Initiatives ND Motivation Initiatives & Motivation

Alabama Statewide Initiatives

The Alabama Reading Initiative

The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) began as project of the State Board of Education and the State Department of Education. After the ARI showed promise in classrooms across the state the Alabama State Legislature allocated funding for its expansion. The ARI is a K-12 initiative. The goal of the ARI is to improve reading instruction and achieve 100% literacy among public school students. The ARI provides differentiated levels of support, including professional development, onsite support, and school coaches to over 1,000 schools. The initiative focuses on three aspects of the teaching of reading: preventing reading difficulties, identifying struggling readers and intervention strategies to help them become proficient readers, and expanding the reading power of all students (Alabama Department of Education, 2012).

The Department of Human Resources Fatherhood Initiative

The Department of Human Resources (DHR) Fatherhood Initiative is a joint effort of the DHR Family Assistance and Child Support divisions. This project was developed to further the welfare reform goal of strengthening families, enhancing child support collections, and...

DHR provides funding and technical assistance resources to the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Prevention, Children's Trust Fund (CTF) to develop and strengthen programs and services to fathers and families. The Alabama Fatherhood Initiative (AFI) is a visible statewide network of public, private, and faith-based organizations that work together to assist non-custodial fathers and mothers to support their children and to have more constructive involvement in the lives of their children (Alabama Department of Human Resources, 2012).
Motivation

Expectancy Theory

The Expectancy theory of motivation describes the process people use to evaluate the likelihood that their effort will yield the desired outcome and the degree to which they want the outcome. This theory suggests that students use three factors to determine the degree of effort to put forth. First is the individual's assessment that an effort will lead to job performance. Second is the value or reward of the outcome to the individual. Third is the individual's assessment of how likely a successful task performance will lead to a desired reward (Kurtz, 2010). This theory provides practical guidelines…