Figure 4: Poverty Function in Canonical Form with Linkages to 'Cluster Sets'
Definition: The core function of Figure 4 is that of Figure 2; however, the dynamics [behavior] of this core function are extrinsically linked to a set of activities outside of the core function. These outside activities are education, income & employment, prime movers, requirements, legal and justice systems and performance criteria. These six outside activities [aka 'clusters'] serve to expand the arena of poverty and its intrinsic dynamics. Additionally, these 'clusters', individually and collectively, directly and indirectly shape the outcomes [2] of poverty.
Description: Currently, each of these six clusters contribute both to the alleviation of poverty [as they should] but, moreso, to the long-standing poverty-driven spectrum of inequalities [as they should not]. Collectively, these six clusters and their well-imbedded flawed characteristics have exerted an unsustainable cost in dollars to all Americans but also an equally unsustainable cost in the quality of life and humanity of those living in poverty. Referring to Figure 4, the three clusters on the right certainly have an intuitive linkage to the arena of poverty; however, the three clusters on the left have a less-than-intuitive-but equally significant impact upon those living in poverty.
Education
Definition: The term 'education' assumes, within the context of Poverty & Despair versus Education & Opportunity, a wider context that includes and goes well beyond the traditional public, private, regional, charter schools and the growing population of academies, collaborative and leadership organizations. Historically, the network of public and private schools have been, very successfully, a sufficient response to the educational needs for the pre-K and K through grade 12. Integral to this response has been the focus of colleges and universities preparing teachers for America upon this historical network of students. Despite this historical 'success', there were children who were 'left behind', e.g., children living in poverty, rural America, native Americans and a still increasing population of students unprepared for the realities, challenges, opportunities and responsibilities of life. This population of 'unprepared students' now includes children, teens, young adults and adults. This population continues to grow in number and costs both in dollars [to all], opportunity and their quality of life.
A responsible educational process addresses both the traditional population of students-as noted above-but also those unprepared students of all ages that are falling by the wayside-aka 'being left behind'. Certainly, no child should be left behind but neither should any educationally-unprepared individual be left behind. The educational challenge, then, is to shape that 'responsible educational process' that, without question or controversy, leaves no one behind!
Description: As noted above, the population of unprepared students includes a wide spectrum of students with an equally wide spectrum of educational needs. Simply put, 'one size doesn't really fit all': somewhat of a reality in past years but due to the variances in 'student populations' and their respective educational needs, it is now a reality that is not acknowledged by many. It is first necessary to identify and acknowledge the various 'student populations', e.g., children living in poverty, those who are expelled, those who drop-out, those who never attended school, those who are involved in gang activities, those who are in the in the abusive environments of home and/or street, those who are incarcerated, those who are released, paroled or on probation, those who are homeless, those who are unemployed, children of immigrants, etc. Then - and only then - will the development of shaping educational strategies, programs and curricula to best fit the educational needs for a specific student population be realized and implemented.
Keywords: Educational requirements for specific student populations, the cost of standardized testing, whatever happened to reading, writing and arithmetic?, is not math, the 'new' math, the Singapore math, the Chicago math et al the same?, is not math still math? educational flaws. Educational engineers, who are they?
Selected References:
1. One-Size-Fits-All Education Doesn't Work, Alfie Kohn, Boston Globe, June 10, 2001.
2. One Size Fits All? Not in the Classroom, Leah Segura, Teach.org 2014, https://www.teach.org.
3. The Fallacy of a "One Size Fits All" Education, Profoundly Gifted Student, 14, Davidson Institute for Talent Development, 2015.
4. Why a "One-Size-Fits-All" Education System Doesn't Work, Sierra School, info@sierraschool.com.
5. One Size Does Not Fit All, Education Revolution, Nikhil Goyd,
6. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, Diane Ravitch, Basic Books , November 1, 2011.
7. How Children Succeed, Paul Tough, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.
8. How Scrapping the one-size-fits-all education defeats inequity, Nicholas C. Donohue, The Hechinger Report, Covering Innovation & Inequality in Education, June 4, 2015.
9. Why are low-income students not showing up to college, even though they have been accepted?, Meredith Kolodner, The Hechinger Report, August 14, 2015.
10. Poverty, Not Schools, to Blame for Low Scores, Joseph H. Crowley, Commentary, Providence Journal, November, 27, 2015.
11. We Need to Teach Teachers Better, John J. Colby, Commentary, Providence Journal, Janyary 1, 2016.
Income/Employment:
Definition: 'Income' includes earned income [the benchmark commonly used as a measure of the various levels of poverty, e.g., marginal poverty, poverty, deep poverty, etc.] and any assistance with a well-defined monetary value, e.g., food stamps, housing assistance, health and medical assistance. These two categories, together, constitute personal or family income. As robust as they sound, for those living in poverty, these measures of a 'living income' hardly suffice as an immunity from the poverty-enabled inequalities. This lack of immunity also exists within the oft-referred middle class residents in which their 'living incomes' have a significant variance; the greater the 'living income', the greater is the measure of immunity. Of course, as the level' of 'living income' diminishes so does the level of immunity also diminish. Using 'living income' as a measure of total income for an individual or family probably increases the total number of those living in poverty.
'Employment' refers to any of those myriad positions at any earned income level and, like 'living income' have an enormously wide range.
Description: The term 'income/employment' infers that critical linkage between employment and its earned income. This term is also part of the sequence/chain of events that lead to one's good quality of life-historically, experienced by most Americans but, sadly, not all - especially those living in poverty.. Earned income certainly depends upon the skill level of employment and, in turn, that required skill level of employment is dependent upon one's level of preparation via the educational process....and, in turn, the quality of that educational process is very much a dual function of 'learning' and teaching readiness'. It bears repeating the message of Peter Edelman in So Rich, So Poor that "everything is connected to everything".
Keywords: Employment readiness, earned income, living wage, living income, poverty strata, quality of life, poverty-enabled inequalities, traditional, innovative and required 'students' needs-responsive educational requirements.
Selected References:
1. Income Statistics, United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/hhes/income/.
2, Poverty Statistics, United States Census Bureau.
3. Education Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], United States Department of Education.
4. What Is Employment Readiness, Employment Readiness Model, Valerie G. Ward Consultants Ltd., 2015
Legal & Justice Systems:
Definition: The 'judiciary', generally, is considered to be that branch of government that is endowed with the authority - and, may we add, the responsibility - to interpret and apply the law, adjudicate legal disputes and otherwise administer justice. The United States judiciary is a hierarchical system of trial and appellate courts at both the state and federal levels. The network of Federal district courts [94 in all] address both civil and criminal cases. The state court systems can be identified at four levels: minor courts, major trial courts, intermediate appellate courts and the state supreme courts.
Description: There are professed checks and balances in place, e.g., State Codes of Judicial Conduct and the guidelines of the American Bar Association. This system of 'checks and balances', however, although effective in many situations, has become flawed due to lobbying efforts by lawyers and special interests, a lack of commitment to the separation of powers, lack of legal representation, the discrepancies between 'crime and punishment' and the various ways in which judges are appointed especially at the state level. There is a suspicion/belief that the dynamics of 'justice' extends beyond the court room setting. The overall effect of these 'judicial flaws' is [1] significantly less than a 'level playing field' for those living in poverty, the uneducated and the 'unconnected' and [2] the compromising impact upon the constitutional mandate , i.e., '....and justice for all'. Bottom line: within the judicial arena, it certainly seems that 'justice' isn't always the first priority!
The linkage between the impact of the above noted flaws upon those living in poverty-especially African-Americans-has been duly noted in the literature. This linkage, without question, is another crucial 'piece' within the complex and convoluted arenas of poverty and education. A typical scenario of life is birth and residence in poverty, that virtual wall that is made up by the bricks of inequalities, an inadequate education, unemployment, insufficient income, disorder within the family and the community,..., and a variety of civil and criminal violations, cases of prosecutorial misconduct, incarceration, ineffective parole strategies, recidivism and post-release strategies that contribute to recidivism rather than reducing it.
The context of these flaws of the criminal justice system is reflected in some representative literature:
o Cradle to Prison Pipeline
o Time for Justice for Children of New York
o Before the Law [A boy is accused of taking a backpack. The courts took the next three years of his life.
o Get Out of Jail, Inc. [Traffic tickets + injustice.....]
o The Great Escape [Prison reform includes education]
o 9 Yards gives ex-cons knowledge, skills and jobs
o Feds: Baltimore jail illegally keeping juveniles in solitary
o ACLU [Rhode Island] charges state discriminates against blacks
o End school-to-prison pipeline
o Helping people is cheaper than jailing them
o Treatment of inmates under fire
o Southern Poverty Law Center: Shutting Down Debtors; Prisons
o The caging of America
o Senators seek criminal justice reform
o Obama and juvenile justice reform
o Making black kids criminals
o Behind Bars
o Fix the criminal justice system
o Merit vs. politics for R.I. judges
o Problems of those released from prison
o Court troubled by rejection of black jurors
o Cruel confinement
o Making R.I. justice system work better
o The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration
o The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities
o The Problem With Criminalizing Homelessness
o Prison Chief: Release 'Non-Violent' Offenders
An interesting perspective: It is clear that poverty can get one into the justice/legal/penal system. What follows that is America's penchant for and history of using punishment as a deterrent to future criminal activity - either for those caught up in the system or those who might think of crime but avoid it to avoid the punishment. It's pretty clear this approach does not work. Our prisons are full to overflowing, unlike most first world countries. From Google: The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world [743 per 100,000 population], Russia has the second highest rate [573 per 100,000], followed by Rwanda [561 per 100,000]. As of year-end 2009 the USA rate was 743 adults incarcerated in prisons and jails per 100,000 population.
The issue is punishment is apparently not a good deterrent as noted by the huge numbers of those incarcerated and the recidivism rate in America. According to one Google study [Done at Salve Regina University], the American recidivism rate is 52%. Here's what the research said about the relationship between incarceration for punishment versus rehabilitation: Scandinavian countries are often considered models of 'successful incarceration' practices, particularly Norway which, at 20%, has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world. Here, too, the focus is far more on rehabilitation and less on punishment. The thinking is that justice for society is best served by releasing prisoners who are less likely to reoffend. The Norwegian penal philosophy is that traditional, repressive prisons do not work, and that treating prisoners humanely improves their chances of reintegrating into society. The last two citations suggest an opportunity for progress and that education is a likely strategy for progress.
Provocatively, data suggests that countries in which wealth is more evenly distributed also have lower rates of incarceration and recidivism. Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland are among the ten countries wth the smallest gap between rich and poor. In these countries, citizens pay higher taxes and receive more social services. John Pratt, a professor of criminology and an expert on Scandinavian prisons, believes that strong welfare systems reduce povert and inequality-key drivers of criminality.
Keywords: Incarceration, prison pipeline, recidivism, sentencing inconsistencies, justice system discrimination, prison post release issues, post release options, politics and criminal justice, justice reform, the path to trial, the path to justice, access to justice, legal representation, education and criminal justice, the real costs of a flawed criminal justice system, prosecutorial abuse, parole & probation effectiveness.
Selected References:
1. PAVING THE ROAD TO RECONCILIATION, Janice I. [Thompson] Byers, PhD, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, D. Min. Thesis, March 2005. [Authors' note: this reference is one of the more comprehensive documents OF the available literature. It addresses the historical core issues leading to incarceration, , probation & parole, reentry [into the community], recidivism, retribution and deterrence. Additionally, this reference is rich in very relevant statistics and references. It is truly a 'primer' for an understanding of the end path of criminal justice!
2. Judicial System: Legal definition of the Judicial System, Dictionary/thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikopedia.
3. Before The Law, Jennifer Gonnerman, The New Yorker, October 6, 2014.
4.Get Out of Jail, Inc., Sarah Stillman, The New Yorker, June 23, 2014.
5. Helping People Is Cheaper Than Jailing Them, John Tenhula, Commentary, Providence Journal, June 16, 2014.
6. The Caging of America, Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, January 25, 2012.
7. Recidivism, Bureau of Justice: Statistics Reentry Trends in the U.S., http://www.bjs.gov/content/reentry/recidivism.cfm
8. So Rich, So Poor, Peter Edelman, The New Press, New York, 2013.
9. The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them, Joseph Stignitz, W.W. Norton & Company, April 20, 2015
10..Making R.I Justice Work better, Robert K. Pirraglia, Opinion, Providence Journal, September 22, 2015.
11. To Fight Crime, Lift the poor, Robert K. Pirraglia, My Turn Commentary, Providence Journal, May 18, 2016.
Prime Movers
Definition: There exists a spectrum of organizations, agencies and efforts that are active in the 'battle against poverty. However, rather than a loosely connected network of efforts, there exists a need for a coordinated consortium of prime movers of eliminating poverty as opposed to the costly treatment of the poverty-driven outcomes and their inequalities.
Prime movers include: national, state, local and community agencies; corporate and business sectors; the private sector; civic, societal, advocacy organizations and the social policy research arena including university, college and non-profit entities, e.g., MDRC-Building Knowledge to Improve Social Policies.. This consortium also includes social entrepreneurships, SBA initiatives, alliances and 'team-oriented' pilot projects .
Description: This spectrum of efforts addressing poverty and the excessively costly poverty-driven inequalities could form the foundation for a national clearinghouse; such an arrangement, however, requires resources of knowledge-based requirements [validated, of course], management authority and responsibility, credible and relevant assessments methodology [including meaningful metrics]. Simply put, a functional structure as those used in Figures 1 through 5.It is critically important that clientele of those living in poverty have representation within the hierarchal structure.
Keywords: Poverty characteristics, poverty-driven inequalities, poverty and inequality social policy, costs of poverty, poverty statistics, root causes of poverty, poverty programs, poverty-what works and what doesn't, education of those living in poverty, poverty and education, poverty and life expectancy,.
Selected references:
1, Poverty & Despair versus Education & Opportunity, Breaking Down the barriers and Building Bridges, Al Colella, Joseph H. Crowley, Stillwater River Publishers, 2016.
2. Social Solutions to Poverty: America's Struggle to Build A Just Society, Scott-Myers and Charles Lemert, December, 2007.
3. Social Crisis and Social Demoralization, Ronald Kuykendall, Arissa media Group, 2005.
4, The Great Divide, Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them, Joseph Stignitz, W.W. Norton & Company, April 20, 2015.
5. The High Moral and Economic Cost of Child Poverty in America, Marian Wright Edelman, Child Watch Column, Children's defense Fund, September 19, 2014.
6. The Rich and the Rest of US, A Poverty Manifesto, Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, Smiley Books, 2012.
7.. SIEPT-Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research.
8. MDRC, Building Knowledge to Improve Social Policy, About MDRC, www.mdrc.org, 2015.
Requirements
Definition: 'Requirements' is a very general term that receives a lot of attention via a www search, e.g., Google. However, much of this attention focuses upon computer system requiremments. 'Requirements' is also a critical foundation [aka 'stepping stone'] for the understanding of a particular system of interest, its design, development, test & evaluation, performance in the real-world arena, modification and continuing assessment during each and all of these phases. 'Requirements' are a derivative of a mission goal and its related performance criteria. It is an absolute necessity that 'Requirements' must be goal-driven. Should the goals be time-varying then so must the system requirements vary accordingly. This time-variance leads directly to the requirement [so often necessary] of an adaptive system, i.e., an innate ability for system reconfiguration to accomodate events and conditions not foreseen in the initial system design. This adaptive capability becomes increasingly more realizable via advances in technology and enables the development of learning, expert and intelligent systems.
Description: The world of design is abundant with a spectrum of systems, e.g., economic, business, educational, military, political, health,..., systems, that have been initiated with perceived requirements. Subsequently and quite often,as the system design and development process noted above proceeds,with its significant costs of time, budget, resources and even real-world insufficient performance, there is a transition from percerived requirements to validated and goal-oriented real requirements. Historically, there always seems to be a 'rush to judgement' to delineate perceived requirements and, then, move on quickly - albeit - prematurely into the design process. Such a 'rush to judgememt' strategy may be acceptable for systems that will have an expected short life and low cost. However, for systems that have an expected life of several years or more or a life cycle cost [LCC] that far exceeds budget availability, there is an outstanding mandate for the validation of system requirements The necessity to spend the time, resources and energy for the process of requirements validation is a sound investment. This is especially applicable to systems that address the quality of life of populations of humanity. A few factors that lead to perceived requirements are [1] the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the 'system dynamics', [2] an unawareness of the necessity to integrate the system users into the the requirements validation process and [3] an unawareness that requirements must be goal-driven and, conversely, that the system requirements hierarchy should not include functions and their requirements that have little or no linkage to the hierarchy of system goals. Collaterally, there is a duality relationahip betweeb system requirements and performance criteria which follows.
Keywords: Requirements, requirements development, validated requirements, goal-oriented requirements, requirements hierarchy, requirements modeling, requirements within a design & development process, qualitative requirements, quantitative requirements, requirements & realizability, perceived requirements, conflicting requirements. performance-requirements linkage, requirements and engineering analysis..
Selected references:
1. Systems Simulation, Methos and Applications, A.M. Colella, M.J. O'Sullivan, D. J. Carlino, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA 1974.
2., Poverty & Despair versus Education & Opportunity, Appendix A, Systems Prologue, Al Colella, Joseph H. Crowley, Stillwater River Publications, 2016.
3. Poverty & Despair versus Education & Opportunity, Appendix A References, Al Colella, Joseph H. Crowley, Stillwater River Publications, 2016.
4. Gathering System Requirements, Easily Gather & Manage Product Requirements,www.wizeline.com/Requirements Gathering.
5. SEBoK, Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge, Sebokwiki.org/wiki/systems_requirements.
Performance Criteria
Definition: Performance in the real world arena could also be called the 'bottom line'; it is not a promise, an intention nor a hope. A system - any system - is 'what it is doing' and 'how well it is doing in measurable terms in response to systems requirements. A similar accepted definition follows: 'Performance criteria' are evaluative statements, which specify what is to be assessed and the required level of performance. They [Performance Criteria] detail the activities, skills, knowledge and understanding that provide evidence of competent performance of each [system] element. Qualitative performance criteria, e.g., accuracy, speed, efficieny, effectiveness, optimal, better, best, etc., are really performance areas of interest and provide little evidence of a meaningful quantitative system performance. However, the identification, definition and relevance [wrt system goals] of qualitative performance criteria is a necessary step to the development of quantitative performance criteria for both on-line management/control/command and off-line system assessment.
Description: Referring to the functional configurations of Figures 1,2,...,5, one can see that measurement and feedback to the 'decision-making functions of authority, responsibility and accountability depends upon timely and meaningful measures of system performance; these measures are called metrics. The necessity of metrics Is addressed in Appendix B of Poverty & Despair versus Education & Opportunity. As noted previously these metrics must be relevant [wrt system goals], credible, timely, accurate and meaningful to all concerned parties: management, operatioal personnel, budgeteers and 'users' & 'clients' to be served by the system. The latter consideration is especially valid for those in the educational arena, i.e, researchers, management, administrators, teachers and, yes, the students and their families, mentors and advocates! Consider the impact of having metrics that are not goal-relevant...or...credible...or...timely...or...accurate...or...meaningful. Putting it another way: an acceptable level of system performance cannot be achieved nor sustained without a knowledge of "What's working? ", "What's not working?" and/or "What's changing within within the dynamics of a closed-loop system and/or its operational environment?" Critical analysis mandates a knowledge of each of these three considerations for a sustained and successful operation and performance achievement. The more complex the system, the more variations [often unexpected] within the system and/or its environment, the greater is the need for a metric-enabled adaptive capability.
Keywords: Performance, performane criteria, performance measures, requirements/performance linkage, qualitative performance, quantitative performance, development of performance measures, aggregation of quantitative measures, composite performance measures,
Selected references:
1. Systems Prologue, Appendix B,Poverty & Despair versus Education & Opportunity, Stillwater Publishers, 2016.
2. Measures of Effectiveness, Simulation Council, Inc./Society for Computer Simulation Publications.
3. Develop of Performance Criteria, Cunningham, G.K., Education and Psychological Measurement, MacMillan Publishing, New York, 1986.
4. Instructing and Evaluation in Higher Education: A Guideline for Planning,Learning Outcomes, McBeath, R.J., Educational Technology Publications, Englewood, NJ, 1992.
5. Performance Criteria, Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, Carnegie Mellon.