Assignment 3 - Directed Research

Assignment #3:
Group:
Maren Maier, Ben Knight, Tiffany Feeney, Danielle Penn, Maya Schindler

Statement of the broad research topic:
To create a multi-faceted, holistic, and incentive based program that increases accessibility to education thru a series of sustainable initiatives.

Troubling Trends:
•Discrepancy between cost per student for public education and quality of education
•Rising costs associated with post-secondary enrollment
•Students lacking guidance in post-secondary enrollment
•Inconsistencies between drop out, enrollment and completion at secondary and post-secondary education
•Students lack guidance in transition to post-secondary education
•The effectiveness of charter vs public school systems
•Problem of No Child Left Behind, Teach for America
•Lack of sustainability education and operations within the school systems





The program teaches students about sustainability, responsibility, and personal accountability. Addressing all age levels, K-12 and collegiate, the program will set appropriate curriculum and incentives to motivate not only students, but include participation within the educational sector and businesses. Preliminary model consists of contests, national ranking, sustainability certification for education, and student mentorship transcending the parent, teacher, and community boundaries.

The most significant incentive for students in this program is building an education fund to help offset college tuition costs. Incentives for schools would include reputation building, increased funding, and reduced operational costs. Incentives for corporations/government include building a stronger and more prepared work force for the new millennium, increasing corporate social responsibility and reputation.

Primary education - set reading list, simple concepts
Secondary education – set projects – more complicated concepts
College - sustainability courses

List of specific objectives:
The sustainability initiatives include:
1. sustainability program for K-12 designed through the help of mentorship programs and strategic partnerships
2. financial incentives to pay for post secondary education
3. incorporating sustainable practices in the schools as part of the program using sustainability index as a guide and financial incentives
4. creative financing through public/private partnerships

Design and Methodology or Research Plan:
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH PHASE:
*Talk to people in education, business (expert interviews – head of board of education in NYC, principal of charter school in Harlem, Dalton school staff)
*Interview parents, teachers, and kids (focus group)
*One-on-one interview
*Experience surveys
*Secondary research, online search engines, case studies

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH PHASE:
*surveys, diaries, panels, self-administered research, tracking studies, concept testing

Start with exploratory phase, then go into descriptive phase and at the end of that phase identify the quantitative and qualitative research methods.

QUANTITATIVE/QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PHASE:
-Focus panels
-Pilot test (usage test)
-Play sessions
-Idea generation
-Motivations/preferences/habits (qualitative)
-Measurement, progress tracking (quantitative)

(*needs to be done within first 6 months)

Sampling:
What groups will be included in your research, how many, who, and how you plan to obtain/contact them.
-UN
-Pratt administration (President Schutte)
-Education contacts (Board of Ed members, Charter School founders, Teach for America, Chancellor Klein)
-Political connections
-Milton Hershey School, Columbia University, Social Work, Jeffrey Sachs
-Business contacts (what groups would be most interested? Target, Carlson Company, Eco Lab, Goldman Sachs, Accounting Firm, MetLife, Wells Fargo, Piper Jaffrey, US News and World Report)
-Psychologist, child development specialist, Social worker

We plan to get access these groups through personal contacts.

Timeline-ish:
Aug 2 – Aug 24 break
Aug 25 – Oct 15
Oct 15 – Oct 26 break
Oct 27- Dec 9
Nov 15 – comprehensive project plan due (exploratory research must be done)
Dec 1 – commitment from a company, rough outline of the paper due
Dec 15 – thorough outline due
Dec 10 – Jan 11 break
Jan 12 – Feb 2
Feb 3 – Mar 14 break
Mar 15 – April 18
April 18 DUE

Beginning with exploratory phase to obtain relevant information, we will proceed to a descriptive phase, defining the various components necessary for execution, finally concluding with the outline of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Exploratory – secondary research, interviews (40%) *data mining
Quantitative and qualitative (broad)

Descriptive –
Defining what our research means in the context of the project…narrowing down…coming to some conclusions - quantitative and qualitative (30%) *probe more
Quantitative and qualitative (specific)

Concluding/Summary (20%)

Revisions (10%)

Why is this best methodology?
It is important to do equal research with ALL stakeholders involved. We have a lot to define which is why exploratory is essential.
Because we have so many unknowns and components, we feel it is necessary to emphasize exploratory and descriptive phases.