Kyoto Accord essays

Kyoto Accord essays No matter how bright a solution may seem, it may only be drawing near the eye of the storm. A problem cannot be completely resolved without creating more. Such is the effect of the Kyoto accord. At this point in time, the Kyoto treaty should not come to pass because of its overwhelming negative effects. Among the many reasons why it should not be signed, are that jobs will dramatically be decreased in the energy industry, global warming occurs periodically without human induced factors, and the unknown cost of this project could prove fatal to the Canadian economy. Even though the greenhouse gases produced by the energy industries play a role in such global warming effects as cataclysmic storms, floods, and drought worldwide, these disasters would occur naturally anyway and it is still not quite certain as to how much it contributes to them. Without a certain amount of warming, all life on the planet would cease to exist. Furthermore, a reasonable increase in present global temperatures could be beneficial as warming could result in greater precipitation, which would aid in the production of agricultural. The idea that an increase in the climate would cause more violent storms worldwide is untrue also as storms are more closely associated with cold weather than warm weather. Only two of the top twenty deadliest storms occurred during extreme heat conditions. As for the decrease in the emissions to cool down the planet, this is merely a speculation since forty million years ago the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was ten times greater than today yet the temperature was substantially cooler. Too many facts are still unknown about the overall effect of the Kyoto project for it to come to pass. Although gas emissions would be reduced considerably, many jobs would be lost in the process. Hundreds of thousands of workers jobs would be put at stake just for the slight chance of a decrease in the climate, whi ...

The Best Way to Read the Passage in SAT Reading

The Best Way to Read the Passage in SAT Reading SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The SAT Reading section presents you withchallenging tasks. Not only will you have to sustain your focus over a long 65-minute section, but you’ll also have to search activelyfor evidence in each passage to back up your answers. The testmay be time intensive and full oftricky â€Å"distractor† answers, but you can learn to avoid the common pitfalls with the right approach. This guide will discuss the best strategies for reading the passages effectively and achieving a high score on the new SAT Reading. To start, let’s go over what the redesigned passages are going to look like on your test. Types of Reading Passages On the SAT Since the 2016 SAT (out of 1600 points) was rolled out, every SAT reading test featuresfour individual passages and one pair of passages. One of these passages comes from US and World Literature, two come from History and Social Studies, and two deal with Science.In total, each passage (or set of paired passages combined) will contain about 500 to 750 words. One or more of them will feature a graph, table, or chart. You’ll be tasked with answering a total of 52 Reading questions.You’ll complete the Reading section all at one time in one 65-minute section- the first section you'll do on the SAT. There are a few strategies you can use when readingthe passages. Before delving into these reading strategies, let’s review the types of Reading questions you’ll encounter. Types of Reading Questions On the SAT The new SAT asks reading comprehension questions about main points, details, inferences, vocabulary in context, function, author technique,evidence support, and data analysis from a graph, table, or chart. The new SAT is primarilyconcerned with howyou connectevidence to your answersand deconstruct logic and arguments. By keeping this emphasis in mind, you can keep an eye out for relevant details and meaningas you read through the passages. These are the main ways that College Board will test your reading comprehension skills: Big Picture / Main Point: What is the overall purpose of the passage? Is it describing an issue or event? Is it trying to review, prove, contradict, or hypothesize? Little Picture / Detail: Detail questions will usually refer you to a specific line within the passage. They might ask what a sentence means or how it functions within the overall passage. Inference: These questions ask you to interpret the meaning of a line or two in the passage. Don't worry, they won't be too vague or open to interpretation, as there can only be one absolutely correct answer. Vocabulary in Context: These questions usually also refer you to a specific line and ask how a word functions within a sentence. These words are often not too advanced; instead, they're often common words that may have an unusual meaning based on context. Function: These questions often ask what a phrase, sentence, or paragraph is accomplishing within the context of the whole passage. This links to your understanding of the big picture / main point. Author Technique: What's the author's tone, style, or other technique in this passage? Paired passage questions often ask you to compare and contrast author techniques or opinions. Evidence Support: These questions ask you to choose a line or series of lines that provide the best evidence to your answer to a previous question.Therefore, an evidence question could refer back to any of the question types mentioned above, with the exception of vocab-in-context. These evidence support questions often take the form, â€Å"Which choice provides the best evidence to the previous question?† While these questions can help you check your thinking, they may also contain a trap; if you answered wrong to the previous question, you'll probably find that the mistake in your thinking hasa corresponding answer in the evidence question. Data Analysis: These questions are entirely new and refer to graphs and charts. They may ask something like, â€Å"Which claim about traffic congestion is supported by the graph?† The hardest ones may combine with an inference question, like, â€Å""The author is least likely to support which interpretation of the data in this figure?† Understanding the types of passages and questions will begin to improve your understanding of the Reading section and how you approach each passage. As you take SAT practice tests, keep a critical eye on how each question fits into one or more of the above categories.Now let's look specifically at what steps you should take when reading through the passages to maximize your comprehension and take control of your time management. One step at a time... How to Read the Passages Some students jump into reading, others read the questions first, and still others swear by a â€Å"back and forth† method. In our view, the five steps described below represent a tried and true approach that works for most students. It uses effective methods to understand the important points of the passage before you even read it, and it helps you save time digesting the passage. With five passages to read and 52 questions to answer in only 65 minutes, time is of the essence. Read over these steps, give this approach a try, and see if it helps you preserve your focus and work efficiently as you prep for the SAT Reading. Step 1 A good standard approach is to glance over the corresponding questions before you begin to read the first passage. This way, you'll have a sense of what you're looking for and where to focus your attention. Even though the passage may be a fascinating description of space mining or Japanese marriage customs, deep reading is not your goal here- answering the questions correctly and efficiently is. You can always learn more about a topic after the SAT. For now, you want to laser your focus onto the tasks at hand. As you read the questions, you can circle the Big Picture / Main Point questions right off the bat. You can leave these for the end, as in this example from College Board'sSAT Practice Test 1: Here,the main purpose question comes first. You can choose to answer it last, though, once you have a strong understanding of the passage. As for the specific line questions, you can make a mark on the lines referenced and pay special attention to them when reading. All of this marking and prioritizingis not to suggest that you won't be quickly reading the whole passage; instead, it's a way to know what you're looking for before you start. Again, this is an approach that saves time for most students, but you should also feel free to use the method that works best for you. Step 2 Quickly read the information blurb that comes at the very beginning of the passage. This shouldhelp you situate the passage in context. When is the author writing, for instance? Is she an author of fiction, a scientist, or a historian? Having this context at the beginning may help you begin to have an understanding of the tone, style, and purpose of the passage. This passage is from the dads of DNA themselves! Things are about to get science-y! Step 3 Now, go ahead and read the passage. You should read quickly, even skimming for important features. These include the last line of the introduction (usually the thesis of the passage), opening sentences of paragraphs, and the conclusion. Also, look out for transitional words and phrases, like however, additionally, and despite,that might mark a shift in or continuation of ideas. This approach will be much more helpful and time-saving than trying to understand each and every word. Another consideration as you read is your own mindset. You probably know that being interested in a subject helps you pick it up faster. You may think you can't help what you're interested in, but actually, you have a great deal of control over your mindset. If you try to approach the passages beingreally interested in, even fascinated by, the topic at hand, then you'll be able to speed up your reading and improve your retention. You might be skeptical, but the SAT actually can have some pretty intriguing, random information, and they have such a great range you're likely to be interested in some, if not all, of the passages. Step 4 On to answering the questions. Leave the ones you circled for the end. It can be helpful to predict your own answer before actually looking at the answer choices. They are designed and worded so that they all sound plausible, so they could distract you from your original understanding of the question. If your passage includes a chart or graph, then you'll have one or two data interpretation questions. You may be able to answer these even before skimming the passage, but in most cases it will be helpful to have context. Many of these questions don't ask for data analysis alone, but instead ask if the data supports a claim made in the text or if the author incorporated a data point to prove or refute an argument. These kinds of questions will call on you to find evidence in numbers as well as in prose, as in this tableand questionbased on the above mentioned passage by Watson and Crick: Notice how this question isn't straightforward data analysis. It goes one step further by asking a "little picture/detail" question about the authors' proposed pairing of bases in DNA. You'll have to locate info in both the passage and the table. As you work through the various passage and data-based questions, itcan be distracting to go back and forth between the test booklet and bubble sheet. It can be useful and save timeto answer the entire set of questions in your test booklet and then transfer all your answers to the bubble sheet in one chunk.But make sure you don't run out of time doing this, and be careful that your answers line up corrently on the bubblesheet! The detail questions shouldgo in chronological order with the passages, so the first detail question might refer to a line near the beginning of the passage and continue in order after that. They're not all mixed up in random order, but rather coincide with the flow of the passage. Step 5 Once you've answered the other questions, you can go back to the general purpose questions you circled. You should have your best sense of the passage at this point, after you've read it and answered other questions about it. Finally, you can go ahead and carefully transfer your answers to the bubble sheet. These 5 steps are an effective approach for most students reading and answering questions on the Critical Reading passages. If you've never tried this kind of reading strategy before, definitely try it out on your next practice test and see if your score improves. This is especially effective if you find that you keep running out of time! Let's discuss some other tips and strategies that are helpful to keep in mind. Be on the lookout for SAT "red herrings"! Tips and Strategies forCritical Reading Beyond practicing your reading efficiency, you can use some other strategies as you answer the questions and prep for this section. The age-old trick of process of elimination is alwayse useful. An unexpected preparation strategy is to practice answering ACT Science questions. Read on for a few more useful strategies that will help you do your best on SAT Reading. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! Look to Eliminate Wrong Answers None of the answers will be glaringly wrong. In fact, they're worded in such a way that they'll often all seem plausible! This means you'll have to play interception on your own brain. It may be easily distracted by answers that seem sort of right, but you have to halt your distracted thought processin its steps. If you find yourself overly rationalizing or justifying an answer, it's probably not the correct one. There is only one 100% correct answer, and it won't cause you too much overthinking. Generally, wrong answers are too specific, too broad, describe a relationship in reverse order, or just present a totally unrelated concept. This article goes into further detail about how to eliminate wrong answers in order to land on the one 100% correct one. A good rule of thumb is to avoid extremes. Words like "never" or "always" are not usually present in the correct answer. But to follow my own advice, I should never say never! Another essential mindset, and one that the new SAT will ask to use explicitly, is one that looks for evidence. Back Up Your Answers With Evidence Don't just choose an answer that "feels" right- instead, make sure you can back up all your answers with evidence direct from the text. None of these questions require you to have any pre-existing knowledge of the topic. Instead, they're testing your reading comprehension. All your answers should be proven and supported by the passage. Even if the answer were to be factually inaccurate (don't worry, it won't be), the questions are still completely about the passage, not about knowledge you already have. This is an important point to remember for the SAT, which will use texts with which you may be familiar or that are especially relevant to history or contemporary life. To answer questions correctly, it's crucial that you turn off your personal biases or opinions and base your understanding completely on the text at hand. Luckily, the new evidence support questions will be a good reminder to keep referring back to the text for your responses. You’ll likely get two to three evidence support questions per passage that explicitly ask you to choose one or a few lines that prove your answer to a previous question. These help you check your thinking and ensure that you have proof for an answer. Even if a question is not followed by an evidence support question, though, you should try to use this mindset of backing up your responses with evidence directly from the text. That way you know you’re basing your answer on the words on the page, rather than on your own assumptions. Practice Data Analysis with ACT Science Questions Those who consider themselves English buffs may not love the addition of charts, tables, and graphs in their SAT Reading questions. What's this data doing in a reading comprehension section, anyway? According to College Board, the inclusion of data analysis is part of itsattempt to connect the new SAT with what students are learning in the classroom and with real-world skills. You can actually sharpen your data interpretation skills by practicing with ACT Science questions. The ACT questions may call for more specialized scientific knowledge, but they still demand the same skills of interpretation as will the SAT Reading questions. By referring to charts and graphs for your answer and looking for evidence in data, you'll be better prepared for the data and evidence-based Reading questions on the SAT. Know Your Literary Terms and Techniques SAT Reading is primarily concerned with understanding function (of words, sentences, paragraphs) and argument. Therefore, most of your SAT reading practice should focus on deciphering the logic and structure of a piece. However, it's stilluseful to review the most common literary terms, like theme, style, tone, foreshadowing, and imagery, as well as some of themost common words to describe them.In addition to reviewing definitions, you should learn how to apply and find them in something you read.It's one thing to know that a tone can be somber, hopeful, or suspicious; it's another to determine the tone of a given passage. Test prep will help you get better and better at this, along with reading and analyzing as much as you can in and out of the classroom. Study Vocabulary As mentioned above, the vocabulary questions based on passages will not test your understanding of little-usedbig words.Instead of obscure vocab, Reading questionsmight ask aboutrelatively common words that are used in an unusual way within the context of the passage.This means you should practice interpreting meaning in context, along with understanding the denotations (definitions) and connotations (what words imply or suggest) of words. To give a simplistic example, note how the phrase, "Nice job," can have two very different connotations in these two contexts. "Nice job," Kathy snickered to her friends, after tripping you in the cafeteria. "Nice job!" Kathy said admiringly, as you showed her the bowl you made in ceramics. Understanding multiple-meaning words, as well as tone, is all aboutcontext. Given these steps and strategies,how can you strengthen your Reading skills? Practice, Practice, Practice The Reading section on the SAT is not always so closely aligned with your high school English classes, although the redesigned version is more connected than ever before with its emphasis on evidence-based reading. While your English classes may encourage you to be creative and support all kinds of interpretations, your SAT Reading questions will only have one absolutely correct answer, and that answer must be derived from and supported by the text itself. You can strengthen your ability to read and answer questions quickly with serious test prep, which will not only help your reading comprehension skills, but also your time management and pacing. Reading sources outside of class, like news articles from the New York Times, will also help you hone your skills of analyzing logic, deconstructing arguments, and determining author opinion and tone. If you're applying as a humanities or social sciences major, you especially want to make sure you score highly on the Reading section of the SAT. Take practice tests, identify your weaknesses,understand your mistakes, and practice often and effectivelyso you can score highly on Reading. With the right approach and sufficient test prep, youcould even achieve a perfectReading score. What's Next? Now that you know about the changes tothe Reading section, check out ourComplete Guide to the New SATto learnabout the rest of the redesigned test! Are you deciding between the new SAT and the ACT? You can readall about how the two tests compare to each other here, as well as learn about the changes taking place to theWriting section of the ACT. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

David A. Sklansky's view of Katz v. United States Essay

David A. Sklansky's view of Katz v. United States - Essay Example (Sklansky, 2006) According to the author, Katz case remains a landmark both because it provides the constitutional framework that continues to govern electronic surveillance, and because it provides the modern test for a 'search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment has been the cornerstone in many legal cases for the limits to which the privacy of the person can be breached for the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases. However, the case itself remains rather ambiguous, and there is still doubt, whether taking into account the modern situation after the events of 9/11 electronic surveillance and eavesdropping should be allowed without a warrant Some suppose that the judicial decisions made by Burger and Rehnquist may diminish the effect of Katz's case. It is possible to have a look at least one of the cases ruled by these justices in relation to the Fourth amendment: 'Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979). ... he urgency of the Katz's case is still relevant and even in the light of terrorist threats in the modern society it has its weight, it gives more questions, than answers. It was interesting to note, that actually Katz is viewed as a failure among scholars. It is agreed, that his striving to prove that surveillance is legal, but only under a warranty, is important, but the case itself has not set any reasonable limits for privacy and it should be defined; whether this framework should be adopted outside the domestic law enforcement and what it has to do with the new communication technologies. Sklansky notes, that 'reasonable expectation of privacy sounds nice, but what does it mean' (Sklansky, 2006) The question is absolutely reasonable, taking into account that the privacy has become a subject of major concern now with the cases of privacy breaches more and more frequent, and inability of Courts to define the reasonable privacy limits when it comes to crime. Noting again the events of 9/11 and bearing in mind that terrorist acts' elimination requires special thorough investigation and action, there is a question how privacy issue and national security issue can be weighted by both public safety entities and the court In Katz's case Justice White still left certain space for consideration, noting that in 'national security cases electronic surveillance upon the authorization of the President or the Attorney General could be permissible without prior judicial approval.' (Kitch, 1968) As a result and following the case, the executive Branch has asserted the power to use unwarranted electronic surveillance in the two specific types of national security situations: against foreign intelligence and against domestic subversion. This has been an attempt to weight privacy and

Health Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Health Communication - Essay Example However, official advisories and disaster preparedness alerts were issued five days later; specifically on 28th October, practically few hours before the heavy storms and strong winds forcefully swept across the East Coast cities of New York and New Jersey. Admittedly, the massive casualties inflicted by the hurricane on the East Coast can be attributed to the untimely provision of risk communication by the relevant authorities. In a period of only two days from October 22 to October 24, 2012, the FEMA regional office in Miami, Florida had ascertained that the hurricane’s strength was growing exponentially. However, issuance of official public advisories was delayed until the hurricane’s storms hit a limit of 105 miles per hour (Downing & Smith, 2013). Apparently, delay in issuance of official communication was caused by the bureaucratic nature of coordination between the FEMA National Watch Center and the NOAA National Weather Service. In essence, both the FEMA and the NOAA were avoiding public panic resulting from early issuance of immature information regarding to the hurricane’s development (CDC, 2012). The potential severity of Hurricane Sandy became clear as early as 19th October, 2012 when a wave in the Northern Caribbean Sea transformed from a tropical wave to a tropical storm in a period of under six hours. When the tropical storm reached Southeast Florida on 22nd October, its winds were sustained at approximately 40 miles per hour. By the evening of October 23rd, the growing tropical storm had cruised over the vast distance between Florida’s Jupiter Inlet and the Upper Keys, including Craig Key (Downing & Smith, 2013). At 0500 hours on 24th October, it became evident that the tropical storm was headed for cities along the upper East Coast, and that the storm’s wind speeds had intensified considerably. As at the evening of 24th October, the storm was upgraded to a hurricane

Police Brutality Essay Example for Free

Police Brutality Essay Most of us have seen the videotape of police officers savagely beating Rodney King. But how typical was this behavior? The Rodney King incident is not representative of most police officers around the country. Television shows, newscasts, and written media exacerbate the problem when they do not focus on the criminal as the root of the problem. [C]urrent images of the police are drawn largely from television programs bearing little resemblance to reality (Delattre 29). Police brutality is a matter of serious concern, but it is not as prevalent as the media would have us believe. Police brutality is not a national crisis. Rodney King has become synonymous with police brutality. But what is police brutality? Bornstein states that [p]olice brutality is the use of excessive force by police officers (39). Most police are trained to use only the minimum amount of force necessary to control a given situation. The decision to use force is often made on a split second basis usually under difficult circumstances. The boundaries between justified and excessive force can sometimes be blurred under these circumstances. Under one set of circumstances, a particular action might be considered justified, but under differing circumstances, the same action might be considered brutality. Most cops do not like to hurt people; cops sometimes use unnecessary force. They also use extraordinary restraint (Sulc 80). Many police officers feel anguish after using fully justified force; few take pleasure in it. There are great strains on individual police officers: competing responsibilities, values, temptations, fears, and expectations. Police officers are called on to be patient mediators, skilled therapists, effective admonishers, daring crime fighters, obedient members of paramilitary agencies, etc. In the midst of these requirements is the violence inherent in police work. Police officers often witness women battered by husbands and boyfriends, children burned and broken by parents, pedestrians maimed by drunk drivers, teachers raped by students, and innocent strangers savaged by predators in  our streets. Even so, most police do not have a bunker mentality. They go on the force knowing what they will have to encounter. They like their jobs and are ready and able to stand the pressureusually. Some police adjust poorly to the pressures of police work. They become cynical from the danger, the perceived failure of the system, and the repetitiveness of their work. Some police officers despair over the violence, suffering, hopelessness, and ignorance they encounter every day. Even so, the majority of police officers continue the performance of their duties without resorting to brutality. In spite of the seriousness of the publicized incidents, far more serious than police brutalit y is the frequency of assault and murder perpetrated against the police. According to the U.S. Department of Justices Police Use of Force, 44.6 million people, or 21% of the population had face to face contact with police during 1996. Police contacts that resulted in the use of force or the threat of force totaled only five hundred thousand, or one percent of the total. Often times the use of force was preceded by some provocative action. Criminals often threaten the officer, assault the officer, argue or interfere with an arrest, posses a weapon, try to escape, elude, or resist arrest. After accounting for justified use of force, which is inherent in police work, less than one quarter of one percent of police contacts resulted in questionable use of force. This is hardly an epidemic. Given the small number of cases, a preliminary conclusion that could be drawn is that use of force is rare in police-citizen contacts and it is often accompaniedby some possibly provocative behavior (Police 14). On the flip side, if the media cares to report the flip side, 46,695 police officers were assaulted in 1996 (United States 65), resulting in 14,985 injuries and 55 deaths (United States 3). The statistics show that police officers are brutalized three thousand seven hundred and sixty times more frequently than criminals are. Americans are well served with professional dedication and with frequent instances of physical courage. The people who stand between violence and the public are the police. Sometimes criminals do not want to cooperate, but police are still expected to arrest them. Most police officers abhor  violence and despise fellow officers who use excessive force. Police brutality is not the epidemic we are led to believe it is. Let police do their job, if they violate the law, prosecute them as individuals without condemning every police officer in the country. Works Cited Borenstein, Jerry. Police Brutality. New Jersey: Enslow, 1993. Delattre, Edwin J. Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute of Public Policy Research, 1989. Police Use of Force Bureau of Justice Statistics Website. 22 November 1998. Sulc, Lawrence. Police Brutality Is Not a Widespread Problem. Policing the Police. Ed. Paul A. Winters. San Diego: 1995. 79. United States. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division. Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted. Washington, DC: GPO, 1997

Influences and Reality Essay -- Media Magazines Society Beauty Essays

Influences and Reality As adults do we tend to read the styles we've grown up with? Do we find ourselves subscribing to and reaching for magazines in the checkout line that our parents read? I do. As I become more independent I see subtle changes in the styles around me but find myself grounded in what my parents, my brothers and my environment have familiarized me with. Strewn around me are volumes of "Outdoor Life", "Prevention", "Better Homes and Gardens", "Midwest Living", "Vogue" and "Masonry Construction." A magazine to satisfy many interests, each containing pieces of my life. You will not find "Time" or "Forbes" in my hands unless I have research to do in them for school. I am not familiar with politics, big business or urban life and I find the style dull. I can't convince myself to pick up political magazines for pleasure. Richard Lanham in Revising Prose says, " A style that at first seems peculiar may not be a "bad "style but simply eloquent about an unexpected kind of reality, one that you may or may not like" (106). I read styles that are my reality and though some may not find "eloquence" in "Masonry Construction", I do. You may guess that someone in my family is involved in construction and wonder why I read such literature if it is not my career. As the daughter of a brick and stone mason I have grown up listening to my dad talk construction and have always been interested in what he does. Though "construction" doesn't have a soft tone to it, possibly not possessing "eloquence" , writing about it and the finished product can. Articles in "Masonry Construction" explicate the fine details of this labor through straightforward writing and a calm informative voice. I can "hear" my dad explaining the qualiti... ... I used to think it was funny and at a young age believed some of it; not to be fooled now. I used to read it for pleasure but since I started working with womens' and mens' clothing I've become interested in what is new in the world of fashion, the fabrics and styles. The writing style in "Vogue" and similar magazines is classy and fast paced (if writing can be that). The catwalk and thumping techno music seems to be in front of my eyes. For a while I find it interesting and exhilarating but soon find myself wanting to return to the country. I find that the styles strewn about me are influenced by my parents style; conservative, down to earth, knowing the importance of physical labor to make a living and seeing the beauty in what has been offered to us-where we live and what we've experienced. This is how I was raised and I will continue to live in this style. Influences and Reality Essay -- Media Magazines Society Beauty Essays Influences and Reality As adults do we tend to read the styles we've grown up with? Do we find ourselves subscribing to and reaching for magazines in the checkout line that our parents read? I do. As I become more independent I see subtle changes in the styles around me but find myself grounded in what my parents, my brothers and my environment have familiarized me with. Strewn around me are volumes of "Outdoor Life", "Prevention", "Better Homes and Gardens", "Midwest Living", "Vogue" and "Masonry Construction." A magazine to satisfy many interests, each containing pieces of my life. You will not find "Time" or "Forbes" in my hands unless I have research to do in them for school. I am not familiar with politics, big business or urban life and I find the style dull. I can't convince myself to pick up political magazines for pleasure. Richard Lanham in Revising Prose says, " A style that at first seems peculiar may not be a "bad "style but simply eloquent about an unexpected kind of reality, one that you may or may not like" (106). I read styles that are my reality and though some may not find "eloquence" in "Masonry Construction", I do. You may guess that someone in my family is involved in construction and wonder why I read such literature if it is not my career. As the daughter of a brick and stone mason I have grown up listening to my dad talk construction and have always been interested in what he does. Though "construction" doesn't have a soft tone to it, possibly not possessing "eloquence" , writing about it and the finished product can. Articles in "Masonry Construction" explicate the fine details of this labor through straightforward writing and a calm informative voice. I can "hear" my dad explaining the qualiti... ... I used to think it was funny and at a young age believed some of it; not to be fooled now. I used to read it for pleasure but since I started working with womens' and mens' clothing I've become interested in what is new in the world of fashion, the fabrics and styles. The writing style in "Vogue" and similar magazines is classy and fast paced (if writing can be that). The catwalk and thumping techno music seems to be in front of my eyes. For a while I find it interesting and exhilarating but soon find myself wanting to return to the country. I find that the styles strewn about me are influenced by my parents style; conservative, down to earth, knowing the importance of physical labor to make a living and seeing the beauty in what has been offered to us-where we live and what we've experienced. This is how I was raised and I will continue to live in this style.

Preschool Assessment Essay

This paper addresses the many questions the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation has received about testing four-year-olds. Our reasons for sharing this paper with early childhood practitioners, policymakers, and parents is three-fold: (a) to provide basic information about the terms and issues surrounding assessment; (b) to add an empirical and pragmatic perspective to what can sometimes be an impassioned debate; and (c) to affirm our commitment to doing what is best for young children and supporting those who develop the programs and policies that serve them. High/Scope believes child assessment is a vital and necessary component of all high quality early childhood programs. Assessment is important to understand and support young children’s development. It is also essential to document and evaluate how effectively programs are meeting their educational needs, in the broadest sense of this term. For assessment to occur, it must be feasible. That is, it must meet reasonable criteria regarding its efficiency, cost, and so on. If assessment places an undue burden on programs or evaluators, it will not be undertaken at all and the lack of data will hurt all concerned. In addition to feasibility, however, assessment must also meet the demands of ecological validity. The assessment must addresses the criteria outlined below for informing us about what children in real programs are learning and doing every day. Efficiency and ecological validity are not mutually exclusive, but must sometimes be balanced against one another. Our challenge is to find the best balance under the conditions given and, when necessary, to work toward altering those conditions. Practically speaking, this means we must continue to serve children using research-based practices, fulfill mandates to secure program resources, and improve assessment procedures to better realize our ideal. This paper sets forth the criteria to be considered in striving to make early childhood assessment adhere to these highest standards. Background The concern with assessment in the early childhood field is not new. Decades of debate are summarized in the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) publication Reaching Potentials: Appropriate Curriculum and Assessment for Young Children (Bredekamp & Rosegrant, 1992). This position statement has just been expanded in a new document titled Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation: Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8 (www. naeyc. org/resources/position_statements/pscape. asp). 1  What is new in this ongoing debate is the heightened attention to testing young children as a means of holding programs accountable for their learning. Assessment in the Classroom (Airasian, 2002) offers the following definitions: Assessment is the process of collecting, synthesizing, and interpreting information to aid classroom decision-making. It includes information gathered about pupils, instruction, and classroom climate. Testing is a formal, systematic procedure for gathering a sample of pupils’ behavior. The results of a test are used to make generalizations about how pupils would have performed in similar but untested behaviors. Testing is one form of assessment. It usually involves a series of direct requests to children to perform, within a set period of time, specific tasks designed and administered by adults, with predetermined correct answers. By contrast, alternative forms of assessment may be completed either by adults or children, are more open-ended, and often look at performance over an extended period of time. Examples include objective observations, portfolio analyses of individual and collaborative work, and teacher and parent ratings of children’s behavior. The current testing initiative focuses primarily on literacy and to a lesser extent numeracy. The rationale for this initiative, advanced in the No Child Left Behind Act and supported by the report of the National Reading Panel (2000), is that young children should acquire a prescribed body of knowledge and academic skills to be ready for school. Social domains of school readiness, while also touted as essential in a series of National Research Council reports (notably Eager to Learn, 2000a and Neurons to Neighborhoods, 2000b), are admittedly neither as widely mandated nor as â€Å"testable† as their academic counterparts. Hence, whether justified or not, they do not figure as prominently in the testing and accountability debate. This information paper responds to questions being asked of early childhood leaders about the use and misuse of testing for preschoolers 3 to 5 years old. This response is not merely a reactive gesture nor an attempt to advance and defend a specific position. Rather, the paper is intended as a resource to provide information about when and how preschool assessment in general, and testing and other forms of assessment in particular, can be appropriately used to inform policy decisions about early childhood programming. As a framework for providing this information, High/Scope accepts two realities. First, testing is, will be, and in fact always has been, used to answer questions about the effectiveness of early childhood interventions. Since early childhood programs attempt to increase children’s knowledge and skills in specific content areas, evaluators have traditionally used testing, along with other assessment strategies, to determine whether these educational objectives have been achieved. Second, program accountability is essential, and testing is one efficient means of measuring it. Numerous research studies show that high quality programs can enhance the academic and lifetime achievement of children at risk of school failure. This conclusion has 2 resulted in an infusion of public and private dollars in early education. It is reasonable to ask whether this investment is achieving its goal. Testing can play a role in answering this accountability question. With this reality as a background, this information paper proceeds to address two questions. First, given the current pervasive use of testing and its  probably expansion, when and under what conditions can this type of assessment be used appropriately with preschool-age children? That is, what characteristics of tests and their administration will guarantee that we â€Å"do no harm† to children and that we â€Å"do help† adults acquire valid information? Second, given that even the most well-designed tests can provide only limited data, how can we maximize the use of non-test assessments so they too add valuable information over and above that obtained through standardized testing procedures? General Issues in Assessment Uses of Child Assessment  Assessment can provide four types of information for and about children, and their parents, teachers, and programs. Child assessment can: 1. Identify children who may be in need of specialized services. Screening children to determine whether they would benefit from specific interventions is appropriate when parents, teachers, or other professionals suspect a problem. In these cases, assessments in several related domains are then usually administered to the child. In addition, data from parents and other adults involved with the child are considered in determining a diagnosis and course of treatment. 2. Plan instruction for individuals and groups of children. Assessment data can be used by teachers to support the development of individual children, as well as to plan instructional activities for the class as a whole. In addition, information on developmental progress can and should be shared with parents to help them understand what and how their children are learning in the classroom and how they can extend this learning at home. 3. Identify program improvement and staff development needs. Child assessments can provide formative evaluation data that benefit program and staff development. Findings can point to areas of the curriculum that need further articulation or resources, or areas where staff need professional development. If children in the classroom as a whole are not making progress in certain developmental domains, it is possible that the curriculum needs revision or that teachers need some additional training. In conducting formative evaluations, child data are best combined with program data that measure overall quality, fidelity to curriculum implementation standards, and specific teaching practices. 4. Evaluate how well a program is meeting goals for children. It is this fourth purpose, sometimes called outcome or summative evaluation, that is the primary focus of this paper. 3 Note that it is the program, not the child, who should be held accountable. Although data may be collected on individual children, data should be aggregated to determine whether the program is achieving its desired outcomes. These outcomes may be defined by the program itself and/or by national, state, or district standards. How the outcomes are measured is determined by the inextricable link between curriculum and assessment. Ideally, if a curriculum has clear learning objectives, those will drive the form and content of the measures. Conversely, thoughtful design of an appropriate assessment tool can encourage program developers to consider what and how adults should be teaching young children. Reliability and Validity Any formal assessment tool or method should meet established criteria for validity and reliability (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council of Measurement in Education, 1999). Reliability is defined as how well various measurements of something agree with each other, for example, whether a group of similar test items or two observers completing the same items have similar results. Validity has several dimensions. Content or face validity refers to how well an instrument measures what it claims to measure; ecological validity refers to the authenticity of the measurement context; and construct validity deals with the measure’s conceptual integrity. In assessing young children, two aspects of validity have special importance—developmental validity and predictive validity. Developmental validity means that the performance items being measured are developmentally suitable for the children being assessed. Predictive validity means the measure can predict children’s later school success or failure, as defined by achievement test scores or academic placements (on-grade, retained in grade, or placed in special education) during the elementary grades. Over the longer term, predictive validity can even refer to such outcomes as adult literacy, employment, or avoiding criminal activity. In Principles and Recommendations for Early Childhood Assessments, the National Education Goals Panel (1998) noted that â€Å"the younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable and valid assessment data. It is particularly difficult to assess children’s cognitive abilities accurately before age 6† (p. 5). Meisels (2003) claims â€Å"research demonstrates that no more than 25 per cent of early academic or cognitive performance is predicted from information obtained from preschool or kindergarten tests† (p. 29). Growth in the early years is rapid, episodic, and highly influenced by environmental supports. Performance is influenced by children’s emotional and motivational states, and by the assessment conditions themselves. Because these individual and situational factors affect reliability and validity, the Panel recommended that assessment of young children be pursued with the necessary safeguards and caveats about the accuracy of the decisions that can be drawn from the results. These procedures and cautions are explored below. 4 Testing. Appropriate Uses of Testing Standardized tests are used to obtain information on whether a program is achieving its desired outcomes. They are considered objective, time- and cost-efficient, and suitable for making quantitative comparisons. Testing can provide valid data when used appropriately and matched to developmental levels. Moreover, tests can act as teaching tools by providing a window into what children already know and where they need more time, practice, and/or help to improve. Creating a valid assessment for young children is a difficult task. It must be meaningful and authentic, evaluate a valid sample of information learned, be based on performance standards that are genuine benchmarks, avoid arbitrary cut-off scores or norms, and have authentic scoring. The context for the test should be rich, realistic, and enticing (Wiggins, 1992). It is therefore incumbent upon the creators of assessment tools to design instruments that—unlike artificial drills— resemble natural performance. If these conditions are met, young children are more likely to recognize what is being asked of them, thus increasing the reliability and validity of the results. Criteria of Reliable and Valid Preschool Tests Both the content and administration of tests must respect young children’s developmental characteristics. Otherwise the resulting data will be neither reliable nor valid. Worse, the testing experience may be negative for the child and perhaps the tester as well. Further, the knowledge and skills measured in the testing situation must be transferable and applicable in real-world settings. Otherwise the information gathered has no practical value. To produce meaningful data and minimize the risk of creating a harmful situation, tests for preschool-age children should satisfy the following criteria: 1. Tests should not make children feel anxious or scared. They should not threaten their selfesteem or make them feel they have failed. Tests should acknowledge what children know—or have the potential to learn—rather than penalizing them for what they do not know. 2. Testing should take place in, or simulate, the natural environment of the classroom. It should avoid placing the child in an artificial situation. Otherwise, the test may measure the child’s response to the test setting rather than the child’s ability to perform on the test content. 3. Tests should measure real knowledge in the context of real activities. In other words, the test activities as well as the test setting should not be contrived. They should resemble children’s ordinary activities as closely as possible, for example, discussing a book as the adult reads it. Furthermore, tests should measure broad concepts rather than narrow skills, for example, alphabetic and letter knowledge sampled from this domain rather than familiarity with specific letters chosen by the adult. 5 4. The tester should be someone familiar to the child. Ideally, the person administering the test would be a teacher or another adult who interacts regularly with the child. When an outside researcher or evaluator must administer the test, it is best if the individual(s) spend time in the classroom beforehand, becoming a familiar and friendly figure to the children. If this is not feasible, the appearance and demeanor of the tester(s) should be as similar as possible to adults with whom the child regularly comes in contact. 5. To the extent possible, testing should be conducted as a natural part of daily activities rather than as a time-added or pullout activity. Meeting this criterion helps to satisfy the earlier standards of a familiar place and tester, especially if the test can be administered in the context of a normal part of the daily routine (for example, assessing book knowledge during a regular reading period). In addition, testing that is integrated into standard routines avoids placing an additional burden on teachers or detracting from children’s instructional time. 6. The information should be obtained over time. A single encounter, especially if brief, can produce inaccurate or distorted data. For example, a child may be ill, hungry, or distracted at the moment of testing. The test is then measuring the child’s interest or willingness to respond rather than the child’s knowledge or ability with respect to the question(s) being asked. If timedistributed measurements are not feasible, then testers should note unusual circumstances in the situation (e. g. , noise) or child (e. g. , fatigue) that could render single-encounter results invalid and should either schedule a re-assessment or discount the results in such cases. 7. When repeated instances of data gathering are not feasible (e.g. , due to time or budgetary constraints), an attempt should be made to obtain information on the same content area from multiple and diverse sources. Just as young children have different styles of learning, so they will differentially demonstrate their knowledge and skills under varying modes of assessment. For example, a complete and accurate measure of letter knowledge may involve tests that employ both generative and recognition strategies. 8. The length of the test should be sensitive to young children’s interests and attention spans. If a test is conducted during a regular program activity (e. g. , small-group time), the test should last no longer than is typical for that activity. If it is necessary to conduct testing outside regular activities, the assessment period should last 10–20 minutes. Further, testers should be sensitive to children’s comfort and engagement levels, and take a break or continue the test at another day and time if the child cannot or does not want to proceed. 9. Testing for purposes of program accountability should employ appropriate sampling methods whenever feasible. Testing a representative sample of the children who participate in a program avoids the need to test every child and/or to administer all tests to any one child. Sampling strategies reduce the overall time spent in testing, and minimize the chances for placing undue stress on individual children or burdening individual teachers and classrooms. 6 Alternative Child Assessment Methods Alternative forms of assessment may be used by those who have reservations about, or want to supplement, standardized tests. These other methods often fall under the banner of â€Å"authentic† assessments. They engage children in tasks that are personally meaningful, take place in real life contexts, and are grounded in naturally occurring instructional activities. They offer multiple ways of evaluating students’ learning, as well as their motivation, achievement, and attitudes. This type of assessment is consistent with the goals, curriculum, and instructional practices of the classroom or program with which it is associated (McLaughlin & Vogt, 1997; Paris & Ayres, 1994). Authentic assessments do not rely on unrealistic or arbitrary time constraints, nor do they emphasize instant recall or depend on lucky guesses. Progress toward mastery is the key, and content is mastered as a means, not as an end (Wiggins, 1989). To document accomplishments, assessments must be designed to be longitudinal, to sample the baseline, the increment, and the preserved levels of change that follow from instruction (Wolf, Bixby, Glenn & Gardener, 1991). Alternative assessment can be more expensive than testing. Like their counterparts in testing, authentic measures must meet psychometric standards of demonstrated reliability and validity. Their use, especially on a widespread scale, requires adequate resources. Assessors must be trained to acceptable levels of reliability. Data collection, coding, entry, and analysis are also time- and cost-intensive. This investment can be seen as reasonable and necessary, however, if the goal is to produce valid information. Alternative child assessment procedures that can meet the criteria of reliability and validity include observations, portfolios, and ratings of children by teachers and parents. These are described below. Observations In assessing young children, the principal alternative to testing is systematic observation of children’s activities in their day-to-day settings. Observation fits an interactive style of curriculum, in which give-and-take between teacher and child is the norm. Although careful observation requires effort, the approach has high ecological validity and intrudes minimally into what children are doing. Children’s activities naturally integrate all dimensions of their development—intellectual, motivational, social, physical, aesthetic, and so on. Anecdotal notes alone, however, are not sufficient for good assessment. They do not offer criteria against which to judge the developmental value of children’s activities or provide evidence of reliability and validity. Instead, anecdotal notes should be used to complete developmental scales of proven reliability and validity. Such an approach permits children to engage in activities any time and anywhere that teachers can see them. It defines categories of acceptable answers rather than single right answers. It expects the teacher to set the framework for children to initiate their own activities. It embraces a broad definition of child development that includes not only language and mathematics, but also initiative, social relations, physical skills, and the arts. It is culturally sensitive when teachers are trained observers who focus on objective, culturally neutral descriptions of behavior (for example, â€Å"Pat hit Bob†) rather than subjective, culturally loaded 7 interpretations (for example, â€Å"Pat was very angry with Bob†). Finally, it empowers teachers by recognizing their judgment as essential to accurate assessment. Portfolios One of the most fitting ways to undertake authentic, meaningful evaluation is through the use of a well-constructed portfolio system. Arter and Spandel (1991) define a portfolio as a purposeful collection of student work that tells the story of the student’s efforts, progress, or achievement in (a) given area(s). This collection must include student participation in selection of portfolio content, the guidelines for selection, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-reflection (p. 36). Portfolios describe both a place (the physical space where they are stored) and a process. The process provides richer information than standardized tests, involves multiple sources and methods of data collection, and occurs over a representative period of time (Shaklee, Barbour, Ambrose, & Hansford, 1997). Portfolios have additional value. They encourage two- and three-way collaboration between students, teachers, and parents; promote ownership and motivation; integrate assessment with instruction and learning; and establish a quantitative and qualitative record of progress over time (Paris & Ayres, 1994; Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1991; Wolf & Siu-Runyan, 1996; Valencia, 1990). â€Å"Portfolios encourage teachers and students to focus on important student outcomes, provide parents and the community with credible evidence of student achievement, and inform policy and practice at every level of the educational system† (Herman & Winters, 1994, p. 48). The purposes for which portfolios are used are as variable as the programs that use them (Graves & Sunstein, 1993; Valencia, 1990; Wolf & Siu-Runyan, 1996). In some programs, they are simply a place to store best work that has been graded in a traditional manner. In others, they are used to create longitudinal systems to demonstrate the process leading to the products and to design evaluative rubrics for program accountability. There are also programs that merely have students collect work that is important to them as a personal, non-evaluative record of their achievements. When portfolios are not used to judge ability in some agreed-upon fashion, they are usually not highly structured and may not even include reflective pieces that demonstrate student growth and understanding. Portfolios are most commonly thought of as alternative assessments in  elementary and secondary schools. Yet they have long been used in preschools to document and share children’s progress with parents, administrators, and others. For portfolios to be used for program accountability, as well as student learning and reflection, the evaluated outcomes must be aligned with curriculum and instruction. Children must have some choice about what to include in order to feel ownership and pride. Portfolios should document the creative or problem-solving process as they display the product, encouraging children to reflect on their actions. Conversations with children about their portfolios engages them in the evaluation process and escalates their desire to demonstrate their 8 increasing knowledge and skills. Sharing portfolios with parents can help teachers connect school activities to the home and involve parents in their children’s education. Teacher Ratings Teacher ratings are a way to organize teacher perceptions of children’s development into scales for which reliability and validity can be assessed. Children’s grades on report cards are the most common type of teacher rating system. When completed objectively, report-card grades are tied to students’ performance on indicators with delineated scoring criteria, such as examinations or projects evaluated according to explicitly defined criteria. In these ways, teacher ratings can be specifically related to other types of child assessments including scores on standardized tests or other validated assessment tools, concrete and specific behavioral descriptions (e. g. , frequency of participation in group activities, ability to recognize the letters in one’s name), or global assessments of children’s traits (e. g. , cooperative, sociable, hard-working). Research shows that teacher ratings can have considerable short- and long-term predictive validity throughout later school years and even into adulthood (Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart, 1993). Parent Ratings Parent ratings are a way to organize parent perceptions of children’s development into scales for which reliability and validity can be assessed. Soliciting parent ratings is an excellent way for teachers to involve them as partners in the assessment of their children’s performance. The very process of completing scales can inform parents about the kinds of behaviors and milestones that are important in young children’s development. It also encourages parents to observe and listen to their children as they gather the data needed to rate their performance. An example of the use of parent ratings is the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) study, in which parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities and progress were related to measures of classroom quality and child outcomes (Zill, Connell, McKey, O’Brien et al. , 2001). Conclusion Recent years have seen a growing public interest in early childhood education. Along with that support has come the use of â€Å"high stakes† assessment to justify the expense and apportion the dollars. With so much at stake—the future of our nation’s children—it is imperative that we proceed correctly. Above all, we must guarantee that assessment reflects our highest educational goals for young children and neither restricts nor distorts the substance of their early learning. This paper sets forth the criteria for a comprehensive and balanced assessment system that meets the need for accountability while respecting the welfare and development of young children. Such a system can include testing, provided it measures applicable knowledge and skills in a safe and child-affirming situation. It can also include alternative assessments, provided they too meet psychometric standards of reliability and validity. Developing and implementing a balanced approach to assessment is not an easy or inexpensive undertaking. But because we value our children and respect those charged with their care, it is an investment worth making. 9 References Airasian, P. (2 002). A ssessment in the classroom. New Y ork: Mc Graw-H ill. American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council of Measu rement in E ducation. (1 999). S tanda rds for edu cationa l and psy cholog ical testing. W ashington, DC: American Psychological Association. Arter, J. A. , & Spande l, V. (199 2). Using p ortfolios of stud ent work in instru ction and a ssessment. E ducational Measurement Issues and Practice, 36–44. Brede kamp, S. , & Rosegra nt, T. (Ed s. ) (1992 ). R eaching Potentials: Appropriate Curriculum and Assessment for Young Children . Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Graves, D . H. , & Sun stein, B. S. (19 92). P ortfolio p ortraits . New Hampshire: Heinemann. Herma n, J. L. , & W inters, L. (199 4). Portfo lio research: A slim collection . E duca tional Lea dership , 5 2 (2), 48–55. McLa ughlin, M. , & Vogt, M . (1997) . P ortfolios in teacher education . Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Meisels, S. (2003, 19 March). Can Head Start pass the test? E ducation Week , 2 2 (27), 44 & 29. National A ssociation for the Educa tion of Yo ung Childre n and Na tional Assoc iation of Ear ly Childhoo d Specia lists in State Dep artments of E ducation (2 003, N ovemb er. E arly Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program Evaluation: Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth Through Age 8 . ) Washin gton, DC : Authors. Av ailable online at www. naeyc. org/resources/position_statements/pscape. asp. N ational E ducation G oals Pane l. (1998). P rinciples and rec ommen dations for early childh ood assessm ents. Washington, DC: Author. National R eading P anel. (200 0). T eaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Washin gton, DC : National In stitute of Child Health and Human Developm ent, National Institutes of Health. National R esearch C ouncil. (20 00a). E ager to learn : Educating our preschoo lers. W ashington, DC: National Academy P ress. National R esearch C ouncil. (20 00b). N eurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, D C: National Acad emy Press. Paris, S. G . , & Ayers, L. R . (1994) . B ecom ing reflective s tudents a nd teach ers with po rtfolios and authen tic assessment. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Paulson, F. L. , Paulson, P. R. , & Meyer, C. A. (1991). What makes a portfolio a portfolio? E duca tional Lea dership , 48 (5), 60–63. Schweinha rt, L. J. , Barne s, H. V. , & Weika rt, D. P. (19 93). S ignificant benefits: The High/Scope Perry Preschool study through age 27 . Ypsilanti, MI: High/Sco pe Press. Shaklee, B . D. , Barb our, N. E ., Ambros e, R. , & H ansford, S. J . (1997) . D esigning and using portfolios. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Valencia , S. W. (1 990). A portfolio ap proach to classroom reading asse ssment: Th e whys, whats an d hows. T he Reading Teacher , 4 3 (4), 338–340. Wiggins, G . (1992) . Creating tests wo rth taking. E duca tional Lea dership , 4 9 (8), 26–33. Wolf, D. , Bixby, J. , Glenn, J. , & Gardner, H. (1991). To use their minds well: Investigating new forms of student assessment. In G. Gran t (Ed. ), R eview of research in education, V ol 17 ( pp. 31–74). Washington D. C. : American Educational Research Association. Wolf, K . , & Siu-Run yan, Y.(19 96). Po rtfolio purpo ses and po ssibilities. J ournal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 40 (1), 30–37. Zill, N. , Conn ell, D. , Mc Key, R. H . , O’Brien, R . et al. (2001 , January). H ead Start FACES: Longitudinal Findings on Pro gram P erforma nce, Third Progres s Report. W ashington, DC: Administration on Children, Youth and Families, U. S. Depa rtment of Health and H uman Services. 10 High/Scope Assessment Resources High/Scope has developed and validated three preschool assessment instruments. Two are for children, one focusing specifically on literacy and the other more broadly on multiple domains of development. The third measure is used to assess and improve the quality of all aspects of early childhood programs. These alternative assessments are described below. Early Literacy Assessment In the Fall of 2004, High/Scope will release the Early Literacy Assessment (ELA), which will evaluate the four key principles of early literacy documented in the Early Reading First Grants and the No Child Left Behind legislation: phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, comprehension, and concepts about print. Evaluation will take place in a meaningful context that is familiar to children.

Facilitate Continuous Improvement Essay

Assessment Activity 1 1. You work for an organisation that does not actively encourage its employees to participate in decision-making processes, and to assume responsibility and exercise initiative as appropriate. What would you say to convince the organisation’s management that they should actively encourage employees to assume responsibility and initiative? Write a transcript of what you would say. â€Å"Although not encouraged, recently I decided to let our ICT Support Specialist head up the roll out of our new Antivirus solution. I presented him with the project and advised that he will be managing it and will need to source the resources required and also the process. The only information I provided was a deadline of 4 weeks to complete the project/rollout Firstly the feedback I got from the Support Specialist was incredibly positive. He was excited to run his own project and make his own decisions on how to complete it. It brought out a different side to an employee whom sometimes finds it hard to stay motivated. The project is in its final stages now and has ran very smoothly and is well ahead of schedule. I believe encouraging employees to make their own decisions does boost initiative and this is one example of how extra responsibility and the opportunity for a non-management employee to work autonomously brings in very positive results. This is something I would like to encourage to my department more often as I believe I can get excellent outcomes on upcoming projects. 2. Do you consider group decision-making to be a valuable tool that will aid in encouraging employees to participate in decision-making processes, and to assume responsibility and exercise initiative? Explain. I strongly believe any decision making process privileges that one can grant to employees can be very beneficial as stated above in the example. This shows trust in employees, and I believe giving employees extra responsibilities can have a very positive effect. In a group decision making environment, this also promotes team work. Having a department making decisions together is a great way to encourage this. Assessment Activity 2 1. Your organisation has changed the way it accepts payments from customers/clients to make the process easier for clients/customers. What would you do to ensure that the organisations continuous improvement processes are communicated to all stakeholders? I believe this is something the whole organisation should be aware of, this way any client facing employees can better explain this to customers/clients in the event questions or queries are raised. Stakeholders would include clients/customers so I believe a communication in the form of a letter/email should be sent out to all the client base explaining how the new payment process works and how it will benefit them. The most important part is to promote it as a positive change for the client/customers. Assessment Activity 3 1. Define sustainability and outline why organisations should develop workplace sustainability policies. Sustainability in a business sense is the management the impact the organisation has in it’s environment. The impact can cover areas that not only include the â€Å"environment† but also the staff, client base and even the finances of the organisation. Developing Sustainability policies is very important in a number of ways. It can be promoted by the organisation that they follow this policy in order to achieve a smaller carbon footprint, however at the same time this could be saving the organisation money. For example, the organisation decides to implement double sided printing, now this is reducing paper usage which is fantastic to the environment, however it is also reducing the amount of paper the organisation is purchasing, therefor reducing expenditure. 2. Research environmental management issues for the workplace and state why these issues should be taken into consideration when planning and managing an organisation’s operations. The main issue as with most organisations is their impact to the environment and their footprint. This can effect a number of areas within the organisation, including reputation to their clients/customers, general publics views/opinions, employees and even the companies finances. In an office environment such as Status Industries. The main concerns are overuse of paper and printing products, lighting usage and power consumption. These can all be addressed. See table on next page how Status Industries has engaged these issues with policies. Environmental Issue Impact Resolution Result Over Usage of Paper in printing Environment, Cost of Paper, Paper Wastage Double Sided Printing forced on all Xerox devices within organisation Dramatic reduction in paper usage. Cost of paper saved. Colour Printing Usage in office High usage of colour toners where not needed, cost impact as colour prints more expensive than black and white. Force default Black and White printing. Requiring staff to have to select colour printing if they require it. All Staff email sent explaining cost of colour printing over black and white Black and White printing increased. Less colour toner usage. Cost savings. Lighting Lighting currently on 24 hours a day. Expensive power bills and waste of electricity Timers installed on lights to switch off at 8pm every night and to be off over weekend periods Dramatic cost saving and less usage of power. Cost saving on replacing globes. Electricity Wasting Computers and monitors switched on 24/7, wasted electricity usage, expensive electricity bills Email sent out by management detailing a new policy to switch off PC’s at night when finished. Exclusions from this are staff whom like Reduction in power. Reputation from general public boosted as windows are on main road and public can see Monitors are left on at night time. Assessment Activity 6 You have been asked to develop strategies to ensure that systems and processes are used to monitor operational progress and to identify ways in which planning and operations could be improved. In particular, your organisation wants you to determine whether processes currently carried out by employees are as efficient as possible. How would you go about doing this? Firstly you could perform an audit of the current processes. Let’s look at a new employee process and how this is setup from at an IT viewpoint. The current process below Now there have been several flaws in this process. Mainly the communication breakdown with Human Resource and IT which has resulted in accounts not been created in time. There are ways to alter the current process and instil new procedures to ensure the process is more successful. The proposed changes are below: A timeframe of at least 10 days for Human Resource to allow for the completion of IT’s account creation and asset allocation (PC/Laptop, Mobile Phone) Accountability to one staff member in Human Resources to communicate with an IT staff member regarding any change to the process and vice versa. A written and ISO approved document on the procedure. This is from the beginning stages with HR to the finishing touches on the IT stages. This is to be given to all staff members in both departments and signed by each staff member. So it is on record as being understood by each employee in case further action/education/disciplinary discussion is required. Assessment Activity 7 You have determined that adjustments should be made in your work team. Changes need to be made to the way customer complaints are recorded and dealt with. How would you go about communicating the need for change to strategies to relevant stakeholders? Relevant stakeholders internally are first and foremost the executive team, they are the ones that make the organisational impact decisions. Changing the way customer complaints are dealt with is something they will need to provide input for. Once they have approved the said solution this should be communicated in several forms to the customer base. This can be done by posting letters, emails and on the main page of a website. In the planning stages communicating three different alternative solutions to Executive Management would be a good first step. Explaining and selling the reasons why this should be changed. The main goal in mind for making a change that effects customers, is to ensure it is a â€Å"better solution† A good example of this is a large organisation such as Telstra. They have a reputation for having less than satisfactory customer service via phone. Customers have complained about being transferred multiple times and not getting a solution. Telstra has made large steps to improve customer service and have introduced a â€Å"Chat† service. This is ideal for people who have a desk job and don’t have the time to be on a phone. You speak to one representative and can explain information a lot easier. This is a very positive step that other organisations in the industry have followed. Selling the vision to relevant stakeholders, explaining how it will benefit the customer base. Remembering please customers not only retains a base, it can increase reputation and perhaps even allow for expansion of customer base. Assessment Activity 9 2. Give examples of aids/tools that can be used to document the data from a checklist Several graphs and tables can aid the recording of this data and also to report on the data collected. Such Graphs that could be used in this instance are Pie Graph to show the amount of a certain defect on a certain shift to compare where most of the errors are occurring Line Graph to show where the peak period of errors occur Histograms to show similar to the above Example of a Pie Graph for the above table 3. Why do graphs and charts provide a good representation of data? Graphs and charts provide a graphical view of the overall picture. As shown above in the Table of Data and also the Pie Graph. Straight away by looking at the Pie Graph you can see the trend. When analysing data Graphs are the best way to do this instead of tables. It can be a quick reference guide compared to sifting through a large amount of numbers. On the subject of trends. Line Graphs can show this better than most methods in some cases where using a line graph is applicable. For example. To see how many defects over a 24 hour period took place in a factory environment. Here you can see where defects dipped and were at a minimum and also peaked and showed a maximum. From this data you can easily see where pain points are in a situation and then provide a possible resolution. Assessment Tool 2 1. How can an organisations continuous improvement processes be communicated to all stakeholders and how can individuals and teams be encouraged and supported to embrace it? Communicating change in any organisation is important. Stakeholders in certain situations depending on the scale of change could include almost every employee. Best practice is to have a seminar or training session to highlight the need for certain changes or continuous improvement. For example if the organisation wants to be ISO accredited in a certain area, then it becomes vital for all employees to play a part. Explaining the positives the improvement will entail will certainly sell the vision. 2. Having made a decision about what to do to improve an organisations processes, what should you do to plan for the implementation of that change? A Project Plan is always a good start. This can outline the schedule and resources required, identify the tasks and objectives associated. Communication again is very important with any change, to ensure all of the organisation (if applicable) is aware of the change. The key thing to remember is, people don’t like change if they haven’t been advised. 3. Explain the difference between Feedback and feed forward control. Feed-Forward Control is a measure that regulates inputs. This can be resources such as human resource, financial and material. This is a proactive measure to allow management to prevent issues instead of having to resolve them later. This is known to be a time consuming exercise, 4. What processes might be used to ensure that team members are informed of outcomes of continuous improvement efforts? Why is this necessary and how will this contribute toward further improvements? Reports can be sent to team members on a set time frame (monthly, quarterly) this could include data and graphs/tables. Graphs are a great way to visually see trends and also to gauge whether there has been improvement in  a certain area. It also determines where there are possible issues. It allows the team to strategize where and how they can improve. 5. What is continuous improvement? Continuous improvement is an infinite process to improve a service, product or process. Depending on the type of industry the organisation is in will determine what areas of will utilize this type of method. Let’s look at an IT department, who has an inbuilt database every employee uses for the day to day tasks. A prototype has been created of this software, and it is in production. However there will always be room for improvement for any software, so constant updating is done on the software, the applications team within the IT Department work each day on add-ons or improvements. What started out as version 1.00 has now turned into 2.34 in the space of 3 years. 6. What can you do to support improvements now and in the future? Improvement in an organisation comes with ideas from the team. This can be suggestions raised in meetings, feedback and communication. The only way to improve processes, products or services is to communicate with departments and key members of staff. Having evidence in front of employees such as graphs is a great way to visually demonstrate where improvement is needed in certain areas. Concentrating on weak points in the organisation is the key to improvement. Assessment Tool 3: Project Continuous improvement is common in most organisations in some degree. This is an exercise that can cover a number of areas. Usually the three areas are as follows Process Products Service Process in the context of continuous improvement can look at ways to improve the said process. Let’s look at the example of a crucial process in a majority of organisations. A login is required for every employee who starts with the company. This is for them to login to their desktop and perform day  to day functions. The process is as follows. The problem is with this process is communication is relied upon. There is no official area where data can be obtained. IT need to wait for HR to provide information, then HR have to wait for IT, The manager of a new employee has to wait for IT and HR. There has been several flaws with this. Improvement can be done is a number of ways. 1. Have a meeting with HR and IT to establish procedures and timeframes 2. Look at a more centralised system where details can be accessed. It was later decided a shared calendar on Sharepoint with email alerts when entries are created to be sent to all HR and IT staff. HR would enter a new starter on this calendar, IT would see the details and create the account. They would then add the relevant login details to the calendar and notify the manager. This is seen as a better process, but one that can still be improved upon. There can be a period of trial over a set timeframe to see if it can be improved even further. Taking as much manual labour out of the equation will reduce the amount of errors, oversights etc. Now looking at service. Customer Service or Service Delivery (in an internal environment) is extremely important in any industry. Good customer service means happy clients, more clients which leads to a successful organisation. Let’s look at the example of an ISP. They have 3 core call centre departments, a Sales, Billing and Technical Support area. How can we gauge what customers impressions are of the level of customer service? A good way is after a phone call to have a rating system where a customer can rate the level of service is received from 1-5. 5 being exceptional and 1 being appalling. This is the first step in continuous improvement in customer service. The survey could be on going or could be over a set period. Either way reporting could be sent on the results to managers/team leaders. There might be a number of trends identified. Staff with exceptional consistent ratings could be rewarded. Staff with lower or appalling ratings could be trained to improve their skill. Reporting for this survey could be time stamped, so graphs could be created when staff aren’t providing a good level of customer service. You may see a trend like Monday being the worst performing day or  Friday afternoon. Education, Training are a number ways to continue the improvement of customer service. As well as awards or rewards as stated above. The final area is products. If an organisation is in the business of developing and distributing products, their main concern with continuous improvement will be developing this product to ensure it is the best in their market. If in a mass production environment, quality control would be paramount to ensure product defects are at a minimum or non existent. Earlier in this document a graph was created showing defect levels over certain shifts. This is a great way to isolate where improvement is needed. Why did a certain shift have so many defects? Is there something wrong with the team who is assigned to these shifts? This may involve further staff training, disciplinary action or new staff members involved. Sometimes it could be as simple as making a clearly defined process to get a product complete without issues. Let’s look at the example of Microsoft. They are the pioneers of operating systems. According to data for the years 2004 – 2009, Microsoft on average has covered around 90% of the market across the globe. (see graph on next page) This is an extraordinary number and one that comes with pressure and responsibility to ensure its product is up to an elite standard. Microsoft will release Operating Systems every 4 years on average, however after the release they will continue to build on the operating system. Adding features, fixing bugs, improving the overall experience. Also it offers support to customers with forums such as Technet and the obvious customer support. The updating is the main part of continuous improvement. This builds towards the next version of the Operating System which in some cases not all, will be an absolute improvement over the predecessor. Example being Windows 8, they have received overwhelming feedback that consumers are not favourable of the start menu being removed. They listened and implemented a start menu of some description in Windows 8.1 and it will return in Windows 10. Risk Management comes into play with most decisions or implementation of a new process. With the three examples shown above a Risk Management assessment of some degree/scale would be included. For the example. Microsoft would need to investigate whether continuing support for an operating system would be viable. They will usually release a statement to  the public explaining how long their support and updates will be created for Operating System. Microsoft also would have weighed the pro’s and cons for implementing a start menu feature into 8.1. Customer satisfaction is a high priority, however if it isn’t feasible it would be a risk to implement it. As you’re using resources and time to implement something rather major. Wouldn’t this be better spent developing on the next version. How does continuous improvement affect employees? This question is very important. As employees are a major part of how well an organisation succeeds. An example of this would be an entrepreneurial firm which is small. Employees are driven to succeed because a sense of ownership due to it being only around 20 staff members, each is aware of their responsibilities and are directly accountable for certain roles. However the firm’s hierarchy believe the best way moving forward is to grow. As the growth takes place the sense of ownership has decreased. The culture will understandably change. Therefor it is incredibly important in the early stages prior to making major changes such as growth, that the organisation creates a culture that values accountability and to provide for accountability in organizational design. Communication in a small company will be different to a larger one. There would be little need for formal communication and any sort of reporting as they are all in th e same small location. They also understand what is important to communicate due to the scale of workload. The change here as it grows would need to be subtle. Explaining to current staff the need/requirement to implement different ways we must communicate. It is logistically going to be impossible to have a general talk with another colleague about something critical when they are in the East coast of the United States and you are based at Head Office in Sydney Australia. If this is educated earlier, it will provide a better understanding from long standing employees on how it will benefit the organisation, this once again comes back to the culture created. The employee will see this will a positive for the organisation. Attitude towards change can vary dependent on factors such as the average age and tenure with the organisation as well. Why do organisations feel the need to incorporate continuous improvement sometimes is dependent on the type of industry. The pressures of certain industries almost forces organisation to  implement continuous improvement. The Business Environment refers to the factors that affect an organisation’s ability to be competitive in their market. Kodak for example, were a leader in photographic/camera film. However the environment changed around them dramatically in recent years with digital photography taking over the market. Film was no longer the medium used. It saw a decline in revenue ($14.5bn in 1995 to $2.35bn in 2013) A lot of companies would not of survived something this dramatic. Kodak revolutionised and changed their way of thinking. Kodak had to shrink in size and effectively start again, go back to basics. It kept the best minds they had to brainstorm how to continue. Kodak is now a leader in photo print paper, packaging, commercial film and speciality chemicals. Although Kodak isn’t a good example of â€Å"improvement† there is an argument for continuity. Not many companies have survived when hit with a change of the scale photography went through over 10 years ago. It is a credit to Kodak they were able to adapt to change and strive to succeed with improvement to the way they work in their industry.

buy custom Leadership in Health Care essay

buy custom Leadership in Health Care essay In order to understand fully the concept of leadership in health care it is imperative to realize the meaning of a good leader. A good leader is the one who puts away the personal ambitions that he or she has for the better good of the community and the organization taken as a whole. Therefore, he or she is able to unite and lead the workers to teamwork as they aspire to come out with the best out of the business world. So as much as the success of business depends on the employees, it also depends on the type of leadership that is given. Consequently, true leadership means that the leader has to come out with new ways and means of ensuring that the outcomes of every decision are positive. This can be done through critical monitoring and analysis of the employees at the workplace. One other concept about leadership is that it requires constant fine tuning and this means that the employers should always be on their feet getting the best qualified leaders to do the job that they requir e. The concept is the same in healthcare (Oliver, 2006). Therefore, healthcare practitioners constantly need to revise the way they understand the concept of leadership and this means that they have to come out with newer and better ways of tackling the problem of conceptualizing the attributes that a true leader should posses. The meaning of a word is that the leader has evolved drastically from the normal meaning of someone whom is leading to someone who has the authority over his or her subjects but uses it appropriately. Therefore, an empowered leader is the one who is needed by an organization in order to prosper. In the modern world healthcare units, leadership is identified as a common but essential role that is needed to empower the organization and move the ideas that the practitioners have towards better side in terms of provision of services. Thus, leadership is no longer something that the health care practitioners can do without. There are numerous styles that are usual ly employed in the health care system in order to attain the kind of leadership that is not oppressive but at the same time is still not reluctant. There are usually a lot of similarities in the health care environment and also differences that are yet to be discovered. However, one factor that stands out is that the new healthcare environment does not employ the same kind of leadership that was employed in the past years but in contrast, the new leadership styles are not only diverse but also they are more effective. Nonetheless, the most common type of leadership is the open door type of one that is very common amongst the leaders of complex healthcare organizations. This type of leaders does not rely on one aspect but in contrast, the leaders are decentralized and this means that they are more participative in the issues of the organization. However, the type of leadership that is rarely seen is the autocratic leadership which has dictatorial tendencies. In the recent past, there was a new wave of revolution that has required that leaders change the way that they focus on ideologies and come out with newer ways and means of controlling their employees. So this means that the leaders have had to reconsider the way that they carry out their duties and in overall this means a reconsideration of roles (Goodwin, 2005). Employees in the new type of leadership are unwilling to work under authoritarian rule due to the fact that they have been enlightened of their rights and the ways and means that they can change the paternalistic leadership towards being an open door leadership style. The new type of employees have greater need than the ones of the past century and this means that they have to come out with newer ideas since they can no longer work in oppressive environments like the olden day workers. On the contrary, many contemporary organizations still operate on the same basic concepts as the ones that were used by our forefathers. Employees have started demanding the type of leaders that are not only intelligent but also thoughtful. This means that leadership has moved from a central figure to being distributive across the field. For that reason, the mismanagement of employees by their leaders in the healthcare organizations in order to achieve the goals that the organization has set forth is not possible longer. Roles and Responsibilities The roles of leaders in the organization has been considerably changing from being overseers to becoming the radical and complex people who champion the rights of their employees while they are knowledgeable and also not self centered (Barr Dowding, 2008). The new roles that they have taken include: Teaching Inspiring and giving the employees confidence Empowering the employees Improving the performance through clinical supervision Rewarding and recognizing individual efforts Recognizing the needs for service Leading and developing services through the implementation of change They act as a bridge between the senior managers and workers Supporting the organization with knowledge Ensuring the goals of the organization are in line with the needs of the society and the government As aforementioned, the roles of the leaders in the healthcare organization have become even more diverse than they used to be. The leaders first and foremost are viewed by the employees and the senior members who employed them as teachers. This means that they are the ones who are to supervise them and also guide the way that they carry out their duties and this should be through dialogue and not through dictatorship. It also means that they are the ones who ar supposed to come out with new ideas that would greatly help the healthcare organization to move forward in terms of growth. The other role that the leader plays is to give the employees overall confidence in the work that they are doing in order to work them harder. This is indirectly some form of incentive (Shanks, 2011). Inspiring the employees is a key role in ensuring that the organization meets its goals as an organization that does not have inspired employees usually failing to succeed. In the new healthcare leadership s ystem, the other new role is to empower the employees in order to give them an idea that they are better than other employees in other organizations. When the employees are empowered it will mean that they will want to be associated with the organization in order to ensure that they portray the image that they have been bestowed. The other role of the leader in a healthcare organization is to reward the employees who have worked diligently in order to boost their morale and also encourage other employees to join the initiative of working harder in order to become better and recognized. In order for a leader to be respected, the first and foremost duty that he or she has to carry ensuring that the services of the employee are recognized. This will later grow into appreciation and, therefore, the whole process will lead to better understanding between the employer and an employee. Styles The style of leadership that a leader uses usually depends on countless number of factors. However, one factor that stands out is that the leader is the one who has the key when it comes to the matter of running the show. However, this supposition does not mean that the leader is in any way tyrannical as the modern day health workers are aware of their rights. There are different types of leadership styles in the new era organization. However, the most common one as aforementioned is the open door leader. The types of leadership are discussed below. Open-door Leadership Style This type of leadership style involves an open minded leader who is collegial in terms of the way that he or she runs the team. The leadership style is the most common nowadays due to various reasons and the most common reason as to why it is liked due to the fact that it leads to common satisfaction to both the leader and the employees. The ideas that are important move freely in a team are greatly encouraged. Therefore, this leadership style is one that is liked and very important in ensuring that an organization is steady and grows positively. The leadership style also ensures that everyone in the organization is given a chance to air out the ideas that he or she has in order to better the overall idea that would come out. One of the positive aspects of this type of leadership is the fact that it provides creative groups. This means that there is the flow of ideas amongst the team members and this overly leads to positive growth. In addition to that, it creates new concepts and id ea. The other positive aspect is that this type of leadership involves consulting. This is a major component that makes this leadership globally acceptable. The possibilities are widely explored before the final decision is made that would encompass all the ideas that are important (McConnell, 2011). The other positive aspect of this type of leadership is that it is very applicable to much of the service industry. This means that there are new ideas that help in the creation of a flexible environment. This in addition means that it is easily applicable since the demands of the patients are always considered. The other good aspect about this type of leadership is that it requires knowledge and, therefore, it is imperative that the leader who uses it has some basic education. This is in line with the modern way of leadership that requires knowledgeable leaders. In addition to these positives, this type of leadership is also quite effective considering some facts about it. The first fa ctor is that this type of leadership enables open communication. This type of communication is one that is open for business and also helpful since it helps to avert situations like strikes amongst health workers due to miscommunication. The leadership style is based on the notion that everyone needs to be free and willing to contribute whenever a matter of concern is raised. From the factors being discussed, it is evident that the open door style is the kind of leadership style that is bound to be present for a long period of time. On the other hand, one factor that the leader should always keep in mind is the boundaries that it creates and this is made to ensure that the employee does not have the notion that the leader does not require respect. This is good for both the organization and the individual. Authoritarians Authoritarian type of rule is linked to miscommunication and the unwillingness by leaders to share ideas and support unity amongst the employees. This type of leadership was considerably witnessed during the golden era but nowadays it is unheard of it in the health care system as the employees would no agree to it. The failure of a leader means that the whole health care system fails. In the past, the employees of numerous organizations did not get support from their heads and this meant that they had to involve themselves in activities that were not productive. In the healthcare system where this type of leadership was practiced, the new employees did not feel welcome and secure even if they were offered job security packages. This is obviously transslated to low productivity in the job area which meant that there was an overall failure by the company visvis the health care organization (Pelote, 2007). When these types of leaders are told of the wrongs that they are doing, the best response that they give is being even more aggressive and that is why this type of leadership is not welcome in the healthcare profession. Authoritarian leadership is not widely practiced but if it were, there would be numerous oppositions across the nursing world since the workers have come to know of their rights more clearly and would not accept the oppressions that it brings forth. However, one factor that stands out is that the Theories of Leadership in Western Health Care There are four major theories of leadership in western health care. The first one is the participative theory. This theory presupposes that the ideal type of leadership is one that takes the ideas of other people into account. Therefore, this type of leadership is centered on the unity of ideas and the will by people to come together and share whatever they have for the overall benefit of the health care organization. It is widely practiced in the western healthcare institutions as the new generation of employees prefers this type of leadership to the authoritarian rule. On the other hand, it is the leader who allows the input of specific members. The other leadership hypothesis is the management theory. This type of leadership is also referred to as transactional theory and is mainly focused on supervision of the workers. The other main focus is group performance as the aforementioned theory. This theory bases the leadership on rewards or punishments. That is, if an employee works h ard, he or she is rewarded and if he or she fails, he or she is punished. This type of leadership is also greatly and vastly used in the healthcare system. The third theory is the relationship theory which is also referred to as transformational theory and focuses on good connection between the healthcare leaders and the employees. Therefore, the leaders motivate and inspire their subjects as discussed earlier in this paper to come out with an overall good type of leadership. Thus, the main focus is unity for help. The other focus of this type of leadership is focus on positive performance and therefore, it is an important one at the job market and also the society on the whole (O'Grady, 2010). The members are additionally encouraged to focus on ways and means that they can fulfill their goals of excellent performance. Ethics and morals are what guide a leader of this type. The final theory of leadership style in western healthcare is the trait theory. This theory presupposes that p eople inherit some traits that carry the way that they perform and relate in the job area. These types of leaders assume some social class and traits that are not common amongst any type of leader and that is why they are viewed as unique ones. In overall, these theories of leadership in western health care are excellent since all of them subject to performance and unity plus universal decision making in the job area. There is the distance between the 'heroic' concepts of leadership and the present day reality of health care Heroic Leaders A heroic leader is one who uses the power that he or she has in his or her position to make unilateral decisions. Consequently, this type of leadership assumes all the blame that befalls on the employees and is something that is quite obvious in history. However, the new types of leadership are defined as post heroism leaderships. With that noted, there is a great distance between the concepts of heroic leadership and the current reality. In the current reality, the type of leadership that is happening is one that encourages individual participation unlike the heroic leader who is deemed as superior and the one who makes all the decisions. The heroic leader is someone who is focused on one goal while the present day healthcare leaders even though they deal primarily with the health care system are the diverse in thoughts and actions (Benington Hartley, 2010). A good example would be to look at the governance that was in the olden day health care institutions and the one that has bee n assumed in the contemporary health care institutions to note the great difference in the way the leader was revered but not respected unlike the contemporary leaders. Therefore, the two type of leadership not only have differences but also diverse ones that are born with time and ideas that the employees have on leadership. In the past, the employees preferred a leader who was authoritarian and the legal system could not assist them come out strongly unlike the current times. Sometime the heroic leader was usually defined more of a state than a realistic version. This is because this type of leader is not easily found in the society due to the fact that he or she is the one who takes the blame of the team. It is highly unlikely that a leader like this would be effective in terms of decision making and that is why the new breed of leaders are the best as long as they do not encourage tyrannical rule. Heroism does not really help when it comes to matters of decision making due to th e reasons that have be listed above. The new world order is quite different and that is why the role of the health practitioners in addition to the ideologies are changing and that is why democracy which sometimes is referred to open minded leadership is the one that contemporary leaders really use. The discussion above clearly shows the pros of being a good leader which are known to cause the success or failure of a company visvis in this case scenario of the healthcare centers. Buy custom Leadership in Health Care essay