International Business School

Phoenix Schools Tackle Dropout Rate

The schools in the United States are considered to be "in crisis" due to the soaring student dropout rate. In his first State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush stated that the national dropout rate was 25 percent.

A recent study conducted by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University puts the current national dropout rate at 25 to 30 percent. Additionally, it indicated that males have the highest dropout rate of 20 to 30 percent and are most likely "at risk" of not graduating from high school with a diploma.

It is said that when a student drops out of school, he/she drops into the criminal justice system. In 2002, the U.S. incarcerated its two millionth person. Of those in prison at the time, 82 percent were high school dropouts.

Dropouts cost our economy billions of dollars each year, and not just from the cost of incarceration. They are an undereducated work force that retards our economic and social development. Businesses cannot depend upon a large portion of graduating students to fill much-needed jobs, which translates to lost government tax revenues. State governments lose money through welfare payments, unemployment and crime prevention programs. Governments, from the president to the local level, have discovered that if they do not pay for programs to decrease the dropout rate now, they will pay much more in the future.

According to the study, the dropout rates vary dramatically by location and racial/ethnic background. The state of Arizona was cited in the study as one of the five states with the lowest graduation rate for 18 year olds. Thus, Phoenix Schools, along with the Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, have made dropout prevention a top priority.

There are three types of dropouts:

* Dropouts -- students who stop coming to school,* Drop-In Dropouts -- students who come to school but do nothing while they are there, and* Forced-Out Dropouts -- students who were "counseled out" by school counselors and administrators.

Phoenix Schools are addressing all three types of dropouts. Their initiatives are focused on engaging the students, rather than excluding them. They know that programs alone will not change the dropout rate. Only people and relationships can make a difference.

Phoenix schools work with businesses, community organizations and others to identify and develop effective strategies for keeping students in school. They are working to improve student academic success, believing that the high school renewal initiatives are directly linked to a decreased dropout rate. Phoenix schools are focusing on fixing the system, not the student.

Every student in the state of Arizona must now pass three tests in order to graduate high school. The tests measure the students' knowledge against required state standards. Phoenix schools are focusing on the students who do not meet the state required standards. They are tackling their needs by:

* Addressing the students' skill gaps through a state-funded tutoring program,* Providing the students with their own tutorial guides, customized to their individual needs, and* Using state-funded tutors, who are qualified to help the students learn the required skills in order to achieve a passing score on the standardized tests.

Phoenix schools are committed to reducing the dropout rate in their schools. Though it is a lengthy and ever changing process, they know the importance of their task. Phoenix schools know they have an obligation to the students and their parents, as well as the businesses and community to improve their dropout rates. More skilled and diploma-graduated students mean better-prepared adults and a better Phoenix.

Massage Therapy Schools in Missouri

People looking into a new career as a massage therapist will find several Massage Therapy Schools in Missouri that provide a complete education in the field. Aspiring massage professionals are provided with hands-on training and classroom lectures and discussions that will qualify them for entry-level positions in spas, athletic organizations, and medical facilities anywhere.

Massage therapy schools provide opportunities to earn certificates or diplomas from vocational schools and community colleges, two-year Associate of Science (AS) degrees from community colleges, or four-year Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees.

In addition to hands-on massage experience gained in a clinical setting, the massage education will include the subjects of anatomy, physiology, health, hygiene, pathology, and nutrition. Theory and practice of massage, hydrotherapy, reflexology, and other courses may be required, which will prepare students with the necessary skills in the profession. Some massage schools also prepare students for business operations with courses in management, accounting, marketing, and business ethics.

Students planning to attend one of the Massage Therapy Schools in Missouri should look for accreditation by state and national organizations. Accreditation will assure students of quality educational programs and worthy diplomas, degrees, and certificates, and also prepare students for national certification exams. There are several qualifying credentials that students should look for when researching massage schools, such as: AMTA (The American Massage Therapy Association), ACCSCT (Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and College of Technology), COMTA (Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation), ACCET (Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training), among others.

The Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration has set state-wide regulations that apply to massage therapists. Chapter 5 - Health Care Consumer Procedures lists regulations that apply specifically to massage therapy businesses. Before graduating from Massage Therapy Schools in Missouri (or elsewhere), students should check with the state as well as local governments regarding laws that regulate massage therapists and massage therapy businesses.

A career in Natural Healing can be extremely rewarding, and your studies may lead you to specialize in any number of areas, such as Acupuncture or Chiropractics, for instance.

To learn more about Massage Therapy Schools in Missouri and other courses of study, search our site for more in-depth information and resources.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved by SchoolsGalore.com, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc.

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5 New School Fundraising Ideas For Your School

1. Golf FundraiserWith a little help from some professional golf fundraiser experts, your school can raise more money than you ever thought possible. It is a pretty easy and it is a fun and interesting way to get people involved as well as raise money. You can also get the community involved with sponsored holes- tell each sponsor that the name of their company or business will be on a flag during the event for say $100 and you have already raised $1,800 with each hole sponsored.

2. Custom Chocolate BarsYou would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn?t purchased a chocolate bar that was sponsored by a school, Boys and Girls Club or similar. Why chocolate bars? Everyone loves them, they are portable, instant satisfaction to the buyer and profits are good. With a quality chocolate company and a personalized school logo, it won?t be hard to sell a lot of chocolate bars.3. Garage saleOrganizing a school garage sale is a fairly easy task. You already have a large space- the school, say the cafeteria; everyone donates items to sell- so there is no overhead costs and all the money goes directly to the school. School?s have made thousands of dollars just buy parents, teachers and students getting rid of items they may have given away for nothing.

4. Silent AuctionThe silent auction school fundraising activity may be one of the most ingenious fundraising ideas ever. Usually items for bidding are donated by a service or company that wants to advertise and is able to write-off the donation. Items are laid out or presented on a table, usually there is some kind of mixer or athletic game or music event that goes along with the silent auction event to draw people in. Then people will have a certain amount of time to write down their bids and when the time is up- no more bidding can be done and the highest bidder wins the prize. This non-threatening way of bidding makes people feel less vulnerable about spending money in the open and the friendly competition always brings out the competitive nature to give at these events.

5. Business Match School Fundraising Contest Another way to ramp up money for a school fundraiser is to have a business match what your school raises. Consider the clear piggy bank with a dollar goal of your target amount. Say it?s $5,000. Ask a local business or businesses to match your goal either with money or in computers or other necessary school equipment. It gets the whole school involved and a little can add up to a lot. Ask students to donate just 1 quarter of their candy money towards the piggy bank- and after 3-6 months of raising money just little by little- who knows what cash you can raise? Plus with a business matching your funds- you?ve doubled your school fundraising power.

When you show a little enthusiasm for your fundraiser it?s contagious! Help the school build ideas together possibly at an assembly and watch the ideas flow. When you are all apart of the idea, you are all in it together!

Public Schools — Bad Education, Year After Year?

If a store sells inferior products or a business gives bad service, most customers will not come back and that store or business will eventually go bankrupt. If public schools sell bad education, year after year, why don?t they go bankrupt? Why aren?t they shut down?The answer is government compulsion. In private schools, if the school does a bad job educating children, parents will soon take their child out of that school. If enough parents take their kids out of the school, that school will go bankrupt. A private school depends on the voluntary consent and tuition payments of its parent-customers to stay in business.Unlike private schools, public schools are a government-controlled education system that stays in business through naked compulsion. Local governments pass laws that give school authorities near-monopoly powers over our children?s education. Compulsory-attendance laws force children to go to these schools. School taxes force parents to pay for these schools. Unlike private schools, public schools rarely go out of business, no matter how bad they are, because they get their ?customers? and their money by force.Compulsion rears its ugly head in our public schools in many other ways. State teacher licensing laws prevent excellent but unlicensed educators or outside experts from teaching in the schools. Tenure laws make it almost impossible for school boards to fire incompetent or even mediocre teachers or principals.Local governments force children to go to public schools for six to eight hours a day, five days a week for up to twelve years, even though these children might hate public school. School authorities force children to study subjects that school authorities dictate, even though children might find these subjects boring or meaningless. Public schools also force parents to accept teachers that parents might not like or think are competent.Many public schools force children to learn math and reading with teaching methods that can cripple children?s math and reading abilities. Public schools often subject children to values or sex-education classes that parents object to. The list goes on and on.Like tax-supported prisons, public schools don?t shut down because the whole system rests on a foundation of naked force. Take away compulsory-attendance laws and compulsory school taxes and it?s highly likely that most public schools would ?go out of business.?But parents don?t have to wait for the highly unlikely event of public schools going out of business in their lifetime. Luckily, parents in America, unlike those in Germany or many other countries, have the right to homeschool their children. Parents can also take advantage of new, low-cost education options available to them right now, such as low-cost Internet private schools. I go into detail about these new education options in my book, ?Public Schools, Public Menace.?Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.

Online Career Schools

Are you interested in enhancing your career prospects without going to colleges and attending regular classes? If you are interested in continuing your studies at your own leisure and make a job change or better progression in your current job, whenever you get time, then the answer for you lies in the online career schools.

What are online career schools?

Online career schools are the best places to earn online degrees in any subject. When you go through the various websites searching for the right kind of degree you would find that there are names of the schools and colleges mentioned besides the degree or diploma programs. These are the online career schools where you need to register yourself for earning a degree.

Features of online career schools

There are some distinguished features of the online career schools which make them different from the traditional community schools and colleges. The features of online career schools are:

a) The accreditations of the online career schools depend on the close links that they maintain with the local business houses. In fact you can find that this link has its impact on the course curriculum of these schools. The traditional schools do not need to maintain such relationship with the business houses and therefore the curriculum followed by them are different from those followed by the online career schools.

b) The online career schools are not overseen by the state board of governors. The Accrediting Council for Independent Schools and Colleges is the institute with which they work and ensure that the standard of education imparted by them are at par with those offered by the traditional schools and colleges offering distance education programs.

Advantages of online career schools

No traditional institution would offer you so many advantages such as the online career schools. The advantages that you can enjoy in any online career school are the following:

i) Helping you determining your aptitude: Some of the sites offering you online degrees have a system of aptitude test. This aptitude test is to determine your professional strength and the ways in which you can utilize them properly. After you succeed in this aptitude test you can find out the courses that are suitable for you.ii) No need to be physically present in a class: Generally the online classes are held in the own website of the online career schools, though there might be some exceptions. You would find all the lectures and the course materials posted in the site and you can post your questions or suggestions regarding the course material in the bulletin board. iii) Help at hand: When you register in an online career school you would have an academic instructor to help you with your curriculum. You can also sought the help of the fellow classmates for studyingiv) Cost effective: The cost of studying depends on the schools and the programs that you choose. The cost of a credit range somewhere between less than $100 to $300. You might have to pay additional registration and enrollment charges if necessary. Moreover you do not need to pay for the tuition charges. Combine with them the cost that you save on fuel, parking and food that you need to pay if you were studying in a traditional school or institute, and you would find that it is always better to go for an online career school.

If you want to have more information on the available online career schools visit the site http://www.topeducationguide.com

Top Education Guide is a comprehensive directory of colleges, universities, online career schools, trade schools, vocational training and online degree programs. You can quickly search through our database of online and campus college locations to find the right degree program best suited for advancing your professional goals. Start searching today, find a degree, and discover a rewarding new career.

Walk In Traffic Schools: A Bleak Future?

With the ease of doing business on the internet - whether it's shopping for groceries, paying bills or taking an online traffic course - online companies are giving brick and mortar businesses a run for their money. There's no better example of this than the increasing popularity of online traffic schools. Gone are the days when individuals, hit with a traffic violation, are forced to spend eight uncomfortable hours with strangers in a stuffy room, watching outdated movies and wishing the day would end.

Online traffic schools may well be the trend of today - and tomorrow. TickeRelief.com founder Travis sees this surge of popularity with online traffic schools as a phenomenon that will only grow, eventually leading to the end of the walk-in traffic school. "Traffic school online is a growing trend and soon, I believe, that walk-in traffic will be obsolete. Taking traffic school online is quick, easy, and convenient," he says.

In fact, statistics for online traffic schools are promising. In 2004, for example, more than a third of the 500,000 people ordered to complete traffic school in Florida did so online. Ninety perfect of those who completed the online traffic course passed the final exam.

An administrator at East L.A. Community College Service, who requested her name be withheld, recognizes the advantages of online traffic school, citing students can complete the course at their own convenience. She, however, disagrees that walk-in traffic school will one day disappear altogether. In fact, she hasn't yet noticed a big difference in attendance. "We have noticed it has somewhat decreased. It (online traffic school) looks like it's doing very well, but it's not affecting us very much," she says.

As for the future of traditional walk-in traffic schools like East L.A. Community College Service, she doesn't think they're going to disappear anytime soon. Attendance will "decrease, but it (walk-in traffic school) won't be a thing of the past."

Travis, however, believes the future of the walk-in traffic school is bleak, pointing to California bill AB2377. Initiated by Democrat Assemblyman John Longville, the bill sought to require the licensing of all online and home study traffic schools by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill in September 2004. Still, the very fact that the bill even made it to the governor's desk may indicate that all is not as rosy as it may appear for walk-in traffic schools.

"From what I understand about the bill," Travis says, "walk-in traffic schools are losing a lot of business to online traffic school and this bill would increase requirements making it harder for online traffic schools to get approved."

If the bill had passed, it would have required all online traffic schools to be licensed through the DMV, a lengthy process lasting between one and two years. Currently, online traffic schools must be certified before they are able to do business and are added to the list of court-approved schools. Certified by the National Traffic Safety Administration and the Coordinated Courts System, Ticket Relief currently serves California (including Los Angeles and San Diego counties), Texas (in partnership with Continued Ed) and Florida (in partnership with American Institute). Ticket Relief's partners are certified by the DMV.

Certification, however, is a thorough process that requires online traffic schools to meet legal, curriculum and grammatical standards with its course materials. Ticket Relief's course materials run between 100-110 pages.

With the rising competition from online traffic and defensive driving schools, walk-in traffic schools are often forced to step up their performance, if they want to stay in business. Many walk-in traffic schools, particularly in Los Angeles, offer incentives such as comedy and pizza. Still, pizza and a few laughs is often not enough enticement for forgoing a Saturday afternoon when individuals can complete Los Angeles traffic school online in as few as six hours in the comfort of their own homes.

Furthermore, online traffic schools like Ticket Relief are poised for major growth in the next few years, a move that could have a major impact on the way drivers do business. "Ticket Relief will continue to grow until it covers all 52 states. Ticket Relief is also looking to venture into other driving related services. Some of the services are: ordering a copy of your driver license record, reducing your insurance rate, renewing your driver's license, and offering a membership with exclusive member benefits. Ideally, I would like customers to come to TicketRelief.com for all their driving needs," Travis says.