1.

2 Decision Making in Education System

2.2.7 identify how decisions are made in an education system

Decision making is the process of coming to a conclusion or resolution based on a

situation or question being asked. There are many ways you can do that. The most well

known way is discussing in groups or holding a meeting. In these meetings people can

bring their own opinions to the table and talk with others and come to an agreement.

Education board members have different stakeholders to keep in mind when coming to

an agreement.

There are three different decision making levels, these are: state, federal and local. At

the federal level there are many decision making processes that impact how the schools

are run. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act and Brown vs the Board of

Education. When these acts were all decided on it helped with having schools become

more of a place where students could feel like they belong and they don't have to worry

about such things like, race, social status or gender. The No Child Left Behind act

ensured that every student gets the material they need to succeed and we don't leave

anyone by themselves to struggle or figure it out. Brown vs Board of Education put an

end to segregation in schools which led to the Jimmy Crow laws, this law was put in

place to put an end to segregation and we still see it in the works today as our district

continues to grow. (1.2.1)

The next level that decisions are made at is the State level. This level contains the

legislature and Ohio State Department of Education. Decisions in this level can include

anywhere from curriculum that the teachers will need for their students to funding in

schools. We currently are having a levy that we are trying to pass to get us more

funding to help us in the long run when we start to grow in population and need to start

expanding our district some more. (1.2.2)

The last level to decision making is local. In this case ours would be Olentangy local

school district. These decisions being made could include the superintendent, board of

education and building staff. They also play a big role because most of them are in the

students' daily lives. They also think the development of students is very important so

they try and do their best to give them the resources they need to succeed.

This school year my class got to visit the district's building and talk to people from our

board of education who sit in on all the meetings. One of the people we got to talk to

was Mrs.Julie Feasel. She had talked to us about how their current decision they were

trying to make for the olentangy school district is if they should put vape detectors in the

bathroom. She walked us through the process of how these types of decisions were

made and how every vote at the end of the meetings matter. They are doing it for us(the

students) (1.2.3)
A stakeholder is the person that the decision making will be affecting. Depending on the

different types of stakeholders, it can cause stress to be put on the attendees that are

making the decision. During decision making the attendees have to be thinking the

whole time about who this is going to help or hurt and what they want or what their

reactions will be. Most of the time stakeholders don't get a part in the actual process but

sometimes there are ways for them to voice their thoughts; like voting in a presidential

election.

This can lead to pros and cons. Pros of decision making are like coming to something

everyone somewhat or partially agrees on, can also bring others with the same opinions

together and also gets us to grow and continue as a whole group or business with great

new ideas. Some cons on this are not everyone is going to completely agree or like

what the outcome is, you have to know how to voice your own opinion without coming

off as selfish or rude/you have to be able to listen very well and the stakeholders

reaction sometimes can blow up and go the wrong way.

During this year I watched a video of a board meeting and in this meeting they talked

about the set up of our DACC building. For the best outcome they thought it would be

smart to invite the actual people who it would be affecting, so in this meeting they had

students and teachers from DACC involved in the outcome of this decision. I think that,

that is a good idea because then you can not only get input from older ages but you can
also get input that some might not have thought about if it weren't for the students.

Doing this give meetings a wider variety of ideas.(1.2.4)

We wouldn't be where we are today if we didn't have to make decisions. Everyone

makes decisions in their lives; it's just a part of living. Every decision made can have an

effect on others around you and that is why they are so important and take time to think

about and decide.