No Child Left Behind

Options for the Formal Report
Choice is a good thing, right? There are four options for the formal report, due at the end of
Module 6.
OPTION ONE: Imagine you work for a national employment/placement agency. Your clients
range from the first-time job seeker to the executive level. You specialize in working with
adults who have some work experience and who have just completed a BA or BS degree
from your alma mater, Saint Leo University.

The FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work for List comes out each year in mid-January
(available at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/). Your supervisor
thinks it might be useful and has asked you to prepare a report.
Specifically, she wants to know:
• Can establishing a working relationship with any or some or all of the companies on
the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list help you do your job better?
• Are any or some or all of these companies potential employers for the Saint Leo’s
graduates you help find jobs?
• Are there specific companies that the agency should target to establish an exclusive
relationship with? Which ones and why?
OPTION TWO: The Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education reform law (which was
signed into law January 8, 2002) ties federal aid for the schools to the school system
meeting academic standards and adhering to policies set by the federal government.
Prepare a report for your Congressperson in the US House of Representatives in which you
• discuss the impact of this legislation on your local school system,
• present your recommendation for what should or needs to be done, AND
• detail a direct request for some specified action.
To find out who your representative is, go to http:// www.house.gov/writerep/ and follow
the directions.
Use information available at
• US Department of Education NCLB http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
• Education Commission of the States (a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization with
the mission to facilitate the sharing of education information among the states)

http://www.ecs.org/ecsmain.asp?page=/html/issue.asp%3Fissueid=195,

• The American Federation of Teachers (the teachers’ union)

  http://www.aft.org/topics/nclb/index.htm

  • The National Education Association (a volunteer-based organization, heavily
  involved with lobbying at both the state and federal level)

  http://www.nea.org/esea/

  • or other information to substantiate your analysis.
  OPTION THREE: Your immediate supervisor has stumbled across http:// www.insecure.org/
  —a site run by a self-described hacker who is interested in network security and providing
  free online information. Your supervisor wants to know how legitimate this guy is and has
  asked you to provide her with
  • an over-view of the important issues in network security
  • your opinion on Insecure.org.
  • if possible, the applicability (if any) of the information from the site to your specific
  organization
  Keep in mind as you prepare your report that your supervisor knows enough about
  information systems to be able to follow your reasoning as long as you do not slip into “High
  Geek Speak.”
  OPTION FOUR: Options one, two and three make you yawn! However, you do need to
  prepare an analysis or some other type of formal report for your job, and you would like to
  use it for this assignment. If you are interested in pursuing Option Four, e-mail the course
  instructor through the course e-mail as soon as possible to discuss how best to move
  forward.