Securing the Future for Washington DC Psd Term Paper

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DC PSD Analysis

The author of this report will be focusing on the strategic plan for a given organization. The organization in question here is the Washington DC Public School District and the strategy summary in question is the 2017 Strategic Plan as authored by that school district. The first third of this report shall focus on the plan itself within its environmental context. There will be a summary and analysis of the key strategic choices as discussed and summarized in the plan. The final two thirds of this report shall be a scholarly literature review of the implications and topics at hand. Specifically, there should be a focus on the fourth goal given in the report. That goal is the improving of satisfaction in a way that provides for the school district's future and sustainability. Indeed, the children of America are our future and their long-term successes or failures will have a ton of implications for how well this country does and how well these students perform within it. While the "proper" way to serve and assist kids may be in debate, there is no question that the overall satisfaction of the children and their parents as well as how both of those relate to the school system's future and sustainability are all extremely important and thus should be taken seriously.

Analysis

When it comes to urban school systems like those in major metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC, just to name a few, there is truly a dual-edged problem that presents and manifests. One side of that dastardly coin is that the United States is very much falling behind when it comes to performance in core subjects like math and science. The innovation and high-end skills that are craved by many top employers are often unmet by the students that are produced by the United States. There is a devil's advocate argument that asserts that businesses are clamoring for foreign workers and H-1B Visas only because it is cheaper for those businesses to employ those workers as compared to their theoretical American counterparts. Be that as it may, it is clear that American schools are falling behind the curve set by the world and the public schools in particular are getting a lot of the ire and blame for that (National Governors Association, 2007).

The other side of the aforementioned proverbial coin is faced by urban areas like Washington DC. Indeed, there is a great amount of poverty, crime and squalor in the urban areas of America. Cities that stand out in this regard include Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles, just to name the few. Whether it be poverty in general, gun violence or other things, the amount of problems faced by inner city families and, by extension, inner city kids is monumental compared to most (but certainly not all) kids and families that are not in such areas. Due to all of these things as well as the breakdown of the black family unit (in terms of the aggregate, anyway), the fear of being harmed or even killed by violence and family dysfunction in general, it is obviously not a surprise that kids in such areas do not perform well in school. A lot of this is the conditions of the area and the culture surrounding the same but the schools themselves are using antiquated books and other resources a lot of the time and the culmination of these factors leads to high dropout rates, kids being graduated when they really should not be given that they are not at the high school level in the first place (let alone beyond it) and some other nasty effects. The totality of all of this shows a system that is clearly broken. As such, the parental satisfaction in such a system is going to be poor to awful. This in turn can lead to a system that is not sustainable at an acceptable level, if at all, and thus the future of the system is entirely in doubt. The DC school system could absolutely see themselves looking like Detroit if they are not careful. Detroit is having to shut down schools and condense students into those schools that remain due to a massive amount of people fleeing the area for the suburbs or other urban centers. Throw in the rampant crime that is often unsolved and a city infrastructure that is inherently dysfunctional and bankrupt, the future for Detroit kids would seem to be very bleak and any parent with any wisdom would do whatever is possible to get their child into another school system (Lake, Jochim, DeArmond, 2014).

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The situation in Washington DC is not that bleak, at least not yet. However, the bad school performance and related social factors that do exist call for decisive action and sound strategy and that is the obvious goal of the 2017 strategic plan put forth by the DC PSD system. The very first statement that comes out clearly from the strategic plan document is the phrase that there will be "better schools for all students by 2017." It is shown on the second page and it lays the groundwork for what is described on the second page of the document. Indeed, they state that the five-year period running from 2012 to 2007 will represent a huge shift and upgrade in outcomes for the students of the Washington DC school district. The strategic plan is described on that second page as a "roadmap" that will transform the DC public schools into a "high-quality, vibrant school district that earns the confidence of our community" (DC PDS, 2015). Indeed, there will not be any modicum of satisfaction if there is not trust between the parents and the leaders of the school district. The bottom half of the second page lists seven overall stakeholder commitments. Indeed, the satisfaction of the stakeholders is no small thing to attain for a school district because the depth, breadth and variety of stakeholders that exist when it comes to a school system are all expansive. With that in mind, the stakeholders listed are the children of Washington DC, the teachers and staff of the Washington DC public school district, the school leaders of the Washington DC public school district, the parents of the children of the Washington DC public school district, the members of the Washington DC community, the potential employers, both within Washington DC and outside of it, that will be employing the kids that come out of the Washington DC school district and the city/state of Washington DC in general. The stated purpose of the district on the top of the third page is to "ensure that every DCPS school provides a world-class education that prepares ALL of our students, regardless of background or circumstance, for success in college, career and life" (DC PSD, 2015).

The sordid national-level reading and math performance scores mentioned earlier in this report are clearly represented when speaking of Washington DC. Indeed, the 2010/2011 proficiency rate for both reading and math were a paltry forty-three percent for both. That said, the goals of the Washington DC district are lofty as they seek to have proficiency rates of seventy percent for both by the 2016/2017 school year. Even the strategy document itself admits that their goals are "ambitious." Similar goals exist when it comes to the overall number of advanced students that exist within the district. In the 2010/2011 school year, the school district had 1,907 advanced reading students and 2,382 advanced math students. The school district wants to raise those numbers to 3,814 and 4,764, respectively, by the 2016/2017 school year. The starting point is bleaker when it comes to the forty worst schools in the district form a current score standpoint. Indeed, those forty schools had proficiency rates of 23% in reading and 22% in math as of the 2010/2011 school year. While the district is very ambitious with raising those scores as well, their goals for those school is dialed back a bit as compared to the district as a whole. Indeed, their goals for reading and math proficiency is 63 and 62, respectively, by the 2016/2017 school year. Also extremely concerning is that the high school graduation rate in 2010/2011 was a meager 53%. By 2015, the goal is have that number to three fourths. This is not exactly success for "every" student as mentioned before. However, increasing the graduation rate by half would be a huge feat to accomplish in five years and it is indeed as starting point. The district wants no less than 90% of their students to say that they like being and going there. This is also a good thing to strive for (DC PSD, 2015).

Literature Review

If there is a takeaway and point of emphasis to focus on from the analysis above, it would be that schools in urban areas have to be beacons of hope and sources of opportunity for kids that face dire….....

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