(Append this part of the paper to previous document and submit altogether.)This is the last part of the Policy Analysis Paper. Use the following questions in writing the paper: Describe that which pol

Policies to Address Education Standards

Policies to Address Education Standards

Lam Ho Yung

Oregon State University

PS 371

May 26, 2020

Policies are very important in addressing issues that affect members of the public, and these issues can be managed by government intervention. Such an issue is the issue of inequality in accessibility quality of education in Alabama. Due to degrading quality of education in Alabama, it is important to ensure that the government rethinks about the education situation in Alabama and come up with policies which are necessary to restore the quality of education across Alabama. There are different policies that the government should take into consideration and understand why exercising these policies in Alabama is necessary. The situation of deteriorating quality of education in Alabama is a result of an alternative that was availed by the government to allow parents to take their students in private schools if they were capable. This alternative exploited the weakness of low-income families living in Alabama. Since they were not able to take their children in private schools, they had to retain their children in a public school under state management. Under government management, students in public schools across Alabama have been suffering a lack of sufficient classes, high turnover of teachers, and financial challenges.

To manage this situation, it is necessary to use different alternatives for policy evaluation. Education in reinstated back to its quality through the funding policy, class size policy, and the policy of teacher's standards. Alternative criteria that can be used to evaluate the feasibility of these policies are purpose and audience, administrative feasibility, social acceptability, and efficiency. Each of these alternatives is better when it is used for certain policies and is weak when it is used in another. Therefore, there is a need to understand which alternative criteria bests suit which system of addressing the educational scenario in Alabama. The ability to match alternative evaluating criteria with each policy is very critical because it aids in determining the best criteria and the work criteria for evaluating policy.

Evaluating criteria

1. Purpose and audience

This criterion involves assessing why a policy is important and who is intended to be the beneficiary of the policy as the audience. The selection of this policy is important because it introduces the relevance of a policy. The criteria are necessary because it helps to identify if a policy has the capacity to address the scenario of deteriorating education across Alabama. If a policy does not have the capacity to address the education issues, then it is not the right policy to be used for the case at hand. The policy should also address students who are affected, in this case, those who study from Alabama public schools. If a policy does not address students, then it must be addressing teachers of the government funding of public schools. Any policy that does not cover these audiences does not qualify for the case at hand.

1. Administrative feasibility

This criterion dictates that a policy chosen should be feasible and achievable by the administration at Alabama. In my opinion, a policy that is not attainable is out of administration capacity; then, such a policy is not viable to address the situation at hand. These evaluation criteria are hence necessary for ensuring that the policy selected and passed for review will not go through the review process only to be discovered the administration to not have the capacity to be by the federal government.

1. Social acceptability

Social acceptability is a criterion that implies that when selecting a policy, it should have the capacity to be accepted by society. The problem at hand affects the society and the immediate community living in Alabama. If a policy does not tale into consideration the needs of the immediate community, then it does not qualify for consideration and selection. In my opinion, I selected this evaluative criterion because I felt that if the immediate society rejects a policy at Alabama, it cannot be exercised, or its exercise could attract confronts of interest between the state and residents at the state.

1. Efficiency

A policy to be enacted should be in a position to ensure that much benefit is reaped from a policy at the minimum costs possible. In my opinion, all policies should be assessed, which benefits are derived from each policy. With this knowledge, the costs of establishing a policy should be evaluated too. A policy that is considered for selection should, therefore, convince its low costs of implementation and optimal benefits why the policy should be enacted. From these four evaluative criteria, if a policy does not meet any of them, then such policy is not fit to address the education situation and challenges being faced by students in Alabama.

Policies evaluation

1. Class size and overcrowding policy

This policy is meant to address the education issues that are related to the overcrowding in classes available in Alabama. The evaluation of this policy in terms of administrative feasibility the policy is within the state capacity because it implies that the government is responsible for building a public school for its citizens. Since the responsibility of erecting classes belongs to the government, then the policy is attainable by the state administration in Alabama. Evaluating this policy under social acceptability, the issue at hand is that students are denied a chance of personal attention from teachers due to overcrowding of classes. Furthermore, this overcrowding creates an environment that is not conducive for teachers to teach from. Therefore, a policy to address the decongestion of classes through building more or employment of more teachers is acceptable in society. This implies that the policy to address the class size and overcrowding is socially acceptable by the immediate community in Alabama.

Evaluation of this policy under purpose and audience, the purpose of this policy is to decongest classes in public schools across Alabama. The purpose of this policy is hence to allow teachers to have a sizeable number of students whose teacher can teach strategically and attend them at a personal level when the need arises. The audience of this policy are students, and hence, the policy is feasible to be considered to be embraced and exercised in Alabama. Under efficiency, the policy demands for funds for its relevance. These are funds that could be used to erect more classes for students. With more classes erected, quality of education could improve, and students from public schools could have a positive impact on the economy in the future. Therefore, the policy is capital intensive in the short run but would benefit the economy in the long run and hence feasible.

1. Teacher’s standards policy

This policy requires that the standard of all teachers at public school in Alabama should be improved. Improving these standards implies addressing their qualification before they are employed in public schools. Under purpose and audience, the purpose of this policy is to reduce the rate of teacher turnover in public schools. Teachers in Alabama leave from public schools as soon as they employed due to a lack of capacity to manage education demands in public schools across Alabama. Since the policy is oriented to increase teacher's competence, then its purposes fit the problem solution for the issue at hand in Alabama (Robinson, 2017). The audience of these teachers are teachers who have been leaving their employment when it is too soon. Therefore, improving their standards implies a teacher could be retained for a longer time in public schools and hence quality education for students. In this dimension, the policy is feasible for being taken into consideration.

Under administration feasibility, it is the role of the government to employ teachers in public schools. Teachers must be employed in public schools, but their induction should be strategic. A teacher should be more experienced in students and having attained a certain height of education. Since the state has the capacity to regulate the competent of teachers being employed, therefore the policy is feasible. Under efficiency, improving standard requirements for teachers could impart quality education and more knowledgeable students released from these schools. These students could have a great contribution to the economy in the future. The policy is, therefore, efficient in terms of its implication of the Alabama economy in the future. Under the evaluation of social acceptability, the policy is feasible because society could want their students educated by highly competent teachers (Robinson, 2017).

1. The policy of public schools funding

Under purpose and audience evaluation criteria of this policy, the purpose of this policy is to make public schools more financially stable like private schools (Neher, Patterson, Duffield & Harvey, 2017). In private schools, parents are wealthier and can finance schools operation to meet the quality education of their children. The audience if this policy is public students and students as actual beneficiaries at large. Under the evaluation criteria of administrative policy, it is the duty of the government to allocate a certain budget for public schools. The government in Alabama used to spend enough but is later reduced the allocation for Alabama. Therefore, the policy is feasible if only the government could go back to the budget allocation that was there previously.

Under social acceptability, the policy is acceptable because it benefits the society in that public schools will be more stable to finance their operations. Furthermore, public schools will be able to afford resources that could impact the quality of education in which students are missing. Under the evaluation of efficiency, this policy might be expensive if the government spends too much on this policy. It is, therefore, necessary to fund public schools considerably.

Ranking criteria with policy

A policy of class size

This policy is beastly evaluated by purpose and audience. This is because the policy must be exercised, and it is more on the audience and its purpose rather than its costs. Therefore, the worst criteria for evaluating this policy is efficiency.

A policy of teacher's stands

The best evaluation criteria of this policy are administrative feasibility; the government should be ready to spend on training teachers to increase their efficiency. The worst evaluation criteria for this policy is its social acceptability.

School funding policy

This policy is best evaluated under efficiency, and the worst evaluation criteria are purpose and audience.

REFERENCES:

Neher, C., Patterson, D., Duffield, J. W., & Harvey, A. (2017). Budgeting for the Future: The long-term impacts of short-term thinking in Alabama K-12 education funding. Journal of Education Finance, 42(4), 448-470.

Robinson, S. (2017). Teachers' perceptions of confidence and preparation for implementing Common Core State Standards in Alabama (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).