Paper Example on Rams Project: Improving Students' Academic Performance and Teacher Preparedness

Introduction

The RAMS project was designed to help students become better learners. The project took a multifaceted approach. It was undertaken to help an identified lot of students improve on their mastery of content as well as decision making. At the end of the program, it was expected that the students would perform better academically once the regular school season began. The project also aimed at gauging the levels of preparedness among the teachers who were tasked with the responsibility of tutoring and mentoring the students. Therefore, once the RAMS project had run its course, it was necessary for all the stakeholders involved to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the project with the hope of identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

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

Save 25%

One of the main objectives of the RAMS project was to help students become better learners on their own. The evaluation exercise that was carried out by the stakeholders sought to analyze the processes used to impart knowledge to the students. The success of the RAMS project could only be proven by the academic performance of the students once they resumed their regular classes with other students. The stakeholders who carried out the evaluation were more concerned with analyzing the performance of the students based on the standardized tests that were administered to them. In the event that some of the test results turned out to be unsatisfactory, then the stakeholders would acknowledge that there were areas in the project's curriculum that required to be fine-tuned. The people in charge of evaluating the RAMS project were also concerned about the efficacy of the RAMS project's curriculum as far as student decision making was concerned. Through analyzing the conduct of the students in different environments such as at home and at school, the evaluators would be in a position to vouch for the future adoption of the project since it met its objectives.

In order for teachers to become good instructors and mentors, they ought to be fully prepared in dealing with the myriad of challenges that face them in their line of work. The teachers who took part in the RAMS project were expected to prepare well-organized lesson plans. Since the students would only be attending classes for two hours per day on the predetermined days, it was expected that the teachers would be able to cover all the study materials that they had prepared for their lessons. Therefore, the other objective of the evaluation exercise was to gauge the level of teacher preparedness. Teachers were expected to help the students become better learners on their own through helping each individual student understand the requirements of their syllabus. Furthermore, teachers were expected to handle all cases of indiscipline that arose among the students. Last but not least, the teachers were expected to hold consultative meetings with the parents of the students who had been selected to take part in the program. The evaluators of the project were expected to determine the required levels of preparedness and professionalism among the teachers selected to take part in the RAMS project. Using this information, they would be able to come up with guidelines to be followed during teacher recruitment for subsequent RAMS projects.

The viability of the RAMS project to accommodate a larger number of students without compromising on the quality of education formed the basis of the evaluation exercise. The success of the pilot program would influence the decision of the stakeholders to adopt it in other schools within the district. The evaluators of the RAMS project were expected to focus on the challenges experienced by the students and teachers during the course of the project. The identified weaknesses of the program would provide excellent opportunities for further improvement. In order to provide quality services throughout the course of the project, there was a need to figure out the maximum number of students who could be enrolled in the RAMS project vis-a-vis the available resources. If the number of students exceeds the number of teachers by a very large margin, there was a probability that the students could not benefit fully from the tutorship thereby defeating the entire essence of the RAMS project. Therefore, by studying the weaknesses of the project, the evaluators would be able to recommend further improvements to the RAMS project so that it is able to assist a large number of academically challenged students in the future.

Major Cultural and Political Issues

In the course of carrying out the evaluation exercise of the RAMS project, the evaluators are likely to encounter a couple of socio-cultural and political issues. Some of the major issues are discussed below.

The people involved in the RAMS project, such as students, teachers, and school administrators come from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, in order for the people in charge of assessing the RAMS project to interact well with the stakeholders, they ought to appreciate the cultural and ethnic diversity of the people around them. For the implementation of the RAMS project to be successful within the society, the stakeholders need the full support of the local communities. The evaluators need to be sensitive about the language they use to communicate with the stakeholders (Jaycox, McCaffrey, Ocampo, Shelley, Blake, Peterson, & Kub, 2006). In the event that questionnaires are to be distributed among the stakeholders, the instructions ought to be written to the level of their language fluency. Some parents would have to be convinced on the importance of such a program since they need assurances that their children will be learning in culturally conscious environments during the holidays when they should be at home spending time with their families. Teachers will be required to express interest in the cultural diversity of their classes. Teachers should not show favoritism towards a dominant group since it would make students from minority groups to feel like they do not have the same rights and liberties as the other students. Such situations would inhibit team building efforts within the class members.

There could be political interference from state or federal regulatory bodies in charge of educational research during the evaluation exercise. Politics plays a big role in the development of educational policy (Darling-Hammond, 2016).There are laws that guide the conduct of professionals such as teachers. Therefore, the RAMS project may be affected by the legal frameworks that govern the operation of school activities during the holiday season. For instance, the money collected from the donors would have to be legally accounted for so that the school administrators are not charged with unlawful solicitation of money from donors for projects that are not commonly undertaken in public schools. The evaluators may be asked to provide consent letters from the parents to indicate that the students joined the program with the knowledge of their parents. Teachers will need to enter into contractual agreements with the people in charge of the RAMS project so that they can be paid for their services. Financial remuneration will go a long way in ensuring that the teachers are highly motivated to teach the students during the course of the project.

The new curriculum that will be proposed by the evaluators at the end of their analysis of the RAMS project will attract a lot of interest from other educational researchers as well as parents. Since the new curriculum would be used in urban schools where students are drawn from all walks of life, it has to be culturally inclusive (Rasi, Hautakangas, & Vayrynen, 2015). It would also be subjected to governmental scrutiny since there are certain quality standards that have to be attained when school syllabuses are developed. The forms of testing to be used will also be scrutinized so as to ensure that the RAMS project does not deviate from its main objectives. For projects that involve students from diverse backgrounds, it is advisable for teachers to use nongraded tests to keep tabs on the progress made by their students. When graded tests are used, students tend to be stressed by the thoughts of sitting for exams. In the long run, it makes them poor learners since they will be more concerned with only studying for the purposes of excelling in their examination...