PROJECT

PROPOSAL
 Courtney Barr
LSA Research and Writing
October 2015

A. Abstract

The title of my paper will be No Child Left Behind: Leaving Kids Behind, while the title

of my project will be Lets Support Our Kids Together. There are a lot of children that are facing

struggles everyday. One of those struggles may include the inability for some children to be able

to get the support that they need in order to get to a certain level in their education. They need

that support, and they need that help in school. And the school system, as well as the parents,

may not be doing enough to keep them on the right path. This is why I am choosing to do my

senior project on the connection between children advancing in school and their support systems,

both in and out of school. This is a legal issue because it analyses how different school policies

dont fulfill what it written under it. That the school systems are neglecting what needs to be

done and that they need to do more in order to rectify the situation.

I have selected this as my senior project, firstly because I have a passion for helping

children, and helping children in need is even more beneficial for that childs growth. Another

supporting reason for choosing this topic is to enable a demographic that usually isnt as

advanced, to become advanced. For example, when looking throughout the Applied Calculus

course I take at Tidewater Community College through dual enrollment, I see the demographics

making up the class. While there are 15 or so students in the class, I happen to be one of four

African Americans taking the course. Even deeper then that I am also the only African American

female. Now this may only be one example, but it is also a recurring trend that I see in past math

courses that I have taken, all the way back to middle school. The make-up is not generally
 African Americans, and of those handful of African Americans, I may be one of two girls.

Although this isnt always because of lack of support, there is a greater trend in people not

wanting to advance in a course because they feel like they will have no support. That they will be

left to their own devices and thrown to the sharks. I want to help them understand that there are

people out there that are willing to help them succeed and grow as individuals.

In order to create a good research paper these are my driving questions:

What types of laws are in place in educational systems to help children?

The project that I will host will occur throughout several months, beginning as soon as

possible. I hope to adopt an elementary school, either my home school, Malibu Elementary, or

another elementary school around the area and host tutoring sessions throughout the school year.

Talking to primarily 3rd graders and above, with help for the younger kids as well, I will gather a

group of students and pair up with students that arent performing the best in school. We will

tutor them and prepare them for tests that they have, as well as the SOL, and see what the final

outcome will be. I may host a short presentation to students and their parents at the end of the

year and show how much growth their children have had throughout the year, while showing

what role I played in the process. The success of my project will not only show in the test grades

of students, but also in teacher and parent reports. I will ask the teachers and parents of the

students if they saw any improvement.

Throughout the whole project, I have asked my mothers best friend and my Godmother,

Valerie Franklin to be my consultant. She is really good with organization of detail and will be a

great help throughout my whole project. As she is a teacher at my church, Aunt Val will be a

great asset of teaching and tutoring the students. In addition, she is very well spoken and
 sociable, which will help me with communication with professionals and other people I will need

to come in contact with during the creation of my project.

The materials that I will need in order to create my project are a copy of general test

reports, a group of students that are willing to volunteer with tutoring children, and maybe a

survey for the children to see what they thought about the help they received. Other supplies

include candy or treats for students that participate and to the discretion of the tutor.

B. Learning Skills

I would like to learn the following skills:

Organizing Tutoring Sessions

I would like to enhance the following skills:

Communication (Elementary School and Other Volunteers)

The target audience for my project are elementary school students at the age where it starts to

become an almost determining factor as to whether or not they will go down the advanced math

path or the just barely making it math path. They need these tutoring sessions and the support

that myself, with a group of students, can provide for them. For them to know that someone does

care about them, someone wants to see them succeed, and someone wants to be a helping hand to

them. This will benefit these students because they will get the help they need to get good grades

in the beginning and throughout this school year, as well as school years to come. (This will be a

good jumpstart, so to speak, for them.) I will ensure that I have the appropriate demographic by

possibly going to various elementary schools are comparing the pass/fail scores and see which
 school may need the most help. I will advertise to the high school volunteers by asking my

friends firstly and asking them to ask their friends. As well as spreading the word through social

media, I can use high school students from other schools as well, and through flyers. Most likely,

Malibu Elementary School will be the venue because I attended that school and still know some

of the teachers that work there. And it will also be more influential to me that I am helping a

school practically in my backyard.

D. Project Steps

Preliminary Meet with my consultant about my plan, 5 Hours

Steps Secure an elementary school, Create a plan of

what I would like to accomplish at each tutor

time, Gather a group of students and have a

meeting about what we should do, Research

good tips on teaching students

Midway Ask teachers at elementary school what works 5 Hours

Steps best for those students, Gather the students that

may need the most help (2-3 per high school

helper), Continue meeting with consultant,

Meet with high school helpers again in order

to pair them up with elementary students

Later Steps Go over tests and quizzes with students, Come 7 Hours

up with better study habits with students, Form

for students and parents, Continue meeting

with consultant

Follow Up See how kids did on SOL, Present 3 Hours

presentation, Distribute and collect surveys

Total 20 Hours

E. Project Documentation

I will use the following throughout my project for documentation:

Emails and Phone Records

This is a quality project because it helps to grow the future of the country. What these

kids learn and are a part of today, will most definitely influence what their life will be like in the

future. These are the times that they need the most support and going to their school and giving

them that support will have a positive impact on their lives. This is a challenge for me because I

have never organized a tutor program and reached out to people, other than my friends, for help

on anything. I have also had to have contact with people in charge of a school, the principals, or

other teachers other than my own. I hope to show actual growth in these elementary school

children by the milestone of their tests and quizzes, as well as their end of the year SOL tests.

And maybe even through the evaluation that teachers may have of how these students may be

improving in class as well.

The topic of my paper is the school support throughout the school systems that lead to the

advancement of children of all backgrounds. Is there enough support and are there enough

opportunities for these students to get the help that they need? My project connects directly with

this topic because it will allow for me to personally help out a school of children that need help

in certain subjects that they may be struggling in. It will allow them to know that even if they

may not be the best at a certain subject, with practice they will be able to get better at it and still

succeed in life. My project will show how support and help with school work will have positive

effects on student grades.

H. Academic Honesty

Academic honesty includes telling the truth about where I got my information from and

citing every source that I use. It also includes thinking of my own ideas and not taking someone

elses project and/or paper and taking any ideas; such as my parents or consultant. It is doing and

completing each assignment to the best of their ability, and if they nay seen to come up short, not

cheating. Each of these rules are incorporated in academic honesty. Academic honesty can also

entail creating my own project and not making anyone else do the research for me or create/run

the whole project for me. I understand that any academic dishonesty by me on any part of the

project will result in failure of the Senior Project and forfeiture of the Legal Studies Seal on my

High School diploma.