The Future Prospects Of Cloud Computing

The Future Prospects Of Cloud Computing Cloud computing involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are divided into three types: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name was inspired by the cloud symbol thats often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams. Cloud computing is used to describe both a platform and type of application. A cloud computing platform provisions, configures, reconfigures, and deprovisions servers as needed. Servers in the cloud can be physical or virtual machines. Cloud computing also describes applications that are accessible through the Internet. Anyone with a suitable Internet connection and a standard browser can access a cloud application. Characteristics of Cloud Figure 1: Cloud Structure Dynamic computing infrastructure Cloud computing demands a dynamic computing infrastructure. The foundation for the dynamic structure is a scalable, standardized, and secure physical infrastructure. There should be redundant levels to ensure high levels of availability, but mostly to extend as usage growth demands it, without requiring architectural rework. It must also be virtualized. These services require easy provisioning and de-provisioning via software automation. IT service-centric approach Cloud computing is IT service-centric. This is in contrast to system- or server- centric models. In most of the cases, users of the cloud would prefer to easily access a dedicated instance of an application or service. Service Centric approach enables user adoption and business agility, reducing costs or driving revenue. Self-service based usage model This model must provide an easy to use user interface that enables users to manage the service delivery lifecycle. The advantage of self service from the users perspective is empowerment and independence that yields significant business agility. One benefit often overlooked from the service providers perspective is that the more self service that can be delegated to users, the less administrative involvement is necessary. This saves both time and money. Minimally or self-managed platform In order for a service provider to efficiently provide a cloud for its clients, they must leverage a technology platform that is self managed. A provisioning engine for deploying services, recovering resources for high levels of reuse, mechanisms for scheduling and reserving resource capacity, and capabilities for configuring, managing, and reporting to ensure resources can be allocated, tools for controlling access to resources and policies. 2.5. Consumption-based billing Cloud computing is usage-driven and consumers pay for only the resources they use and therefore are charged or billed on a consumption-based model. Cloud computing must provide mechanisms to capture usage information that enables integration with billing systems. The value from a users perspective is the ability for them to pay only for the resources they use, helping them keep their costs down. From providers perspective, it allows them to track usage for charge back and billing purposes. Types of Clouds Figure 2: Cloud Types Public cloud Public cloud also referred to as external cloud describes cloud computing in the conventional sense. Here the resources are dynamically provisioned over the Internet, through web applications or web services, from an off-site third-party provider who shares resources and bills on a utility computing basis. Community cloud A community cloud can be established where many organizations have similar type of requirements and seek to share the infrastructure so as to realize some of the benefits of cloud computing. This option is comparatively expensive but offers a higher level of privacy, security and/or policy compliance. Example of community cloud includes Googles Gov Cloud. Hybrid cloud A hybrid cloud consisting of multiple internal and/or external providers is most common for enterprises. By combining numerous cloud services, users are able to ease and facilitate the transition to public cloud services. Another perspective on deploying a web application in the cloud is using Hybrid Hosting, where the hosting is a mix between Cloud Hosting for the web server, and Managed dedicated server for the database server. Private cloud For private cloud, implementing the cloud is controlled completely by the enterprise. They are hence also referred to as internal clouds. Private clouds are implemented in the companys data center and managed by internal resources. A private cloud maintains all corporate data in resources under the control of the legal umbrella of the organization. Architecture of Cloud Computing The architecture of cloud computing is rooted in hardware and software infrastructures that enable scaling and virtualization. Many data centers deploy these capabilities today. Figure 3: Cloud Architecture Virtualized Infrastructure Virtualization ensures that applications or business services are not directly dependent on the underlying hardware infrastructure such as storage, servers, or networks. This allows business services to move dynamically in a very efficient manner, based upon predefined policies. Virtualized Applications This component helps the application to decouple itself from the underlying operating system, storage, hardware, and network to enable flexibility in deployment. Virtualized Application servers can take advantage of grid computing along with SOA and ensures scalability to meet the business requirements. Development tools Development tools can facilitate clouds distributed computing capabilities. These tools not only facilitate service orchestration but also enable business processes to be developed that can leverage the parallel processing capabilities. The development tools must support dynamic provisioning. Enterprise Management Enterprise management provides the top-down, end-to-end management of the virtualized infrastructure. The enterprise management layer handles the full lifecycle of virtualized resources. Security and Identity Management Clouds must make use of a security infrastructure and unified identity to enable flexible provisioning. As clouds provision resources external to the enterprises legal boundaries, it becomes absolutely necessary to implement an Information Asset Management system to provide the requisite controls to meet compliance requirements. Current Benefits of Cloud Computing Decoupling and separation of business from infrastructure Elastic nature of the infrastructure to rapidly allocate and de-allocate massively scalable resources on a demand basis Reduced costs due to operational efficiencies Cloud makes it possible to launch Web 2.0 applications scale up applications as much as needed when needed supports traditional Javaà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ and Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack-based applications as well as new architectures such as MapReduce and the Google File System, which provide a means to scale applications across thousands of servers instantly Business Problem The main issues related to cloud computing in current situation revolves around: How does cloud computing alter the business model of ITeS? What are the economic and technical aspects of cloud implementation? How cloud computing will affect business? What are the potential drivers and barriers in cloud computing? Cloud computing can help users avoid capital expenditure (CapEx) on hardware, software, and services when they pay a provider only for what they use. Consumption is billed similar to a utility (like electricity) or subscription (like a newspaper) basis with little or no upfront cost. Another advantage of this time sharing style approach is low barrier to entry, shared infrastructure and costs, low management overhead, and immediate access to a broad range of applications. Users can generally terminate the contract at any time and the services are often covered by SLAs with financial penalties. Other factors impacting the scale of any cost savings include the efficiency of a companys data center as compared to the cloud vendors, the companys existing operating costs, and the type of functionality being hosted in the cloud. Existing Scenario The Existing Cloud Computing Adoption Model The existing cloud computing adoption by enterprise is modelled on Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The Cloud Computing Adoption Model proposes five steps: Level 1: Virtualization as the Cloud adoption employs application virtualization technology for shared server infrastructure and seamless portability. Level 2: Cloud Experimentation since Virtualization occurs internally or externally, based on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to compute capacity and as a result of the reference architecture. Level 3: Cloud Foundations occurring due to procedures, policies, Governance, controls, and best practices begin to form around the deployment and development of cloud applications. These efforts always focus on non-mission critical, internal applications. Level 4: Cloud Advancement. Government foundations allow organizations to scale up the volume of cloud applications through broad-based deployments in the cloud. Level 5: Cloud Actualization as the Applications are distributed based on proximity to user, cloud capacity, cost. This Model outlines the readiness criteria, expected returns, risk factors, strategic goals, key investment requirements for graduating to the next step. Cloud Computing Alters ITeS Business Models The conventional value chain for IT services, extending from design, development, maintenance and support of IT infrastructures to the maintenance of the application and ITC landscape, is changing as a result of cloud computing concepts. The existing ITeS Business model as shown below is altered due to the impact of cloud computing and is explained below: Figure 4: ITeS Business Model Infrastructure Core Capabilities: The core capabilities required to deliver cloud services to the customers can be classified into 3 segments. These are: Service management and provisioning: This segment consists of Operations management, Service Provisioning, SLA management, Utilization Monitoring, Backup, Data Management. Security and Data Privacy: This segment consists of Authentication and Authorization, Data Network Security, Data Privacy, Auditing and Accounting Data Center Facilities: Under this part comes the Routers/Firewalls, LAN/WAN, Internet Access, Hosting Centers. Partners: If companies want SAAS to live up to its potential in a community-focused business model-centralizing communication, collaboration and business synchronicity across multiple, diverse companies-they need to augment technology implementation with a fresh approach to partner management. Key Processes: Cloud Services currently offers various services like Test and Development, Internet application Hosting, Disaster Recovery, File Storage, On-demand Storage, utility Computing, SaaS Applications, Log processing, Batch Computing, Jobs, Application Development. Offering Value Proposition: There are certain compelling benefits that the customers receive from Cloud Computing. These are: Reduce Cost: Reduction in total cost of ownership by optimally using the hardware and Software licenses Agility: The infrastructure can be provisioned quickly Global Scale: Massively scalable engines allow building highly scalable services for consumers Customers Customer Segments: The main target segment for the cloud services are the big enterprises, medium enterprises, small enterprises, independent software vendors, developers, etc. Customer Requirements: The main things that the customers require from cloud service providers are easy to use console, reliability, security, flexibility, low cost, green IT, etc. Finances Cost Structure: Cloud computing builds on established trends for driving the cost out of the delivery of services while increasing the speed and agility with which services are deployed. The cost of these environments is minimal because they can coexist on the same servers as production environments because they use few resources. Revenue: Cloud computing enables a shift in IT provision from direct purchase and payment for services to provision of services which are free at point of use and where revenue is derived from advertising. The largest component of the overall cloud services market is cloud-based advertising. Profit: Thus with reduction of cost in a great extent and a shift of revenue model to the advertisements, the profit for the Cloud Services is expected to be quite bright. The maturity model structure helps to classify and compare Cloud computing offerings Figure 5: Cloud Computing Maturity Model For Software as a Service (SaaS), there are business models based on pure SaaS solutions, with independent architectures. The Internet browser plays a key part and becomes part of the SaaS applications and acts as the user interface. A SaaS provider manages an application in their proprietary data center and makes it available to multiple users over the Web. Oracle CRM On Demand, Salesforce.com, and Netsuite are some of the well known SaaS examples For Platform as a Service (PaaS), the largest variant involves extensive middleware components. This platform comprises of infrastructure software, and typically includes a database, middleware and development tools. Creation of full-service platform solutions means that independent software vendors (ISVs) and IT departments of system integrators can develop and deliver applications online using third-party infrastructure services. For example, Google AppEngine is a PaaS offering where developers write in Python or Java. EngineYard is Ruby on Rails. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) business model comprises three different types: public, private and hybrid cloud models. It is the evolution of conventional hosting that doesnt need any commitment and at the same time ensures the users to the provision of resources on demand. Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Secure Storage Service (S3) are examples of IaaS offerings Economic Aspects of Cloud Implementation Due to recessionary impact as the demand for cost optimisation rises high, cloud computing is emerging as an option for large and small players, seemingly to the benefit of consulting companies in that domain. Cloud computing offers virtualized resources as a service over the internet, incorporating infrastructure, software and platform as services, without a user having to bear large costs by way of acquiring expensive assets in any of the three. It reduces capex into opex and enables computing at a fraction of the investment required to buy all the hardware and software. Technical Aspects of Cloud Implementation The three most important technical aspects of the cloud three items of the Cloud: 1) infinite computing resources 2) elimination of an up-front commitment and 3) pay for use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed. The other important aspects are discusses below Server Compute Capacity The most important reason for leveraging cloud capabilities is to quickly gain access to hundreds or thousands of computers for compute capacity as and when required. Use of the cloud can be up to 90% faster than using servers in data centers. It is ideal for seasonal business load and traffic spikes. Storage Capacity There is so much structured and unstructured data on Enterprise storage servers that managing it requires a major cost. As building compute capacity in the Enterprise has become expensive, so has the building of storage capacity. The use of cloud computing for storage capacity can be ideal, especially for spikes in usage. Network Access Cloud computing services are generally accessed and delivered through and over the web. Compared to a traditional model, the use of a public network rather than a private network is a big change. The inherent routing delivery advantages of TCP-IP that gets messages to their destination even when multiple paths are down can be applied through cloud computing. Multiple Locations A cloud provider with multiple locations for delivery, fail-over and back-up. The technical capabilities enables load to be easily transferred from one location to another. Easy to use Cloud computing can be used as programming and technical conventions are similar enough to those of conventional computing, and leading cloud computing platforms have open APIs. How Cloud Computing will Change business New generation of products and services Cloud computing allows innovative companies offer products that are significantly less costly due to reduced capex and new business models Lightweight form of real-time partnerships and outsourcing with IT suppliers Cloud computing will provide agility and control that traditional outsourcing providers cannot match for the most part. Awareness and leverage of the greater Internet applications and Web 2.0 in particular A reconciliation of traditional SOA with the cloud and other emerging IT models Web-Oriented Architecture fits very well with cloud technologies which are heavily Web-based and its a natural way of building SOA at every level of the organization. Rise of new industry leaders and IT vendors Well-funded new cloud startups will bring new technologies, new sensibility (radical openness and transparency, and Web-focus) thats often needed with cloud computing More self-service IT from the business-side SaaS will require increasingly less and less involvement from the IT department. More tolerance for innovation and experimentation With lesser and lesser economic and technological barriers creating new ways to improve the business, cloud computing will enable prototyping and market validation of new approaches much faster Drivers Barriers of Cloud Computing Customer Perspective: Drivers economics Faster, simpler, cheaper to use cloud apps No upfront capital required for servers and storage No ongoing operational expenses for running datacenter Applications can be accessed from anywhere, anytime Customer Perspective: Barriers Data Security Many customers dont wish to trust their data to the cloud Data must be locally retained for regulatory reasons Latency The cloud can be many milliseconds away Not suitable for real-time applications Application Availability Cannot switch from existing legacy applications Equivalent cloud applications do not exist Vendor Perspective: Drivers economics Easier for application vendors to reach new customers Lowest cost way of delivering and supporting applications Ability to use commodity server and storage hardware Ability to drive down data center operational cots Vendor Perspective: Barriers Service Level Agreements What if something goes wrong? What is the true cost of providing SLAs? Business Models SaaS/PaaS models are challenging Much lower upfront revenue Customer Lock-in Customers want open/standard APIs Need to continuously add value Risks Security Issues in Cloud Computing Currently many companies are considering moving applications to the cloud but still there is doubt about the security of third party services. There are following risks security issues involved with cloud computing: No ownership of Hardware Companies who want to audit the providers and do their own testing need to consider the fact that they dont own the hardware. Conducting a penetration test requires the permission of the cloud-service provider .Otherwise; the client is illegally hacking into the providers systems. While some SLAs such as Amazons specify that testing of their software running on the providers systems can be done but getting explicit permission is key. Need of Strong policies and user education Cloud computing provides companies numerous benefits, to allow access to data from anywhere and removing maintenance headaches from the IT staff, but the phishing attacks that hit workers at home could threaten the company. Thus there is need for training the employees for the proper use of benefits especially to non technical users Risk related to machine instances There is always a risk during the use of virtual machine from a provider; companies should never trust the system. Companies should create their own images for internal use, and protect themselves legally from potentially malicious third-party developers. Privileged user access Sensitive data processing brings with it an inherent risk, because outsourcing services bypass the physical, logical and personnel controls IT shops exert over in-house programs. So it is advisable to fetch as much information as you can about the people who manage your data. Regulatory compliance Customers are finally responsible for the integrity and security of own data, even if it is held by a service provider. Traditional service providers are subjected to external audits and security certifications. Cloud computing providers who do not undergo this scrutiny are indicating that clients can only use them for the most trivial functions. Risk related to Data location Data can be located at any location and one might not even know where it will be stored like the name of the country also. So it may not be clear, whether the provider is obeying the local privacy requirements. Risks with Encryption Schemes Data in the cloud is in a shared environment along with data from other customers. Encryption is effective but isnt panacea. It is important to find out what can be done to segregate data at rest .The cloud provider should provide proof that encryption standards were designed and validated by experienced specialists. Recovery Risk On the one hand user does not know the location of data while on the other hand he doesnt know what will happen to his data and service in case of a disaster. Any absence of disaster recovery or offering that does not replicate the data across multiple sites is potentially vulnerable to a complete failure. Recommendations Future Prospects Lower costs of market entry Application deployment, faster payback on development costs, and superior return on investment will drive cloud-based platform adoption for both entrepreneurial and enterprise developers. Internal Clouds Most IT organizations will opt for internal clouds. These are cloudy environments that are implemented within a companys own data centers. The case for this perspective is that before IT orgs reach out to external cloud providers, theyll want to get better use out of the equipment they already have. Providers that Understand their target audience Ride the new wave of Virtualization solutions Migrations, business process automations, BPM,consultancies Chose to be an IaaS Appropriate visibility, analytics, OS, storage, DR, compute power, security, on demand billing, Fully integrated Platform as a Service IaaS, ERP, Databases, XML files, flat files, web services, API availability, DNS Niche specialists -Mobile or VoIP platforms

Urban Regeneration of London Docklands – A sustainable success?

During the late 18th century and early 19th century the London Docklands were a very important industrial centre and the busiest port in the world. Right into the early part of the 20th century, the docks provided employment for thousands of dockers. Trade was focused around maritime activities, for example shipbuilding and the import of goods, such as tobacco and sugar, stored in large warehouses encircling the docks. Traffic through the Royal Docks reached its peak in the 1950s and early 1960s. However after a turn of technological improvements, the docks became abandoned and derelict. The first change, in the 1950's, was an increase in the size of ships. The ships were so big that trade had to be moved down river to Tilbury docks, which was next to the sea and not crowded by poor roads and a large city. Unemployment, few amenities and poor living conditions followed this in 1970. Other changes included a rise in air travel, competition from other ports and the need for more space. All these factors resulted in the closure of the London Docklands in 1981creating an area of derelict and unused space. The conditions for the locals in 1981 were very poor, there were a lot of high density housing – cheap, but small and old fashioned. Over half of the Docklands was derelict, vacant or under-used with empty factories and other buildings. There was virtually no open space and only a few small shops and leisure facilities. Transport was poorly developed and the narrow roads were congested with lorries. The unemployment rate was 17.8% and the population of the Docklands had fallen by 20%. Something needed to change, so in July 1981 the London Docklands Development Corporation was set up to improve the social, economic and environmental conditions of the area. The LDDC was an urban development corporation set up by an Act of Parliament it wanted to tackle the main problems of the area, and attract new people to live and work there. The LDDC wanted to undertake the issues of: * Transport * Utilities * The environment * Housing * Community infrastructure * Unemployment * Reclamation Example of Environmental Development Details Visual appearance * Refurbishment of docks allowing them public access. * Urban design, street furniture, public art. * Restoration of listed properties. * Reclamation of 7square km of derelict land. Environmental projects * Wildlife and nature parks created. * 160,000 trees planted. * 17 conservation areas. Example of Social Development Details Housing * 19,000 new homes built. * 2,000 new social housing units. * 770 council houses refurbished. Community infrastructure * 12 new primary schools. * 5 new health centres and 6 refurbished health centres. Utilities * Improvement in drainage. * Improvement in electricity supplies. Example of Economic Development Details Tourism * Increase in Tourism, with Docklands receiving 2.1 million visitors last year. Unemployment * Unemployment rates: 17.8% in 1981 and 7.2% in December 1997. * Population increased from 39,000 in 1981, to 68,000 in 1995. * 2,800 new jobs created. Transport à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½950million spent * New roads. * Docklands Light Railway. * London City Airport. * Pedestrian and cycle networks. Commercial Development * Many companies chose to move out and make the most of the cheap office rents and open space. * 16million mà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ of commercial development completed. * 11.2 million sq. ft of completed new office space. * à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.7 billion of public centre investment and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½6.1 billion of private investment towards new businesses and office developments. * Large superstores and shopping complexes. However not every aspect of the regeneration was successful, some of the impacts that affected the local people and the area were not good ones: * The new jobs created did not solve unemployment as they were designed to attract rich, skilled workers, there were few jobs created for the unskilled inner city population. * Money was spent on expensive office blocks rather than local amenities and services. * Wealthy new people brought extra money and trade to the area, but this caused local shop prices to rise. * The new housing built is too expensive for the locals. This has lead to gentrification. * Poverty in social housing estates was outlined and inequality increased, when rich, skilled workers moved to the area. * The traditional ‘Eastenders' community was destroyed by the changes. * Transport schemes were seen as inadequate, although there has been some improvement with the Jubilee line extension in the 1990's, critics believe it should have been in place before. * The recession in the early 1990's saw work stopping on Canary Wharf and a sharp increase in unemployed and homeless people. Physically and environmentally, the London Docklands regeneration has been a success, however socially it has been a failure, especially for lower social classes. A survey taken in 1996 showed that 22% of people thought that life had got worse as a result of the regeneration. However other factors and mainly the visual appearance of the Docklands is much better than it would have been had the regeneration not taken place.

Report: High School and Attendance Essay

Introduction Like other schools around the nation, Beech Grove Intermediate School is experiencing a serious problem with attendance. This has been cited as a problem and something that needs to be addressed so that Beech Grove Intermediate can achieve the attendance rate they need to become a Four-Star status school. Currently, the attendance at Beech Grove Intermediate is averaging around 95 percent. The rate needs to increase to 97 percent for the school to achieve Four-Star status. Beech Grove Intermediate does have an attendance policy; however, other strategies could be implemented to increase the attendance. Attendance is an important part of children’s and parents’ everyday responsibilities, and poor attendance habits cause lifelong consequences. Many schools around the nation report low attendance and high tardiness rates. This problem needs to be addressed in order to help our children do well in school and become responsible adults. Children who are habitually late or chronically absent miss out on much that is learned in school. Even being 5 to 10 minutes late each day creates a situation where children can lose a considerable amount of time that is being spent on their schooling. Also, it is known that children with poor attendance rates in elementary and high school continue to show problems of tardiness and even proficiency later in life once they go to college or pursue a career. Changes in the attendance program at Beech Grove are needed, and the following report is intended to propose tactics for increasing the attendance rate at Beech Grove Intermediate School. Methodology For this report we surveyed teachers from six local elementary and secondary schools to get an idea of what other schools were doing to increase their attendance. We received 50 completed questionnaires. We also searched scholarly databases such as ERIC to find relevant articles on the problem of increasing attendance. These articles outline several solutions to increasing attendance in schools. Review of the Literature This review of recently published literature on attendance addresses causes, effective policies, parental contact, community involvement, teacher/student relationships, and rewards and incentives to increase student attendance. Causes of Absenteeism. All the literature agrees that absenteeism is an all too common problem for schools around the country. This can be traced to a range of causes from unsupportive school environment to poor health of the student. According to John Doughtery (1999), home dynamics play a key role in absenteeism. The parents are the key to how often a child attends class (Doughtery, 1999, p. 10). Janet Ford and Richard Sutphen (1996) agree with this and list parent influence on absenteeism as number two on their list for reasons for absence. They go on to state that lack of caring by the parents, or parents who are not home to see the child off to school are major reasons for students not to go to class, especially with younger students (Ford & Sutphen, 1996, p. 96). Other than home life, illness of the child is also given as a common reason for absenteeism in the literature. Also, appointments and vacations are listed as top reasons in the literature as well. Doughtery attests to this in saying, â€Å"It is now common practice for students to miss school for general appointments to avoid tests and assignments† (1999, p.10). Two authors noted that homeless students or students who live in a family that move very frequently are more likely to be chronically absent from school (Epstien, Sheldon, 2002, p. 311). Some of the authors also agree that if a student is not succeeding in school then they are less likely to want to come to school. This also goes along with schools that do not give praise to students or interact with the students so that no one feels left out, and help to see that everyone succeeds (Doughtery, 1999, p. 10). In short, all of the authors agree that parental involvement and student-teacher interaction is very important in keeping absenteeism down. Effective Policies and Parental Contact As schools seek new programs and ideas for increasing student attendance, one of the two most frequently mentioned tactics in the literature are having an effective attendance policy and increasing communication with parents and guardians. According to Dan Vandivier (2003), a high school principal, attendance policies must be stringent and must also be persistently adhered to. He states that policies must be fair and also have â€Å"flexibility to accommodate mitigating circumstances† (Vandivier, 2003, p. 81). Vandivier’s new attendance policy no longer distinguished between excused and unexcused and allowed administration discretion in dealing with excessive absences for legitimate reasons (Vandivier, 2003, p. 81). Dougherty (1999) agrees that schools must produce a clear fair attendance policy that is up to date and standardized and communicate it. Many studies have also shown a correlation between increased parental contact and increased attendance (Smerka, 1993; Epstein & Sheldon, 2002). Smerka (1993) noted that after mailing notices to all parents informing them of the success of the attendance program and asking for their support, the perfect attendance rate increased to 13. 9 percent (p. 96. ) He claimed that the key to good attendance is promoting it everywhere to everyone (Smerka, 1993, p. 96). Another study also found that â€Å"the degree to which schools overcame the challenge of communicating effectively with families was related to gains in student attendance and declines in chronic absenteeism† (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002, p. 315). The study noted that providing families with someone to talk to at the school about attendance or other issues was effective in increasing attendance (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002, p. 315). In addition to simply having contact with parents, many authors agree that it is the responsibility of the parents to monitor their student’s absenteeism (Dougherty, 1999; Ford & Sutphen,1996; Kube & Radgan,1992). Dougherty (1999) says that parents â€Å"must be responsible for their child’s daily attendance and promptly inform the school attendance office when the student is absent† (p.11). One study shows that increasing communication with parents and involving them in the student’s education are strategies for increasing attendance. This study also cited the use of a letter to parents informing them of the policy and encouraging them to discuss the importance of good attendance with their children (Ford & Sutphen, 1996, p. 96). Another study also said that parents â€Å"must be responsible for the student’s daily attendance† and they must â€Å"stress the importance of daily attendance to their children† (Kube & Radgan, 1992). Creating effective attendance policies that are reviewed and renewed regularly and establishing parental contact are very important stepping stones for increasing attendance in schools. Community Involvement While it is not crucial to the success of an attendance program, many of our authors agree that solid community involvement can positively impact attendance rates. Many schools work with businesses in the community to offer incentives for students with good or perfect attendance (â€Å"Raising School Attendance,† 2002). John Daugherty (1999), an education professor at Linden-wood College, refers to programs which offer a series of incentives for attendance, ranging from fast-food coupons to entertainment centers which were offered at a discount from local businesses (p. 16). A different form of contribution is noted in Bob Maggi’s (1991) case study of a school in Missouri. A local company contributed $500 to fund their mentoring/ adoption program. Seeing how successful the project was, the company doubled the amount it contributes to the program. Another article suggests that schools work with law enforcement and local businesses. The author states, â€Å"With their support, children who should be in school will be in school† (â€Å"Raising School Attendance,† 2002). Joyce Epstein and Steven Sheldon from The Johns Hopkins University agree, saying, â€Å"Developing productive school-family-community connections has become one of the most commonly embraced policy initiatives in schools and school districts† (2002, p. 308). There are times when the community involvement takes a much more negative but still necessary angle. Often, students will be habitually absent and schools are now working to address that issue. Janet Ford and Richard Sutphen, social work professors at the University of Kentucky, mention that in some states or districts parents of students will face fines or even jail time if they fail to adhere to attendance laws (1996, p. 95). Dougherty suggests other tactics, such as â€Å"implementing police sweeps, involving local agencies and the media and notifying juvenile authorities† (1999). Of course, these tactics are usually implemented in only severe cases of absenteeism. Community involvement and support can be a wonderful addition to attendance policies if tailored to meet the school’s needs and the student’s desires. Teacher/Student Relationships While family and community involvement both play important roles in maintaining good student attendance, our sources all agree that student-teacher relationships are also very important. Several authors encourage one on one meetings, or mentoring students who have attendance problems. In fact, at least one study (Maggi, 1991) is devoted entirely to this practice and with great results, while others (â€Å"Raising school attendance,† 2001 and Vandiver, 2003) simply add it into their attendance programs. Authors agree that to curb poor attendance teachers should lecture students every day about the importance of attending school daily. Kube and Ratigan (1992) insist, â€Å"Teachers must let students know that they are missed when they have been absent. They must ensure that important learning experiences occur each day in their classes† (p. 3), while Dougherty (2003) concurs and adds, â€Å"And they must value and reward good attendance† (p. 76). According to the literature, the teachers are also responsible for coming up with new and creative ways to entice children into coming to school every day. These enticements run the gamut from Vandiver’s (2003) idea of being exempt from having to take the final exams if the student has perfect attendance to Ford and Sutphin’s (1996) strategy of giving tokens to students with good attendance so that they could cash them in on prizes at the end of the week (p. 98). In the end, authors agree that in order to keep attendance under control, educators need not only to regularly come up with new and innovative ideas to keep students coming to school but to consistently tell the students how important it is for them to be present every day. Rewards and Incentives Research has shown that attendance increases when schools incorporate incentive programs into their attendance policies. Bob Maggi (1998), principal at Jarrett High School, began a program which encouraged teachers to adopt a student. Maggi (1998) claimed that â€Å"A $500 grant from Southwestern Bell Foundation was distributed to the adopting teachers to be used to their discretion: for birthday or holiday gifts, for taking student out for dinner or a show, or to buy a sweatshirt or dance ticket† (p. 12). It only took one year for Jarrett High School to receive the results they were searching for. Terrance Smerke (1993, p. 95), principal of Aurora Middle School, along with other schools found it effective to reward the children with positive letters of their accomplishments (Best Practices for School Attendance, 1998). According to Janet Ford, PhD, and Richard Sutphen, PhD, both assistant professors, other types of incentives are posting student’s names in the hallway or reading them over the public address system (1996). One observation mentioned in the article â€Å"Raising School Attendance† (2002), was that Monday and Friday â€Å"are typically the days with the highest absenteeism. Planning special events for these days could improve attendance. † Vandivier (2003), principal of Twin Rivers High School, and John Dougherty (1999), professor of education at Linden-wood College, agree that rewards such as movie tickets, food coupons, and gift certificates will increase attendance. The article How do you improve student attendance, claims that one way to boost attendance is to put all the students’ names with perfect attendance into a drawing (2001, p. 26). Ann Kube, math teacher at North Scott High School, and Gary Radigan, principle at Ankeny High School, agree that incentives encourage students to attend school regularly (1992). As most of the authors stated, incentives have been proven to increase attendance. Punishments/Consequences All of our authors agree that absenteeism has negative consequences for students, schools and society. In the article â€Å"Early Intervention to Improve Attendance In Elementary School for At risk Children,† Janet Ford and Richard V. Sutphen discuss the effects on students. They say that non-attendees generally fall behind their peers in academic achievement and the development of social competence (Ford & Sutphen, 1996, p. 95). Consequences for parents include fines and jail time; consequences for schools are loss of funds, and for society higher rates of unemployment, poverty and lack of preparation to enter the work force (Ford & Sutphen, 1996, p. 95). Dougherty agrees that habits of absenteeism and tardiness affect work performance when youngsters become adults (1999, p. 7). In Dan Vandivier’s article entitled â€Å"Improving Attendance, A Formula that Worked† he discusses an attendance policy at Twin Rivers High School in Brosely, Montana. Policies stated that students that miss more than six days in a semester are not considered to have earned credit, and no distinction is made between excused and unexcused absences (2003, p. 81). As for students and specific punishments our authors disagreed with suspension. Dougherty states, â€Å"that suspending a student is giving them what he wants, a vacation† (1999, p. 9). As most of the authors conclude, there is some form of punishment given to a student that misses excessive days. Conclusion In conclusion, the above research findings all agree that attendance is a very important issue for students. The literature indicated that the following topics are important factors in increasing attendance: effective policies, parental contact, community involvement, teacher/student relationships, rewards and incentives, and punishments/consequences.

Crime Statistics Comparison - 2178 Words

Comparison of Crime Statistics Crime statistics endeavour to provide statistical measures of crime in societies. They provide a point of analysis and comparison, allow countries to form long-term patterns and trends and can help to develop and reform criminal justice policies as well as being more meaningful than raw numbers. Using the countries of Bahrain and the United States as a comparison point for the following issues which surround crime statistics such as biases, agendas and general influences like education and religion; this essay will be focused around analysing the statistical factors and wider influences which can allow a country to have low or high crime rates. Crime Definitions Definitions of what exactly constitutes†¦show more content†¦Wider Influences: Bahrain is a country which operates on all levels in relation to the teachings of the Qur’an. This makes up the fabric of life for the Bahraini people, the influence of the Islamic religion can be seen in the economic, political and social pathways of life within the culture of the country. In Bahrain, religion is the most important structure. The Islamic religion opposes wrongdoing in all its forms and that any wrongdoing can lead to the downfall of society. The teachings of the Prophet attempt to get rid of all forms of crime before it happens by influencing the individuals who follow the religion. Acts against the law therefore is not only a crime against society in the eyes of Bahraini people it is also a violation of the principles of God. In Bahrain there are even ‘moral police officers’ who regulate the dress and public behaviour of citizens (Helal, 1991). As the Qur’an provides the basis for society, it also provides the base for which laws are mad e. 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