Marthas Vineyard Essay Example for Free

Marthas Vineyard Essay Abstract I chose Martha’s Vineyard as the subject of my School Context Paper. Martha’s Vineyard is New England’s largest resort island and lies seven miles off the coast of Cape Cod in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is accessible by ferry or plane only. The island is roughly one hundred square miles with 124.6 miles of tidal shoreline. Martha’s Vineyard has a year-round population of about twenty thousand residents that grows to one hundred thousand in the summer with an additional twenty five thousand visitors coming and going on the ferries every day. There are six towns that makeup the island; Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven (also known as Tisbury). The island is best known for its miles of beautiful beaches, quaint villages and natural beauty. On the vineyard there is only one regional high school which offers a vocational program for its students along with five public elementary schools, one public charter school, several private pre- schools and an active home schooling network. The school system also provides for children with special needs from ages three to twenty two. Assignment 2: School Context Paper I chose Chilmark, a village located on Martha’s Vineyard to write my paper on. Martha’s Vineyard is located about seven miles off the coast of Cape Cod. It is a triangular shaped island that is nine miles wide and twenty three miles long with a total land area of approximately one hundred square miles and 124.6 miles of tidal shoreline. You can travel by ferry to reach the island, which takes about forty five minutes from the mainland, or you can take a plane that will fly you to the only airport on the island located in its center. It is New England’s largest resort island. There are six towns (or villages) on the island; Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgar Town, Oak Bluff, West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven. There is one regional high school, one public charter school and five public elementary schools serving the Vineyard. These are administered through the office of the Superintendent of Schools. The All-Island School Committee is composed of members from all of the towns. The Up-Island Regional District committee hires the superintendent and oversees shared programs that serve all Island schools. These resources are available through Central Administration: Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Supt. for Curriculum Instruction, Director of Student Support Services, Assistant to the Superintendent for Business Affairs, Financial Administrative Assistants, Administrative Secretary, Business Secretaries, Treasurer, Grant Administrator, Receptionist/Clerk and Special Education Secretary. Special Services are available such as: Title 1 Coordinator, Early Childhood Coordinator/Consultant, Occupational Therapists, School Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, Autism Specialist and ELL Director. Chapter 766 provides for the educational needs of children with special needs. The school system provides for every child, regardless of handicap, between the ages of 3 and 22. The law requires parental involvement and a network of services including that of a school psychologist, occupational therapist, and psychiatric and nursing services under the direction of a special education administrator. The school system also operates a special needs preschool, called Project Headway (http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Public_School.aspx August 2012). I chose Chilmark’s school system and the Up-island Regional District as my area of focus. The Population of Chilmark was eight hundred and ninety four as of July 2009 with the estimated median household income of fifty seven thousand, one hundred and eight dollars. The major business of Chilmark is construction with Carpentry being the most popular occupation. The Chilmark School serves students in grades K-5. Chilmark students in grades 6-8 attend the West Tisbury School and Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School serves grades 9-12 for the whole island. Students can also apply to The Vineyard Public Charter School. The enrollment indicators for these schools are as follows; Chilmark Elementary School enrolled fifty two students, W. Tisbury enrolled three hundred and twenty five students for grades pre k thru 8, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School enrolled six hundred and sixty nine students and The Vineyard Public Charter School enrolled one hundred and eighty one students for the 2011-2012 school year. Chilmark’s Public Elementary/Middle School Mission Statement states that,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Chilmark Elementary School is committed to equipping students with the tools they need for academic, personal and social achievement. Chilmark Elementary School enables every student to reach their highest potential by establishing a curriculum that meets or exceeds government standards for education; providing extracurricular programs that develop children’s’ mental, physical and social skills; and partnering with parents and the community to create an environment geared to the success of all students†( http://massachusetts.webschoolpro.com/chilmark-elementary-school_MA00707740010/mission.htmlAugust 2012). West Tisbury’s School Mission Statement states that â€Å"The West Tisbury School staff strives to provide a solid academic foundation, to inspire a love of learning for the sake of learning, to foster an understanding of basic human values with a working knowledge of the rights and responsibilities associated with those values, and to promote independent thinking through cooperative and inclusive learning while maintaining the unique values of our diverse, rural island community. We strive: To teach solid academic skills, to instill a love of learning and to promote an understanding of human values† (http://wtisburyschool.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=225325SID August 2012). Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s Mission Statement states that â€Å"Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will provide a safe, active teaching and learning environment where students strive for academic excellence and endeavor to achieve the high level of intellectual and interpersonal skills needed for success in a culturally diverse society. Each student’s educational experience will prepare him/her to be a self-confident lifelong learner, able to set and achieve individual goals, and to become a contributing member of a humane and democratic society (http://www.mvrhs.org/pos/POS-2011-2-Eng.pdf1August 2012). The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School is a K-12 public school. Families do not pay tuition. An application is filled out and then the student body is drawn from a lottery. The mission statement of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School states that â€Å"It is the mission of The Martha’s Vineyard Public Carter School to create a public school that will  cultivate life-long learners in a multi-aged, project-based setting. To this  end, each student in the K-12 school works from a personal education plan that sets specific obtainable and challenging goals. In addition to meeting the state mandated curriculum frameworks, students experience a rich array of other educational arenas outside of the academic classroom. The entire Island serves as campus where an educational alliance of parents, educators, businesses, artisans and community services is formed† (http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Marthas_Vineyard_Public_Charter_School.aspx August 2012). The chart below shows some of the MCAS ratings for the school year 2010-2011: Massachusetts Elementary School Rankings 3rd, 4th Grades Combined MCAS English Language Arts MCAS Mathematics 2010-2011 Rank* (of 895) School District City Tisbury Elementary Tisbury Vineyard Haven HighGrade Total students (2010) Student/ Teacher Ratio (2010) MCAS, avg Mathematics** (2011) 8 305 8.2 88.5 MCAS, avg English Language Arts** (2011) MCAS Combined Rank Change from 2011) 86.5 175.0 up 23 School District City W. Tisbury ElementaryUp island Regional West Tisbury HighGrade Total students (2010) Student/ Teacher Ratio (2010) MCAS, avg Mathematics** (2011) 8 276 7.8 79.5 MCAS, avg English Language Arts** (2011 MCAS Combined Rank Change from 2010 82.0 165.9 down 19 (http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MA/schoolrank.aspx August 2012 Reference List http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Town_Information.aspx http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Public_Schools.aspx http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Education.aspx http://www.mvrhs.org/pos/POS-2011-2-Eng.pdf http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/enrollmentbygrade.aspx http://www.city –data.cim/city/Chilmark-Massachusetts.html http://massachusetts.webschoolpro.com/chilmark-elementary-school_MA00707740010/mission.html http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/mcas/performance_level.aspx?linkid=32orgcode=07740010orgtypecode=6 http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MA/schoolrank.aspx http://wtisburyschool.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=225325SID http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Marthas_Vineyard_Public_Charter_School.aspx

Middle Ages vs Renaissance Essay -- European Renaissance Essays

Life during the middle ages (1066-1485) was dictated by how much money you had. Were you a noble? Or were you a peasant. Your quality of life was in direct proportion to your status. Lords of the Noble class ruled territories, also known as villages. These villages mainly consisted of one room houses, with maybe a church and a blacksmith shop. Peasants or serfs lived in these villages and worked under said Lord. Daily life was all about survival. The days were spent planting and growing food, harvesting the crop, sewing clothes, and making any supplies that were needed to survive. Trading between different villages was something that was only done as a last resort. People in each village worked together to make their own village successful. Life also depended on what kind of Lord you had. If he was a fair Lord, they were treated reasonably well, and didn’t suffer. As long as the crop was good, they would have plenty to eat, and work was shared equally. If he was an unjust Lord the villagers were subject to his whims. If he demanded money or product from them they must give it, whether it would hurt their own survival or not. Likewise, if he was a Lord that liked to pick fights with neighboring Lords, the villagers would be subject to pillage and plunder by the other Lords that were trying to get back at their particular Lord. Any revenge sought out against a Lord by another Lord would mean that the people of said Lord’s village paid the price. Crops would be destroyed, houses burned and sometimes the villagers were killed. This was known as the Feudal System. The Feudal System was based on the rights of the Nobles, not the serfs. Nobles had preferred seating in the churches, and special hunting privileges. They h... ...done. Giotto used tempera to paint this one. There are senses of desperation of the apostles, but it is not as compelling or moving as Leonardo’s. Giotto has bright colors, especially considering the era it was painted in. However, he doesn’t use landscape, there is no symmetry. When you look at it, you can tell who Christ is due to the golden halo around his head. However to decipher which one of the apostles is Judas, would be in vain. He used no symbolism, there is no depth. The background is done in a golden hue, not a natural life like version. The faces of the apostles do show a questioning gaze, but the diverse emotions are not there. Everyone is also sitting straight up around a table, there is no movement. I would have to say that while for its era this was a great painting, it is not a memorable one for me. Leonardo’s version is so much more.

Examine the Impact of Multinational Corporations Setting up in Developing Countries Essay

There has been a very controversial debate over years now about the impact of multinational corporations setting up in developing countries, which have many supporters as well as opponents. Surely there is not only one way to look at this more and more common phenomenon that affects the host countries in many both positive and negative ways that are discussed in this paper. The term multinational corporations (MNCs) is used â€Å"to identify firms that have extensive involvement in international business and engage in foreign direct investment (FDI). MNCs own and control value-adding activities in more than one country that are usually coordinated from central headquarters† (Griffin and Pustay, 2005). The investment of MNCs in the developing countries has greatly increased since the mid-1980s, because of globalization as they looked for new resources and larger markets (Greer and Singh, 2000). Presently, there are over 35,000 multinational corporations with more than 15,000 foreign subsidiaries, which is around one-third of the whole world production. Their value is estimated to be more than $1.5 trillion, one-third of which in the developing countries (GhanaWeb, 2012). The developing countries with most multinational investment are those with highest growth potential like Asian countries: China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Latin American ones: Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. The African countries get less than 4% while the poorest 50 countries worldwide receive less than 2%. Over a half of business activities of MNCs deal with manufacturing and services and one-third with oil and gas (GhanaWeb, 2012). According to the report by the Institute for Policy Studies out of 100 lar gest world economies, based on corporate sales and country GDPs, 49 of those economies are countries while the other 51 are multinational corporations. Also, it is stated that the sales of the Top 200 corporations are equal to the 27.5 percent of world economic activity (Institute for Policy Studies, 2012). These numbers show how powerful MNCs are and how  important they are to the world economy, but what is their impact on the developing countries? On the one hand, multinational corporations setting up in developing countries have a very positive effect on their host countries. First of all they provide direct employment to local people and transfer of skills through education and experience. They also affect the indirect employment through paying rent for land or buildings and cooperating with local suppliers, who now have more demand and must deliver higher quality products. As residents have more chances for income they can purchase more and improve their standards of living, while there is generally greater selection and availability of goods and services. The standard of living of local people in some developing countries like Bermuda, the Bahamas, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan has improved largely after the investment of multinational corporations there (Action Institute, 2012). In addition, attracting foreign investment in the developing countries results in economic growth and higher national income. Such countries are usually better off with higher development rates, higher exports, lower imports and additional tax revenues coming from the multinational corporations. For instance, when Toyota started working in Georgetown, Kentucky it paid $1.5mln in property taxes, which was around one-fourth of the town’s municipal budget. By attracting foreign direct investment developing countries will also make substantial tax revenues that can be later on spent on health care, education and other domestic needs (Griffin and Pustay, 2005). In order to attract foreign direct investment local governments many times compete with each other to offer better conditions to multinational investors and lower the income taxes for their corporations. Yet they still get great amounts of money from the corporations that they would not get otherwise. Moreover, when moving into developing countries multinational corporations transfer technology and skill with them. There are also great improvements made to the local infrastructure to allow the effective operation of the corporations (Action Institute, 2012). That is a very important aspect for the developing countri es as it improves their development and brings them at least a bit closer to the developed countries. Developing countries get an update on technology that people get used to and learn to work on, while the whole local society benefits from improved infrastructure like better roads, telecommunications etc. On the  other hand, multinational corporations can have a very negative effect on the developing countries. They are a very strong direct competition to local firms that are forced to shut down and due to their political and economic power they have advantages given by the local governments over small, national or start-up businesses. An example of such additional advantages to multinational corporations over local firms include lower taxation, less strict laws and less bureaucracy in setting up and later on operating the business activities. This results in unfair competition, while shutting up local firms leads to unemployment and in some cases monopoly (Global Issues, 2012). Furthermore, due to their great size and wealth multinational corporations usually gain great economic and political power that can be misused. They usually have big influence on the local governments and are quite often associated with corporate corruption, bribery, lobbying or sponsoring politics campaigns during elections. As the corporations grow bigger they have a greater concentration of wealth, power and influence in the local area. The local authorities often face the threat of multinational corporations withdrawing the local market in case of stricter laws, higher taxation or other problems. In cases when multinational corporations really withdrew such markets, the whole process had a devastating effect on local economy strongly dependant on the foreign investment rates of unemployment went up and rates of economic growth went down at once (Adeyeye, 2012). Additionally, since multinational corporations can afford the best lawyers and accountants they are recognized for their large scale tax avoidance especially through mispricing transfers and false invoicing. In 2008 it was estimated that the developing world loses $160bn a year in tax revenue from only those two forms of tax avoidance (Global Issues, 2012). Not to mention the fact that local governments usually give corporations the privilege of lower taxation in order to attract the foreign investment. Unfortunately, the developing countries usually do not have the expertise, knowledge, wealth and power to address such issues. The multinational corporations are also known for their way of doing business: profit over people and their human rights. The reason why they decide to invest in host countries is to cut costs and maximise profits. If the cost of doing business was the same in home and host countries no company would decide to take such a great risk to expand overseas without any additional benefits. A great opportunity for  corporations is cutting costs in one of the most expensive factors of production: labour. Everyone has heard of cases of labour abuse, extremely low wages, child labour, poor working conditions and no health care in plants owned by multinational corporations in developing countries. In cases when local governments want to intervene and impose stricter laws on work safety, wages or even pollution controls they often have to deal with threats of market withdrawal and loss of foreign investment (Global Issues, 2012). Nevertheless, the wages paid to local workers seem low by western standards, but in local standards are acceptable and are much better than not having a job at all. Many multinational corporations like Nike have taken important steps to improve the working conditions of their employees in developing countries. Few years ago Nike was criticized for the poor working conditions and hard women and child labour in its plants in China, but the company w as not aware of these problems as it was subcontracting with Asian manufacturers. Nowadays the company works more closely with subcontractors on issues concerning employee rights and working conditions in its overseas plants (The World Bank Group, 2012). Last but not least, many opponents to the phenomenon of multinational corporations setting up in developing countries claim that the only reason they decide to invest in host countries is to gain access to their precious natural resources. These corporations exploit the non-renewable natural resources of developing countries like oil or gas for much less than their actual value. In exchange they negatively affect the local environment by polluting air, land and water through mining, auto, oil and chemical corporations. Then residents are left with no drinking water and diseases caused by heavily polluted environment like in China or India. However, small local firms also pollute the environment (on a smaller scale) and the issue needs stricter government regulations (The World Bank Group, 2012). Since these corpor ations do everything to keep their costs down and maximise their profits, they use non-environmentally friendly methods of production and non-renewable resources and get rid of production waste in a dangerous way. It is the government’s responsibility to make sure these corporations protect the environment through imposing regulations, controlling and making sure they are put in practice. To sum up, multinational corporations have both positive and negative impact on developing countries they are setting up in. They give employment to local people and improve their standards of living, bring economic growth, higher national income and tax revenues, not to mention the transfer of technology and skills. However, they are serious competition to local businesses, often violate human rights, practice tax avoidance, misuse their economic and political power, exploit the local natural resources and harm the environment. The developing countries have the most need for foreign direct investment from the multinational corporations in order to catch up with the developed countries in their economic development, but they are the most at risk of exploitation and have the least power to resist it. Multinational corporations can bring many benefits to local societies as a result of their business activities, but this is surely not their initial aim. The purpose of these giant firms is to make the biggest possible profits at the smallest cost. They do not invest in host countries for humanitarian reasons a nd they will not bother to put additional effort or spend additional money to improve certain issues on their own without having a gain in doing so. This is the role local governments and societies should take and strongly insist on. Especially the local authorities should keep power and control strongly, not let the corporations be excessively large and powerful or affect the local communities in a negative way. Multinational corporations can be engines of positive change in the developing countries, but the local authorities should always keep in mind the overall good of their people and land, not only in the short but also in the long run and set favourable agreements and strict regulations that will benefit and protect the residents and the environment. That is because if following all the demands of corporations, local communities have much more to lose than the investment; precious natural resources, residents’ health and welfare and clean environment once gone cannot b e returned. Bibliography Adeyeye, A. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries: Perspectives on Anti-Corruption. Cambridge University Press. London, UK. Griffin, R. and Pustay, M. (2005). International Business. A Managerial Perspective. Prentice Hall, New York, USA. Greer, J. and Kavaljit, S. (2000). A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. Corpwatch. Global Policy Forum. Jones, G.& George, J. (2008). Contemporary Management. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. New York, USA. Online Articles Action Institute. Multinational Corporations in the Third World: Predators or Allies in Economic Development? http://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-2-number-5/multinational-corporations-third-world-predators-o. Accessed 2/05/2012. GhanaWeb. Multinational Corporations and the Developing World. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=171863. Accessed 3/05/2012. Global Issues. The Rise of Corporations. http://www.globalissues.org/article/234/the-rise-of-corporations. Accessed 4/05/2012. Institute for Policy Studies. Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power. http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/top_200_the_rise_of_corporate_global_power. Accessed 2/05/2012. The World Bank Group. Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries and Corporate Social Responsibility. http://info.worldbank.org/etools/bSPAN/presentationView.asp?EID=417&PID=827. Accessed 3/05/2012.

Immigrant Children A Growing Problem For American Schools

Selamawi immigrated to Chicago from Ethiopia at the age of seven, and later graduated from Harvard. Before immigrating to America, Selamawi experienced famine, a civil war, and spent five years of his childhood in a refugee camp. Rather than holding him back, his struggles in life made him thrive in American schools. Like Selamawi, many immigrants come into this country with unique backgrounds and appreciate education. In spite of Selamawi’s story, with more and more immigrant children coming to America, many question how sufficiently these students can be educated in the school system. Others question what benefits come out of letting in immigrant children and introducing them into American schools. Popular belief has it that immigrant children are a growing problem for American schools, however immigration is only beneficial to American students and schools. The key to a diverse education is a diverse student body. Today, more and more of the student body is made up of immigrant children who aid education with their various cultures. Mary Tamer, a Harvard writer for Usable Knowledge, describes how immigrant students better race relationships and bring a diverse cultural background to the classroom. In other words, when immigrant students are in American schools they bring their cultural differences with them and help other students better understand those differences. For example, a cultural class is taught in most schools so that students can learn about various waysShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Struggle To Be An All-American Girl1745 Words   |  7 PagesWong is a Chinese American playwright that wrote â€Å"The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl† originally published in the Los Angeles Times in 1990. In her short story, she describes her resentment of her Chinese roots and her protest against her parents that want her to learn and appreciate her heritage and Chinese culture. 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