Desiging and Early College High School for African American Males Dissertation

Desiging and Early College High School for African American Males - Dissertation Example In many instances the latter may be an issue, especially when some teachers are afraid of young African American males (Brown, 2011). To this end, there are programs in the United States that provide mentoring for African American boys who need attention to help them prepare for college (Brown, 2011). The reason mentoring is so crucial is because public schools have traditionally misunderstood how to work with African American males to the point that they are not given the opportunities to partake in â€Å"classes offering enriched educational offerings† (Holzman, 2010, p. 4). For many African American males this means that they go to prison rather than college and they only find low wage jobs as a consequence of such tendencies (Holzman, 2010). This is not the intended plight of these students. They are viable students that can make a strong contribution to society if they are given a chance. Generally, African American males have a lower graduation rate than Caucasian studen ts and other minorities. According to the Educational Testing Service (ETS) (2011) African American males fail at a tremendous rate. ... In a regular high school this is well below the standard of Caucasian students who show 38 percent proficiency in reading by fourth grade and 44 percent proficiency in math by eighth grade (ETS, 2011). There is no doubt that something must be done to help African American males succeed. The New School Concept Across the United States, the development of new schools to provide parents with different choices for their children grew, because of the Now Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This Act created opportunities for schools to work with students in different ways, and it called for children to be proficient in certain areas at certain times in their education. This Act was to close the achievement gap between Caucasian students and minority students (blacks and Hispanics) but it but it created more of a gap for African American students instead of closing the gap (Knaus, 2007). Part of the challenge for many schools has been that they are given teachers who are unprepared to teach Afri can American students (Knaus, 2007). In large urban areas, where there is a large amount of poverty, schools may have â€Å"three times as many uncertified or out-of-field teachers of low-poverty schools† (Knaus, 2007, p. 1). When African American males become resistant to this type of schooling and choose not to attend, they can be subject to moves to other types of schools like â€Å"continuation† schools or alternatives schools, and then to the juvenile justice system (Knaus, 2007, p. 1). This is not the type of situation that society needs for its African American youth. Central to the success of any school and especially new schools is the quality of the educators who work with

The retail environment of clothing apparel organization Abercrombie & Essay

The retail environment of clothing apparel organization Abercrombie & Fitch in terms of pervading retail theory - Essay Example One such company is the teen clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch. Through reference to contemporary retail theory, this report investigates Abercrombie & Fitch’s retail environment. Abercrombie & Fitch Background While Abercrombie & Fitch is popularly recognized for its modern fashions and pop culture style, the company has a long history dating back to the 19th century. Indeed, David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch founded the company as a sporting goods store in 1892 (Zuidhof 2007). During the early 20th century David Abercrombie left the organization, but Ezra Fitch continued operations. Fitch would witness successful company operations and expansion until his retirement in 1928 (Zuidhof 2007). During the period Fitch controlled the organization they expanded from sporting goods to a wide-array of amenities, including clothing and board games. The organization was the first company to carry the game Mahjong and they even outfitted Charles Lindberg for his flight across the Atlant ic. After Fitch’s retirement his brother-in-law James S. Cobb purchased the organization. After Cobb assumed controlled the organization further expanded, purchasing Von Lengerke & Detmold, a European dealer of sportings guns. The company continued in relative prosperity until the 1970s when they increasingly experienced declining revenue. Ultimately, the company was forced to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 1977 the company closed until it was bought in 1978 by sporting goods retailer Oshman’s for $1.5 million (Zuidhof 2007). The Oshman era experienced tepid success until it was bought out in 1988 by Limited Brands (Zuidhof 2007). New president Sally Frame-Kasak would move the organization into a decidedly fashion retail direction. This direction was further enhanced in 1992 when clothing executive Michael S. Jeffries assumed the presidency. Jeffries would further shift company emphasis from simply clothing to teenage apparel. From this 1992 period until the present day the company has largely maintained this market structure and has expanded with relative success. The contemporary incarnation of Abercrombie & Fitch five brands: Abercrombie & Fitch, AbercrombieKids, Hollister and RUEHL and Gilly Hicks: Sydney brands. While each of these brands reaches out to different market segments structural changes in the retail environment, the Abercrombie & Fitch storefront, with its ‘classic cool’ theme, remains the flagship offering. Analysis Overarching Theoretical Paradigm One of the most overarching concerns in terms of Abercrombie & Fitch’s contemporary retail environment is the notion of the servicescape. Broadly speaking, the servicescape is the impact of the physical environment in which a service takes place. Booms and Bitner (1981, pg. 36) first established the notion of the servicescape, noting it is, â€Å"the environment in which the service is assembled and in which the seller and customer interact, combined with tangi ble commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service.† Not merely Abercrombie & Fitch, but indeed all retail environments, this is a pervasive notion for its nearly all-encompassing subject criteria; indeed, Bitner (1992) expanded this notion to include three physical environ