Blog Post Week 8: No More Literature Reviews, PLEASE.

Honestly, this was the worst assignment for this class. I thought that it was really difficult writing a literature review, instead of an actual paper with ideas and supporting background. I think this is because I have never written a literature review before. I didn’t like this type of writing at all, and I don’t think I ever want to write a literature review again.

However, I feel that my knowledge of my topic has differed from my previous thoughts. I figured that most of the financial strain was in the classroom, because I have heard many teachers complain about having to pay for supplies on their own or not having enough money for new items, books, or equipment. Now, I know that financial deficit in California’s public education system mostly influences the qualifications of the teachers hired within schools. (It makes my previous thoughts seem petty.)

Blog Post Week 7: Annotated Bibliography and My Sources

I really hated doing my annotated bibliography. It wasn’t so bad writing the annotations, but I always have a hard time finding credible sources for my topic.

One of my new sources explains that California spends less money on schools in low socioeconomic areas, providing a lower quality education and under-qualified teachers in those schools. I found this article in a journal that I had acquired a previous source from. I looked to that journal to see if I could find another source. I feel that it is credible because it was published in a research journal and written by a professor from a university. It is also relevant because it was published this year.

Another new source I used was a fact sheet. It provided really good facts about California’s education budget compared to the spending of other states. The fact sheet was published by an independent analysis company in California. The information seemed relevant and accurate, being that it was published this year and  cited other sources as well.

I feel that there are more effects of insufficient funding in our public schools that I am not finding. For example, I have heard that many teachers have to pay for their own supplies. Although this is a part of a low per pupil spending, it seems that there should be more publications on how teachers suffer from a lack of money inside the classroom.

I feel that an audience would be interested in the amount of money California spends on its schools, compared to other states. Overall, we are 42^nd in the nation on the amount of money we spend in our schools. It seems that we should spend more on education, because we have more low-income families and English learners in our school districts.

Revised Question:

What are the effects of insufficient funding for California’s public schools?

Annotated Bibliography

Adamson, F., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2012) Funding disparities and the

inequitable distribution of teachers: Evaluating sources and solutions. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20(37).

This article analyzes the connection between the socioeconomic status of schools and the qualifications of the teachers it employs. The article explains that qualified teachers tend to work where there receive the appropriate pay, rather than working in places where they are needed more. Teachers working in areas with a low socioeconomic status tend to have lower qualifications due to a lack of sufficient funding. The article helps with my understanding of an issue that stems from a lack of adequate financing for public schools. It can further my research by promoting me to look for more possible solutions to this problem. It is found in an open access journal, which makes me believe that it is a credible source. Being published in 2012, it is recent enough to be relevant to my topic.

Rodriguez, G. M., & Rolle, R. A. (2007). To What Ends and By What Means?: The

Social Justice Implications of Contemporary School Finance Theory and Policy. New York: Routledge.

This book is an analysis of issues related to school finances; its information is gained through research of policies and through conducting interviews with faculty and staff within school districts. This book analyzes what is beneficial for certain schools and districts and their socioeconomic status, based on school funding policies. This book, written by educational professionals from UCLA, gained its information from student research. I feel that this book provides examples of how insufficient funding effects schools in areas of low socioeconomic status. Because some areas have a low socioeconomic status, inadequate funding effects those schools more than it effects areas with higher socioeconomic status (where parents are more knowledgeable and able to provide more for their students).

Baker, B., & Weber, M. (2016). State school finance inequities and the limits of

pursuing teacher equity through departmental regulation. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24, 47. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.24.2230

This article explains the spending of districts in states across the nation and how their spending relates to teacher salary and per pupil spending. California’s school districts tend to spend less money on teacher salaries and per pupil spending in areas of low socioeconomic status; this provides for a lower quality of learning for students and brings in less-qualified teachers. This article is published in an open access education journal and was published this year, making it relevant. This relates to my topic, because insufficient funding of all of California’s public schools is what leads to certain districts having less to spend.

Kaplan, J. (2015, November). California's Support for K-12 Education Ranks Low by

Almost Any Measure. Retrieved from http://calbudgetcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Californias-Support-for-K12-Education-Ranks-Low-by-Almost-Any-Measure_FactSheet_11.17.2015.pdf

This fact sheet provides statistics about how California’s education budget and spending (K-12) compares to national averages. It provides good information on the amount of spending, while relating it to the amount of low-income families in the state and the amount of English learners in our public schools. Published by the California Budget and Policy Center, an independent analysis company, it seems to provide purely factual information, with no objective opinions. The fact sheet is relevant to my topic because it information on California’s insufficient funding for our public schools in actual dollar amounts, while providing a comparison to other states’ spending.

Rubio-Cortés, G. (2013). El Rancho Unified School District. National Civic Review,

            102(1), 12-16. doi:10.1002/ncr.2111

This article is an analysis of a school district in California that has problems with its financial budgeting. It provides information as to the causes and effects of insufficient budget within its district and the challenges faced by administrators and staff. The article is written by the former president of the National Civic League, one of the oldest civic review journals in the United States. This article relates to my topic by giving me an example of the effects of insufficient funding an California’s public schools.

Wolf, R., & Sands, J. (2016). A preliminary analysis of California’s New Local Control

Funding Formula. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24, 34.

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.24.2194

This article analyzes the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) put into place in California. It gives insight to how the budgeting is determined within school districts as well as providing the effects of the formula after its first year in effect. It relates to my topic because it explains how the funding is now determined in California, which is important for understanding how it can be insufficient. Published in an open access education journal this year, it is a credible and relevant source of information.

Blog Post Week 6: Academic Integrity and Intellectual Property

There were a lot of interesting things I learned this week about academic integrity, intellectual property, and plagiarism. However, I found Margaret Gould Stewart’s TED Talk about YouTube and copyright to be really enthralling. I had no idea that videos were cross-referenced to YouTube’s database as they were being uploaded. It is amazing the things that technology can do; it’s crazy that technology can even prevent copyright infringement!

http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_stewart_how_youtube_thinks_about_copyright?language=en

However, an interesting rule that I found in our BU Student Content Code Standards is that we cannot use work that we have previously submitted to complete new assignments in a different class. I don’t quite understand how this rule qualifies as plagiarism, because it is still our work that we have completed. It is unclear to me why this is a rule.

I believe some of the ideas I’ve come across this will influence my research by making me consider what the creator’s intent was for their piece (music, video, writing) when they created it. I think, professionally, it is wise to use information in the way that it was intended in order to keep up with the best practices. The concepts that have been covered this week will influence my approach to research by causing me to validate my sources and make sure that I am not stealing anyone else’s intellectual property when I am completing tasks as a professional.

Blog Post Week 5: Empirical Article Research & Revised Research Question

I will begin by saying that this week’s research was awful. It was exhausting trying to find an empirical research article about school finance deficits in California. I spent at least four hours searching for an empirical article. However, I  changed my research question this week; I felt like it would help me in broadening the focus of my research.

My new question: What are the major causes of financial deficit in California’s public school system and what are some of the effects?

Looking for empirical articles, there were very few that had anything to do with my topic. However, I found one that had to do with the effects of financial deficits in schools. It introduced an idea to me that qualified teachers are not equally distributed, because they like to work where they are paid a fair amount for their qualifications. It makes perfect sense, but I never thought of that before. It makes me think more about what schools would be like if they all had the funding for qualified teachers.

I feel like my research skills are developing very well. I am getting used to using databases and doing searches with specific limitations that I have set. I think the problem that I am running into most is that I am not getting a lot of results, because my topic is slightly specific. Because I am not getting a lot of results, I did not find any other publications that interested me.