Marketing Falls Mountain Lodge

Question: Examine about the Report for Marketing of Falls Mountain Lodge. Answer: Presentation In this task, a contextual analysis report has been created for the Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. It is a little boutique office of national notoriety situated inside the Mount Taranaki National Park of New Zealand. The lodging gives chief convenience and proposes to extend the room limit by 15 and elite tramping bundles. Visitors have the chance to encounter terrific landscape while getting a charge out of elite experience bundles inside the earth perfect national park. The retreat assists with growing clean green condition alongside serene unwinding. The goal of this task is todevelop a Strategic Marketing Plan. It is required to create vision of the organization for 3-5 years. The extent of the report is to break down the shopper conduct for the hotel in accordance with Tourism life cycle and sustainabilityanalysis. The site of the retreat has been investigated so as to locate the potential focuses for Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. Also, it has been dissected which some portion of the market are not considered in the site. There are 5 key focuses have been given to improve to the site of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. It has additionally been examined in this report Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge can use Walshs (2015) Research Opportunity Spectrum in Conjunction with Kozak and Martins (2012) to improve contributions for gold and platinum voyagers. At last a basic survey of the limited time techniques for Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has been built up that will bring about channel development, productivity and increment in income. At th e last part a few proposals have been given to the retreat to future improvement. Improvement of a key advertising plan As Hosany and Martin (2012) referenced that, key showcasing plan is the composed report that can be considered as the arrangement of choices that an association is attempting to accomplish. It is a lot of objective alongside a lot of strategies and procedures to accomplish those objectives. In this segment, a key showcasing plan has been developedfor Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge for a long time. Situational examination Vermin examination Political factor As Manyika et al. (2013) referenced that, world of politics that exists inside a nation has critical effect on the inn and the travel industry. It has been discovered that governmental issues has influenced the day by day life of numerous residents in New Zealand. Inns and resorts need to think of approaches to adapt to the political circumstance of New Zealand. As indicated by Sigala et al. (2012), the political methodology has essentially influenced the capacity of nearby guests to go around the nation. It has been dissected thatthe business of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge relies to a great extent upon global and neighborhood vacationers. The New Zealand government has adopted different strategies to decide the quantity of outside visitor who will visit the nation. Monetary variables It has been discovered that the financial focal point of the nation is on the travel industry (Kang et al., 2012). The normal pay level of the nation has influenced the business execution of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge. As per Australian Bureau of Statistics the normal family pay of New Zealand is $67,000 (Hamel Breen, 2013). Furthermore, the expansion rate has likewise influenced the exhibition of inn industry in New Zealand. It has been discovered that expansion pace of the nation is 0.70%, which is considered as the most reduced on the planet (Kabani, 2013). Social elements The key social factor that influences the matter of lodging industry is the buyer way of life and the current food utilization patterns (Kang et al., 2012). It has been discovered that 72% of the absolute populace of New Zealand lives in urban territories (Sigala et al., 2012). They are turning out to be more wellbeing cognizant. Their supposition about food and administrations offered by an association has essentially influenced the business execution of inn industry. Innovative components As Hosany and Martin (2012) referenced that adaption of innovation ahs noteworthy effect on decide the sum that a client is eager to pay for the inns. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has improved its standard so as to meet the desires for travelers. The organization has mechanized its booking framework with the goal that clients can book their rooms by means of interne. Also, selection of web based life showcasing encourages the retreat to extend its business. Figure 1: PEST examination for Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge (Source: Okazaki Taylor, 2013) SWOT examination Qualities The lodging gives chief convenience and proposes to extend the room limit by 15 and selective tramping bundles. Visitors have the chance to encounter dynamite view while getting a charge out of select experience bundles inside the earth perfect national park. It helps the retreat top of the line clients towards it. Shortcoming The retreat can't draw in center pay level clients because of its significant expense. What's more, the inn has a few issues related with security and support. The retreat has constrained its market by not having remote web accessible all through the lodging. Openings The hotel should bring down its cost of rooms so as to pull in the neighborhood medium pay level voyagers of New Zealand. The retreat can improve its site and increment internet based life advertising to extend its market. The retreat needs to concentrate on item separation. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge has just begun too separate their items and administrations for various clients (Gold level and platinum level). Dangers The significant danger of the retreat is the seriousness of lodging industry. The retreat needs to experience steady weight so as to improve its norm. The expanding pace of expense and changing guidelines presents significant danger for the hotel (Manyika et al., 2013). Figure 2: SWOT investigation for Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge (Source : Trusov et al., 2012) Setting vision/targets for the organization As indicated by Abdulsater et al. (2014), situational investigation assists with responding to the inquiry where are we now. Setting the vision or advertising destinations can assist with responding to the question where would we like to go. In this stage, objectives for the organization has been built up that can decipher the strategic the association into effectively reasonable articulations related with business sectors, deals, advertising blend and inhabitance. Strategic vision of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge The crucial the hotel is to charm our visitors each time by making connecting with encounters directly from our heart. The vision of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge is to be the principal decision for visitors, associates, investors and colleagues. Decreasing cost of rooms so as to pull in center pay level clients first year Advancement of internet based life promoting movement second year Hoping to extend business in different urban communities of New Zealand third year Figure 3: Objective of Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge for next 3 years (Source : Kwong et al., 2012) Advancement of advertising methodology As Khanna and Palepu (2013) expressed that, an appropriate advertising blend is a pivotal for the accomplishment of a lodgings promoting exertion. Advertising blend assists with demonstrating a few factors to target explicit class of visitors. 1) Services and offices So as to pull in possible clients and visitor, the supervisory group of the hotel needs to concentrate on offices and administrations. The retreat need to choose right administrations and offices, create powerful special methodologies (both on the web and disconnected) lastly needs to create successful valuing system to pull in center level clients. Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge can improve item contributions like food and refreshment, transportation offices, amusement, wellbeing and wellbeing offices, stopping offices, wellbeing and health offices. The hotel can provide food various offices for various market portions. For instance, a relaxation visitor on a family searches for wellbeing and recreational offices of the retreat. Then again, business voyagers like to have offices like video conferencing, web availability and video conferencing. 2) Place and circulation The lodging is situated toward the finish of Manaia Road in Egmont National Park on Mt. Taranaki. It is situated in the local woodland, which is itself a fascination (Dawsonfallsmountainlodge,2016). The guests can appreciate the loosening up Alpine condition with comfortable log flames and cold wet days (Dawsonfallsmountainlodge,2016). The hotel can utilize both immediate and backhanded techniques to arrive at likely clients. Direct Methods Aberrant Methods Worldwide Distribution System (GDS) Printed Media Advertisements Inn Website Booking System Calls Pennant Advertisements (Facebook promotions and Google advertisements) Occasion Planner Trip specialists Online Travel gateways (HotelIQ, Trip Advisor) Free trip specialists Free lodging agents Figure 4: Direct and aberrant strategies to arrive at likely clients (Source : Mullins, 2012) 3) Communication and advancements The deals and advertising executive of the hotel should attempt to build up the best advancement and correspondence blend. As Abdulsater et al. (2014) expressed that advancement is the technique wherein an inn can speak with its objective clients. There is different correspondence and advancement channels, the hotel can use to create successful correspondence with sightseers. They are, for example, Facebook Page, Brochures, Hotel sites, Twitter Channel, TV plugs, boards. 4) Room rate or pricings As Bergek et al. (2013) referenced that, advancement of proper promoting procedure is a critical part of the showcasing blend system. So as to draw in potential clients the hotel needs to build up a

Responses to classmember Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reactions to classmember - Assignment Example It is additionally astounding with respect to how unconcerned a great many people are on the best way to direct an Internet search. Without the tips set down in this Chapter on the best way to discover online data, the vast majority of us would in any case be leading Internet look mistakenly. Hence, these tips help in effectively directing Internet searches and discovering significant data that would be significant recorded as a hard copy an examination paper. To be sure this Chapter clarifies how a viable research should be bolstered by dependable data; Bovee and Thill have spread out a procedure on the most proficient method to show signs of improvement results while looking for data. This enlightening Chapter portrays the best method to direct an examination just as discloses how to assess the validity of any wellspring of data. A scientific report is significant for investigating, understanding or clarifying an issue or opportunity and reaching inferences from the exploration. Accordingly making arrangements for a systematic report is significant since it limits the odds of sitting around idly and improves the aftereffects of the examination. Diagnostic reports can be utilized to survey the dangers, openings and the choices and activities that are required to be attempted. By so doing through scientific reports, one can have the option to investigate a hazard or opportunity and concoct the choices that will be good for the association. An examination needs to contain data that is gathered direct despite the fact that unfortunately most research papers these days just contain auxiliary data. I agree with you that perhaps the most ideal approaches to gather essential data is through talking the proper gatherings. Meetings offer the specialist the chance to collaborate with the invested individual and secure data that is straightforwardly identified with the examination being directed. This is especially significant since most auxiliary data that can be gotten doesn't identify with the subject of research and is consequently not of advantage.

Should Salaries be Transparent in Your Company

Should Salaries be Transparent in Your Company When we talk about transparent salaries, we mean that salaries are common knowledge to everyone in a company or salaries are released publicly. Traditionally, how much an employee makes is meant to be kept in strict confidence for most private companies. However, some companies with salary transparency policies publish the salary data of its employees. This may be for compliance with tax reporting requirements (i.e., nonprofit organizations) or as a response to public companies’ shareholders who would like to know the earnings of their top executives.For some jobs in the public sector, salaries are determined strictly by their tenure and title. Thus, although a particular employee’s salary is not being published, the organization’s wage rates are still open to everyone. Moreover, salary transparency has become typical for high technology companies, particularly small startup companies that are trying to compete aggressively for talent in markets in Seattle, Silicon Valley, and New York City.Whatever the case may be, the trend towards transparency has been driven by a couple of variables, at least according to the Society for Human Resource Management. One is the rising availability of such data from sites like Salary.com, Glassdoor.com, as well as compensation benchmarking programs such as PayScale.com. Another is the ever more tightening labor market and the recognition of pay equality. The last is the effect of millenials, who are used to transparency and openness in social media. © Shutterstock | DooderThere are advantages and disadvantages to informing employees how much their fellow employees are making. At any rate, it is still a very tricky subject on whether a company should reveal how much their employees earn. This article will feature the advantages and disadvantages of companies making their salaries transparent. Moreover, it will discuss whether you as an employer should make salaries transparent in your company, given your circumstances.ADVANTAGES OF TRANSPARENT SALARIESAbility for Employee Negotiations. In knowing how much the range is for particular positions, employees and job candidates have the evidential support to negotiate for higher raises and higher starting salaries, respectively. This, of course, benefits the employee or would-be employee. In so doing, salary transparency can also help address any pay inequalities.Closes the Gender Gap. Based on a survey by Salary.com, 36% of men always negotiate their salaries when they receive a job offer, while only 26% of women do. This hesitance of women to request for more money is a main contributing variable to the existing gender gap. Furthermore, in a study conducted by the American Association of University Women, they found out that the full-time beginning salary of newly college graduates were 18% less for women, compared to their male counterparts.By being transparent with your salaries, it can aid in increasing your female applicants, since it lowers their uncertainty on working conditions and salaries for your company. Research shows that women are less likely to negotiate their pay compared to men. However, research has also shown that the transparency can aid in closing this negotiation gap in salaries among men and women. Encourages Trust. When a company is more transparent with something as sensitive as salaries, it shows that its employer and its management trust its employees sufficiently to allow them the information of other people’s salaries. This can l ead to more satisfaction in their jobs and hence, better productivity.Hires Applicants with Better Fit. Since applicants have more and understandable information about your company, this can better improve the job matching process. This means that even before they apply, they already know whether a job provides too low a salary range for their liking. In the long run, it would decrease unemployment periods.Holds Human Resources Accountable. By being transparent in your salaries, it would hold your human resources responsible and accountable for precisely gauging the salaries for the true value of a job. Think about it this way â€" in order to make someone accountable, you would need information. With the lack of information (or even valid data), actions made by individuals are difficult to ascertain and could be gravely misconstrued. The secrecy of information makes it challenging to hold organizations and individuals accountable for their actions and behavior. It also makes it prob lematic for those who are treated unjustly to establish a case for just treatment, in this case, in terms of salaries.Motivates Productivity. Transparent salaries can motivate employees who are paid higher to work even harder and in a productive manner. In a way, they are trying to demonstrate their higher value to their peers and management. According to research, employers that move from pay secrecy to pay transparency undergo big and permanent increases in their productivity levels. When pay information remains a secret, employees typically overestimate the salaries of others, leading to job dissatisfaction and lower productivity levels.[slideshare id=53170437doc=paytransparency-150924204252-lva1-app6891w=640h=330]Prequalifies Applicants. If a company does not disclose salary data, you as an employer and your human resources department could spend hours going through resumes and interviewing job candidates â€" only to find out eventually that your top choice is disinclined to wor k for the salary you are offering. In revealing your pay scale and its structure, you can avoid wasting time on applicants whom you cannot pay to their satisfaction. Moreover, you can draw in candidates of high value who would have assumed that the salary would be lower than what they had expected.DISADVANTAGES OF TRANSPARENT SALARIESApplicants Request for the Highest Salary Possible. Many employers choose not to post salary ranges or exact salaries on their job listings because they think that job candidates would be adamant that they receive the maximum amount indicated in the posting. This is even when they cannot meet the qualifications and competencies for that level of salary. The problem that employers have with transparent salaries is that it makes negotiation for them a bit more difficult.Employees Getting Upset. If you are a new business and if you published your salaries since your inception, that is good and well. However, if you already have existing employees and did n ot reveal the salaries previously or maybe did not consider the factors that composed their salary composition in detail â€" allowing access to payroll information to all may cause strain in the office. There would probably be a number of employees who would protest simply because they do not want people to know how much they are earning. In polite conversation, money is still a sensitive and private matter.In addition, misinterpreting salary information may create larger problems than those caused by not being transparent with salaries. Since employees do not know all of the facts that factored into a salary decision, employees can end up being upset and demoralized without reason, just because they failed to view the full picture or know the decision-making process behind the scenes.[slideshare id=59640768doc=1155salaryformula-abumpywaytotransparency-160316161742w=640h=330]Harder Determining Consistent Salary Formulas for Big Businesses. Transparency has proven that it can work fo r many startup companies. However, can this translate to bigger companies that have many kinds of roles? A policy of salary transparency can create huge hurdles in the instance of buyouts and mergers, case in point.Holding Difficult Conversations. There are some instances wherein management and human resources would have to hold difficult conversations with its employees concerning their salaries. If you have a company with hundreds of sales representatives with basically the same job title, description, and incentives, it is not so risky to be completely transparent with them. Actually, such data could be encouraging for them and can offer a roadmap on how to be successful in the business.It can be difficult to discuss, however, if you are dealing with different kinds of job families in a company. Moreover, what if you have someone who has particularly specialized skills that is truly unique, who needs a higher salary? This can begin to reveal significant differences in pay that ma y be difficult to explain to your regular employees.Case in point, what if you have an administrative assistant who has been with the company for more than 30 years who is making more money than your assistants are or even your employees who have several degrees? How can you explain this? If you choose to be completely transparent, you have to be ready to go through some difficult conversations. Employers have to have credible and new information, wherein they can share how they made job salary decisions for different instances.Increases Overall Salaries. You have to remember that once you publish your salary levels, this would increase overall salaries. Not only would new hires want to be offered the amount published on the job posting, but existing employees would want to have salary increases as well, depending on the current standards of their level. Thus, if your books are still somewhere between a loss and breaking even, you may have to rethink about being transparent with sal aries, as it would definitely increase your salaries across the board, affecting your costs.Infringes on Some Privacy Levels. By revealing salary information on existing and new job positions, it could infringe on some privacy levels of your employees. This is because of traditional thinking of salaries. There used to be the notion that releasing salary information could go against the privacy of an employee. However, if these are clearly stated in your policies, rules, and regulations and your employees agree to such, you can feel somewhat safe in this case. No Backing Out of Transparency Once Started. Transparency is not something you can turn on and then off again. Once you decide to be transparent with your salaries, you have to stick with it â€" there is no going back. Hence, what is important to take note of, is that besides making salaries transparent, you should also be clear on the technology and methodology you used to get to decisions on compensation.SHOULD YOU MAKE SALAR IES TRANSPARENT: VARIABLES TO CONSIDERThere is no clear right or wrong answer to making salary information transparent in a company. You should consider your company in order to determine whether it is suited for this kind of transparency.Communication of Rationale and StrategyIf you think your company will be able to communicate your rationale and strategy for salary transparency well, then consider making salaries transparent. Effective communication is important â€" otherwise, you run the risk of alienating your employees instead of making them feel in synchronicity with the company.Create a communications plan and equip your managers with the important information so that they can better handle challenging communications with employees on how their salaries were decided. Employees would feel the reassurance when they find some market data on compensation and are shown how each salary decision was devised.Company CultureDefinitely, the approach to being transparent about salaries is not the same for all companies. Companies that are smart should take a more introspective approach to salary transparency. Know your employee demographic first. Case in point â€" millenials may be alright with their salaries being made public because they are used to sharing personal information via social networks; however, baby boomers might react negatively as they see this as an invasion of privacy.Moreover, your choice in salary transparency depends on your culture. As soon as you have a viewpoint on your compensation, look at how you would communicate this message to your employees. Will they see the compensation as how the company values them or will they see it as the company not taking care of them? You should also factor in the size of your company. While you can accomplish these things when you are merely 35 persons, this could make no sense for a company with thousands of individuals. Outliers or Unique PositionsMake sure you know who your outliers are in your compan y. These are people who have unique backgrounds, professionally and/or academically. You have to be prepared to describe what it is about them and their positions that made them receive such high compensations.Of course, there should be reasons as to why they received higher salaries. It could be because of the different responsibilities they carry; the departments they are working for; the expertise they lend to a job; and their career paths. By being ready with your answers, you eliminate the possibility of employees getting upset. So determine whether you have one or two outliers or just too many. This could influence your decision on whether to open up your salary information to scrutiny.AT THE ENDAt the end of it all, keep in mind that if you would like to be transparent in your salaries, you can do it gradually. Some companies have simply disclosed pay grades or salary ranges for a couple of positions and at varying seniority levels. Sometimes they share past undisclosed detai ls, without providing particular salaries for specific employees. Thus, while this discloses some information, it still engages employees and encourages openness and trust but at the same time, you do not give up your negotiating and competitive advantages.Remember, when it comes to salary transparency, it does not mean you are completely good if you are transparent or completely bad if you are not transparent. While salary transparency can be wonderful for one organization, it could be disastrous for another. The important thing to note is what your whole company and employees can stand in terms of salary disclosure. Make sure you accommodate the needs of your employees but simultaneously keep your company’s mission and strategy also at the forefront.

Preparing Students for the Testing Season

Spring  is traditionally the  season  of beginnings, and for middle and high school students, spring is often the beginning of the testing season. There are district tests, state tests, and national tests for students in grades 7-12 that begin in March and continue through the end of the school year. Many of these tests are mandated by legislation.   In a typical public school, a student will take  at least one  standardized test  annually. Those high school students who enroll in college credit courses  may take even more tests. Each of these standardized tests is designed to take a minimum of 3.5 hours to complete. Adding up this time over the course of  the six years between grades 7-12, the average student participates in standardized testing for 21 hours or  the  equivalent of  three full  school days. Educators can first provide the information that helps students better understand the purpose of a specific test. Is the test going to measure their individual growth or is the test going to measure their performance against others?   Two Kinds of Standardized Testing for Grades 7-12 The  standardized tests  that are used in grades 7-12 are either  designed as norm-referenced or as criterion-referenced tests. Each test is designed for a different measure. A norm-referenced test is designed to compare and rank students (similar in age or grade) in relation to one another: Norm-referenced tests report whether test takers performed better or worse than a hypothetical average student Norm-referenced tests usually are simple to administer and easy to score because they are usually designed as multiple-choice tests.    The criterion-referenced  tests are designed to measure student performance against an expectation: Criterion-referenced  tests and  assessments  are designed to measure student performance against a fixed set of predetermined criteria or  learning standards Learning standards are descriptions by grade level of what students are expected to know and be able to do.  The criterion-referenced tests used to measure learning progress can also measure gaps in student learning.   Preparing Students for the Structure of Any Test Teachers can help prepare students for both  kinds standardized tests, both norm-referenced  tests and criterion-referenced  tests. Educators can explain to students the purpose of both criterion referenced and  the norm-referenced test so students will have a better understanding when they read the results. Most importantly, they can expose students to the pace of the exam, to the format of the exam and to the language of the exam. There are practice passages  in texts and online from different tests that will allow students to become more familiar with  the format of the test. To prepare students for the pace of the exam, teachers can offer some practice testing under conditions that mimic the actual test. There are released tests or materials that mimic the test that students should be encouraged to take independently. A timed practice text is particularly helpful is giving students the experience so they will know how fast they have to move to answer all the questions. Multiple practice sessions for timed essay writing should be offered if there is an essay section, for example, like the AP exams. Teachers have to coach students to determine a pace that works for them and recognize given how much â€Å"average† time they will need to read and answer an  open-ended question. Students might practice how to survey the whole test at the beginning and then look at the number of questions, point value, and difficulty of each section. This practice will help them to budget their time. Exposure to the format of the exam will also help student distinguish the amount of time that might be needed in reading multiple choice  questions. For example, one standardized test section requires students answer   75 questions in 45 minutes. That means students have an average of 36 seconds per question. Practice can help students adjust to this speed. In addition, understanding the format can help students negotiate the layout of a test, especially if the standardized test has moved to an online platform. Online testing means a student must be proficient in keyboarding, and also know which keyboarding feature is available for use. For example, the computer-adaptive tests, like the SBAC, may not allow students to return to a section with an unanswered question.   Multiple Choice Preparation Educators can also help students practice with how tests are administered. While some of these remain pen and paper tests, other tests have moved to online testing platforms. A part of test preparation, educators may offer students  the following multiple choice question strategies: If any part of the answer is not true, then the answer is incorrect.  When there are identical responses, then neither is correct.Consider no change or none of the above as a valid answer choice.Students should eliminate and cross off those distracting answers that are absurd  or obviously incorrect.Recognize transition words that  describe relationships between ideas in choosing a response.  The stem or start of the question should agree grammatically   (same tense) with the correct answer, so students should quietly read the question aloud to test each possible response.Correct answers may offer relative qualifiers such as sometimes or often, while incorrect answers are generally  written in absolute language and do not allow for exceptions. Before taking any tests, students should know if the test gives a penalty  for incorrect responses; if there is no penalty, students should be advised to guess if they dont know the answer.    If there is a difference in the point value of a question, students should plan on how they will  spend time on the more weighted sections of the test. They should also know how to split their time between multiple choice and essay answers if that is not already separated by section in the test. Essay or Open-Ended Response Preparation Another part of test preparation is  teaching students to prepare for essays or open-ended responses. Students to write directly on paper tests, take notes or use the highlighting feature on computer tests in order to identify sections that can be used for evidence in essay responses: Follow the directions by looking carefully at keywords: Answer A  or  B vs.  A  and  B.Use facts in different ways: to compare/ contrast, in  sequence or to provide a description.Organize facts  based on headings in informational texts.Use transitions with enough context in a sentence or paragraph to make the relationships between facts clear.Suggest that  students answer easiest questions first.Suggest students write on only one side of the page.Encourage students to leave a large space at the beginning of a response, or to leave a page  in between,  in the event a student ends up with a different thesis or position or would like to add or to change details later if time permits.   When time is limited, students should draft an outline by listing key points and the order they plan to answer them.   While this would not count as a complete essay, some credit for evidence and organization may be credited.   Which Tests Are Which? Tests are often better known by their acronyms than why they are used or what they are testing. To get balanced data  from their assessments, some states may have students take  norm-referenced tests as well as  criterion-referenced tests in different grade levels. The most familiar  norm-referenced tests  are those designed to rank students  on a  bell curve The  NAEP  (The National Assessment of Educational Progress)  reports  statistical information about student performance and factors related to educational performance for the nation and for specific demographic groups in the population (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender);The SAT  (Scholastic Aptitude Test and/or  Scholastic Assessment Test);  Scores on the SAT range from 400 to 1600, combining test results from two 800-point sections: mathematics, and critical reading and writing.  The following states  have opted to use the SAT as a high school  exit exam:  Colorado,  Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia*, Idaho* (or ACT), Illinois, Maine*, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island*. (*optional)  PSAT/NMSQT  a precursor to the SAT.  The test is composed of four sections: two Math Sections, Critical Reading, and Writing Skills used to determine eligibility and qualification for the  National Merit Scholarship Program.  Students in grades 8-1 0 are the target audience for the PSAT.  The  ACT  (American College Test) is four  content area tests  scored individually on a scale of 1–36, with the composite score as the whole number average. The ACT does have elements of  a criterion-referenced in that it also compares how a student performs compared to ACT College Readiness Standards which are regularly reviewed.  The following states  have opted to use the  ACT  as a high school  exit exam:   Colorado,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Utah.ACT Aspire  tests map learner progress from elementary grades through high school on a vertical scale which is anchored to the scoring system of the ACT. Challenges to the tradition of norm-referenced testing came with  the expansion of  criterion-referenced tests in 2009 when tests were designed to measure  the impact of the  Common Core State Standards (CCSS).These  criterion-referenced  tests determine how college and career ready a student is in English Language Arts and in mathematics.   While initially embraced by 48 states, the two testing consortiums have the remaining states committed to using their platforms: The  Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers  (PARCC) in the following states  Colorado,  District of Columbia,  Illinois,  Louisiana,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  New Jersey, New Mexico,  Rhode IslandThe  Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium  (SBAC)  The states that use this  SBAC computer adaptive testing include:  California,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  Hawaii,  Idaho,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Montana,  Nevada, New Hampshire,  North Carolina,  North Dakota,  Oregon,  South Dakota,  U.S. Virgin Islands,  Vermont,  Washington,  West Virginia The College Board  Advanced Placement (AP)  exams  are also criterion referenced. These exams are created by the College Board as  college-level exams in specific content areas.  A high score (5) on the exam may award college credit. At the conclusion of the spring testing season, the results of all these tests are then analyzed by different stakeholders in order determine student progress, possible curriculum revision, and in some states, teacher evaluation. The analysis of these tests can guide the development of a schools educational plan for the following school year. Spring may be the season for testing in the nations middle and high schools, but preparation for an analysis of these tests are a school year long enterprise.

The Aspects Of The African American Community - 1645 Words

DaVon Davis English 102-04 Amy Guthrie Take Me Back To Africa The aspects of the African American community need to understand the concept of personal responsibility as well as learning to take personal responsibility for the circumstances that plague this generation. The Black lives matter movement began as an outcry by minorities to bring the unjust actions of the justice system as well as the actions taking by the police in profiling citizens. The beginning of this movement started with using protests and marches to declare their displeasure in the ‘unnecessary actions taken by the police in aiding in the process of eliminating and targeting minorities. The controversial component of the black lives matter movement is the negative†¦show more content†¦There are no black and white areas when it comes to race and the problems that come with it. This gray subject is resonated in the hearts of blacks and the minds of the white community. In order to have equality, there has to be a cleaned slate between all races involved and a n ew song to be sung in the new community. Just as Jason Riley said in his book Please Stop Helping Us, The civil rights movement, properly understood, was about equal opportunity. But a group must be culturally equipped to seize it (Riley pg. 58). Today s culture is not ready to let go and move forward together because in order for that to be done personal responsibility has to be taken by everyone. Personal responsibility has to be taken even for the things that were not done personally by you. On the other hand generalizing all of a specific group of people i.e. Police officers and white people, as the bad guy needs to be stopped and looked at from both sides of the problem. On August 9, 2014, eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson. In several witness accounts, people said that Michael Brown had his hands up which sparked the Hands up don t shoot chant that was repeated during several protests throughout the country (Clarke , 2014). What is not analyzed is the fact that Michael Brown had also just stolen from a local store as well as

Lego Free Essays

Lego Lego is a line of plastic toys that can be constructed into specific sets, characters from movies or books, and anything you want it to be. The Lego Group started out in 1932 and today it’s one of the world’s leading toy companies, In 2016 alone, Lego made 12.4 billion dollars from only lego sets. We will write a custom essay sample on Lego or any similar topic only for you Order Now Today they also have amusement parks with lego rides, stores, and statues made out of legos, such as a pirate ship, Hulkbuster, and Hulk. The man who started the lego group was known as Ole Kirk Kristiansen, who grew up with five brothers and five sisters. By the age of seven he was working for a local smallholder, then a few months later he began to work at a nearby farm. In the year 1903 he was apprenticed as a carpenter with his brother, and worked hard until 1911 when he completed his training. Ole Kirk Kristiansen buys Billund Maskinsnedkeri for DKK 10,000 when the area is just a bunch of small farms and store fronts. This factory manufactures doors, windows, kitchen cabinets, cupboards, coffins, chests of drawers, and tools for digging peat. They also contributed for larger projects, such as fixing farm machinery or constructing buildings, such as the local church. With this skill set and the help of a local architect, he built a new house for him, his wife, and his kids all while paying little to nothing.During the great economic crisis, Ole Kirk Kristiansen was still trying to sell carpentry, but almost nobody could afford his works, forcing him out of work. After that, his wife left him with 4 kids and no money to take care of them. To make easy money during the crisis, Ole Kirk Kristiansen began to make toys, first wooden cars, then airplanes and yoyos. After that he began to make ironing boards, ladders, and christmas tree stands. This did get him through the crisis, but he doesn’t make any real profit and his family doesn’t think his store is very important. Kristiansen asked his brothers and sisters to be guarantors for a loan that would secure his company’s future, they asked him,† Can’t you find something better to do?†Ole Kirk Kristiansen ended up having kids during the 1920s, but the kid who had the most effect on the family company was the third son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. He was helping his dad in the shop when he was only four years old. He always said his first memory in there was when they turned on the glue heater, and some wood shavings caught fire and burned the whole place down. The reason Ole Kirk Kristiansen and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen have different beginnings to their names is because people pronounced the name with the â€Å"Ch† and when casually spelling out the name they would use the â€Å"Ch† as well. Ole Kirk Kristiansen never minded the confusion but Godtfred was bothered by it so he had it legally changed to Christiansen.After World War II, Ole Kirk Kristiansen noticed that a new material for making toys was becoming more and more popular; plastic. Plastic was less more malleable than wood and could be acquired easier. Ole Kirk Kristiansen and other Danish toy manufacturers attended a demonstration of an injection-moulding machine in June of 1946, and the machine impressed Kristiansen so he made an order for an injection-moulding machine for his own shop. Ole Kirk Kristiansen’s sons, who were all involved in the family company at the time, collectively disagreed with their fathers decision to invest money into this new technology. They thought while plastic could be used to make prettier toys, wood was the better material because it was the stronger of the two. Their father argued that if they got it right; they could produce toys for the whole world.In 1949, the first of the plastic lego bricks had begun production. They were known as Automatic Binding Bricks, but in 1951, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen changed the name to LEGO Mursten, or LEGO Bricks to further spread popularity of LEGO.By 1953 the LEGO company was ready to go international, starting with the Nordic countries, such as Sweden and Iceland. After that they turned to Europe; starting with Germany. At the time, Germany was the world’s epicenter of toy production. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen during this time often said, â€Å"If we can conquer Germany, we can conquer the world!† In the end they did get to the whole world, but it did take them a while. In 1961, LEGO finally licensed an American company which would begin to sell around the country and in Canada. Once LEGO began to make a name for itself across the entire world, other people and companies started competition with LEGO, giving them a hard time. In 1960. Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen laid down the company rule: following the crucial decision to concentrate all efforts into the LEGO system, saying â€Å"No one must be able to do this better than us.† He also outlines all of their development so far, like this,†We know our idea is a good one. We want only the best †¦ we must make better bricks from even better material on even better machinery. We must get the best people that money can buy for our company.† In 1962, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s cousin, Dagny Holm, joined the company and showed a very immense potential for model building with a skilled eye that seemed like it could make anything out of those bricks. She made buildings, castles, animals, people, and furniture. Her skill attracted the public eye and inspired anybody who worked with the LEGO product, making the company’s golden age. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen came up with the idea to use his cousin’s skill to make a display of LEGO models and contacted a few friends to startup the first LEGOLand. Thousands of pounds of earth and vegetation were removed to make ever-changing landscapes in the Miniland. The final product included a train, puppet theater, Native American camp, driving school, neighborhood, windmill, and church, all created by Dagny Holm and her creative team. Within the year of the first LEGOland’s opening, around 625,000 people visit it to see the models or play with the thousands of LEGO bricks around the property.The LEGO company continued to expand and grow until today, where it is still achieving new things and breaking records every day. Almost everybody grew up playing with legos, either building the sets that they sell, playing with friends or making their own creations just for fun. You can ask almost anyone and they can tell you a few memories they have of playing with legos, whether it’s going to Legoland to stepping on them getting out of bed. Today LEGO makes things called Lego Sets. They are meant to be little figurines or models from real life, movies, books, TV shows, and video games. Some examples of these Lego Sets are: hospitals, The Millenium Falcon, Helms Deep, The Death Star, and Space Ships. These sets are sold in boxes, which contain bags of pieces, big and small. Some of the are just meant to be walls, but some of the pieces are doors, stairs, cups, and windows. The sets always have a different number of pieces, depending on the size of the set. Sometimes the piece count is 50, other times it is over 1000. The box also contains a book of instructions, telling the builder where to put the pieces and when to move to other parts. People use these sets for many things. Some people put them up for observation in their rooms, other people play with them until they break, and a very special few people wait several years until that specific set isn’t sold anymore and they sell it for a big price. How to cite Lego, Papers

E-Health Care Solutions

Question: Discuss the gal of Our Organization and Statement of Need? Answer: Summary E-Health Care Solutions web application is a one-stop healthcare portal entertaining a two way (Doctor - Patient) customer database, bringing to them a full package of features of finding each other and then interacting among themselves, under a single roof. On one hand, it allows the doctors to use it as a professional or social networking website by encouraging them to communicate among themselves and other registered health care experts worldwide via chat boxes, forums, etc. to share medical advancements, cures, case studies, journals, research papers, etc (Kerzner, 2013). On the other hand, this medically rich online database can be beneficially reaped by making it available to the patients, medical students, health care professionals and other general users seeking online health care solutions. These users can either seek the help of the doctors by fixing appointments, sharing medical reports, e-mails, etc. with them or look for answers to their other medical queries by searching the general forums, discussions, or publicly shared information by the doctors (Wahlster, 2013). Goal of Our Organization: The success of a medical treatment solely depends on the effectiveness of communication among patients and their physicians. In order for the patient to fully understand and learn about his or her health issues and medical conditions, it is necessary for the patient to convey to the doctor the symptoms or difficulties he or she is facing in an effective and clear manner. The need of effective communication in medical and health care field is very important for patients to be treated and recovered successfully. Moreover, the cost of establishing corporate and government health care sectors are often quite burdensome to implement. In case a patient wants to be facilitated by supervised care he or she needs to pay an extra significant amount of money (Finnerty, 2013). Our organization will greatly reduce the complexity of all of these factors by facilitating online one-to-one personal medical consultancy by specialised doctors. Moreover, patients can easily communicate with their physicians through forums or messages whenever they want. Statement of Need In the real life scenario, there are a lot of problems faced by the patients and the doctors, like: Appointment fixing: Usually the patients need to go to the hospital or to the doctors chamber and wait in a long queue which takes a lot of time, in order to make an appointment. Handling emergency situations: It has been observed that in some emergency situations, patients are not aware of how to handle the situation. A proper guide to such first aid situations is required. Patient-Doctor relationship: for accomplishing a successful medical treatment, patient-physician relationship should have a basic foundation of trust and faith. The doctor should have some ethical obligations towards the welfare his or her patients. It greatly influences the decision making because the patients can be confident that they can confide to their doctor (Kerzner, 2013). Patient feedback: A patients feedbacks or opinions after going through a medical treatment can be very much valuable and important for the physician to improve his or her treatment policies and approach towards the patients. But in traditional health care system, after a patient is recovered or released, their doctors hardly come to know their feedback or what they think about the treatment process. Through our project, the patients can leave posts in the online communities as well as private messages about their opinions or suggestions for improvement which can be easily viewed by doctors. Lack of a portal for online communication: There should be a portal where the doctors can communicate with the patients as well as themselves. Our system can provide solutions to the above mentioned problems in the following way: An automated online system will help to fix the appointments in very less time. In case of any emergencies, the users can post discussions in the forum about their problems and receive solutions from other users or doctors instantly. Our system will provide a proper channel for communications among the doctors worldwide, thus overcoming the geographical barrier. Project Description Definition of the Project: An e-healthcare website gives a platform to the medicalprofessionalswho provide online or web consultancy, patient treatment, and private one-to-one communication regarding health issues. Patients do not need to travel across geographical boundaries to avail a special medical facility. E-health care offers a secure platform for patients to avail 24X7 personal health care solutions. The primary requirement is an internet connection. Patients can access all the registered doctors information just by logging in to the website using a username and a password. Appointments can be fixed for a specific doctor who has active profiles in the website (Thomas, 2013). Project Objectives: The software is for communication among doctors and patients. There are three actors in this project: Users, Doctors and Physicians, System Administrator. Via interaction among the doctors and sharing of information like case studies, journals, research-work, etc., inventions of new technologies, videos, etc. can be achieved. The patients can easily fix appointments with the doctors. The doctors can access the medical history of the patients from a record kept for every patient account. The users can post in the forum with their queries. Doctors from the concerned departments will respond to their queries. The users can view all the information posted by the doctors. An SLA will be fixed for all the doctors to respond to the users queries in the blogs.An automated mail to the administration will be sent on breach of the SLA. User and Literature Survey: We did our research on what the doctors and patients commonly do not have and we can provide to them. From our research we came to a point where we decided to design a website for them where the doctors and patients can both get the medium to communicate among themselves as well as with one another (i.e. doctor-to-doctor communication, public forums for patients to post their queries etc). There is no such portal available in the internet which supports both doctor and patient communication in such a way. That is why we decided to create a platform where a doctor from anywhere in the world can communicate with other registered doctors using the help of messaging or private chat-box; also the users/patients can access the journals and research papers uploaded by the doctors, ask health related questions and even request for an appointment. Project Scope: This mission will result in significant cost savings, but the overall scope of the project is far greater:- For Users/Patients: Users are facilitated with primary health care solutions without having to move physically. All of it happens in real-time. Also they have option to choose from a number of doctors and specialists online. It supports feature that provides one-to-one communication with the specialists. It can be hugely helpful for the patients. Patients can receive personal quality treatments from the registered physicians. Doctors will be providing relevant recommendations and consultations. Users can access various doctors details that are registered with the website, without having to be restricted by the geographical barriers. Moreover, sharing of medical reports and test results online is very easy way to let the doctor know about the users particular health issues (Finnerty, 2013) For Physicians: Physicians are facilitated by this website in various possible ways. Online health care portal will help the doctors to practice real time treatments. Moreover, they do not need to go to their chambers every day instead they can practice medical treatment online directly from their own home. With automated online health treatment doctors can get patients from various countries as a result revenue is increased. It provides a new approach to health care systems which is efficient and powerful as well as beneficial for both doctors and patients across the globe. Physicians who are new in the medical field can open an online health care portal and communicate with other practitioners. There are also options for offering new services, emergency advices etc. A group of physicians can share their thoughts on online forums or communities which is also visible to patients. It might help them learn about certain health issues and take precautions accordingly. Online consultations can bring pot ential customers to their business. Also, email, newsletters etc can be generated to support remotely located patients treatment. Project Functionalities: Members ID Creation: Doctors and users need to register themselves to access the website. Appointment Fixing: Patients can request for an appointment with their respective doctors and depending on the availability of doctor, the appointments will be fixed.A token amount will be paid for fixation of appointments. Discussion Forum: Patients can post their queries in the forums and get expert advice from the doctors themselves. Communication Medium: Private communication among various doctors worldwide will be possible using tools like chat-boxes. Administrative Functions: Administration will monitor the activity of the doctors. If a users query is unanswered for a fixed SLA by a particular doctor, an automated mail will go to the administrator of that hospital. Information Sharing: Doctors can post their journals, case studies, medical news, information about diagnosis of various diseases, invention of new medical technologies, videos, etc. on the forum. This information will be valuable to the medical students. Rating: There will be a rating for the doctors based on user-feedback, recommendation from other doctors, etc. Suggestions to The Administrator: Doctors can also directly communicate with the admin. And valuable suggestions regarding new technologies can be enforced within a hospital. Online Report Viewing: Doctors can view medical reports online and can share the patients medical history with other doctors. User Feedback: Users can share their experiences by providing feedback to the doctors. Tools for Project Implementation: Eclipse IDE: Eclipse is program development software that facilitates integrated development environment or IDE. It usually supports multi-language platform for application development such as C, C++, Java etc. Eclipse has various plug-in features to support interactive environment facilitating software development. MySQL: It runs on the server side and provides multi user access to databases. It supports syntaxes for SQL to store and retrieve data from relational database. HTML: This language is specifically designed for displaying various contents in web pages both texts and interactive components (Finnerty, 2013). JavaScript(JS): It is a type of programming script used to implement in web browsers and runs on the client side. It is mainly used to make the web page interactive and able to communicate with users. Conclusion E-healthcare Solutions develops a new and fresh approach towards online medical treatment. It presents a modern and crisp system for the doctors and patients worldwide to communicate among themselves in an easy and convenient way, where activities like appointment fixing, private one-to-one chatting, writing personal blogs etc. are offered in a single and open platform. It may be concluded that there are still a lot more scope for development for achieving a more flexible website for this project as well as to render a flawless website design. Further, better approaches are awaited that may be suggested by the users of the website. Reference List Collis, Jill, and Roger Hussey.Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan, 2013. Del Cano, Alfredo, and M. Pilar de la Cruz. 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Thomas, Gary.How to do your research project: A guide for students in education and applied social sciences. Sage, 2013. Wahlster, W. (Ed.). (2013).Verbmobil: foundations of speech-to-speech translation. Springer Science Business Media.