Research Paper Option submit responses to all of the reflection questions below (from the Service Learning Experience Research paper handout) in a 5-page, double-spaced paper. Describe your initial expectations on researching your chosen service organization. What specific disciplinary skills (i.e. skills learned in your major) could you apply to your chosen service organization? Write about your thoughts and feelings on researching the service organization and how you might contribute your time in the future to support the goals of the service organization and/or allow you to make a difference in the community. Based on the knowledge gained in researching your chosen service organization and concepts taught in this class on developing a mission and vision, draft a new and improved mission and vision statement for the organization. You should include not only the new mission and vision but also an appropriate rationale for the mission and vision including elements of the organization as well as required elements needed in a well written mission and vision statement.   Share the new mission and vision statement you created with at least two other people capable of giving you feedback on the soundness of your new mission and vision (fellow student, volunteer, or non-profit employee, etc.). After getting feedback from the first person, revise the mission and vision statements to accommodate the new ideas or suggestions.  Do this again with the second person. Document the feedback received and how you revised the statements each time.  In other words, you must complete two rounds of sharing and revising your mission and vision statement.  Make sure you explain what advice you followed (and why) and what advice you felt didn’t warrant changes (and why).  Based on your research of the organization and in drafting the vision and mission explain how you might recommend that the organization expand the diversity of those it serves while achieving its mission. Identify diverse constituencies that might benefit from the organization’s services or with whom it could collaborate to extend its mission. Based on your research, what ethical dilemmas do you think can arise in non-profit organizations? What is required to be a good ethical leader in a non-profit organization? On-Site Paper Option submit responses to whatever reflection questions you select below (from the Service Learning Experience Research paper handout) in a 5-page, double-spaced paper. What is your role at the community site? What were your initial expectations? Have these expectations changed? How? Why? What about your community involvement has been an eye-opening experience? How do you motivate yourself to go to your site when you don’t feel like it? What specific skills have you used at your community site? Describe a person you’ve encountered in the community who made a strong impression on you, positive or Do you see benefits of doing community work? Why or why not? Has your view of the population with whom you have been working changed? How? How has the environment and social conditions affected the people at your site? What institutional structures are in place at your site or in the community? How do they affect the people you work with? Has the experience affected your worldview? How? Have your career options been expanded by your service experience? Why does the organization you are working for exist? Did anything about your community involvement surprise you? If so, what? What did you do that seemed to be effective or ineffective in the community? Did anything about your community involvement surprise you? If so, what? What did you do that seemed to be effective or ineffective in the community? How does your understanding of the community change as a result of your participation in this project? How can you continue your involvement with this group or social issue? How can you educate others or raise awareness about this group or social issue? What are the most difficult or satisfying parts of your work? Why? Talk about any disappointments or successes of your What did you learn from it? During your community work experience, have you dealt with being an “outsider” at your site? How does being an “outsider” differ from being an “insider”? How are your values expressed through your community work? What sorts of things make you feel uncomfortable when you are working in the community? Why?

According to Kowalski, Lasley, & Mahoney (2008), data-driven decision making emerged from the K-12 school reform efforts over the last 30 years. In many cases, programming decisions were implemented that impacted students and teachers without examining the potential for success. Thus, the policymakers failed to use data adequately to determine the targeted nature of the reform agenda. Another related factor was the lack of data-driven analysis that could determine the impact of the programming on student academic achievement. The end result led to policymaking outcomes that were sometimes based on subjective determinations over quantitative data. In addition, before the data could even be collected, the decision makers had already moved to the next reform effort. Another related issue was the lack of teacher knowledge about both collecting data and analyzing data. Many educators do not have the background or the experience with how data analysis connects towards improving their teaching and learning environments. Thus, teachers might ignore positive or negative data in the overall process (Kowalski, Lasley, & Mahoney, 2008). Furthermore, Levitt and Dubner (2005) that the data can resolve riddles in a way that the educators can apply the results to the teaching and learning environments. Step 1: Find three or more scholarly sources from peer-reviewed journals and examine two or more educational-related websites for background materials on data-driven decision making. As you conduct your research keep the following questions in mind: What is the underlying nature and purpose of data-driven decision making?What is the impact of data-driven decision making in relation to influencing the culture of your future or current school setting?How has data-driven decision making been used by policymakers towards reforming schools and improving student academic achievement? Step 2: Create a PowerPoint Slideshow with 10-12 slides (in addition to the title and reference slides) that forms a professional development presentation regarding data-driven decision-making. Include talking points and details in the notes area for each slide. Prepare the notes areas as though you were going to give this file to someone else to present in front of a group. Include the following essential elements in the PowerPoint: Describe at least three points about the underlying nature of data-driven decision making.Discuss at least three points for data-driven decision making in terms of the implementation and opportunities for change in schools.Evaluate at least two impacts of data-driven decision making on changing the school culture.Analyze at least two approaches on how data-driven decision making was used with school reform efforts.Analyze at least three practical implications about how the usage of data-driven decision making by teachers and administrators can improve student academic achievement. Use the information from the textbook, the research, and the websites to complete the PowerPoint. Also, incorporate personal experiences and examples where possible. Use a minimum of three scholarly peer-reviewed resources (in addition to the text) and to educational-related websites to support your findings. Cite sources according to APA style in-text citations and references. Elements such as images and SmartArt help to add visual interest to a presentation. Consider finding graphics that are openly licensed under the Creative Commons Agreement. Many such graphics can be found on Flickr.com. Read the description of Creative Commons (CC) agreement on the Flickr site. Use only those images that are openly shared under the CC agreement. Be sure to attribute your graphics using APA formatting.

Examine ethical research practices and your responsibility with respect to the IRB As graduate students, you are responsible for designing and conducting research that is ethical in all aspects. Your course text, Surviving Your Dissertation describes the critical norms for conducting ethical research: (a) Validity of the research, (b) competency of the researcher, (c) beneficence of the research, (d) special populations, and (e) informed consent (pp. 275–276). Some of these norms arose from the scrutiny of well-known controversial, unethical studies.Your course text Research Methods for Public Administrators describes three “illustrative cases” in Chapter 8: (a) The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is a classic example of the violation of the Nuremberg principles. (b) Another well-known example of deceptive research and a lack of protection of subjects’ privacy is Humphrey’s study on gay men. (c) The final example of deception in research is the Milgram study on participants’ level of obedience in harming others. You may wish to investigate all three of these studies more thoroughly.In this Discussion, you will examine the role of the IRB, your responsibilities for ensuring that you design an ethical study, and the ways in which you can reduce or eliminate ethical challenges. To prepare for this Discussion, review the Dissertation and Ethics resources listed for the week.Post by Day 3 in the following ways:Explain the role of the IRBExplain ethical problems you might experience if you were to conduct research on your identified topic of research.Analyze the impact of these potential ethical challenges. How might participants be affected, for example?Devise ways you might address these ethical challenges to the IRB to ensure integrity in the research process.Analyze the ethical values you hold that underlie your response.Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.Read a selection of your colleagues' postings.Respond by Day 6 to at least of at least two of your colleagues who have not yet had a reply, in any of the following ways:Address the content of your colleagues’ analyses of their ethical challenges and how they may address these challenges.Explain insights you gained into your own research process by considering your colleagues’ postings on the ethical challenges posed in their research.______________________________________________________________________________________________________Your Discussion 2 posts focused on the implications for social change and the significance of the study. All research of quality and rigor must address these issues: Why is the research worth doing? What can be learned? Who will it benefit and how? It is important to refine your statements on this topic, in order that they can be incorporated into your Prospectus. You will be required to address these issues in your Proposal and the rest of your Dissertation, as well. Although one might expect any study to reflect these concerns, this is especially important in the School of Public Policy and Administration, and at Walden University, given the mission, vision, goal, and positive social change commitments you read earlier.**Using the Dissertation Prospectus Guide, refine this week’s Discussion 2 post that describes the significance of your proposed study. In what ways would your study advance knowledge, practice, or policy, and lead to positive social change?*** After completing this section, in the order of required components of the Prospectus, you have now covered the title, problem statement, overall purpose of the study, significance, background, and theoretical framework.(The Dissertation draft is in the word document and instruction)