Running head: GENERAL CAPSTONE EDUCATION ROUGH DRAFT 1 GENERAL EDUCATION CAPSTONE ROUGH DRAFT 1 GU299 November 12, 2018 General Education Capstone Rough Draft Introduction In recent years, school violence has been on the rise in schools. Violence cases range from simple to sophisticated ones. Simple ones can be in the form of school bullying while complicated ones include students attacking others by deadly weapons (Blosnich & Bossarte, 2011). A good number of students face violence at school and the vice is on the increase. Some of the consequences of such cases have been severe harms and even death. There is a need to address such vices in schools and eliminate them completely. That will help to level the learning environment so that all students will have an equal opportunity to succeed. In service learning, students are given a chance to practice what they learned in class in a real-world environment. Students from XYZ University can use this opportunity to help the organization to solve cases of violence at schools and volunteer as data collectors so as to enhance and develop research that shall offer solutions to the menace of school violence. Service learning can also be utilized by students in the classroom through the analysis of various community problems and the possible solutions. Therefore, the availability of service learning and the efforts of The Education Trust Organization can help to reduce cases of school violence and support students from poor backgrounds. Community Organization The community organization that I chose is The Education Trust Organization. This organization was established in the year 1980 with a duty to promote the education standards for all students' right from the kindergarten level to colleges and universities. The organization's foremost goal is to seal the gaps in educational accomplishments and more specifically, the young people. The organization is mandated to make policies and advocate for better learning standards. They mostly focus on learners from poor or low income and marginalized groups. They focus on such students because they have a high likelihood of experiencing challenges during their learning time. The organization advances proposals after carrying out thorough research o establish the major challenges facing the students. They then come up with policies that can help to improve the education standards of students and then create public awareness so as to get the support of the government. According to the organization's research, school violence is a vice that is caused by a myriad of issues including, personality problems, drug abuse, violence as portrayed in the media and challenging upbringing (The Education Trust, 2013). Making of new policies is also an effective way of reducing cases of school violence (Shaughnessy, 2017). Community Partnerships The Education Trust Organization collaborates with a variety of community partners with a view of improving .

1. Running head: GENERAL CAPSTONE EDUCATION ROUGH
DRAFT 1
GENERAL EDUCATION CAPSTONE ROUGH DRAFT 1
GU299
November 12, 2018
General Education Capstone Rough Draft
Introduction
In recent years, school violence has been on the rise in
schools. Violence cases range from simple to sophisticated
ones. Simple ones can be in the form of school bullying while
complicated ones include students attacking others by deadly
weapons (Blosnich & Bossarte, 2011). A good number of
students face violence at school and the vice is on the increase.
Some of the consequences of such cases have been severe harms
and even death. There is a need to address such vices in schools
and eliminate them completely. That will help to level the
learning environment so that all students will have an equal
opportunity to succeed.
In service learning, students are given a chance to practice
what they learned in class in a real-world environment. Students
from XYZ University can use this opportunity to help the

2. organization to solve cases of violence at schools and volunteer
as data collectors so as to enhance and develop research that
shall offer solutions to the menace of school violence. Service
learning can also be utilized by students in the classroom
through the analysis of various community problems and the
possible solutions. Therefore, the availability of service
learning and the efforts of The Education Trust Organization
can help to reduce cases of school violence and support students
from poor backgrounds.
Community Organization
The community organization that I chose is The Education
Trust Organization. This organization was established in the
year 1980 with a duty to promote the education standards for all
students' right from the kindergarten level to colleges and
universities. The organization's foremost goal is to seal the gaps
in educational accomplishments and more specifically, the
young people. The organization is mandated to make policies
and advocate for better learning standards. They mostly focus
on learners from poor or low income and marginalized groups.
They focus on such students because they have a high likelihood
of experiencing challenges during their learning time. The
organization advances proposals after carrying out thorough
research o establish the major challenges facing the students.
They then come up with policies that can help to improve the
education standards of students and then create public
awareness so as to get the support of the government. According
to the organization's research, school violence is a vice that is
caused by a myriad of issues including, personality problems,
drug abuse, violence as portrayed in the media and challenging
upbringing (The Education Trust, 2013). Making of new
policies is also an effective way of reducing cases of school
violence (Shaughnessy, 2017).
Community Partnerships
The Education Trust Organization collaborates with a
variety of community partners with a view of improving the
country's education policies. The partners are spread out from

3. the local areas of operation to the national level. With the help
of such organizations, it is able to come up with policies that
can help solve the problems affecting learning and the learning
environment. Local organizations offer tremendous support
because they understand the problems that are unique to a given
area. For instance, the organization has set out to improve the
quality of teachers by partnering with Illinois local partners
(Peske& Haycock, 2006). Some partners finance the activities
of the organization enabling it to reach more areas and
institutions of learning. Most of the organizational partners are
in the private sector as well as nongovernmental organizations.
Volunteers
The main projects of The Education Trust Organization are
in schools and thus the major players are the school
management and teachers. They volunteer to be part of the
organization's projects so as to improve the standards of
learning in their schools through skill enhancement. The
organization is a nonprofit organization, therefore, it has no
mandate to implement any of the policies but they are
implemented by teachers by way of volunteering. While
carrying out research, the organization also relies on volunteers
to gather information that is pertinent to the research (The
Education Trust Fund, 2014).
Humanitarian Considerations
The organization serves mostly students from poor
backgrounds and minority groups. Education is a tough journey
which takes more than a decade or even two. During such
periods, students experience a lot of challenges and difficulties
including violence at school and economic hardships. Children
from poor families fail to raise school fees, which puts their
education in jeopardy. Most students drop out because of such
challenges (Haberland and Rogow, 2015). According to Wolf
(2015), students who fail to know how to learn when they are at
grade three do drop out of schools. Therefore, providing the
necessary resources will be a key tool to reduce the chances of

4. school dropouts. For instance, offering free secondary education
helps students from humble backgrounds to remain in schools.
Cross-Cultural Challenges
The Education Trust Organization works I many countries
around the world and therefore faces a lot of cultural
challenges. For instance, in some countries, there is an
increased rate of teenage pregnancies and early marriages which
affects the learning of female students. Such students will drop
out of school and thus will not engage in any education
programs (Haberland and Rogow 2015). There should be a way
of avoiding such challenges and students should be at the
forefront of fighting such vices. Students should know that
education is a pillar of life and that there is no substitute. They
should value education and let their parents support their vision.
They can be organized in groups where they encourage and
support one another to value academics and strive to reach the
highest level possible.
Roadblocks
In academics, there exist numerous roadblocks that may
hinder the success of a student. Such roadblocks include a lack
of or insignificant willingness to be successful in education, and
lack of interest from students and their parents. Other
challenges are increased fees to an extent that parents cannot
afford it. There are also other expensive materials or resources
that are needed by students.
Future Vision
The major vision of the organization is to breach the
education gap between the rich and the poor students.
According to Ladson-Billings (2006), students from low-income
families have poor academic achievements and minimal
opportunities compared to those from rich and well to do
families. Therefore, the organization s a blessing to students
from poor families because they have a chance to get a better
education and thus increase their chances of succeeding in
society. The organization also influences the making of policies
in the education sector so that such policies can be favorable to

5. children from poor families. Service learning is also a great tool
where students can act as volunteers in collecting data meant
for research to support such students and in decision making.
Challenges
Despite the fact that the organization has achieved a lot
since its inceptions, it has also experienced a variety of
challenges including, the existence of a conflict of interest
leading to disagreements among members making it incapable
of meeting all its objectives and goals (Burki, 2014). Another
problem is that there are many students who need help and
resources are always not enough to meet the demand. Lastly,
manipulating legislators to make encouraging policies is a hard
task and the organization has no choice but to abide by the set
laws and regulations which may be unfavorable for its
activities.
Improvements
To meet the goals of the organizations and feel any
improvements, the organization will have to involve the major
stakeholders who are students. Decision making should be
solely focused on helping and promoting the welfare of students
from poor backgrounds. The ambitions and desires of learners
should be given top priority. The organization should also have
stakeholders closer so that in case a problem arises, it can solve
it in good time. The Education Trust Organization should as
well focus on the major goals before the minor ones.
Conclusion
It is important that The Education Trust Organization,
together with students from service learning, work together to
address the social vice of school violence and other problems
affecting students from poor backgrounds. The paper had
various sections starting with community partnerships. In this
section, the most important part is to remember the functions of
ET including helping children from low-income families. In
community partnerships, local partners provide solutions to
local problems while other organizations offer the needed
resources. Volunteers consist of main teachers who implement

6. the policies of ET and thus help to reduce cases of school
violence and improve their quality. Working in different
countries has brought about challenges from different places
with the main emphasis on the education of the girl child.
Students face roadblocks while trying to acquire education such
as fees while the organization facing challenges like the
inadequacy of resources to meet the needs of the many students.
Lastly, the organization should e focused on reducing
challenges and increasing its reach so that many students can
benefit. To do so, it can also partner with the government to get
the needed resources easily.
References
The Education Trust. (2013). Fast Fact. Violnce continues to
claim toomany innocent childrens lifes. TRetrieved from
https://edtrust.org/resource/fast-fact-violence-continues-to-
claim-too-many-innocent-childrens-lives/
Shaughnessy, S. (2017). Violence in Schools. 42(1). Retrieved
from The Catholic Lawyer. Retrieved from
https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=
https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2490&contex
t=tcl
Blosnich, J., & Bossarte, R. (2011). Low‐Level Violence in
Schools: Is There an Association Between School Safety
Measures and Peer Victimization? Journal of School Health,
81(2). Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1649/315343d7c99d219cd484a
13fb9a17ef08551.pdf
Burki, T. (2014). 25 years of the Tropical Health and Education
Trust. The Lancet 384(7), 21-47.
Huang, J., Brink, H., & Groot, W. (2011). College Education
and Social Trust: An Evidence-Based Study on the Causal
Mechanisms. Social Indicators Research 104(2), 289-317.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools.
Educational Researcher 35(7), 3-11.

7. Haberland, N., & Rogow, D. (2015). Sexuality education:
emerging trends in evidence and practice. Journal of adolescent
health, 56(1), S15-S21.
Wolf, L. (2015). The STEM Teacher Drought: Cracks and
Disparities in California's Math and Science Teacher
Pipeline. Education Trust-West.
Peske, H. G., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching Inequality. A
Report and Recommendations by the Education Trust. Retrieved
from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED494820.pdf
The Education Trust. (2014). Partners. Retrieved from The
Education Trust: https://west.edtrust.org/who-we-are/partners/
Running head: EDUCATION TRUST VISION
1
EDUCATION TRUST VISION
5
GU299
November 6, 2018
Education Trust Vision
Introduction
The Education Trust (ET) is an organization that focuses on
promoting high academic achievement for all students from
kindergarten to college. The primary goals is close the gaps in
educational achievements that consign young people especially
the ones from low-income families. It works alongside various
stakeholders such as parents, teachers, and policymakers in bid

8. to aid students as well as transforming institutions into
institutions that can provide and meet students’ needs (Huang,
Brink & Groot, 2011). The core belief underlying the
performance of the organization is that through education, it is
possible to close gaps that separate low-income students from
other well-to-do young Americans.
Future Vision
The primary vision of the organization is to close the
educational achievement gaps between young learners from low-
income families and those from well-to-do neighborhoods. To
date, young students from low-income learners have lower
educational achievements and opportunities when compared to
their counterparts from well-to-do neighborhoods (Ladson-
Billings, 2006). ET comes to the rescue of the young learners
through taking actions such as supporting their education
programs and ensuring that they leverage opportunities such as
college admissions and scholarships. ET also works with
policymakers to ensure that education policies put in place
uphold the plight of learners from low-income families and
areas (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Student service learners could
contribute to these goals through being involved in various
processes such as decision-making in bid to ensure that
effective decisions are reached.
Challenges
Though the organization has made important strides since it was
founded, it is imperative to note that the organization has faced
several challenges as follows. First, there is conflicts of
interests as the members are in a few times not in agreement.
Due to such conflicts, the organization is unable to fully meet
the desire of the supported learners and institutions (Burki,
2014). Second, resources that can be accessed by the

9. organization are sometimes not enough for the identified
learners in need of help. This affects the efficiency of the
processes undertaken. Finally, the organization is not fully able
to influence policymakers into acting in a specific way. This
means the organization is forced to live with the decisions made
by the policymakers even if they may not be in the best interests
of the learners.
Improvements
To realize improvements in how it attains the said goals, the
following may need to be done. First, it needs to fully involve
learners in various processes such as decision-making to arrive
at decisions that fully align with the desires and aspirations of
the identified learners. Second, ET should keep all stakeholders
closer to address any emerging issues on time. There have been
unexpected delays in how certain issues are addressed hence
having stakeholders closer will help address the said delays.
Finally, ET should also focus on attainment of primary goals
before embarking on secondary goals. This will ensure that
important goals such as support programs are attained on time.
Conclusion
ET is well placed as one of the organizations that aim at
ensuring learners from low-income families and neighborhoods
can attain educational achievements like those from well-to-do
families and neighborhoods. The organization needs to keep all
stakeholders closer and specifically the student service learners
in bid to ensure that decisions made are effective and long-term
(Huang et al, 2011). This will also make them motivated into
doing more for their own educational career achievements.
References
Burki, T. (2014). 25 years of the Tropical Health and Education

10. Trust. The Lancet 384(7), 21-47.
Huang, J., Brink, H., & Groot, W. (2011). College Education
and Social Trust: An Evidence-Based Study on the Causal
Mechanisms. Social Indicators Research 104(2), 289-317.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the
Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools .
Educational Researcher 35(7), 3-11.
Running head: EDUCATION TRUST ORGANISATION
1
EDUCATION TRUST ORGANISATION
2
GU299
October 30, 2018
Education Trust Organization is a nonprofitable organization
that advocates the education of students in general. The
organization has a target of the students. The main population it

11. serves is the student all around the world. It helps students
through working together with education stakeholders; teachers,
parents, students among other in ensuring good management of
institutions and mind the wellbeing of the students. This
organization also influences the national policies in ensuring
provision of high level and high standard education. The
mission of the organization targets bringing the gap of those
student who are not well off since they started schooling until
they are through with their college level (Yu et al, 2018).
In humanitarian consideration, the served population
experiences hardship. Student life is not easy life. Students are
in school for a long period of more than a decade or two. Some
of the students experiences economic crisis during the education
journey. Education in some countries is expensive. Some of the
students especially who are from low social status experiences
hardship in raising their school fee. Time to time most of them
drop out in either of the level of education. Some do not even
meet the standards of the education offered since they feel like
they are minor and opt to drop out too (Haberland and Rogow
2015).
Research report indicates that children who really do not engage
in reading by the end of third grade they remain poor readers
for the rest of their life. This also brings about drop out from
education system in a higher level of education since the
student involved cannot read well. They turn to be criminal
since they never qualified in school.
Providing kids with good resources during the first stage of
learning how to read will be so much important to curb the drop
out of students due to poor skills in learning. The teachers in
this stage should provide the children with rightful knowledge
too (Wolf, (2015).
From the research, Education Trust Organization assists in
bringing these gaps. It engages itself with charity work. This is
through assisting those who are not well off by paying some off
their fee, also engages itself during policy making in a national
counsel and ensures there is provision of free education. This

12. helps those who are not able to pay for their fee to get back to
school and continue with their studies (Wolf, (2015).
Education Trust Organization experiences cultural divergence
differences since it is global organization. Despite of the great
effort in ensuring good running of education to all level, they
experience cultural challenges. Some of the cultural practices
after education of a particular gender of students. For instance,
early marriages affect the female students. They drop out of the
schools and no longer engaged in education programs anymore
(Haberland and Rogow 2015).
In overcoming such issues, students are supposed to be valuing
education more and understand its importance, they should also
convince their parents that it is good to learn. In colleges and
universities, there are some groups that students have that helps
in mentoring each other positively and thus one can get good
ideas on how to go about this challenge (Haberland and Rogow
2015).
Some of the possible roadblocks towards the success of the
students include: minimal or lack of good will from the students
to words the education. Some of the students may have no
interest. Other challenges include the heft price of education in
general. Paying of fee, buying of any other required resources
that facilitates education may be expensive to students too.
In conclusion, Education Trust Organization offers a bridge
towards succeeding in education life to the students, it also
makes sure that the students are not oppressed in any ways. It
ensures equality in education for both rich and less fortunate
people (Yu et al, 2018).
References
Haberland, N., & Rogow, D. (2015). Sexuality education:
emerging trends in evidence and practice. Journal of adolescent
health, 56(1), S15-S21.
Wolf, L. (2015). The STEM Teacher Drought: Cracks and
Disparities in California's Math and Science Teacher
Pipeline. Education Trust-West.

13. Yu, M. C., Mai, Q., Tsai, S. B., & Dai, Y. (2018). An Empirical
Study on the Organizational Trust, Employee-Organization
Relationship and Innovative Behavior from the Integrated
Perspective of Social Exchange and Organizational
Sustainability. Sustainability, 10(3), 864.
Running head: SERVICE LEARNING
1
SERVICE LEARNING
5
GU299
October 23, 2018
Service Learning
Introduction
Service learning is a form of experienced-based learning that
requires students to put what they learned to practice in solving
one or more problems experienced by the community. Service
learning offers students the opportunity to reflect on what they
have learned and identify effective ways of dealing with
problems facing the community. Service learning can be used
both in a classroom setting where students are required to
theoretically analyze community problems and in practice where
students deal with community problems (Mitchell, 2008).
Unlike field education, service learning not only intend to equip
students with knowledge, but also aim to provide valuable
services to the community. Community partnerships are
collaborative projects that students may undertake within locals
in their immediate community. Common challenges that
students may face include dissatisfaction with the work they are

14. required to do and time constraints as community work can be
quite demanding.
Community Partnerships
The education trust partners with multiple organization with the
goal of improving education policy in the country. Partners
include both local partners in different areas where the
organization maintains operations and national partners that
operate all over the country. Through this partnerships, the
education trust is able to tackle specific problems that both
students and educational institutions face in society. Due to the
fact that local partners have a better understanding of the
problems that the education sector in their area faces, they can
provide valuable inputs to the organization that can enable it to
identify effective solutions. For example, the organization has
partnered with a number of organizations in the state of Illinois
to improve teacher quality (Peske& Haycock, 2006). Partners
also provide additional resources that increase the reach of the
organization and enables it to reach more students and academic
institutions. The organization partners with different types of
organizations both in the public and private sector and has not
ended any active partnerships. The organization, however,
partners mostly with the private sector and non-governmental
organizations and is yet to partners with the government on any
major project. Enlisting the government as a partner will
provide the organization with more resources and increase its
reach throughout the country.
Volunteers
The Education Trust’s main projects are based in schools, where
teachers and school heads voluntarily agree to take part in
projects meant to improve their skills as teachers and to boost
the capacity of individual schools to provide better education.
As a non-governmental organization, the education trust does

15. not have the capacity to implement any of its policy
recommendations in school districts and school boards but
instead relies on the voluntary cooperation of these school
bodies to implement policy changes that will improve the
standards of education. The organization also conducts a great
deal of research on education issues and enlist the cooperation
of volunteers to gather information on these issues. The
organization, for example, works with a number of volunteer
organizations in the implementation of its projects (The
Education Trust, 2014).
Conclusion
Service learning offers students the opportunity to learn while
providing valuable services to the community. Through service
learning, students get the opportunity to put in practice what
they have learned by tackling real problems that exist in their
community. The Education Trust is a national organization that
mainly works through community partnerships and volunteers.
Due to the nature of its work, it can provide a great deal of
service learning opportunities for students. References
Mitchell, T. (2008). Traditional vs. critical service-learning:
Engaging the literature to differentiate two models. Michigan
Journal of Community Service Learning, 50-65. Retrieved from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ831374.pdf
Peske, H. G., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching Inequality. A
Report and Recommendations by the Education Trust. Retrieved
from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED494820.pdf
The Education Trust. (2014). Partners. Retrieved from The
Education Trust: https://west.edtrust.org/who-we-are/partners/
Running head: GENERAL EDUCATION CAPSTONE

16. 1
GENERAL EDUCATION CAPSTONE
3
GU299
October 16, 2018
School violence has become a common occurrence in recent
times. Cases of violence range from a simple case of bullying to
sophisticated attacks by dangerous weapons (Blosnich &
Bossarte, 2011). As a result, more students are being affected
each year by cases of violence, with often serious consequences
being involved such serious injuries and in some cases the loss
of life. An organization that is keenly involved in policy making
and advocacy on education issues has been instrumental in
creating optimal learning conditions for students at all levels
and has among other issues, addressed the need to eliminate

17. school violence.
The Education Trust was formed in 1980 with the mission of
creating optimal educational standards at all levels through
advocacy and policymaking. The organization mainly targeted
students from low income and minority groups, who were more
likely to deal with challenges in their education. Proposals
made by the organization are based on detailed research done on
major issues facing students and schools. After identifying
suitable policies that can improve educational standards at
different levels, the organization created public and political
awareness of these issues as a way of getting government
support to implement solutions. The Education Trust has carried
out a great deal of research on education policy and possible
solutions that can be used to improve the quality of education
for students and the experiences that students have in school.
According to research done by the organization, school violence
is caused by a variety of issues, including drug and substance
abuse, personality problems, problematic upbringing and
violence as depicted in the media. The organization notes that 1
in 4 high school students is violently attacked with a deadly
weapon each year (The Education Trust, 2013). Partly due to the
efforts of the organization, policy changes have been made in
schools that are aimed at reducing cases of school violence and
ensuring schools have the capacity to deal with cases that may
arise.
According to Shaughnessy (2017), the most effective way of
reducing cases of violence in schools is through a change in
policies that will address key weaknesses in institutions that
create room for violent incidents. This means the Education
Trust’s efforts to conduct in-depth research on the safety of
students in school and providing policy recommendations are
effective ways of identifying long-lasting solutions to cases of
violence in schools.

18. References
Blosnich, J., & Bossarte, R. (2011). Low‐Level Violence in
Schools: Is There an Association Between School Safety
Measures and Peer Victimization? Journal of School Health,
81(2). Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1649/315343d7c99d219cd484a
13fb9a17ef08551.pdf
Shaughnessy, S. (2017). Violence in Schools. 42(1). Retrieved
from The Catholic Lawyer:
https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=
https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2490&contex
t=tcl
The Education Trust. (2013). Fast Fact: Violence Continues to
Claim Too Many Innocent Children’s Lives. Retrieved from The
Education Trust: https://edtrust.org/resource/fast-fact-violence-
continues-to-claim-too-many-innocent-childrens-lives/