Senior Project Reflection...#2?

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? 

I am most proud of the general amount of effort put forth into my senior project.

Why?
I attempted the AE in my senior project as I saw it as an ideal challenge. My presentation has been worked on for a while, and I had been constantly refining my various components before I turned them in.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

AP+. (It's the highest I could get.) :c

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P/P+.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

My entire senior project inspired some very creative ideas that I could not have come up with my own. It exposed me to real life situations and to obtain an extremely helpful mentor who will continue to help me in future endeavors.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would have put even more effort into my senior project, because I felt I did well, but did function to my absolute fullest potential. Also, I would have made a better website. Look at Independent Component 2.1.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

It has been extremely helpful to me because it has helped inspire creativity, allowed me to learn code, enlightened me about real world educational situations, and has given me a mentor that will continue to advise me in the real world. Additionally, it has allowed to fully understand the educational system that I will be partaking in, and it has led me to admit skepticism and realize why it is so important.

Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? 

I am most proud of the amount of work I put into my presentation in general, and the amount of effort put forth into my senior project.

Why?
I almost attempted the AE position in my senior project, as I saw it as an ideal challenge. My presentation had been worked on for a while.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

AP.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

My entire senior project inspired some very creative ideas that I could not have come up with my own. It exposed me to real life situations and to obtain an extremely helpful mentor who will continue to help me in future endeavors.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would put even more effort into my senior project as a whole, and rehearse my presentation more fluently, adding more content.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

It has been extremely helpful to me because it has helped inspire creativity, allowed me to learn code, enlightened me about real world educational situations, and has given me a mentor that will continue to advise me in the real world. Additionally, it has allowed to fully understand the educational system that I will be partaking in.

The End!

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 

- Mark Twain

Alas, it is nearly the end of our high school careers, and I have now completed my senior project in its entirety. I have completed over 65 articles of research averaging 26 pages each for a total of nearly 1700 pages. I have spent 50 hours alongside my mentor who has helped guided me on my mission to find the problems in education, and another 65 hours completing independent components - projects I have assigned myself.

The infamous senior research project has opened my eyes into the world of inequity. Education suffers from a myriad of problems, and multiple sources have pointed out potential solutions. Awaiting the technological classroom revolution, formfitting our curriculum to suit workforce needs, and giving more welfare programs to the disadvantaged have all been on our agenda - But none of that solves the problem.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the wealthiest students in America on average receive 4-6 times the individual student expenditures that disadvantaged students receive. This hugely increased amount of resources gives a large disadvantage to students who actually need the federal and state support. In this way, inequality has played a huge part in education, and has to be resolved before anything can be done with our educational system.

If we eliminate relative inequality in America, we will not only solve the crisis of our educational system, but also of our slumping economy, damaged workforce, and hurt society.

Mentorship

Content:

    Literal

My mentor is Donald Bower, at Edward Jones' Financial Advisory.

    Interpretive

     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

 The most important thing I have gained from this experience is how the financial world operates. This both helps me towards Senior Project in answering my essential question, and for furthering my future endeavors in the subject of Finance - I plan to achieve a Finance minor.

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

I learned a lot about school funding and expenditures, which is a very large part of my topic, especially pertaining to my third answer relating to socioeconomic inequality. My mentor had assigned me a research project where I was a theoretical school, and I had to allocate my funding wisely. Doing this was a large part of truly grasping my third answer of "To ensure students are granted equal educational opportunity" because it gave me the research backing needed to truly comprehend the facts that make my answer possible.

Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

 

My essential question is "How can a nonprofit best promote high school education to socioeconomically disadvantaged teenagers in Los Angeles?" My first answer is "To push for a reform in education that emphasizes workforce training. My second answer is "To support teachers with effective technology integration within educational environments." My third answer is "To ensure students are granted equal educational opportunity." My best answer by far is my third answer, because educational opportunity is extremely dependent upon socioeconomic status. Improving the educational opportunities for those who do not necessarily have high economic status will repair the wide gap between the wealthy and the poor. Unless this gap is repaired, technological implementation or effective workforce training will not be effective.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

 

Lots and lots and lots of research.  I had to think a lot about the underlying problems of education, being that it's so integrated with everything else. I considered technology and its enormous on society, and I thought maybe it could be used effectively. I considered utilizing an education based on the workforce, and that wasn't quite right. In the end, I had to acknowledge all the factors of society and education, and I soon considered that the socioeconomic gap in our society - the widening gap between the rich and the poor - was to blame. All of this was backed by outside research.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

 

 The biggest problem I had faced in answering my essential question was the integration of all aspects. Education is a very big field, and has a lot to correspond with the health of the economy, the integrity of the workforce, and societal well-being. This made it very challenging to form good answers because I had to acknowledge all aspects of the problem.

 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

 

Both of these articles are by very prestigious institutions, contain great citations, and provide very good insight into my third answer.

Duncan, Arne. "A Blueprint for Reform." United States Department of Education, 2008. Web. March 2010. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/blueprint.pdf

 Brown, Cynthia. "Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Public Education." Center For American Progress, 2008. Web. June 2008. http://www.broadeducation.org/asset/1128-ensuring%20equal%20opportunity.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,800

Independent Component 2

"Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world." 

- Nelson Mandela.

LITERAL
(a) “I, Adrian Gallegos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
(b) My source that I have used the most that can be referenced is the following: Means Barbara. "Technology and Education Change: Focus on Student Learning." SRI International, 2010. Web. 2010. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ882507.pdf
(c) I have completed the log.
(d) I have completed a mock grant iniative, in which I have chosen International Polytechnic High School as a hypothetical school, and I have established a grant in which a specific amount of money goes to specific causes. I have chosen to use the hypothetical grant for a more rigorous math and science program, and I defend my reasoning.  
INTERPRETIVE 
The mock grant proposal definitely took 30 hours of work to research, write, and assemble in its entirety. It is similar to a large research paper, and required lots of research, editing, writing potential educational plans, looking at other schools as models, and finally assembling all of my materials.
APPLIED
This component helped me answer my essential question because writing a grant proposal is one of the primary aspects of a nonprofit, and understanding what a nonprofit organization has the power to do is an integral aspect to my Senior Project.

My full independent component can be found at this link.

*I suggest downloading it to avoid formatting errors found in Google Drive. 

Post Spring Break!

Over the break, I have found something markedly interesting about my topic. As it turns out, education has an even larger correlation with socioeconomic status than I have previously thought.

According to Laura Post's article "Inequality in Teaching & Schooling", by Stanford University, there is almost a linear relationship between the median amount of income per household to the mean performance on standardized tests and G.P.A. In addition, high-income white students outperform all students of all other given ethnicities on all areas of achievement. The wealthiest schools on average, have individual student expenditures 4-6 times more than low income schools. One of the infographics can be found below.

Before this read, I was under the impression that income and social inequality were social constructs that were behind us in the past, but I now understand that they still pose extremely large threats within our society, and will continue to hinder our progress if we don't do something. This might also make for an interesting turn in my senior project. Hmmm...