Marilyn Soto
Grace Dodge Vocational High School
Spanish -WFS

WEBQUEST-There has been an excessive number of drop outs from minority communities in New York and nationwide. This is a devastating social problem:

Introduction:

Today the drop out rate and failure among minority students is increasing. Many students are not making it to their high school graduations. New York must implement several new strategies into their curriculums to increase success and higher education. New exams and books need to be created. You as a public policy analyst are asked to go before the Board of Education and create new policies for increasing the student passing percentage in the Bronx. Dropping out of school seriously injures both the individual and society. It limits to options a student has in his future. It adversely affects families, cities and nations. Unproductive citizens create hardships for all. As a public policy analyst, you now have the opportunity the save the lives of thousands of potential dropouts. Your recommendations to the Board of Education can reverse the trend and improve life in New York. This could be an example for the entire nation to follow. You have an enormous responsibility but a challenging one. The New York City Board of Education, Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg are awaiting your input. The drop out you save could be someone you love!! Don’t fail them. Good luck.

THESE ARE THE LUCKY ONES

Your goal and objectives in this web quest is to:

1: Produce a position paper of 3- 5 type-written pages using the TIPS PPA format that you will find on the TIPS website www.maxwell,syr,edu/plegal/tips.html You will read THE public policy analyst sections on the “standard version” and become familiar with ‘what is a social problem, how to gather evidence for the social problem, very importantly finding the underlining causes for the problem- for without this public policies cannot be formulated. You will then evaluate existing public policies on drop outs by New York City governments and choose the best ones and criticize those that fail. You will then make suggestions for new laws to combat the dropout problem Remember mayor Bloomberg is waiting and he is a busy man.

2: You will produce a minimum of 5 slide power point in order to clearly present your findings to the Mayor. You should include illustrations from the Internet on your slides along with text to persuade to mayor that you policies are valid. You will present your findings to your class who will act as the mayor’s council.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE LINKS YOU WILL ACCESS TO ORGANIZE YOUR RESEARCH. The worksheets under each category must be completed before you can start you power point and report. These are directly link to the PPA by clicking on them

INDENTIFY THE PROBLEMOF DROP OUTS IN NYC

GATHERING THE EVIDENCE FOR THE PROBLEM

DETERMINING THE CAUSES FOR THE PROBLEM

EVALUATE EXISITNG PUBLIC POLICY

SELECT THE BEST SOLUTION

Develop solutions

YOU WILL BE DIVIDED INTO GROUPS OF Three

You will use the Internet sources given and outside text material to accomplish the task. Begin with step # 1 and “define the problem”. The go to steps 2-6. This will be described below.

After completion of all the worksheets you will now be ready to intelligently discuss new public policy solutions by evaluating the old and failed ones.

In addition--- You must explore all grading contracts, exams and texts in your School. To achieve this you will need to answer the following questions and later make an oral presentation, with your findings to the class.

1. Your class will be divided into groups of three and each member will have a responsibility as agreed upon by the group.

2. You are asked to interview at least two teachers, and then two students. You must access information about their grading policies and what texts are used in their specific class. You will add this information to one of the TIPS worksheets

3. Students will be given a questionnaire on what is a fair grading policy and how they feel about their texts. Use the following questions for your interview. The questions will be given as a

Hand out sheet. There will be a handout for staff and one for students.

THE QUESTIONNAIRES WILL ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING ISSUES.

1.1: How do you feel about the class contract?

2.1. Was the percentile too high in any given area?

3.2. Are your textbooks diverse in their subject matter?

4.3. Are your exams related to subject matter?

5.4. Is too much importance given to the teaching to the test?

This will help you in completing worksheet # 4

In addition to using the Internet sources to complete the worksheets, you should add the following information from your research

www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/webquest

* Evaluating existing public policies.
* What is your student body doing to help this problem?
* What are the social problems in your school?
* Are people being treated fairly?
* Are people segregating themselves? If yes why?

Development of Public Policies

 Use Worksheet 5: Developing public policy solutions. After you have completed worksheet #5, you must complete worksheet 6, Selecting the best public policy solution both which you can find at
www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/webquest

Resources: These are the Internet sources that will help you complete the worksheets and make vital public policy decisions

http://www.idra.org/Newslttr/1996/Aug/Lalo.htm

http://www.mcps.k12.mt.us/DistrictProfile/failurerate.htm

http://vms.www.uwplatt.edu/~ceya/96projects/montello/M4.HTML

http://www.queenscourier.com/archives/1999/lead111199a.htm

http://www.ncsu.edu/per/SCALEUP/FailureRates.html

http://www.aotearoalive.com/culture/reo/e-learning.htm

http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/issues021.shtml

more websites for your convenience Websites:
 Http//dir.yahoo.com/societyandculture

 Http//schooldiscovery.com/schrockgiude
www.google.com
www.altavista.com

Your Web Quest REPORT will be graded according to the following rubric:

60-64 65-75 76-88 89>

WebQuest	Beginning 1 No knowledge	Developing 2 Little Knowledge	Accomplished 3 Acceptable	Exemplary 4 Superior knowledge	Score
Websites Research	Few links	Enough links	Many links	Excellent variety of links
Microsoft word Draft	Incomplete but followed format	Complete, too Few analyses of PPA analyses	Complete sufficient analyses acceptable standards	Superior Understanding of PPA format
Use of other Sources (Books)	Does not use other sources	Few sources besides websites	Uses other sources	Many sources

Total score

: : PowerPoint Presentation Rubric

	3	2	1	0
Power Point Presentation Content	Each group member presents and there are 2 slides/person	Each group member presents and there are 1.8 slides/person	Each group member presents and there are 1.6 slides/person	All members do not present and/or there are less than 1.4 slides/person
Subject Knowledge	Group demonstrates full knowledge of subject matter and beyond	Group demonstrates knowledge of subject matter	Groups demonstrates a little knowledge of subject matter	Group does not know subject matter
Organization	Presentation is logical and clear	Presentation is logical and somewhat vague	Presentation is a illogical which makes the project vague	Student presentation is illogical and distorted
Professionalism	Wow! I’d hire anyone in your group.	Your group needs a little more experience/practice.	Your group did not take this seriously.	I hope you are not looking for a job anytime soon.
Relevancy	All slides are relevant to the proposal	Most slides are relevant to the proposal	Few slides are relevant to the proposal	What was your presentation about?
Creativity	Presentation fully captivates audience interest.	Presentation somewhat captivates audience interest	Presentation minimally captivates audience	Thank you, I got my nap for the day.
Neatness	A little time and effort goes a long way! Good job!	Font and graphics make presentation a little difficult to understand	Font and graphics distracted from presentation	Presentation was difficult to it’s sloppiness
Grammar	Wonderful! 0 errors	1-2 errors	3-4 errors	Errors more or 7
Spelling	Great Job! 0 errors	1-2 errors	3-4 errors	7 or mor air-roors

Grading Scale for PowerPoint Presentation

A = 27-24

B = 23-22

C = 21-19

D = 18-15

F = 14 and below

At the conclusion of this Web quest, the student will have learned how to work in groups and resolve racial issues amongst the student body. Students will understand that Discrimination does exist and the role it plays on society and in their lives. The students will identify the process it takes to create changes in their school and community. Your next project will include the reading of When I was Puerto Rican, by Esmeralda Santiago. You will also have learned the causes for dropouts in minority areas in New York City. You should realize that new public policies are needed and maybe yours will be the one that is the true answer. You can now see the importance of public policy for it controls our lives and future. Problems a solvable when systematically attacked by the PPA. Let us hope your group’s recommendations are life saving and the drop out rate will cease to exist for minorities and disadvantaged.

You have accomplished a great deal—CONGRATULATIONS

NEW YORK STATE STANDARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

English Language Arts

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. 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 that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 2:   Language for Literary Response and Expression

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.

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.

Languages Other Than English

Standard 1: Communication Skills

Students will be able to use a language other than English for communication.

Standard 2: Cultural Understanding

Students will develop cross-cultural skills and understandings.

A DROP OUT—WHAT SHOULD SHE DO? HELP HER PLEASE

THESE DROP OUTS NEED YOU HELP—DID YOU FIND A SOLUTION?