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G.H.O Analysis
Student
Professor
Institutional affiliation
Course
Strengths
1. Strong value statement. The value statement describes what an organization stands for. At G.H.O, a strong vision statement helps attract students from wide localities and qualified staff. Allen et al. (2018) argue that the value statement reinstates the commitment of the school to deliver quality to its students. By clarifying its goals, defining its values, and communicating its motivation, it stands out compared to all other organizations. G.H. O value statement reinstates commitment to quality for the school.
2. Enough Staff. Compared to its population of 350, it has enough staff to serve the students appropriately. Lieberman (2021) shows that many schools shut down for lack of enough staff. This is different as for GHO, where there are over 25 staff with different qualifications. G.H.O(n.d) shows a clear number of staff within the organization. A good staff number helps improve the service provided to students. This brings about satisfaction and good handling of the students hence better performance.
3. Online accessibility. GHO has penetrated the online spaces with a website accessible from .This enables it to be accessed by those from far and those who want to know more about it. It enables parents to access calendars, updates as well as other notification from the school website. Reimers et al. (2020) show that online presence is key in times like the pandemic. This would allow GHO students to continue learning as compared to its competitors.
4. High Accountability
GHO has been rated 278, which shapes its reputation. This attracts students and reflects that the institution handles finances and issues transparently. According to Hovanetz (2019), accountability increase excellence attracts media attention, and empowers parents to make better choices. This motivates the stakeholders in terms of performance. In addition, increased accountability enables the schools to stand out.
5. Higher Student Engagement. GHO plans events throughout the year to engage schools and families. Student engagement has increased and improved due to these events. It is these activities that inform parents as well as students about the former’s performance. CDC (2019) argues that school engagement improves students' behavior and addresses particular health behaviors. Engagement in GHO is key in addressing various pertinent issues among the students.
6. Excellence In The Provision Of Resources To Students. GHO has engaged in various initiatives to provide material needs to students. They have had projects to provide lunch to the students as well as uniforms and other study materials. According to Doménech Betoret, et al. (2011), learning materials availability to students affects their performance. At GHO, the provision of needs to the students seeks to satisfy them and make them more comfortable in class. All these increase student confidences and the need to learn.
7. Strong Mentorship. The partnership with the Kennedy Center to help learn art studies is a big boost for the institution. The facility also boasts of some rich staff whose expertise can guide learners and staff in their learning. Ropo (2004) states that expertise like this improves development and promotes knowledge acquisition. This is a critical advantage for GHO because it can benefit from these experts in various ways. Mrs. Regina Chess (the principal) and Miss. Johnetta White (Secretary) is also key in driving the school forward.
8. Wide variety of studies. GHO provides students with various studies, including liberal arts. It means that they can participate in a variety of studies as well as class work. Lyon College (n.d.) shows that liberal arts make students free thinkers. Focused on creative and critical thinking, it transforms students into great citizens. This is one of the key strengths at GHO.
9. Racial Representation and Gender Balance
GHO is well-represented in terms of race and gender. This means that children can feel all in the right place as their racial ethnicity is represented in the school. Geo H Oliver Elementary School (n.d) has students from white Hispanic, Native Hawaiian, and Native American Asian, among others, increasing representativeness. This increases the overall image of the school in terms of racial variety. All ethnicities and backgrounds -represented school attracts more students and increases students' variety and interaction experiences.
10. Strong And Capable Administration
GHO has a well-equipped administration. This administration has seen the school in various activities through collaboration. It has been able to mobilize resources through external organizations for the sake of students. The administration, in its competence, involves parents through events in the day-to-day running of the organization. Qaralleh & Jibril (2020) argues that good administration is key to ensuring a conducive learning environment.
Weaknesses
1. Staff Turnover. Muiruri (2012) argues that turnover can significantly impact performance. High teacher turnover lowers teaching quality and negatively impacts performance. This is the case with GHO since school principals normally do not go beyond four years in the school. These erode performance and divert resources to hiring. This would possibly also topple the GHO's top administration or management.
2. Inexperienced Teachers. About 50% of the teachers at GHO have an experience of fewer than four years. In addition, more than half have an emergency license. Kini & Podolsky (2016) shows that increased experiences are directly related to performance and effectiveness. At GHO, teachers are less experienced, affecting the students' performance. This could mean that students are not engaged fully as they should be if there were experienced teachers.
3. Low School Enrollment
Due to economic decline, many people moved away from Clarkdale, reducing school enrolment. Grice (2009) argues that enrolment can negatively affect school performance. Yang(2014) has shown that efficacy is key in managing schools. Reduced enrolment means that teachers deal with few students hence underutilization of them. This means a dismal performance of the school in terms of its financial management.
4. Insecurity
GHO is located in Brickyard, an area with higher crime and violence. These issues can greatly affect the students in terms of concentration. They can also harm the students and have about underutilized in terms of school property. Ghorab & Al-Khaldi (2014) show that violence in schools increases anxiety among students and hence affects their grades. Increased crime and violence around GHO deny the students a conducive learning environment.
5. Low Student-Counselor Ratio. The ratio of counselors to students at GHO is 1:373(Geo H Oliver Elementary School, n. d). Sal gong et al. (2016) emphasize the role of counseling in school for the student's safety and psychological health. The counselors at GHO are fewer and hence a danger in case of life-changing and traumatic experiences. This would greatly affect the school in case of such an event.
6. Poor Academic Performance. Geo H Oliver Elementary School (n.d) indicates that the school's performance and scores are very low. In terms of test scores, student progress, and equity, they are all below average. Over the years, they have also continued to fall. There are also achievement gaps. This situation is a big loss for the school as it may have less impact on attracting new students.
7. Poor Reputation. U.S. News (2019) indicates that the scores shown by GHO are so low in terms of many aspects. Many of the students are low in their academic progress. This reputation is so bad for the school in the eyes of the public. Perez & Okonofua (2022) shows that reputation is key in k12 schools and impacts their functioning since they affect the interaction between students and teachers. This is the same situation that is befalling GHO.
8. Not Fully Adopted the Technology. GHO has not yet adopted technology to its full capacity. It could have helped in online learning, which is not yet in action. Aslam et al. (2021) argue that technology enables learning to proceed faster and is made easy since schools adapt to the course content from the online world. GHO is yet to adapt to this and hence is left behind by other schools. This is a big weakness that drags the school backward.
9. Inequity and Inequality. Looking at the school's racial balance, there are more black than other races. This may create dominance of one race over the other and reduce the ethnic balance. Reynolds (2007) argues that ethnic spread and student achievement go hand in hand and improve ethnic diversity. This is a key issue in which GHO has fallen short in enrollment. Most races have about 1% representative in the school compared to the blacks.
10. Poverty
Most of the students in this school come from the neighboring poverty-stricken community, which affects their performance. They fall below the average of other standard students in the state. This means that there are financial challenges in their study areas and the required dues in school. McKenzie (2019) adds that students from poor backgrounds could be affected in terms of grades and behaviors. This is the case with GHO. Such poses an even more dire effect on the already bad school performance.
Opportunities
1. Increased Voluntary programs and financial aid. GHO is already well established in sourcing finances from outside sources to support students. It can exploit this advantage to source more resources for expansion. Martin et al. (2018) show that poverty-stricken schools suffer greatly from underfunding. GHO can run away from this mess by embracing and calling for more voluntary funding programs for its children. This will enable it to build more educational and training resources.
2. Increased Enrollment. The school is situated in Clarkdale, inhabited majorly by low-income families. With a population of 350, the school can look upon the increasing population from the neighborhood and tap from it. According to Baker et al. (2011), a more educated population lives longer and healthier.GHO can enroll more students from the said locality to grant them a better life through education. The free meals are also capable of attracting more students to the school.
3 . Staff Licensing and Certification. Some of the staff in GHO are said to have no license but a provisional certification. The school can therefore work for the staff certification to improve their competence. Allen (2010) has shown that teacher certification is key in assuring quality. Subjects like mathematics need fully equipped teachers whose competency can only be gauged by licensing. This is key in hiring teachers in GHO to improve performance.
4. Increased Stakeholder Collaboration. There is already an existing level of collaboration between the school and parents. The collaboration in ensuring the performance of students is regularly checked by stakeholders. In addition, collaboration is key in monitoring students' unique abilities and behavior. Chiuri et al. (2020) associate teacher-parent collaboration with higher educational success. Therefore, GHO can tap into this to nurture teacher-parent collaboration through events to improve performance.
5. Increased Adoption Of Technology. Technology is now a widely discussed phenomenon in the world of education. Schools are taking their classes online, especially during the pandemic. GHO, having a standby website, can adapt to online and distance learning. Kersey (2016) in his study found that advanced technology incorporation into learning can increase the student success rate. GHO has the opportunity to take in various and different technological adoption in learning.
6. Teacher Retention. Lack of teacher retention in schools leads to the loss of school culture (Flowers,2019). At GHO, they can retain talent in terms of its teachers among other staff. Retention will also enable them to save on hiring costs. If more teachers are retained, it will reduce breakage in school classwork continuity. It also reduces the time wasted by teachers taking up new roles at the school.
7. Improved Reputation. The improvement in accountability places GHO in a better place to improve its reputation. Wong et al. (2017) have shown that school reputation is closely related to quality. At GHO, they are best placed on improving the quality they offer learners through enhanced reputation improvement. This reputation improves not only students but also learners. It can be boosted by the already improved transparency and accountability rating.
8. Opportunity for Increased Student Engagement. GHO is reported to have worn several school engagement awards severally. The events, as well as the competition, are such rewards for the stakeholders. They serve as areas for parents to identify talents among the students and teachers. In addition, they can be sources of information on areas of improvement for the administration. As per Olson & Peterson (2015), engagement improves enthusiasm and impacts students' academic performance and behavior. This an area into which GHO can tap.
9. All Well-Rounded Education. Studying at GHO equips the learner with education in all aspects of life. They have good services in all areas like food, athletics as well as transportation. This ensures students have support in all areas they need. At GHO, they have staff to guide them through all the different areas of life in which they are involved. Obara (2018) recognizes the need for a well-rounded education for the development of the whole person.
10. Grade and Performance Improvement. GHO has strong values and mission statements that can help learners perform better. Working towards the mission statement's objectives can improve its grade. There are different departments that can wholly participate in boosting the grade. Good grades will attract more voluntary sponsorship. GHO has the potential to achieve more than it currently has. Barnum (2019) has it that good grades for low-income students improve and attract more scholarships.
Weaknesses
1. Violence And Crime. GHO is located at Brickyard, an area inhabited by violence and crime. This can lead to the loss of school property and physical harm to students. Pitso et al. (2014) implicate crime and violence around schools with low performance. This is the situation to which GHO is exposed. The neighborhood poses a great danger to the safety and security of the children and school property.
2. Poor Performance Out of Poverty. Over time now, the school has been performing poorly. This damages its public image. Adem (2021) associates poverty with poor school performance arising from reduced parental involvement. GHO is on the blink of continued failure, most propagated by the poverty-stricken background. Parental income is low hence reducing parental involvement and parental education.
3. Loss Of Talented Manpower Due to High Turnover. The high teacher turnover in the school is a great danger to its talented manpower. About 50% of the teachers have less than four years of experience. This is a great danger to the school in terms of teacher competency. Ronfeldt et al. (2013) have shown that a high turnover affects student academic performance. This is the great challenge that GHO is exposed to.
4. Economic Decline and Hence Reduced Population. Economic decline has led to the movement of people from around the school hence the possibility of moving away with students. This negatively impacts teacher motivation. It also led to inefficiency in resource management. Low motivation significantly affects the student’s performance in school (Sajid et al.,2022).GHO is at the mercy and hopes to improve the financial times to maintain its school population.
5. Bad reputation. The school has had a very poor reputation based on the test scores. The test scores of GHO are far from the average. Many students are therefore having the challenge of performing to the average. U.S. News (2019) also shows that the progress is slow compared to other students within the same state. This situation scares parents from enrolling their children in the said school.
6. Lack Of Racial Balance .98% percent of students in GHO are black. Schools like GHO tend to suffer from inadequate instructional and learning materials funding. Weir (2016) has shown that such imbalance may contribute to poor learner achievement. The imbalance in the racial composition may also not reflect the national education face. In worst cases, the racial minority occupation may mean less attention to the school by the government. It also creates a negative perspective and a bad reputation.
7. Short And Non-Comprehensive Vision Statement. In its vision statement, the institution strives to utilize its high-quality learning experiences to provide superior education to every child. This vision statement includes not technology considering the current digital times. It should be encompassed with supporting learners to utilize technology effectively. Zakrajšek (2016) recognizes the role of technology in elementary schools. This is one key threat the GHO has not exploited.
8. Inexperienced Teachers. Most teachers at GHO have less than four years of experience. This is likely to affect the student's success rate. Less experience means less knowledge of the subject matter. This is likely to lead to continued poor performance compared to other schools. Irvine (2019) indicates performance as directly related to years of experience. This is likely to negatively affect GHO.
9. Underfunding. GHO mainly relies on donors to feed the students and finance other educational materials. Underfunding is linked to poor student performance (Strauss,2018).GHO lacks enough study materials to support learners. Many students lack the most basic learning material and are likely to fail. A lack of enough support from the government means slow progress for the school. This is a great challenge in the long run for GHO in its education dream.
10. Low student catchment. The school is not widely known and sources its learner from around Mississippi. It means less racial and ethnic diversity in the school population. Less publicity means less attraction to new students. It also reduces the experiences the students are exposed to. This negatively impacts the school population. Bayar & Karaduman (2021) indicate the need for cultural diversity to improve student outcomes.
References
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