Essay Example on Evaluating ESSA's Safe and Healthy Students Policy

Policies are government proposals that can promote or discourage a particular situation. Evaluating a policy is the process in which stakeholders judge these proposals based on quality, goals, costs of implementation, and how effective societal changes. Safe and healthy students' policy is part of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA). sThe history of education in America has gone through various phases where policies have been designed with the aim of promoting effective education for learners. Basic education is a highlight of American rights. A safe and healthy learning environment is supposed to promote a conducive learning environment for students. The evaluation of safe and healthy students' policy pass through various processes in determining its effectiveness as discussed below.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The first evaluation of safety and healthy students' policy is to analyze the goals and objectives of the policy. The goal of safe and healthy students is to provide students with a high quality education regardless of their status. Students require support through the provision of desirable tools that can promote their success. Implementation of the safe and healthy students' policy is in line with policy goal because addressing students' safety ensure that learners get an opportunity to prosper in a community that is learning conducive ("Office of Safe and Healthy Students," 2019). The safety and healthy students' policy strengthened the whole society through the intervention of other programs that promote a safe and crime-free zone environment. This policy qualifies as a good educational program since it acknowledges safety as a core value in creating an educational environment that allows for equality. The policy is committed to serving school communities through the provision of resources that assist in technical support. The creators of the policy further aim at reducing disparity that exists in our communities where education resources are distributed unequally. The policy through the promotion of topics that support the well-being and safety of America's young people.

The young generation forms a greater part of the American population, and currently, the nation relies on them as an asset to help in long-term global competition. Investing in young children is a paramount investment that educational policy programs should focus on. Safe and healthy student programs aim at reducing community poverty through the distribution of grants and funds. The utilization of these funds and grants has made it possible for reducing barriers to educational success. Poverty increases the chances of an unsafe learning environment for students. Evaluation of safe and healthy policy program indicate that since its implementation, children's health and safety improved, therefore, resulting in improved academic success. The important aspect of developing safe and healthy students' policy is that it caters to children's needs, which translates to investment in American human capital.

In order for safe and healthy students' policies to address issues effectively, it requires monitoring. This policy qualify in its effectiveness because it receives monitoring since its inception. The U.S Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helps in monitoring the policy to ensure it addresses its intended reasons for creation. The annual outcome data indicate that monitoring of this policy has seen a tremendous improvement in students' safety. Community focus groups assisted by project directors and community partners is a reason why this policy successfully fulfills its intended purpose of creating a safe environment for children to learn. The use of federal agencies to help in implementing this policy ensures its success because funds channeling to schools and communities is going to be effective (Derzon, Yu, Ellis, Xiong, Arroyo, Mannix, & Rollison, 2012). The policy is also effective since it provides communities with a comprehensive education that promotes children's growth and safe development. The policy also collaborates with the juvenile justice service to help in ensuring that learning institutions are free of drugs, physical fights, underage drinking, and crimes within the schools. The process evaluation of safe and healthy students' policy is an indicator that the policy can be administered effectively throughout communities in America with success.

An effective policy is expected to influence the general society taking into consideration all the changes brought in through experiences witnessed after implementation of the policy. According to data collected from Dinkes, Kemp, Baum & Snyder (2009), the success of safe school students is witnessed from the grantee's information on changes brought by the policy. The implementation of the policy resulted in over 90 percent of schools witnessing a reduction in cases of violence within schools. The data prove that the policy has brought in changes to society whereby over 80 percent of students reported that their communities were free of violence. The safe and healthy student policy utilizes data for its success in ensuring that communities receive the best out of program plans. Allowing community stakeholders to be part of program implementation is a contributor to the success of the programs because these agencies are close to communities. Sharing information and resources within the community is one of the policy objectives. The sharing reduces costs, therefore, making it easy for the policy to be effective in its initiatives without having to rely heavily on government funds. An effective policy is expected to be effective with little resources available. Another reason for the effectiveness of safe and healthy students' policy is that it has collaborated with grantees who assist in teaching communities on the effectiveness of sharing information without cases of a privacy law violation.

Evaluation of public policy is supposed to assist in ensuring that the creators of the policy have a high chance of implementing these policies. The analysis of safe and healthy students' policy indicate different cases where education policymakers were able to visualize on ways to handle the problem at hand, which is students safety in their learning environment. The creation of the policy was in response to increasing cases of school shootings. It was also created to help in addressing the mental, emotional, and behavioral health position of students. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the policy indicates that there are still critical scenarios that need to be addressed in order to address the safety and health of students fully. The evaluation of this policy indicates that the goals drafted were tangible and achievable. The use of data found in federal organizations indicates how the policy has been able to bring in changes in society regarding the safety of schools. The evaluation of the policy dealt with both theoretical and actionable objectives set out during its launching phase. The impact of the policy in the education system takes into consideration the involvement of other community stakeholders who collaborated with federal agencies in ensuring that all goals of the policy were achieved. The safe and healthy student policy is effective because it considers the cost-benefit technique, whereby its implementation can be carried out without necessarily having to depend on the government for funding. Collaborating with communities is enough strategy that can be used to see to it that the policies are implemented.

References

Derzon, J. H., Yu, P., Ellis, B., Xiong, S., Arroyo, C., Mannix, D., ... & Rollison, J. (2012). A national evaluation of Safe Schools/Healthy Students: Outcomes and influences. Evaluation and program planning, 35(2), 293-302. DOI 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2011.11.005.

Dinkes, R., Kemp, J., Baum, K., & Snyder, T.D. (2009). Indicators of school crime and safety: 2009 (NCES 2010-012/NCJ 228478). National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved 24 December 2019, from https://nces.ed.gov/.

Office of Safe and Healthy Students. (2019). Retrieved 24 December 2019, from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oshs/index.html