The High School Drop Out Rate in New York City Schools
A Major Social Problem
A Web quest designed by
Mr. Blount
10th Grade
INTRODUCTION:
Good morning class. Recently Kane
Wess said during this in an Interview when asked what he thought about the drop
out rate in
Dropouts
also burden society. The tax cost for a dropout to retrain, public assistance,
incarceration and health care rise in to the $Billions. This money could be
used to build schools, hospitals, day care centers and many other immediate
social needs. Moreover, gang violence ha been linked to school drop outs for alienated
students who cannot find jobs. Gang violence affects all, even the innocent.
What
can be done? How can we save the lives of these young Americans from a life of
disaster, suffering and even early death. This will be
your task in this web quest. You will be asked to find solutions to this
formidable problem Good Luck! You could save the lives of friends, family
member and youth you do not even know!
TASK: 
Your assignment for the next
two weeks is to gain as much knowledge about this subject of dropout rates in
The PowerPoint presentation must be a minimum of 10
slides with text, pictures, graphs, charts etc. and must include ALL the six steps
of the Public Policy Analyst described in the “Process” section of the web
quest. All of the six steps of the PPA must be used in the oral presentation to
the mayor as well.
You will conduct web-based
research to read and learn more about the out of control drop
out rate problem in
Process
You
will be working in groups of 5.
Each
person in the group will have a role
for the development of this project. But remember—cooperation of all group
members is critical to completion of this web quest.
Group
Member #1: Group
Leader—is responsible for making sure that all members of the group stay on
tasks and the goals in the rubric
are met
Group Member #2 Presenter—is
responsible for presenting the PowerPoint to the Mayor-This person must be well
informed and a good
persuasive public speaker
Group Member #3 PowerPoint
Designer—is responsible for taking the ideas from the group and putting them
into a creative design.
This
student must know PowerPoint and be well informed about the problem. All
members of the group will
Assist in this role
Group Member #4
Researcher—will make sure that everyone in the group does the research
necessary for the Project. The researcher must
be able to use the internet effectively and keep all
group members on task. He will coordinate with group member # 5
Group Member #5 Public
Policy Analyst Worksheet Keeper—will fill-in the SIX worksheets for the group that
will be used as an outline
in constructing the power point and presentation. This
member must be able to guide others in use of the six steps
in making the final products
The groups will do the SIX steps of the
Public Policy Analyst as follows:
Click
and read the link. Then access the WORKSHEET for each step.
Use
the Internet resources section to complete all six worksheets.
The
use the worksheet information to construct the power point and
oral
presentation
a) Identify the Problem using Worksheet #1.
b) Gather Evidence
using Worksheet # 2.
c) Identify Causes of the Problem using Worksheet # 3.
d) Evaluate the Policy,
using Worksheet #4.
e) Develop a solution
to the Problem using Worksheet #5.
f)
Select the Best
Solution using Worksheet #6.
RESOURCES:
GENERAL WEB SITES
SPECIFIC
WEB SITES
EVALUATION:
Scores will range from a
possible 16 points (highest) to 4 points (lowest).
|
Scale: A=16 B=12
C=10 D=7 F=4 |
A |
B |
C |
D/F |
|
PPA
Policy Followed
|
All
questions were answered completely and reasons for the answers were
clearly stated. |
All
questions were answered completely, but reasons for the all the answers were
not clearly stated. |
Not all
questions were answered completely, or greater than 2 reasons for the all
answers were not clearly stated. |
All
questions were not answered completely. |
|
Presentation
|
Clear and
full presentation of the findings of the research. Presents findings for either,
PowerPoint, brochure or poster campaign.
|
Clear and
full presentation of the findings of the research with few mistakes. |
Clear and
full presentation of the findings of the research with some errors. |
Insufficient
and/or unclear presentation of material. |
|
Teamwork |
It is
evident that a mutual effort and interconnected unit created the final
product. |
The team
worked well together, but could have made use of each other's skills to a
better degree. |
The team had
problems working together. Little collaboration occurred. |
The final
product is not the result of a collaborative effort. The group showed no
evidence of collaboration. |
|
PowerPoint |
The ideas
expressed by the body of work demonstrate a high degree of knowledge on the
subject for healthy versus unhealthy foods, and exercise. |
The ideas
expressed by the body of work are mostly informative. |
The ideas
expressed by the body of work demonstrate lack of information. |
There was no
significant information expressed in this project. |
CONCLUSION: FROM THIS 
TO
THIS
By
completing this Web Quest you should have helped the Mayor with the problem of
high school dropouts. You now realize
the seriousness of this social problem and understand its effects on all of
society. You also will have learned the steps of the Public Policy Analyst and
used internet based research to help you solve social problems. The Public
Policy Analyst is a critical individual in all our lives. He/she is a social
problem solver who makes laws that improve all of our lives. Let’s hope you helped the Mayor and your
fellow
STANDARDS ADDRESSED: 
English
Language Arts
Standard
1:
As listeners and readers, students
will collect data, facts, and ideas, discover
relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from
oral, written, and electronically produced texts.
As
speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire,
interpret, apply, and transmit information.
Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and
Evaluation
Students
will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As
listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information,
and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As
speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the
accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of
perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information
and issues.
Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction
Students
will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use
oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English
language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As
readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to
enrich their understanding of people and their views.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Standard 4:
Economics
Students
will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and
associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making
units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an
economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Standard 5:
Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate
their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the
governmental system of the