Description
dentifying a Chosen Issue and Its Background
This is the first assignment in your Action Research Project. Before you begin, review the course project description and all of the project assignments at this time. Pay particular attention to the elements needed for the final project assignment in Unit 9. Also, examine the Identifying a Chosen Issue and Its Background Scoring Guide in order to familiarize yourself with the requirements for this assignment.
In this assignment, you will build the content for the Introduction and Background for the Study sections of your final report.
Assignment Instructions
Choose a human services issue that has been examined in a study for a program within a human services organization. You will use this issue as your focus throughout the course project. You may choose to base your project on a program and organization presented in the Riverbend City multimedia scenario for this course, or on an existing study that you must acquire on an issue in a real-world program at your current organization or the organization where you wish to do your future doctoral research.
- If you choose to base your report on an issue presented in the Riverbend City scenario, you will need to work with the data and background from the Riverbend City scenario to develop an analysis of your own that would be equivalent to a study that has been conducted on the issue. You may find you need more information for the project than is provided in the scenario. If so, create realistic information, using your own local city or community population or data.
- If you choose to base your report on a study that has been conducted on an issue at a real-world organization, you must be able to access sufficient information about the study, issue, program, and organization to complete all of the project activities.
- Important: Consult your instructor before submitting this assignment if you wish to use a real-world issue and organization.
Once you have chosen the issue for your project, examine the associated study (or the Riverbend City multimedia scenario) thoroughly. Conduct research that addresses or relates to your chosen human services issue, including its history and previous work that has been conducted on it in the field. Apply theoretical frameworks and systems thinking to your chosen study (refer to your Unit 1 readings).
Write a paper in which you provide a detailed profile on the issue and the study from your chosen organization. Include the following components:
Introduction
- Briefly describe the human services organization and the program being examined.
- Explain the focus of your chosen study.
- State what the study is attempting to learn and understand about the issue.
- List the specific research questions of this study. (Note: You will outline them further in the next section of the paper.)
- Identify your overall goals for the issue, program, and organization. (Note: You will define them further in the next section.)
Background for the Study
- Discuss research that addresses or relates to your chosen human services issue, including the following:
- Explain what you have learned about the research.
- State the history of the issue and how the history is relevant to the current state of the issue.
- Describe the previous work that has been done on this issue.
- Analyze how other research relates to this issue.
- Analyze the background of your chosen study.
- Address the population, governance structure, and leadership models.
- Outline the specific research questions of this study.
- Examine your chosen study using theoretical frameworks and systems thinking.
- Investigate how this issue relates to other problems within the organization.
- Examine research that discusses this issue and related problems, using theoretical frameworks and systems thinking.
- Define your overall goals for the issue, program, and organization.
- Provide a references page, including at least two resources used in your paper.
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Explanation & Answer
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The Difference in Pittsburgh & Rural Tennessee on Education with Support that Parents
being there Matters More Than Living Area
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name
Instructor Name
Date
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The difference in Pittsburgh & Rural Tennessee on Education with Support that Parents
being there Matters More Than Living Area
The old saying that geography is destiny assumes that where one lives determines the
kind of life that they are going to have in the future. Some neighborhoods have better-rated
school districts than others, implying that children are more likely to attain better educational
outcomes in some areas. The immediate surroundings of an individual also affect the kind of
opportunities available to them as well as the kind of people they will interact with. While this
may be particularly true, parental involvement in a child’s education is more impactful than the
geographical location. Parental involvement refers to the involvement that parents show towards
their children's education by motivating them to do better in school, assisting with school work,
maintain contact with teachers regarding the student's performance and progress, among others.
Parents are considered one of the essential stakeholders of education (Sapungan & Sapungan,
2014). While studying in the highly-rated schools that are found within well-developed urban
areas is essential in a child's development, this alone cannot assure excellent educational results.
This paper evaluates how students in Burns, TN, whose parents are openly involved in their
education would be better positioned than students in Pittsburg, whose parents are not actively
involved in their education.
The Pittsburg area has several school districts that have numerous highly rated schools.
They include Fox Chapel area, Mt. Lebanon, North Allegheny, Upper St. Clair, Hampton Town,
South Fayette, Quaker Valley, Peters Township, Montour, Moon ares, Pine-Richland, Greater
Latrobe Franklin regional among other school districts in the area. On the other hand, Burns is a
small town in Dickson County, Tennessee, near the Nashville area. The town has lesser
prestigious schools in Dickson County than those found in the Pittsburg area. In this small town,
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parents may not have a variety of school choices to enroll their children. Many people can easily
argue that studying in Pittsburg would yield better academic outcomes than studying in Burns.
However, this argument may only hold if parents are significantly involved in their children's
education.
The most accurate predictor of academic achievement is neither the geographical
location, socioeconomic status, nor how prestigious an educational facility is. The most accurate
predictor lies in the extent to which parents are involved in their children's education (How
Parent Involvement Leads to Student Success, 2018). This involvement includes how families
encourage students at home and how committed they are in education. When the whole family
engaged in their children's educational lives, the children have the support they need from their
homes and the knowledge that they not only have to complete school-issued work but also
develop a lasting love for education.
Schools that focus on family engagement often see notable changes in their learning
environments. When many family members are near, it becomes easy to engage them in their
school activities and progress. A student in Burns, TN, who has their extended family in the area
is likely to involve them in his education. The more the family is involved in a student’s
education, the better the student’s motivation, behavior, and grades become. Being a rural area, it
more likely that you may find an extended family in Burns compared to Pittsburg. A student in
Pittsburg who lives with a single parent is more likely to miss out on their involvement in
education. Pittsburg is a big city, and with only one parent in a household, it is correct to assume
that this parent is the sole bread winner. As such, the parent may constantly be at work fending
for the child and may miss out on crucial after-school interactions while at work. In such
situations, the children may find themselves doing the assignments and other academic activities
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on their own since their only parent is out at work. Contrarily, a student in rural Burns, TN, who
has an extended home is more likely to involve them in the educational practices. With an
extended family, it is easier to assume that the student is more likely to find someone at home to
consult or help with homework after school.
Encouraging parental engagement in education is one of the most efficient ways of
creating a positive learning environment for every child. It is indisputable that this engagement
can be achieved in both Burns, TN, and Pittsburg. Engagement involves the teachers and parents
sharing a common responsibility to help students achieve. Families have been termed as the
smallest schools due the significant role they play in a children’s education (National Academies
of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019). The foundation established and nurtured by
families not only impacts educational outcomes but also success later in life.
A student in Burns, TN from a family structure that has both parents and stab...