Updated Semester Punch List

Completed by March 18:
□ finalize list of interview questions

□ contact interview participants at selected schools

o (Redwood, Crystal Springs, DeAnza, SoTA, Lick, teachers from Galileo and Lincoln etc.)

March 18:
□ Send off email interviews to participants, as well as solicit the participation of additional peers and the contact information of their respective headmasters/ accounting departments. This latter step will hopefully gain us the spending demographics for the schools.
□ Begin ‘shopping around’ for established organizations most parallel to our own mission statement, as well as those that differ in objective (why their approach?).

For the following three (3) classes before spring break:
□ Continue shopping for organizations, gradually finalizing connections and establishing the direction we want to take in feasibly tackling the dilemma. (Aim High)
□ (If applicable) begin analysis of spending demographics between schools
o Find commonalities between schools as to where they spend
o Find commonalities between specific areas of inefficient spending and students’ complaints.
□ As interviews are returned back, analyze collectively the responses and compile into one database TBD (whether website or simple word doc)
o Also during this time, take special heed to the voices of the students in the interviews when determining the feasible course of action we can take.


□ FINALIZED BY SPRING BREAK:
o COMPILATION OF INTERVIEWS
o VIABLE ORGS TO JOIN WITH (Aim High)
o DETERMINE MOST EFFECTIVE AREA TO TACKLE (Life Skills Courses)


*key note for finding an organization – must be well-established in community already (our plan is to work with an organization in its expansion to areas most needed. Specifically, we have chosen to partner with Aim High because they already play such an important role in our community and in our dilemma. We admire their current curriculum, but we would like to expand some areas (such as life skills courses) to meet the immediate and future needs of students more effectively.

First post-break class:
□ Continue searching for spending data, analyzing as we go. Take in straggling interviews add to the blog
□ After we agree on one specific organization to work with, CONTACT ASAP
□ Set up meeting with Alec Lee, or interview with Ms. McBride

All sequential classes barring presentation prep:
□ Sustain contact with organization
□ Begin establishing connection between prospective school and program
□ Determine how we can most effectively help Aim High, and get to work!

□ END GOALS:
o End goal one is to establish an effective organization beyond its current limits. If not possible, then attempt to adapt said programs’ merits for implementation in a local middle or high school. Above all else, keep it simple in the end and work fluidly with our partner org.
o End goal two is to create an informational website, booklet – whatever it may be – that makes our learning transparent to all interested in the faults of the Bay Area school system. Provide the public with firsthand accounts and testimonials beside the hard data, as well as our own interpretations of the dilemma.

Third to last/ penultimate class:
□ Reflect on what we’ve experienced, add to database
□ Begin assembling presentation

Final class:
□ Enjoy final time together as group, finish presentation if needed