The New England Aquarium had a difficult dilemma. The organization wanted to become an entity representative of the city of Boston and characterize its ethnic, racial, and economic diversity. However, since the late 1960's, the aquarium was considered inaccessible by minority communities. As such, its board of trustees wanted to change this image. In the early 1990's, they developed a plan to "attract and involve" populations previously underrepresented. At the same time, the education department began to implement programs targeting minority youth. Despite the good intentions, these efforts proved unsuccessful and jeopardized the cohesion of the department. The experiences of the youth programs in the education department demonstrate …show more content…
This division between vision and implementation undermines the efforts of the governing board by executive staff. The integration or division of labor is poorly demonstrated in this case study. We see management unable to address strategic goals due to a changing staff environment. For instance, turnover and conflict among educators forced the youth programs to be relegated under the volunteer operations. Further, as associate director of programs and exhibitions Alan Hankin states, that the lack of line-item funding suggests insufficient commitment to the diversity efforts in the youth program by administrators. A method of improving the long-term standing could be by creating a dialogue between administrators of how they’d like to see the goals of the board being implemented. A strategy session, or perhaps a strategic retreat, would allow educators to share stated and taboo goals. Another main point of conflict features the differentiation and integration of work and responsibilities. The aquarium’s management created staff positions for minority youth but didn’t create a structure that included job descriptions or a defined role in the organization, assigning them to work with older, unpaid volunteers. The differentiation issues created hostilities since both groups were initially working as guides. A resolution to this problem could be addressed by creating job descriptions and responsibilities for the minority youth workers.
Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.
This document is the Strategic Diversity Plan for the Houston R-I School District. This plan is a 5-year plan designed to help our school district meet the diverse needs of all students. It is our goal to have a school district that is embracive, supportive, and respectful of individual differences. The Houston R-I School District is focused on and committed to providing opportunities for our school and community to work together to develop a pluralistic relationship that supports all students socially, emotionally, and academically. We will strive to be a school
Bureau Valley’s school board is comprised of seven members. Each member represents a section of the district. These board members are very prominent figures in our communities; they have much of the communities support. Although popularity, may not be what is best for the students. Looking at the Bureau Valley school board mandates, they are ultimately only required to do 4 hours of training and attend a few meetings when elected (Bureau Valley 2013, 120). Unfortunately, it is 2016 and the board member with the most recent training of any sort happened in March of 2014, almost two years ago. David E. Lee and Daniel W. Eadens, authors of “The Problem: Low-Achieving Districts and Low-Performance Boards,” find that school boards like Bureau Valley’s are not uncommon. Lee and Eadens find that most school board members only receive about “six hours of training per year,” compared to Bureau Valley’s four per election, our board is severely undereducated (Lee and Eadens 2014, 3).
The Ministry of Education in Ontario recognizes and encourages diversity of schools in the province through Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy. School boards across the province have been enforcing equity related policies to “establish conditions that promote inclusive education and support equity” (Ministry of Education 2009). This strategy calls for all school boards to “develop and implement equity and inclusive education policy and guidelines for the board and its schools” (Ministry of Education 2009). The Toronto District School Board, in particular, has developed a positive space initiative that is part of Ontario’s
In the case of “Diversity Programs at the New England Aquarium”, all four frames – structural, human resources, political, and symbolic— show a different perspective of the underlying management issues surrounding the New England Aquarium. The issues that surround the structural frame are based around the aquarium’s goals and mission, as well as the actual organizational structure and coordination. The human resource frame will be used to view the relationships and balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of the people involved at the aquarium. Next, we will look at the political frame in order to better understand “the battle” for the tight resources, and the political arena that exists in the aquarium. Lastly, we will
Due to the large Caucasian community that resides in Cabot, it is essential for the school district to provide opportunities for students to be exposed to diversity. Although a school district cannot change its population make-up, it can provide opportunities to its students that teach diversity, tolerance, dignity and respect. Students must realize that, although their every day encounters with students during their school years are limited in regards to diversity, the world that awaits them when they graduate is composed of people of different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. It is essential that the Cabot School District provide not only a sound academic foundation for students but a highly, diversified cultural foundation, as well.
The purpose of this strategic diversity plan is to ensure Lamar County School District is abiding by its mission to provide a quality education with opportunities for all students to experience success. Recognizing a deficiency in our district, such as a lack of addressing learning obstacles for Hispanic/Latino students, is important to address so all students are successful attaining an quality education. Reaffirming the district’s core values of equality, mutual respect, lifelong learning, honesty, and responsibility will enable the district to relay these values to all of our students, including this group, to provide knowledge in this continuously diverse
David Kane is an African-American young gentleman, who has been latterly awarded the position of a principal at the Thurgood Marshall High School, Illinois. The school is two years old and divided into four “house”, each comprised of 300 students, 18 faculty members and a housemaster. Dr. Louis Parker had been the school’s first principal and had an impressive background, but he reassigned in disillusionment and many described him as a “broken man” .
The Academy is composed of the top thirty students in our school, but despite being surrounded my other leaders, Savannah takes the initiative to organize the group or present her ideas. During our first meeting, I explained that as their sponsor my job was faciliated by not lead discussions and decisions. As the majority of the students hesitated, Savannah stood up and took charge of the first activity. I am confident that Savannah will bring her leadership ability and determination to the Governor's Scholar Program.
The topic of minorities in the workforce and how the struggle to accomplish equal treatment in today’s workforce is nothing new to our society. For centuries we have been concerned that by bringing together our different backgrounds, skills, and experiences, as well as the many businesses of this great
The process of engineering a fundamental shift in the way a complex organization conducts its business is an enormous task, one which requires both an ability to independently deliver management directives, and to work collaboratively with key stakeholders who have a vested interest in the organization's eventual restructuring. As the president of a large youth services organization with over 100 chapters in local communities across America, it is my responsibility to ensure that the organization's collective goals are prioritized ahead of those devised by individual local chapters and their elected leaders. When the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was confronted with similar financial and organizational difficulties in the early 1990's, for example, Chief Scout Executive Ben Love was forced to make several targeted cuts and consolidations to the BSA's national apparatus, including the merging of six regional chapters into four, and a reshuffling of leadership positions within the group's Relationships Division (Thompson, 1992).
Mentoring and on-the-job training of less skilled workers through courses, assistant programs, and continuing education programs may even the gap between different employees. However, it is important to recognize potential and use the skills already at hand to create a more efficient team environment where each member’s contribution carries some value and contributes to the organization’s goals. Economic status is as important an issue as is education. Various employees come from different economic background. Their views and manners may differ, along with their expectations and motivations in daily routine and overall purpose. Nevertheless, they have to work together. There are potential problems and differences of conduct, motivation, and initiative. Managers have to get to know their people and develop ways of using their differences for the benefit of the organization. The focus should be on the positive aspects of individuals, and on merging the best qualities people have to form effective teams. Managing conflict is also very important. One thing managers should recognize is that there will always be a potential for conflict and their job is to intervene and resolve diversity issues early and quickly. Statistics show the extent of diversity in the workplace. “Eighty-five percent of those currently entering the American workforce are minorities and
The agency where I am interning is Partnership with Children. “Partnership” as it is called, works to strengthen the emotional, social and academic skills of at-risk children to prepare them for success--academically, socially, and in life. “Partnership’s” programs aim to bridge the gap between those who have a vested interest in working within New York City’s highest-need public schools, and those in need. “Partnership’s” goal is to transform the overall culture of many of the city’s struggling schools by helping students cope with the extreme stress of living in poverty. Helping students thrive in safe and supportive schools that encourage
An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the
Marzano, McNulty and Waters propose five steps for a plan of effective school leadership. The first step is developing a leadership team with purpose. The definition used for a purposeful community is one with the collective efficacy and capability to develop and use assets to accomplish goals that mater to all community members through agreed-upon process (Marzano, et. al, 2005). The second step is distributing some responsibilities throughout the leadership team. The third step is to select the right work. The fourth step is to identify the order of magnitude implied by the selected work. The last step is to match the management style to the order of magnitude of the change initiative. The last step incorporates whether this is first or second order change.