Teachers Unions and Education Productivity Functions Essay

Teachers Unions and Education Productivity Functions - Essay Example But even when taking this into account, â€Å"[N]ot only are America's teachers grossly underpaid, but that teaching is simply not a sustainable profession it its current form...teachers routinely work 10-12 hour days that don't end when the dismissal bell rings...46 percent of teachers leave within their first five years. Such high turnover and instability undoubtedly wreaks havoc on public schools and their respective communities, in which teachers play a vital role† (Heller, 2005). Compared to their professional cohort, people with undergraduate degrees who underwent additional certification, teachers are colossally underpaid, and teaching is a more obviously stressful and demanding job than other jobs in the cohort; one study found that even after taking into account benefits, teachers were paid 12% less than other professionals (Martindale, 2009). Conservatives argue that it is only good teachers who are underpaid, but this argument is bizarre. The very reason that many s chools are turning to underqualified teachers, using substitute teachers increasingly, and relaxing standards is because teacher pay doesn't attract qualified professionals: The market has spoken, and it has denied conservative claims that teachers are overpaid (Moore,. Bearing this in mind, microeconomic analysis makes one thing clear: Teachers' unions, despite risks of rent-seeking behavior, do not lead to net micro-economic loss, and are net-beneficial for the economy. This research only extends to union organization for the sake of collective bargaining (i.e. increasing job satisfaction) and does not address union organization as a national, political interest group. It is possible that teachers' unions might push for negative reforms or have a negative impact on the political system. This paper also attempts to avoid discussing wholly subjective issues of the value of education: Instead, microeconomic analysis conducted hopes to demonstrate that teachers' unions do not cause te achers' pay to spiral out of control compared to others in their professional cohort. Admittedly, an analysis of the effects of collective bargaining on known determinants of student achievement (i.e. teacher time) as well as the education production rate (namely, high school graduation rates) is only a preliminary step in determining the overall effect of collective bargaining on student achievement and teacher productivity. The assessment of teacher pay above ignores yet other factors. First: Not all teachers are paid identically. Since schools are funded by property taxes, there can be substantial variation in pay and school quality. Some areas, like the Glenbrooks in Chicago, have such high incomes in the community that the school resembles a private school. Inner city schools, on the other hand, struggle with poorly paid teachers, inadequate resources, etc. (Wise, 2005; Moore, 2000). The reason is simple: State spending went down, so communities were left to fend for themselves . Where did the money go? Prison. â€Å"40 percent of the U.S. prison population is functionally illiterate... From 1980 to 2000, states' expenditures on education went up 32 percent. In that same period of time, states' spending on prisons went up 189 percent† (Moore, 2000, pg. 198). Any analysis of the pay of teachers' unions will have to

Social and Situational Crime Prevention Strategies Research Paper

Social and Situational Crime Prevention Strategies - Research Paper Example The most widely recognized definition of crime prevention in the latter part of the 20th century refers to the difference between social and situational strategies of crime prevention—social strategies are generally called ‘community crime prevention’ (Stenson, 1991, p. 63). Many argue that the concepts of social and situational prevention are quite contemporary, even though the principles they support are not. This paper analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, and applications of situational and social crime prevention strategies. Social crime prevention focuses mostly on transforming social environments and the impulses of lawbreakers. Social crime prevention strategies hence are likely to place emphasis on the creation of programs, like activity-based courses and youth associations, to discourage existing or possible delinquents from future criminal behavior. Jon Bright claims that one of the main advocates of social crime prevention is the United Kingdom, which â €Å"aims to strengthen socialization agencies and community institutions in order to influence those groups that are most at risk of offending† (Stenson, 1991, p. 64). On the other hand, situational crime prevention strategies primarily involve ‘opportunity reduction’, like monitoring of activities in public places (e.g. parking lots, shopping malls, etc.) through surveillance equipment, to lessen opportunities for criminal activities. Both social and situational crime prevention strategies are likely to be ‘multiagency’ in focus, instead of being motivated by a single agency, like law enforcement (Lowman & MacLean, 1992). The top radical criminologist, Jock Young, has identified multiagency crime prevention measures in this way: â€Å"Multiagency intervention is the planned, coordinated response of the major social agencies to problems of crime and incivilities† (Lowman & MacLean, 1992, p. 64).  

The history of Arab-Israeli conflict Was the Oslo peace agreement Essay

The history of Arab-Israeli conflict Was the Oslo peace agreement failure Why - Essay Example The 26 years of Israeli occupation were the period, preceding the signed Oslo agreement (usually called Oslo Accord). These 26 years are divided into the two different periods: the first period is called 'easy conquest'1. It was the period, during which Israel kept around 15,000 of military occupiers at the Palestinian territory. This number was drastically increased during the period of Intifada, and according to various estimates, the number of Israeli troops at that time was more than 180,000; but in the period of 1981-83, the new rules of governing Palestinian people were implemented, and the indirect ruling was replaced by the Israeli manpower, which had to govern Palestinians at each level. This was the beginning of perception, that Palestinians didn't feel free and safe on their territory anymore, and thus the need of peaceful resolution was becoming more and more evident. What we see at present - are the consequences of the flawed process of Oslo agreement, which has been bui lt in the wrong direction from the very beginning. We have here to understand, what were the backgrounds of such agreement, and why Palestinians have not accepted it as the means of finding a common solution to their problem, as through the literary sources reviewed, Palestinians are depicted as the victims of the unfair attitudes, stated in Oslo Accord. The consequ The flaws of Oslo Accord and its failure as a means of finding peaceful agreement The consequences - violent confrontation, disproportionally massive Israeli repression and widespread Palestinian rebellion followed by the great loss of life, the majority of which is also Palestinian,2 are the examples of the situations witnessing the final stage of Oslo process failure. This process is stated to be flawed from the very beginning. 'Oslo was designed to segregate the Palestinians in non-contiguous enclaves, surrounded by Israeli-controlled borders, with settlements and settlement roads punctuating and essentially violating the territories' integrity, expropriations and house demolitions proceeding inexorably through the Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu and Barak administrations along with the expansion and multiplication of settlements (200,000 Israeli Jews added to Jerusalem, 200,000 more in Gaza and the West Bank), military occupation continuing, and every tiny step taken toward Palestinian sovereignty -- including agreements to withdraw in minuscule, agreed-upon phases - - stymied, delayed, cancelled at Israel's will'.3 I suppose that Oslo process has displayed a number of serious flaws, each of which has contributed into its failure, and thus is to be considered separately. The first flaw of the Oslo Accord and the peace process in general was in the fact that this very process has presupposed long period of 'mini-withdrawals' of the Israeli military occupiers, but only in exchange of Palestinian 'silence'.4 The core of this flaw is in the suggestion and unreal idea that Palestine would easily give up its attempts to win its territory and thus Israeli would have free opportunity to continue its occupation; but this belief was absolutely unreal. The second flaw was in the fact, that Oslo agreement implied Palestinians had to prove to the Israeli state, that they could be trusted, in exchange for certain small rewards. 5 This idea was stated by Aruri (2000)6 as

Organisational change and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Organisational change and development - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is organisational change management as the process necessary for an association to identify, to organise, to employ and to attain full benefit from the alterations taking place within or outside the organisational environment. The objectives of organisational change management is concerned with effective planning, execution, measurement and preservation of the initiatives of implementing change strategies as well as augmentation of the capacity required for managing changes. Organisational change can be observed when an organisation intends to streamline its available assets and enhance its capacity to generate value by augmenting effectiveness to a sustainable extent. Changes are considered as ubiquitous in nature that helps progressing as well as achieving experiences which escort to the acceleration of the overall organisational growth. In the current era of globalisation, the process of organisational changes is widely considered to be inevitabl e. In order to meet the technological as well as environmental challenges of the situations, the teams should be able to adopt changes in due course of time. The change management strategies of an organisation are often based on diverse approaches such as individualistic, socio-economic and structural aspects among others which help in the development of many theories and functions. Along with the advancement of technology as well as new practices, the organisational change management process continues to alter in order to cope with the enduring changes. There are various types of approaches such as traditional, socio-economic, socio-structural and socio-technical approaches among others which deal with organisational change management from differing perspectives. One of the mostly applied perspectives to organisational change management is observed to be the traditional approach that can be effectively described by the Kurt Lewin’s classical model (Friedman & Shcustack, 2008 ). Kurt Lewin’s classical theory is influential in organisational change management as it focuses mainly on the individual aspects and social psychology rather than observation and problem solving. Lewin proposed that populace respond to any imaginary situation or changes and intends to shape it accordingly. This includes mainly three phases such as unfreezing, moving and refreezing. Unfreezing is a type of challenge faced by every human beings in an organisation. This means that the individual employees are often examined to depict reluctance to change according to the changes occurring within the organisational environment or in its external business environment. However, the reluctant employees ultimately accept the change in order to sustain in the organisation. It involves creation of the preliminary motivation towards the change by communicating the existing problematic situation or scenario to the employees of the organisation. This facilitates to understand the varied viewpoints of the individuals as well as helps to progress people from the ‘frozen’ state to an ‘unfrozen or change’ state so that it can be adopted efficiently by all. Next is the moving or transition stage. It involves recognition of the need of change, that can be in terms of cultural change or structural change in order to ascertain new principles and rules. Refreezing refers to the fortification of the new adjustments in order to accomplish rehabilitated stability among the organisationa

Human Management Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Management - Thesis Example It is a UK based organisation, but has focused on engaging a considerable proportion of its entire human resources from the international environment which has perpetually increased the diversity of the workforce engaged and thus increased the risk of conflicts owing to the varied range of individualities (BG Group Plc, 2012). With due consideration to this fact, BG Group can be identified to possess the ability towards implementing effective governance in order to operate its business functions successfully worldwide mitigating the consequences of conflicts (BG Group Plc, 2012). The concept of conflict management is often described as the process of dealing with conflict situations that may occur within the workplace with efficiency mitigating its negative consequences that may have a significant impact on the sustainability of an organisation. The role of conflict management, in this regards, considers the proper identification of the various causes giving rise to conflicts which i nclude scarce resources, adversity as well as faulty communication among others delivering importance not only towards the organisational interests, but also towards the benefits of the employees (Eunson, 2012). It is in this context that various models had been developed in order to frame the notion of conflict management and thus suggest a comprehensive pattern to the organisations for resolving such issues. Blake and Mouton Model can be regarded as such a framework which renders an unambiguous understanding of the conflicts arising within the organisational sphere and also suggests the required measures to resolve the issues (Verma, 1998). The aim of the paper is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical perspective presented by Blake and Mouton Model of conflicts management. The understanding will further be related with the different conflicts that were faced by BG Group in its current operations. Moreover, the overall discussion will be based on the conflicts that were faced by the BG Group which will further be continued with effective recommendations and strategic action plan referring to the theoretical understanding of the concept. Theoretical Perspective: Blake and Mouton Model of Conflict Management The term ‘conflict’ is characteristically described as a strong competition or struggle between various people or individuals with differing values, objectives, ideas and beliefs. Conflict is often observed to result in terms of non-productive consequences which might have had a long-term impact or can last for only a short period of time. It can also be defined as a condition in which more than one party possesses mismatched objectives and also differs in terms of their behaviour as well as their perceptions. The various sources of conflict generally include structural, role and resources conflict. Structural conflict is observed to fundamentally arise from perplexities in managing the need of the diverse organisational s ub-units. In the similar context, role conflict is generally caused by misinterpretation regarding

Manage Projects Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Manage Projects - Essay Example Procurement management plan was designed to define the process and requirements for the project and a closeout report is presented here. This plan united the scope of the project with the risks associated with procurement. The plan elaborated the process from procurement planning to procurement closeout. From the first step of documentation to the contract closeout, procurement management takes into account all the risks that may occur in the process. The damage of these risks was not enormous however; procurement management deals with these risks beforehand and protects the organization from loss. The procurement process runs smoothly as all the precautionary steps were taken. There was no risk of understatement or overstatement of goods which protected the project from bearing high cost. This project was chosen because the organization needed high quality shrubs, tires and bricks and company’s capacity isn’t enough to produce such items inside the company. The project remained well under the limit of $575,000 with $5000 to spare and they were spent on taking care of buyer’s claims. Project finished before the planned deadline. Out of the identified risks, delayed delivery affected the schedule of the project by two days but it was covered up due to manager’s efficiency. Financial forecasts were very accurate as the whole project was accomplished within the monitory limitations. Management was present and available for supervision. All major management was performed by the procurement project manager but senior management was available for support and necessary tasks; approval for solicitation etc. Finances were also managed adequately. Approval from CFO was taken before planning the whole procurement. Project team worked effectively and efficiently with the stakeholders. Hierarchy was designed specifically for the whole procurement process. The project manager was responsible for the success

Teacher’s Day In India Essay Example for Free

Teacher’s Day In India Essay Since times immemorial, Indians have respected and idolized their teachers. Earlier, we used to call our teachers Guru and now its the contemporary Sir or Madam. Nevertheless, the role of teachers has remained the same. They were, are and will continue to be our guiding light, creating conditions conducive to our overall development. We will always be thankful to them for their constructive support. It is as an expression of this gratitude only that we celebrate Teachers Day in India. Teachers Day is a tribute to the hard work and devotion of the teachers all year long, to educate a child. In India, teacher’s day is celebrated on 5th of September every year. Indian Teacher’s Day is dedicated to Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was a zealous advocate of education and one of the greatest scholars and teachers of all times, apart from being the first Vice President and the second President of India. As a mark of respect to this phenomenal teacher, his birthday came to be observed as Teacher’s Day in the country. On Teachers day, students across India dress up as their teachers and take lectures in classes that are assigned to the teachers they represent. Sometimes, teachers sit in their classes as students, trying to relive the time when they, themselves, were students. Also, functions are organized in schools on the special day, where students present dance performances, dramas, and various other programs to entertain their teachers. This day provides for a healthy interaction between teachers and students as well. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was one of the most distinguished diplomats, scholars and teachers of India, apart from being the first Vice President and the second President of the country. As a tribute to this great teacher, his birthday is observed as Teachers Day across India.