Assignment 1 - Directed Research

Assignment #1:
Group: Maren Maier, Ben Knight, Tiffany Feeney, Danielle Penn,
Maya Schindler

Statement of theme/topic:
To create a multi-faceted, holistic, and incentive based program that increases accessibility to education through a series of sustainable initiatives.

The vision:
To build an American population better poised to tackle and lead in new challenges of the 21st Century.

Background of topic (facts/reference):
•Explore the statistical trends for enrollment and completion of school, that exist between primary, secondary, and postsecondary school –
In 2005, the percentage distribution of the highest level of education attained by 189.4 million of twenty-five and older individuals was as follows:
14.8% = Less than high school
32.2%= High school diploma
16.8% = some college
8.6% = Associate’s
18.1%= Bachelor’s
6.8% = Graduate
1.5% = Professional
1.2% = Doctors


ENROLLMENT ELEMENTARY SECONDARY UNDERGRAD GRADUATE
(in thousands) Pre-K - 8 9 -12
YEAR

1980
Public 27,647 13,231
Private 3,992 13,339

1990
Public --- 11,338 9,710 ---
Private --- 1,150 2,250 ---

1995
Public --- --- 9,904 1,074
Private --- --- 2,328 659

1999
Public --- --- 10,110 1,077
Private --- --- 2,571 730

2003
Public --- --- 11,521 1,201
Private --- --- 2,952 896


Based on the above graph, in the time from Pre-School enrollment to pos-secondary enrollment between 1980 and 2003, less than have of enrollees from the Pre-K-Grade 8 went on to enroll in 9-12 grades. However, the enrollment percentage was consistent from high school to undergrad, but only about 10% of undergrads went on to graduate school.
All Data From http://tinyurl.com/yplbjp

•Disparity between what each state spends on students and whether that correlates to quality of education -
New York’s 7.1% was second only to Arizona’s 10.5% as the U.S. state with the highest drop out rate during the 2001-2002 school year. However, New York was also has the third highest graduation rate after California and Texas respectively.
In 2002, 11.8% of Males between the ages of 16 and 24 years dropped out as opposed to 9.2% of females. Twenty-five percent of the total dropout rate was of Hispanic origin, more than twice that of Blacks and more than four times as much as Whites. In addition, the majority of dropouts was from the middle-income quartile and occurred most frequently in 11th to 12th grade. It occurred second most frequent number of dropouts happened among this group with nine or less years of education.
“Expenditures of educational institutions rose to an estimated high of $827 billion in the 2003–04 school year (table 25 and figure 2). Elementary and secondary schools spent about 62 percent of this total, and colleges and universities accounted for the remaining 38 percent. In 2003–04, expenditures of educational institutions were an estimated 7.5 percent of the gross domestic product.”

•Rising costs associated with postsecondary enrollment and its effects and opportunities –
Many students find it increasingly difficult to pay for secondary
education. Tuition and room and board at private colleges in the United States hover around $30,000, an increase of 81 percent (more than double the inflation rate) within one decade (Glater, 2006). Students are faced with mounting debt from student loans, and a student loan industry dominated by privatized loan companies seeking to make a profit. When searching for loans, they navigate through a confusing, complex, and untrustworthy system, where
financial aid officers often receive kickbacks from lenders to ‘sell’ their aid packages (Pappano, 2007). As noted in a recent New York Times article, “What’s been lost (in student loan programs since the 1950s) is the idea that student loans are a service with benefits that transcend the financial” (Nocera, 2007). Today, the best customers are the students who take on more debt than they can handle to get through school, as “financial aid has become more about the shareholders than the students” (Nocera, 2007).

Glater, J. (December 1, 2006). Weighing the Costs in Public vs Private Colleges. The New York Sunday Times.
Pappano, L (July 29, 2007). Lessons from the Loan Scandal. The New York

Sunday Times.Nocera, J (July 29, 2007). The Profit and the Pauper. The New York Times, Education/ Life.

•College Sustainability Index – How to transition DM’s guiding principals to primary and secondary schools based on an existing set of criteria.



•Students lacking guidance to postsecondary education –
Most students in current track systems are not mentored, thus they lack the knowledge into the possibilities of their interests and strengths. This also entails being unaware of the sustainable resources. An awareness of the series of education steps of the program is made by DM mentors. The DM mentors guide the students through the process of sustainable growth in their given occupations, which give them strategic advantage in school.

•Charter v. District school systems –
Charter schools are public schools with increased autonomy and accountability. They gain certification by the city or state through a rigorous process that generally makes it difficult to gain certification. Charters have to prove they can offer something to increase student achievement and make student gains. Over half of all charters are currently failing. Successful charter schools tend to exist in low-income communities and often serve a special population. Higher accountability closes bad charter schools more quickly. Regular and rigorous tests are used to judge whether charter schools are meeting standards (student achievements, operational aspects).
The majority of funding for charter schools is public. They do not get public funding for facilities, the remaining part is up to them to produce. If charters have a certain percentage of students who meet low-income qualifications, they get added funding. This is called Title 1 funding.
Charter schools can budget for after school - they have autonomy to do so. Charters do their own hiring and can avoid union issues this way (can hire and fire = teacher accountability). District schools make up the vast majority of public schools. They are one-hundred percent publicly funded and often endure a lot of bureaucracy. There are a lot of resources in place to support district schools. The biggest challenge for district schools tends to be unions (teachers can't easily be fired and are therefore less accountable)

Statement of why/how it will impact DM:
•We are looking to demonstrate DM’s impact on education to offer strategic advantage to students.

•We are using education as a tool to introduce/communicate sustainable practices (at an early age) to students that will move with them through life by offering a financial incentive to further their educational opportunities.

Plan of how to further research:
•International education systems (i.e. Gymnasium)
•Current governmental and non-governmental educational entities
•Mentorship programs
•Innovative school systems (i.e. Milton Hershey School, charter schools)
•Investigate financing schemes (Yale funding program, endowments/grants)
•Integrative methods for private/public partnerships (strategic partnerships)
•The use of technology in program

Sources:
•Department of Education
•Forbes/Business Week/Newsweek/Time/NY Times/LA Times/Wall Street Journal
•National Association of College and University Business Officers
•Campus Sustainability Assessment Project
•Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership
•National Science Foundation
•UNESCO
•Sustainable Endowments Institute
•UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
•Presidential Candidate’s Education plans
•Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
•America’s Promise Alliance (Colon Powell)
•Green.Public schools
•Harlem Public School Project
•Yale
•Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
•Project Lead the Way/The High School Program
•Thrive by Five
•Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education
•Gear Up program
•ED in ’08 – Strong American Schools
•SAGE – Student Achievement Guided by Experience
•Pay It Smart Program
•World Economic Forum
•UNICEF
•Clinton Foundation
•TreeHugger.com
•Ackerman Institute
•Education for All (EFA)