We Need School Reforms - Essay Example

We Need School Reforms Of late, there has been a very active role of education in the overall growth and expansion of a country. History has been witness that those nations who did not recognize the significance of education were quite often doomed than anything else as well as education has since then played a very pivotal role in the success of the developed states. A flourishing country like America faces many challenges regarding its education impartment. To list a few of the American challenges one might take account of the rationale behind bettering as well as achieving the educational opportunities and to find particular methods to deal with such problems and educational dilemmas for American children. Also to find the answers as well as quick remedies to these problems one cannot by any measure of the word ignore or for that matter give up on the notion that says the dialogue of reforming of schools as an alternative, new ways of education, the reorganization and streamlining of American schools as well as the recommendations to improve might just be the only response to these very problems. To start with, in this paper, issues like the weak curriculum prevalent in schools and colleges of the time as well as the poor standards in these schools and universities have been identified, and recommendations have also been brought up in order to do away with these very problems. Apart from this, a general sense of need has been attached to put emphasis on what is right and what must be done in order to bring about a change in the mannerisms of the people, their thinking in general and their acts that should go along nicely and in accordance with what they perceive, judge and thus follow suit. Also the problems as well as mistakes that have happened of late regarding the distribution of funds on the part of the government for these schools have been pretty much addressed and recommendations have thus been made so that these funding are distributed in an equal manner and within the states accordingly. The common people ask the stance of the American ruling elite on this issue. The federal government needs to take this topic in a more serious tone and manner as well as lend a hand to these very states on a much greater and bigger level than it is doing at the very moment. However, it is a very sad fact that even in the present times, when the world has entered the 21st century, a first world country like that of America, which is supposed to be a role model for the rest of the world has been on the receiving end of facing problems of poor standards in their schools like goals, expectations and not to forget the requirements too. There is a great disagreement and inconsistencies can be seen left, right and center on people’s standards when one compares that with the school’s standards. People set high standards that are pretty much not in line and quite hard and from time to time moderately without a solution to achieve by students as well as their teachers, whereas on the other hand some schools do not even match these standards and pass kids who are not able to read properly or who have poor educational skills as a matter of fact. Thus the present state in which American educational system is, it needs some outside help that can pretty much turn its fate around and take it to new levels of education, awareness and success that are so very in line with each other. In order to have high academic standards on the part of the educational schools, universities and different technical institutes, there needs to be a level of achieving high performance in public education systems and the like on a consistent basis and not one that does well for them once and then abandons the same for a long hiatus. This system needs to be changed for the better essentially. (Vergari, 2003) One must not forget here that instructors and teachers can bring about a revolution by what they can achieve if all of them unite in this mission and do their best at doing what in the present times seems improbable. These teachers and lecturers can play an essential role and need to come on a single platform so that they are all together in order to achieve a common goal and that is the improved quality of education within the lengths and breadths of the whole country. Good communication between school, school boards and school administration is also of significance so that the teachers can be heard and listened to. Also, as a core requirement on the part of the schools, they should only hire extremely qualified and capable teachers. Students are more often than not brought in to a weak curriculum, most of the times they end up taking nonacademic courses than academic ones. School days are very short and because of poor standard in teaching students lack the opportunity to learn material in efficient ways. Some of the recommendations to make the system more efficient are to increase the number of days in school year, students should be allowed to take special courses and they should not be restricted to stay in general educational programs only. To make the curriculum strong it ought to include the maximum number of required academic courses. The requirements have to be very content and full of substance for the students. There has to be tougher disciple and smaller classes in order to eliminate the problem. Policies and programs should be controlled and counselors need to have control over curriculum and how the teaching process actually takes place. Supplementary recommendations to improve education consist of strong leadership by the principals of school. Along with the teacher’s adeptness in the area of teaching, there has to be staff agreement and accord at all levels, without any discrimination. To encourage and stimulate teachers toward these changes, their school life style has to be upgraded too. Teachers should have their own office their own phones and better working conditions and attractive salaries. State should get greatly involved in the public education as well. (Labaree, 1992) Graduation requirements for students should be set by the state, and local districts should also have the ability to control schools. Local counselors should be given more authority and they should be authorized to hire or fire principals. Parents with low incomes who are unable to give their children basic school education should be assisted financially, and children should have more freedom to communicate and interact with teachers. Groups in the school should be more flexible depending on the student’s abilities. The same teachers should stay with a group of students for two or three years so they have a better chance to learn the weaknesses and strengths of the students, and it is easy for them to help the students along the way. Middle schools should be in the separate buildings. Efficient high schools should be encouraged and assisted in their efforts whereas the ones who are doing poor as far as standards are concerned should be shutdown. All the mentioned recommendations of high standards, comes the high prices. Financial issues cannot be ignored in the real world. All these reforms and the implementations of new ways of educations are possible if the financial obstacles are taken care of. One way to provide high quality of education is that federal government should get more involve with the current schooling system. Parents in general public can play their part and instead of criticizing the present system, they should elect the candidates in the government who give higher priority for the education and reserve more funds for the improvement and reforming of the school systems. Bibliography Labaree, David F. Doing Good, doing Science: The Holmes Group Reports and The Rhetorics of Educational Reform, 1992 Vergari, Sandra. Children as Pawns: The Politics of Educational Reform, 2003 Word Count: 1,307 Read More