Do People Need to Follow Any Home Schooling Laws?

The most important point to keep in mind before beginning to home school your child is to find out various home schooling socializations and home schooling laws. This is the legal aspect of home schooling your child and it can not be neglected. Parents who have taken these laws lightly have landed in jails. Therefore it becomes very essential to realize the importance of these laws for your child’s bright and safe future. To avoid confusion of finding these laws, please consult an expert for the legal procedure of home schooling your child.Do these Home Schooling Laws differ from place to place?The laws are more or less similar every where, but there can be dissimilar feature depending upon state to state.The first step is to apply to the state’s department of education to ask for all the information you require to the degree that the requirements, rules and regulations are fulfilled when it comes to home schooling your child. Also ask for local resources that can lend a hand to you to work contained by the laws.These homeschooling laws make your child’s education quality and acknowledged. As a rule, the only way to pursue all laws put into place by a State is to get registered as a private school. On the occasion this task is completed, you are liberated to try out in the ways you have an inclination to instruct your child.What are the penalties of not following the Home Schooling Laws?Not getting registered as a private school can create problems in your way. You can be panelized heavily under the State’s homeschooling laws. These penalties may include heavy fines or legal orders to put your child’s name down in some public school. In some sever cases parents can even be sent to the jail.How can you benefit from these Homeschooling Laws?Many support groups and socialization circles are formed that support homeschooling by parents. Loads of parents discover that participating in a support group has helped to remain alive and thriving in imparting quality education to their child. It also provides companionship among many home schooling parents, and provides a standard for introducing your children to new friends. This gives children an opportunity to gain knowledge of team spirit and outgoingness. Also, this can give you guidance to go about your child’s education. This kind of home school socializing has helped the parents to learn these home schooling laws in a better manner. Also be updated with your department of education as this gives you the perfect idea of any change law or any new course structure. These homeschooling laws are not always there to create trouble for you.

Where and How Do I Get Home School Textbooks?

Home schooling is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education. Today more and more parents are choosing to pull their children out of public education and either home school them on their own or through a home school organization. It is estimated that there are roughly 3 million children currently being home schooled through out the country. While everyone’s reason for choosing to home school their children are a little different and unique parents are finding they have more control over what is taught and how progress is made towards learning.One of the big challenges if you decide to home school your child is getting enough material and textbooks. This can be a strain on the family budget and many parents will want to save money on materials and textbooks as much as possible. Yet you also want to make sure you are providing the most current materials for the child to learn from also. However because home schooling has become such a popular option for parents there are many resources that are now developing to help you get the materials needed while also saving money.This article will give a few options for finding textbooks and materials that you can use to teach and learn from.Pre-packaged CurriculumOne viable option for home school students is to purchase a textbook or curriculum that is specifically designed for home school situations. These can easily be found on the internet or from home school resource catalogues etc. The nice benefit that these pre packaged programs have is they often come with a wide variety of materials and are simple and easy to follow the program. Often you can also find other students in your local area that are studying the same units and then combine with them for field trips etc. In fact there are many wonderful home school organizations that can assist in getting textbooks and curriculum resources.Local LibrariesOften if you live in any large sized city or even in many rural areas today the city library is a great source of information for your home schooled child. The best option about using a library is the materials are free to check out and this can be a real savings in money.Home School Lending LibrariesAnother resource that is available to many who are choosing to home school their children are home school libraries. This of course will take a little bit of research on the parent’s part. However if you can get connected with a home school organization or group they will often have a library of their own. This will allow you to check out books for a much longer period of time and also get great recommendations on textbooks that are helpful.Online ResourcesThe other option today is to find resources online. There are many different sources online that enable one to quickly and easily purchase used and brand new textbooks and other resources for very inexpensive prices.Most parents end up not choosing just one option but as they educate their child they use all of the above options to easily get the resources they need. It is important to provide the necessary resources for any child that is working hard to learn. Finding the best textbooks and other resources is a vital responsibility for a home schooling parent. You will want to find high quality materials that the child is interested in.

Management By Objectives – A New Way Of Management

In 1965, George S. Odiorne completed a textbook titled, Management by Objective. The fact that the term “Management by Objective” has now become common nomenclature to company executives around the country attests to the success of Odiorne’s literary efforts.Management by Objectives (MBO) is a practical application of the reasoning behind the notion of goal-setting theory. MBO is a process in which employees participate with management in the setting of goals or objectives. An essential feature of an MBO program is that it involves a one-on-one negotiation session between a supervisor and subordinate in order to set concrete, objective goals for the employee’s performance. During the session a deadline is set for the measurement of accomplishment, and the paths to the desired goals and the removal of possible obstacles are discussed. After an established period of time has elapsed (typically six months or year), the supervisor and subordinate meet again to review the subordinate’s performance using the agreed-upon goals as a measuring stick.Odiorne’s concept of management by objective is based on an underlying premise that any system of management is better than no system at all. A secondary premise states that to be workable, any management system must bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical.Research at such organizations as Black and Decker, Wells Fargo, and General Electric has shown that, on the whole, MBO programs can succeed. Because MBO relies on the established principles of goal setting, it has great potential for improving performance. Real-world constrain however, can sometimes reduce the positive impact of a goal-setting system.The notion that management activity should be directed towards the accomplishment of pre-established goals has considerable intuitive appeal. None of the conditions are at variance with acceptable manager conduct from either a social, legal, or common sense standpoint.Odiorne’s concept of management by objective is based on an underlying premise that any system of management is better than no system at all. A secondary premise states that to be workable, any management system must bridge the gap between the theoretical and the practical. A third important premise establishes that the appraisal of managerial performance is not an activity autonomous from other activities of the firm. In other words, it regards the appraisal process as only one of several sub-systems operating within the confines of a goal-oriented management system.Before proceeding into a discussion of the basic elements of the management-by-objective system several “statements of condition” seem warranted. Each of the following statements relates to the environmental conditions with which managers are confronted and establishes the setting for later determining the practical relevance of the management-by-objective system:A. Because the economic environment within which business firms operate has changed so drastically in recent years, a whole new set of requirements has been placed on companies and their managers.B. The preliminary step in the management-by-objective system dictates that managers identify, in some manner, organizational goals designed to meet the new requirements noted in A, above.C. Immediately following the identification of company goals, management must have available to it an orderly procedure for distributing or allocating responsibilities which are directed toward achieving those goals.D. In the practical world of business management, managerial behavior must become predominant over managerial personality. Furthermore, in the final analysis, results of the behavior (measured against established goals) become the basic criteria for good performance evaluation.E. Total management staff participation in goal-setting and decision-making is recognized for its social and political value even though its impact on production levels may be negligible.F. There exist no one best system of management. Moreover, since managerial activity is dependent, to a large degree, on each manager’s view of specific goals and the total economic system, his actions must be discriminatory.In its briefest form, Odiorne’s decision making system of management by objective contains the following basic elements: (1) Establish an objective before you begin; (2) Collect and organize all of the pertinent facts; (3) Identify the problem and its causes; (4) Work out a solution and some options; (5) Screen options through some decision criteria; (6) Establish some security actions to enhance the probable success of the solution; (7) Gain acceptance of the decision; (8) Implement the decision; and (9) Measure the results. Each of the nine elements shall now be considered in more detail.A positive feature of an MBO system lies in its emphasis on establishing specific measurable goals. In fact, a goal is un-acceptable or inadmissible in an MBO system unless in is measurable You may think that this is impossible for all goals, especially those for those of top-level executives. Although it is difficult to set measurable goals at the higher levels of an organization, it is nonetheless possible. For example, one such quantifiable goal might be that an institutional will be ranked in the top ten by an annual polling of executives in the same industry. 0r the head coach of a college football team may set a goal of making the top 20 in the Associated Press’s coaches’ poll within the next five years. Some more typical goals would be to increase market share from 45 to 55 percent by the end of the next fiscal year, to increase annual production by 10 percent, or to increase profits after taxes by 3 percent. Some goals can be measured in simple yes or no fashion. For example, the goal of establishing a training program for sales personnel or completing a feasibility study by a certain date can he judged in a simple success or failure fashion when the deadline arises. Either such a project has been completed or it has not.Advocates of MBO believe that everyone in an organization could and should be involved in goal setting This includes all personnel, from the chief executive officer (who may set goals in consultation with the board of directors) to the newest member of the clean-up crew. In practice, however, middle level managers and first line supervisors are more commonly involved in such goal-setting systems.Proponents of MBO systems also believe that supervisors must play a special role in the goal-setting process. Supervisors should view themselves as coaches or counselors whose role is to aid their subordinates in goal attainment. This role of coach/counselor extends beyond merely helping to identify and remove obstacles to goal attainment (for example, using personal influence to expedite shipments from another department). It also implies that supervisor will serve as a mentor-someone to whom subordinates can go with their work-related problems and assume that they will be treated with respect and support.One major obstacle to the success of an MBO program can be lack of support from top-level executives. If key people in the organization, especially the president and vice presidents, do not fully endorse MBO, their lack of support will likely he felt and responded to at lower levels. The net effect will be a decided lack of enthusiasm for the program.Problems may also arise if managers are not interested in having subordinate to participate in the goal-setting process. Some managers prefer to retain an evaluative and superior posture and are uncomfortable with the notion of being a coach or counselor to their subordinates.Personality conflicts between superiors and subordinates are another potential problem for goal-setting systems, as is competitiveness. A superior who feels threatened by talented subordinates may do little to help them be more successful and, consequently, more visible, In addition, subordinates may hesitate to set challenging goals for fear of failure and its consequences.MBO systems also tend to emphasize the quantifiable aspects of performance while ignoring the more qualitative aspects. This is an understandable tendency, since participants in MBO systems are encouraged to focus on such dimensions of performance.Qualitative aspects of performance, which are often more difficult to identify and measure, are likely to be overlooked or de-emphasized. For example, how can the quality of service that an organization provides or an organization’s image in the local community be defined and measured? Because the success of an MBO system rests heavily on the quality of the relationship between supervisor and subordinates, the degree of trust and supportiveness that exists in a work unit is a central concern.For an MBO system to be highly successful, these elements are critical prerequisites, The absence of trust and supportiveness severely restricts the system’s effectiveness. Despite these many potential obstacles, the track record of MB0 has been fairly good, In a recent review of the research literature devoted to MBO, Robert Rodgers and John E. Hunter examined 70 reports that included quantitative evaluations of MBO programs. Their findings showed productive gains in 65 of 70 evaluation studies. The average productivity increase was 47 percent, while cost data showed an average savings of 26 percent. Employee attendance was also shown to improve by 24 percent. Follow-up surveys of the level of top-management support for the programs revealed that productivity increased by 57 percent when top-management commitment was high, 33 percent when commitment was average, and only 6 percent when commitment was low.MBO has passed through several phases since its introduction in the l95Os. Initially, MBO was greeted with much enthusiasm by managers and management scholars, During the late 1960s and early 1970s, MBO appeared, so be “sweeping the nation.” Presently, MBO is viewed more objectively by scholars and practitioners as a tool that can be most effective under specific favorable conditions. It is now becoming passé even to invoke the initials MBO. In fact, the principles and philosophies of MBO have become so emotion-laden in the minds of managers than an organization will often introduce an MBO system under a different label. For example, an organization may establish a program called START (an acronym for Set Targets and Review Them) or GAP (Goal Acceptance Program). The mechanics of such programs are likely to borrow heavily, if not totally, from the MBO approach. In short, the trend is toward putting old wine into new bottles, with recognition that mutual goal setting is not a panacea for all organizational problems under all possible circumstances.This theory is helping in several ways.

Its capability for multiple management levels to set, assign, approve, comment, modify, deny or just view MBO metrics and scores.
Its collaboration of performance metric settings between employees and managers.
Its visibility of MBO status progressing through workflow steps.
It configurable workflows to conform to internal business rules and processes.
It automatically estimates bonus payouts based on objective scores.
It is a simplified process to approve scores and manage updates.

B2B Content Marketing – It Takes A Village

This year Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs published their 7th B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America study. While there are many studies that are published every year, this is one that I truly analyze and review as it is full of insights and shows a very clear picture of where B2B marketers are on their path to maturity.The study was a bit different this year with some new questions and sections, but overall, comparing this year to previous studies provides insight into how B2B marketing organizations are succeeding and in many cases, continuing to be challenged with the discipline of content marketing.It Takes a Village-It was surprising to me to see that 55% of organizations have small teams (some only one person) that are responsible for serving the entire organization with content. Less than 40% of those surveyed said they have a dedicated organization and/or people throughout the organization.Good content that engages buyers and aligns to the buyers purchase process is not easy to create. It takes time to understand your buyer, their pain points and challenges and their buyers journey. According to CEB, in a typical B2B buying cycle there are on average 6.8 people involved in the buyers committee all of whom want specific content that is relevant to their role.With this being the case, how is it expected that only a handful or only one person will be able to create compelling content? In order for content to be done properly and produce value, there must be a team dedicated to it.Measurement Must Be a Priority-When asked, “Is it clear what an effective or successful content marketing program looks like?” only 41% responded yes. The other with 59% responded with an unsure or a no. While this may be while only 28% are mature or sophisticated, the need for measurement has never been more apparent.According to the study the following are true:

29% of a B2B marketing budget is spent on content marketing

39% of organizations will increase their content marketing spend

45% will spend the same amount next year as they did this year

That is quite an investment to make without an understanding of the results. While producing relevant and engaging content is crucial, it is just as, if not more important to know the impact these investments are making on an organization.The Metrics Do Not Align to Goals-Respondents to the study listed lead generation as the number one goal for their marketing efforts. Yet when asked “Which metrics does your organization use to determine how well its content marketing is producing results?” only 57% stated they were measuring sales lead quality.If the goal of content is to generate demand, simply measuring web traffic (78% do as the leading metric) will not give any indication on success or failure. If B2B marketers are going to improve on measuring value, they must measure that which aligns to their goals.

How would you characterize the success of your organizations current overall content marketing approach? 22% stating very or extremely successful and 53% stating moderately successful (I am not sure the goal of organizations is to be marginal)

How does the success of your organizations current overall content marketing approach compare with one year ago? 62% saying either somewhat more or much more successful

There is Improvement, But Still a Long Way To GoWhile 72% of organizations reported more effectiveness with their content (with web visits are the leading metric this is questionable), the telling statistics that tell the true story of how organizations are faring with content marketing were the following:

Only 37% of B2B organizations have a documented content strategy (sorry but if you say you have one but it is documented, YOU DO NOT HAVE A STRATEGY!!)

Only 22% say their organizations approach to content marketing is very or extremely successful

Only 28% of respondents stated their organizations are either sophisticated or mature with content marketing

Only 34% state their organizations are extremely or very effective at meeting their content marketing goals

With all of the attention given, money invested and time spent on content, one would think we would be much further along. What is more perplexing with these low numbers is that 63% of respondents stated that their organizations were either extremely or very committed to content marketing.I believe it is time (I have said this many times before) for marketing leaders to truly take a look at this commitment to content and rather than invest in more content production, invest in understanding buyers at a deeper level so that their content can be better informed. Simultaneously, invest in better enabling and equipping content marketers with the needed skills so they can perform their roles at the highest levels.Content marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon and is necessary to engage, nurture and convert buyers and build customer relationships, but year over year the numbers either stay flat or decline indicating we have a problem. Hopefully 2017 (I said this about 2016) is the year marketing leaders take the time to address it.

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