suggest that you focus on an issue related to early elementary school education since that is where the children you work with will be heading next)
Identify the specific school or district that you are thinking about and write a brief descriiption of the school and the community that it serves including whether it is an elementary school, middle school, high school, K-12 school, whether it is located in an urban , suburban or rural community, whether the student population is predominately low, middle or high income You can get a sense of this by doing a google search like this “ Ithaca NY high school percentage eligible free lunch” or “ Spencer School District NY percentage economically disadvantaged students”.
Identify and describe a problem or concern that limits student learning, or some aspect of the school’s performance or environment that could be improved by implementing some ideas you read about during this module. If you have any experience with the problem, include a brief descriiption of that, You can find information about almost any topic in the resources identified in the module overview, especially Edutopia and the Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard. If you want to find a peer reviewed academic resource, the ERIC database is a good resource. You might be interested in including some of the resources about education in other societies ( Do not focus on safety or bullying since we covered that extensively in a prior module. You can mention the Covid pandemic in the context of a specific problem or concern but don’t choose the overall impact of the pandemic as the issue you focus on)
Identify, describe and consider the potential of 3 or 4 innovative policy ideas, programs or classroom level innovations to address the problem you are focusing on based on the resources found in this module and/or suggested above. Use at least 4 different references including something published over the past two years. Try to include at least one idea that could be implemented at the classroom or school level and at least one that would involve a change in state or national policy. What do you think that their potential advantages and limitations would be? Do you think that the school, parents and community would be open to these ideas?
Cite your sources and include a reference section, including urls when possible so that I can easily find them.
TWO: This option is for people who are not really familiar enough with any school setting to complete the first option The National School Boards Association is an advocacy organization for public education in the US. They select and recognize state and national “Teachers of the Year” and recognize School Districts that develop innovative programs to meet student needs with the “Magna Award.” https://nsba.org/ASBJ/2023/april/2023-magna-awards-grand-prize-winners Visit their web site and read about the three Magna Award winners and the current year Teacher of the Year winner and finalists. You won’t see a lot of information about the finalists but you can learn more about them by doing a google search for their name, state and teacher of the year You can find prior teacher of the year and Magna winners by searching for them by year. Read 8 or 10 profiles of teachers and programs and then select three whose were recognized for addressing issues or problems that you would like to learn more about. You will be writing a a three part report.
For each teacher or district provide a brief descriiption of their district and discuss what they teachers and programs accomplished to promote student learning. Next, use the resources provided in this module to find and innovations by other teachers and districts around the US or in other nations to address each of these issues. Use at least 3 different references including something published over the past two years. Try to include at least one idea that could be implemented at the classroom or school level and at least one that would involve a change in state or national policy. What do you think that their potential advantages and limitations would be? Do you think that the school, parents and community would be open to each idea.
I think that 350 words for each of the three sections would probably be about right.

Keys to a high quality report:
Be very specific about the problem or issue /
Incorporate information from sources identified in the module. You can include additional sources if you choose to do that as long as they are from quality sources. Provide a clear and concise descriiption of ideas and efforts to address the problem or issue from the references that you selected.
Identify and cite quoted material. Cite your sources.
Present most of the information in your own words ( at least 75 percent)

Learning Objectives:
Identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in American schools
Describe and compare innovative proposals and programs for improving education in the US developed by American educators and within other societies including academic achievement, STEM, vocational education, school climate school choice and teacher development
Apply information about innovation and reform from credible academic, evidence based sources