Implementing Government for Schools

Public Administration and Public Schools

The transformation which Kettl has discussed in his work of literature entitled The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for Twenty-First Century America is that of government and its public administration. Specifically, the author believes that government has changed from that of the hierarchical authority of centralized, solitary governments to a decentralized approach in which the administration of government actually takes place between various governments. A trenchant way of looking at this transformation is something akin to the dissolution of nation states -- although the author is not advocating such a dissolution. Instead, he is stating that governments will no longer operate autonomously (and have no longer operated autonomously) and are instead bound to one another via cross-governmental administration and non-governmental entities.

We should care about the author's perception of this transformation because the change in the administration of government greatly affects the participation of the general population. This notion becomes all the more applicable when related to the fates of those in democratic societies, such as in America. Quite simply, the ways of accessing one's government -- who one will have to interact with, for instance -- and how one would do so is similarly transformed with cross-governmental public administration. Varying tactical or strategic measures are required of a people that are governed (in some respects) as much by a non-governmental agency as they are by the country in which they live. Therefore, people wishing to participate in the government of their country will have a different set of resources and means of third-party intervention than they previously had. Additionally, there may be the need to modify existing documents and mandates of government and its implementation, such as the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other such documents.

3. Government performance should be evaluated in a number of different ways. The reality of this situation is that ultimately, government performance must be evaluated in alignment with some of the key forces determining governance today which include globalization, pluralism or even hyperpluralism, and a number of different conflicts for the limitations of government. Ambiguous boundaries that serve as a means of defining public administration include policy execution in the wake of policy making, private vs. public sectors, and numerous connections between the government and its citizens and bureaucracies.

4. Wen Ho Lee was a nuclear scientist who was formally employed by the University of California. During the turn of millennium Lee was accused of passing on American nuclear secrets to the People's Republic of China. What is critical about Lee's case is the fact that he was vilified in the media as having been guilty of these charges prior to his trial. Lee subsequently was held without bail before it was determined that he did not deliver secrets to China. Although he eventually signed a plea bargain, he was given financial restitution from both the federal government of the U.S. And from various media entities in it. Lee's importance to the 21st century government is based on the fact that his case proves the government will work with other entities (such as the media) in determining justice and governance of others. It also shows the relationships between nations, in which China and the U.S. are not purported partners.

5. Based on the reading done to fulfill this assignment, I will define public administration as the means by which a government actually implements or effects its government. Public administration is the specific channels, actors, and parties involved in implementing government. In other words, public administration is how a government chooses to actually perform the duties required of its governance.

The notion that Michelle Ree is propagating in her 2007 meeting of the District of Columbia Council is that there is hope for public school students in the Washington, D.C. -- despite their historic low achievement. To that end, the speaker attempts to prove this concept in a number of different ways related to the academic achievement of these students, which includes students from elementary to secondary school. One of the most interesting arguments Rhee (2009) offers to demonstrate the efficacy of students in the District of Columbia's public school system is that the idea that "economically disadvantaged students are not as capable of learning as students from more affluent families are" (p. 5), which serves as the principle claim explored within this document, is not true. The speaker qualifies this statement by stating that the perceived lack of capability on the part of public school students will not maintain poverty cycles.

The data that Rhee uses to substantiate her claim and disprove the perceived lack of ability on the part of those from less affluent areas of D.C. include a narrowing in the achievement gap of math scores from high school students from 70 to 50%. She also provides data reflecting the ability of English Language Learner students, who have improved their reading scores by 20% at the high school level during the previous two years. The various warrants that Rhee has offered as to how the data supports her claim are implicit. In both cases, she believes that the academic progress that the students have displayed via the aforementioned data indicates that they have an ability and general propensity for academic achievement. For the second piece of data offered, she believes that that achievement of those that are learning English (which surpasses that of the students in the district altogether) is a palpable demonstration of the ability of public school students. The backing for these warrants is fairly self-evident. If there are students who do not even speak English but are in the process of doing so who can perform better in the core subjects taught in school, then they are making progress. Moreover, the fact that they are making progress means that other students who have already learned English are certainly capable of making academic progress. The backing for the warrant related to the first piece of evidence is similar to the former backing in that the fact that the students have improved over a couple of years' time is indicative of their ability to do so more over longer periods of time.