Monica+Stallings3

I chose the Low Cost Strategy because it most closely tied to addressing student concerns and ensuring that the teachers, parent’s community members, and businesses are aware of the intent of the project and a projected timeline for completion. By beginning the project in this manner, it will be much easier to go back and ask local officials and businesses for funds to support the initiatives of the project. In addition, this strategy will allow time to collect data at the end of the year which will indicate whether changes need to be made, if the goal to increase participation by 7% was achieved, and to look at what additional interventions maybe needed as the project moves forth to the next year. I believe that when beginning a program of this caliber, it is important to ensure that the teachers who will be providing instruction have the training, knowledge, tools, resources and necessary contacts to support their efforts in guiding their students toward success.
 * Justification for Intervention Strategy **

The Low Cost Strategy will incorporate the use of Cluster and Content Networking meetings where discussions can be held and demonstrations of teaching strategies can be shared promote supporting low-income and minority students in Math, Science, English and Social Studies courses to start. Here the veteran teachers can share with new teachers to AP courses best practices which have resulted in their students success, as well as, when and how often they conduct tutoring/mentoring sessions to support students. Such ideas may include: online training for those students who work after school or Saturday morning sessions to accommodate students without afterschool transportation. Additionally, during these meetings the teachers can talk about various incentives which they used to increase participation of low-income and minority students in established intervention procedures.

I opted against the Medium Cost Strategy primarily because the cost of purchasing additional supplies and materials will guarantee the promotion of ensuring the teachers have content network base which they can communicate with when they run out of ideas or unsure of how teach a particular concept. Also, the materials will not ease the tension that AP teachers are faced with as much as having someone to talk. As for training by CollegeBoard, veteran teachers are fully capable of conducting these same sessions during cluster and content meetings saving money. My research found that CollegeBoard trainers are AP teachers who have been contracted to leave their classrooms to conduct these trainings, and sometimes they are not very good. Besides archived data showed that there were veteran teachers who had a 80-90% passing score of 3’s and 5’s on the AP exams providing another reason why on-site training from CollegeBoard was not necessary during the initial phase of the project.

Oftentimes project managers find themselves spending an overabundance of money to satisfy a project. In not choosing the High Cost Strategy, I realized that the money needed to send teachers to conferences which they might not go to the sessions was wasteful and did not support the goal of project which is to increase participation of the low-income and minority students. This phase called for spending money to continually train teachers without much regard to attention to the needs of students. Hence, I believe that ongoing training of teachers in conferences which will ultimate take them out of the classroom would be a bad decision during the first year. The low-income and minority students who have been encouraged to enroll or placed in AP courses need to have the teacher’s presence in the classroom to calm their fear and insure their success during the initial phase. **Project Manager Responsibilities **

My role as the project manager will be to design the process which will be used to ensure the likelihood of that the project will be successful. I will do this making all of the teachers aware that I am the contact person for their cluster and all correspondences will come from my office. I will send out an action plan outlining the timeframe for documenting milestones which will lead towards accomplishing the goals during the first year. Beginning with the start date of August 2010, the teachers will be asked to prepare a brief overview to present to parents during Curriculum Night regarding expectations and specific class curriculum. Content Networking and Cluster meetings will be conducted quarterly during on different days during the school year beginning in September 2010. This process of outlining and presenting the teachers with the plan will help to ensure that the goal is reached on time, at cost, and within the established guidelines.

After receiving my budget for the year, I will take the action plan with established dates and activities to determine what is needed to accomplish the activity. For instance, the August 2010 Curriculum Night expense will consist of providing refreshments for parents as most of them will come from their jobs. There will be no cost associated with the teacher presentation or overtime as their contract consists of extra-curricular activities. Because the Content Networking and Cluster meeting will be categorized as professional learning, Advanced Placement (AP) teachers will be receive a stipend for $28.00 per hour during each quarterly session which they are in attendance. Additional meetings like AP parent night, Middle School parent and student night expense will consist of refreshments due to the late meeting time and as an incentive to encourage parent and student participation. Therefore, the majority of the budget during the first year will be set aside for stipends for teacher involvement and refreshments for evening activities related to AP courses.

During the parent and student meeting nights, the presenters will use PowerPoint’s, audio/video clips to highlight what takes place in the classroom for the sake of the parents. I collect information from these presentations and professional learning sessions in a Word document to create summation of each event and for documentation. The summaries will be forwarded to teachers via email to maintain on-going communication and to keep them abreast of necessary changes or addition to the current schedule. The email and telephone will serve as a communication source for teachers needing to contact me, as well.

At the end of each session or parent night, participants will be asked to complete a brief survey of session. I will go through all feedback and compile it into one document for sharing and as an informational tool to be used by presenters prior to their next activity which may result in changes in delivery of a session or etc. Copies will be maintained in my office as well as passed on to the director to be used during our monthly meetings.