(Append this part of the paper to previous document and submit altogether.)

This is the last part of the Policy Analysis Paper. Use the following questions in writing the paper:

Describe that which policy option is the most desirable given the circumstances and evaluative criteria?

What other factors should be considered?

What are the possible challenges in the implementation of this policy option? How can these be mitigated?

Provide a great conclusion for the whole paper.

This part should not be more than 5 pages long, 1.5 space. 

Please note that, at this stage, I will also be evaluating your paper in terms of how well have you addressed my comments on the previous sections. Out of 40,  maximum of 10 points will be assigned for this purpose. 

Policies to Address Education Standards

Policies to Address Education Standards

Lam Ho Yung

Oregon State University

PS 371

May 26, 2020

Policies are very important in addressing issues that affect members of the public, and these issues can be managed by government intervention. Such an issue is the issue of inequality in accessibility quality of education in Alabama. Due to degrading quality of education in Alabama, it is important to ensure that the government rethinks about the education situation in Alabama and come up with policies which are necessary to restore the quality of education across Alabama. There are different policies that the government should take into consideration and understand why exercising these policies in Alabama is necessary. The situation of deteriorating quality of education in Alabama is a result of an alternative that was availed by the government to allow parents to take their students in private schools if they were capable. This alternative exploited the weakness of low-income families living in Alabama. Since they were not able to take their children in private schools, they had to retain their children in a public school under state management. Under government management, students in public schools across Alabama have been suffering a lack of sufficient classes, high turnover of teachers, and financial challenges.

To manage this situation, it is necessary to use different alternatives for policy evaluation. Education in reinstated back to its quality through the funding policy, class size policy, and the policy of teacher’s standards. Alternative criteria that can be used to evaluate the feasibility of these policies are purpose and audience, administrative feasibility, social acceptability, and efficiency. Each of these alternatives is better when it is used for certain policies and is weak when it is used in another. Therefore, there is a need to understand which alternative criteria bests suit which system of addressing the educational scenario in Alabama. The ability to match alternative evaluating criteria with each policy is very critical because it aids in determining the best criteria and the work criteria for evaluating policy.

Evaluating criteria

1. Purpose and audience

This criterion involves assessing why a policy is important and who is intended to be the beneficiary of the policy as the audience. The selection of this policy is important because it introduces the relevance of a policy. The criteria are necessary because it helps to identify if a policy has the capacity to address the scenario of deteriorating education across Alabama. If a policy does not have the capacity to address the education issues, then it is not the right policy to be used for the case at hand. The policy should also address students who are affected, in this case, those who study from Alabama public schools. If a policy does not address students, then it must be addressing teachers of the government funding of public schools. Any policy that does not cover these audiences does not qualify for the case at hand.

2. Administrative feasibility

This criterion dictates that a policy chosen should be feasible and achievable by the administration at Alabama. In my opinion, a policy that is not attainable is out of administration capacity; then, such a policy is not viable to address the situation at hand. These evaluation criteria are hence necessary for ensuring that the policy selected and passed for review will not go through the review process only to be discovered the administration to not have the capacity to be by the federal government.

3. Social acceptability

Social acceptability is a criterion that implies that when selecting a policy, it should have the capacity to be accepted by society. The problem at hand affects the society and the immediate community living in Alabama. If a policy does not tale into consideration the needs of the immediate community, then it does not qualify for consideration and selection. In my opinion, I selected this evaluative criterion because I felt that if the immediate society rejects a policy at Alabama, it cannot be exercised, or its exercise could attract confronts of interest between the state and residents at the state.

4. Efficiency

A policy to be enacted should be in a position to ensure that much benefit is reaped from a policy at the minimum costs possible. In my opinion, all policies should be assessed, which benefits are derived from each policy. With this knowledge, the costs of establishing a policy should be evaluated too. A policy that is considered for selection should, therefore, convince its low costs of implementation and optimal benefits why the policy should be enacted. From these four evaluative criteria, if a policy does not meet any of them, then such policy is not fit to address the education situation and challenges being faced by students in Alabama.

Policies evaluation

1. Class size and overcrowding policy

This policy is meant to address the education issues that are related to the overcrowding in classes available in Alabama. The evaluation of this policy in terms of administrative feasibility the policy is within the state capacity because it implies that the government is responsible for building a public school for its citizens. Since the responsibility of erecting classes belongs to the government, then the policy is attainable by the state administration in Alabama. Evaluating this policy under social acceptability, the issue at hand is that students are denied a chance of personal attention from teachers due to overcrowding of classes. Furthermore, this overcrowding creates an environment that is not conducive for teachers to teach from. Therefore, a policy to address the decongestion of classes through building more or employment of more teachers is acceptable in society. This implies that the policy to address the class size and overcrowding is socially acceptable by the immediate community in Alabama.

Evaluation of this policy under purpose and audience, the purpose of this policy is to decongest classes in public schools across Alabama. The purpose of this policy is hence to allow teachers to have a sizeable number of students whose teacher can teach strategically and attend them at a personal level when the need arises. The audience of this policy are students, and hence, the policy is feasible to be considered to be embraced and exercised in Alabama. Under efficiency, the policy demands for funds for its relevance. These are funds that could be used to erect more classes for students. With more classes erected, quality of education could improve, and students from public schools could have a positive impact on the economy in the future. Therefore, the policy is capital intensive in the short run but would benefit the economy in the long run and hence feasible.

2. Teacher’s standards policy

This policy requires that the standard of all teachers at public school in Alabama should be improved. Improving these standards implies addressing their qualification before they are employed in public schools. Under purpose and audience, the purpose of this policy is to reduce the rate of teacher turnover in public schools. Teachers in Alabama leave from public schools as soon as they employed due to a lack of capacity to manage education demands in public schools across Alabama. Since the policy is oriented to increase teacher’s competence, then its purposes fit the problem solution for the issue at hand in Alabama (Robinson, 2017). The audience of these teachers are teachers who have been leaving their employment when it is too soon. Therefore, improving their standards implies a teacher could be retained for a longer time in public schools and hence quality education for students. In this dimension, the policy is feasible for being taken into consideration.

Under administration feasibility, it is the role of the government to employ teachers in public schools. Teachers must be employed in public schools, but their induction should be strategic. A teacher should be more experienced in students and having attained a certain height of education. Since the state has the capacity to regulate the competent of teachers being employed, therefore the policy is feasible. Under efficiency, improving standard requirements for teachers could impart quality education and more knowledgeable students released from these schools. These students could have a great contribution to the economy in the future. The policy is, therefore, efficient in terms of its implication of the Alabama economy in the future. Under the evaluation of social acceptability, the policy is feasible because society could want their students educated by highly competent teachers (Robinson, 2017).

3. The policy of public schools funding

Under purpose and audience evaluation criteria of this policy, the purpose of this policy is to make public schools more financially stable like private schools (Neher, Patterson, Duffield & Harvey, 2017). In private schools, parents are wealthier and can finance schools operation to meet the quality education of their children. The audience if this policy is public students and students as actual beneficiaries at large. Under the evaluation criteria of administrative policy, it is the duty of the government to allocate a certain budget for public schools. The government in Alabama used to spend enough but is later reduced the allocation for Alabama. Therefore, the policy is feasible if only the government could go back to the budget allocation that was there previously.

Under social acceptability, the policy is acceptable because it benefits the society in that public schools will be more stable to finance their operations. Furthermore, public schools will be able to afford resources that could impact the quality of education in which students are missing. Under the evaluation of efficiency, this policy might be expensive if the government spends too much on this policy. It is, therefore, necessary to fund public schools considerably.

Ranking criteria with policy

A policy of class size

This policy is beastly evaluated by purpose and audience. This is because the policy must be exercised, and it is more on the audience and its purpose rather than its costs. Therefore, the worst criteria for evaluating this policy is efficiency.

A policy of teacher’s stands

The best evaluation criteria of this policy are administrative feasibility; the government should be ready to spend on training teachers to increase their efficiency. The worst evaluation criteria for this policy is its social acceptability.

School funding policy

This policy is best evaluated under efficiency, and the worst evaluation criteria are purpose and audience.

REFERENCES:

Neher, C., Patterson, D., Duffield, J. W., & Harvey, A. (2017). Budgeting for the Future: The long-term impacts of short-term thinking in Alabama K-12 education funding. Journal of Education Finance, 42(4), 448-470.

Robinson, S. (2017). Teachers’ perceptions of confidence and preparation for implementing Common Core State Standards in Alabama (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).

Running Head: POLICIES TO ADDRESS EDUCATION STANDARDS

Policies to Address Education Standards

Lam Ho Yung

Oregon State University

PS 371

May 10, 2020

In Alabama, the existing problem of poor education can be addressed by the states through the enactment of policies that address the problem directly. The policy problem, in this case, is low-quality education that students at Alabama public schools are offered with. This problem emanates from the economic status of Americans, implying that for those hi financial powers, they take their students in private schools. In these private schools, teachers availed are highly qualified, ready to teach, and hence, quality education. However, in public schools, teachers are less competent, funding is less effective, and class conditions are in the worst state to administer education strategically. To address these issues, the government should use three policies, being a policy to address overcrowding of classrooms, policy to raise standards required for teachers employed in public schools, and a policy to make funding of private schools a priority.

1. Addressing overcrowded classrooms

Teachers are not machines, and even like machines, there is workload beyond which a teacher cannot bear. This happens in the case of overcrowded classrooms. When a teacher has to teach too many students under the same roof, the overall position in such a scenario is overcrowding (Cowell, 2018). A policy to address overcrowding can help to improve the quality of education, which is administered to students in Alabama. Different issues under this policy can be addressed with the aim of increasing the efficiency of a teacher in question and the cooperativeness of students engaged. In cases of overcrowded classrooms, students are denied the opportunity to get engaged with their teachers at a personal level. Where such students have difficulties with a certain context, it becomes very difficult to have their issues attended to because such an opportunity because very minimal to access. Instead, they are left to enquire from fellow students who might not comprehensively explain.

This policy can also deal with the challenge of students propping out from schools. When classes are too overcrowded, the personal touch between a teacher and students is eliminated. Therefore, a teacher might not have an opportunity to intervene in poorly performing students. Such students can have their minds swept away from a school setting and seek to explore the world while they are not in schools. Therefore, a policy to address overcrowded classes could improve the personal attachment between teachers and students. This could allow teachers to intervene for students who are performing poorly. This is a motivation for such students, which could result in giving up with school if they were never intervened on their weaknesses.

This alternative policy could have the same results as the construction of more public schools across Alabama. With the development of more public schools, it implies that students will have to be transferred from schools fare away from their place of residents and be taken to nearby schools. This, on the other hand, could result in decongestion from schools. Therefore, each school could have significantly lesser student per class. This could result in an optimal number of students per class who a teacher can attend to comprehensively.

2. Policy to raise standard required for teachers employed in public schools

The poor performance of students in public schools in Alabama is directly related to underprepared teachers (Podolsky, Kini, & Darling-Hammond, 2019). These are teachers who are not experienced enough for teaching duties. Therefore, they are unable to impact educational knowledge to students strategically. Moreover, these teachers are not able to address questions of clarification from students precisely. The overall effects of such teachers are unfruitful, impacting educational knowledge to students. Having a policy that raises standards of teachers, this could impact the educational environment in public schools characterized by teachers with a certain level of competencies.

This policy should help address the challenge that emerged due to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. ESSA replaced No Child Left behind, and it had adverse consequences, especially for children from families with vulnerable social, economic backgrounds. This Act eliminated requirements to have teachers with certain qualifications and experiences. This gave rise to an environment with less qualified and experienced teachers who teach in public schools. This Act increased the gap between public schools and private schools. In private schools, teachers are employed on the basis of once competence and qualifications. Therefore, the challenge of an incompetent leader was not impacted by private schools. The policy of raising the bar for teachers could imply that before one is employed in a public school, they must have attained certain educational progress and a significant level of experience. This is the only way the state can help public schools have more qualified teachers who are ready for their task.

As an alternative policy, it could serve the same purpose with a policy of regressive teaching promotion. This policy implies that when one is employed as a teacher, they are employed at lower-ranking teaching positions in their teaching specifications. With time, they are able to gain experience and knowledge for the advanced level of teaching in their line of specifications. This way, a teacher advances their knowledge and preparedness as they gain experiences and hence increasing their competencies.

3. Making public school funding a priority

Across America, the states put too much emphasis on funding of health programs (Franck, & Nicaise, 2017). At some point, the states even declared to reduce the amount of funding allocated for public schools and add this to public health welfare. With this policy in Alabama, the government should look again at how different public sectors are allocated government funding. With increased funding in public schools, these schools could have more finances of buying reading materials for students, hire more skilled teachers, and even meet their internal budget of these schools. There are many ways through which the policy of making funding of public schools a priority can be exercised. One of these ways is setting aside a certain tax revenue as a government expenditure in public schools across Alabama.

Furthermore, the policy should be based on the larger picture of which increased government spending in public schools could have. Making funding of public schools a priority, they could be able to meet their demand to impact students with quality education precisely and strategically. Being able to impact quality educational knowledge to students who go through public schools educational settings, public schools could be releasing masterminds to the job market. These students could have a positive contribution to the American economy and hence foster healthier economic progress across America. Moreover, this policy could be exercised through more funding of teachers. Although this an indirect funding of public schools, it could imply less turnover of teachers in public schools. High retention of teachers implies they have enough time to impact their skills and competencies. This could establish highly prepared teachers in public schools, as is the case in private schools.

REFERENCES:

Franck, E., & Nicaise, I. (2017). The effectiveness of equity funding in education in Western countries. NESET II ad hoc question, (2).

Cowell, A. N. (2018). The US Public School System and the Implications of Budget Cuts, the Teacher Shortage Crisis, and Large Class Sizes on Marginalized Students. Arizona State University.

Podolsky, A., Kini, T., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2019). Does teaching experience increase teacher effectiveness? A review of US research. Journal of Professional Capital and Community.

Running Head: POLICY ANAYSIS 1

POLICY ANALYSIS 2

Policy Analysis

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

Introduction

Public policy refers to actions by the state and locals aimed at maintaining order or meeting the needs of the citizens. These policies are regulatory, restrictive and facilitating types. A Policy problem is an issue in an act or policy that needs to be addressed or improved. Public Policy is usually controlled by the state and affects the daily lives of citizens that the state is trying to provide for and protect. This paper will focus on the issues that surround education policy in Alabama State.

Problem

The education policy in Alabama problem is the K-12 public education which most voters seemed so concerned about. The issues surrounding the program are class size, preparation by teachers, and funding. Funding for spending per child in Alabama State is poor in districts that are not wealthy while the wealthy districts create inequality. Teacher training is low with debate settling on training for teachers on all grades (Parcaadmin, 2018). Class size, on the other hand, is a rising issue considering the State has to cut their budget thus implying that class seizes must rise because the ration is a teacher to class size.

Where and Who are being Affected

The policy problem is experienced in Alabama State in the United States of America. This K-12 policy issue is a policy for education in Alabama which aims at improving education in the state. Those affected by the problems affecting the policy such as class size, non-prepared teachers and low funding are students because it leads to low achievement rates among the students. These factors that the policy must address are affecting how students are performing especially with the fact that it is clear that the budget of the State is being cut to priority issues such as Medicaid and health care for the people of Alabama.

Causes of the Problem

The problem started when the policy allowed parents to have an option to take children to either private or public schools thus those with money take their kids to good private schools. Education problems in Alabama circulate in one major cause which is money, implying that it is the thing that affects the State (Ed Week, 2018). The State faces corruption that has led to budget slicing of other projects and public needs that affect the people of the State.

Policy Actors and Changes brought by Policy Action

Policy action can change the causes of education underperformance in local schools through strengthening the capacity of public schools to allow for college preparedness. There is also professional decision and development actions taken to make sure class sizes have been reduced to accumulate students that a single teacher can teach with no problems. Policies on corruption should be implemented to reduce corruption in the State which will cause efficient funding and reduce turn over for teachers. Funding for public schools should be included in the budget policy for Alabama State. The Alabama actors in policy formulation for education include; the State legislature, private school leaders and the Alabama State Board of education.

Conclusion

To conclude, the education policy of Alabama State should be redesigned to focus on the achievements of students in public schools because their parents are not wealthy to give them good education in private schools thus depend on the government for help. The budget of the state contributes to the achievement of these kids in local schools from kindergarten to college.

References

Ed Week (2018). State Grades on K-12 Education: Map and rankings. Quality Counts 2018. https://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/quality-counts-2018-state-grades/report-card-map-rankings.html

Parcaadmin. (2018). K-12 Education Ranks as the #1 Priority among Alabama Voters. Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.