Educational Reform in America - Essay Example

?Educational Reform History of Education in America The early education offered in America was mainly religious or private. The notions of literacy and mass schooling were brought into existence much before the legal foundations of the contemporary public school system were laid. The surfacing of the public school system can in part be attributed to the diversification of culture and accordingly, the religion of the Americans as a result of the massive in-pour of immigrants from different parts of the world. As the religions of the people of America diversified, so did the needs associated with education in America. The main focus of the public school system was the establishment of a social order and the integration of the increasing number of children of the immigrant families into the setting of a common school in America. When the public schools were formed, there was mistrust among the parents. One of the articles published in The Massachusetts Teacher in the year 1852 said, “In too many instances the parents are unfit guardians of their own children … the children must be gathered up and forced into school” (Coulson, 1999, p. 79). Over the past one and a half centuries, mistrust of the parents and forced education of the children in the common schools has led to different kinds of results. In the contemporary age, although many children in America receive good education, yet the quality of education in the urban areas is not as good. In a lot of cases, population in the public schools in America is segregated between the must-have’s and have-not’s, thus developing a gap of opportunities of learning that is very wide for a lot of parents to cover. The choice of school bridges such gaps and takes the education back to its American roots which provide the parents with more power irrespective of their socioeconomic conditions, to select the best system of education for their children. Stages of Development of the American Education System According to Ornstein and Levine (1984), the American education system went through four fundamental eras to get where it stands today. They are listed and discussed as follows: The permissive era The encouraging era The compulsory era, and The freedom era The Permissive Era The permissive era ranged from 1642 to 1821. During the permissive era, public schools got permission from the government to organize their subjects according to the local voters’ approval. In the permissive era, parents were given complete authority. The Encouraging Era The encouraging era started in the year 1826 and continued till 1851. During the encouraging era, the government encouraged the development of school districts as well as increased the tax revenues in their support. Nevertheless, the government did not require the schools to be established during the encouraging era. This era is primarily marked by the authority of the parents and children did not face any compulsion to attend public schools. The Compulsory Era The compulsory era in the history of American education ranged from the year 1855 till 1980. As the name of the stage indicates, at this stage, government made the establishment of school districts obligatory and compelled taxation of the government schools. In addition, the structure and curriculum of the schools was also finalized during the compulsory era. In this era, the authority of the parents declined, and children belonging to specific age groups were obliged to go to school. In some of the states, it was illegalized for children to go to non-government schools irrespective of the parents’ affordability of the fee and other expenses. The Freedom Era The freedom era started in the year 1980 and continued till 2009. During the freedom era, there was a noticeable increase in the options of education available to children that included but were not limited to vouchers, homeschooling, scholarship tax credits, charter schools, tax credits of tuition, and deductions in education. The freedom era was marked by increased availability of a variety of options to the parents as well as increase in their authority. Comparison of K-12 Education in America with Other Countries There are sobering literacy rates of the American fourth grade students. In the 2009 Reading Test by National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), 33.33 per cent students gained “below basic” score (StudentsFirst, 2012). 49 per cent of the low performing students belong to the low-income families. Another finding that was even more alarming was that above 67 per cent of all fourth graders in the US got a “below proficient” score which indicates that they do not read at the grade level. The proficiency of reading among the high school and the middle school students in America is not any better. “On the 2009 NAEP Reading Test, about 26 percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored below the "basic" level, and only 32 percent of eighth graders and 38 percent of twelfth graders are at or above grade level” (StudentsFirst, 2012). In the contemporary marketplace, there is immense need for the students to progress in such technical subjects as science math so that they can come at par with the international scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and physicians. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted a survey in the year 2006 according to which, students aged 15 years in America got 25th position out of 30 countries in the subject of math whereas their position in science was 21st out of 30. Results of a previous survey conducted in the year 2003 were better in that Americans got 23rd position out of 29 countries in math and 19th out of 29 countries in science (Asia Society, 2012). After a detailed review of the results, Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education said, “I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we consider them to be accurate and reliable, and we have to see them as a challenge to get better. The United States came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects. We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we’re being out-educated” (Duncan cited in Dillon, 2010). The average score in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scale was 500, with 66.66 per cent of the participating students scoring from 400 to 600. In the year 2009’s math test, score of the American students was the lowest among Shanghai, Singapore, and Germany i.e. 487 whereas the score of students from Shanghai, Singapore, and Germany was 600, 562, and 513 in math respectively. The score of students from Shanghai was 556 whereas that of the Korean students was 539 and with the score of 500, the US came 17th (Dillon, 2010). The best results among the participating countries in the program were shown by China. The Shanghai students have surprised the educationalists by scoring the maximum with the debut made by China into the international standardized testing. The immaculate performance by the Chinese students has been greatly appreciated by the experts. “Wow, I’m kind of stunned, I’m thinking Sputnik. I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029” (Finn cited in Dillon, 2010). In the globalized world of the present age, the importance of international competitions and comparisons cannot be overemphasized. The American citizens no longer vie with other Americans only for jobs since their competitors belong to different countries across the globe. There is consensus between the social scientists and economists that the educational abilities of the workforce of any nation have a tremendous impact on the nation’s tendency to be strong economically. In order to excel in the contemporary age, students need to gain outstanding reading and writing skills in addition to having good understanding of science and math. This imparts the need for immediate reform in the educational system of America. “Currently, K-12 science education in the United States fails to achieve these outcomes, in part because it is not organized systematically across multiple years of school, emphasizes discrete facts with a focus on breadth over depth, and does not provide students with engaging opportunities to experience how science is actually done” (NRC, 2012, p. 1). This is beyond any doubt that American educational system has not been able to match the increasingly advancing standards of education of other countries across the globe in general, and China, Japan, the UK, and Germany in particular. Causes of Failure of the American Education System Numerous recent studies have indicated that the challenges faced out of the schools have played a huge role in the transformation of the American schools from being the best in the world to being average. Although there is an unfailing faith in the Americans regarding the schools’ ability to address the needs of the society and foster equality, yet the story narrated by the statistics is considerably different. “American students as a whole scored 17th out of 65 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), comparing similar demographics reveal startling results” (Williford, 2011). In order to improve the educational system in America, there is need to solve the problems outside the school which are the causes of such evils as distorted family system, growing street violence, and poverty in America first. Another main determinant of a child’s tendency to receive education is the education of the parents. The economic decline puts both factors into jeopardy. As a result of the increasing rate of unemployment, people are not able to afford the basic expenses of their families, let alone the expensive education. Millions of Americans cannot get higher education because of the extremely high tuition fees at the universities on one hand and stagnant incomes for the middle class. Consequently, the educational prospects of the children are also threatened. There is need to find better ways of educating the American students, but to achieve this, “further infrastructure work is badly needed, economic prosperity for all is essential to correct this slide” (Williford, 2011). Test scores are decreasing as more Americans are getting poor. Presently, the American economy is becoming more and more unstable and unequal as the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This problem can be corrected by implementing fair trade policies for the revival of the manufacturing sector so that jobs can be granted to people who actually require them. How to Improve Education in America Today Among the tremendous challenges that Mr. Barack Obama faces as the President of the US for the second time, the need of educational reform is a very important one. In America, the success of any system is gauged according to the availability of opportunities for children to chase the American Dream. A lot needs to be changed about the American education system to make the future generation well-equipped for competition in the contemporary global economy. The President of the US needs to identify the deficiencies in the current system of education and have a realistic plan through which they would be eradicated. There is a growing consensus among the people of America that the educational system that is available to them today is failing. In spite of the fact that American expenditure on education is far more than any other country’s expenditure on education practically, the return on investment thus gained is disappointingly inadequate which is evident from the fact that the scores in math and science of the American children are lower than those of the children abroad and that 25 per cent of the American students cannot graduate from the high school after four years of the commencement of the high school education (Bush, 2012). The ability of the government to meet these challenges would not only have a very positive impact on the economy of America, but also would brighten the future of America as a democratic country. “Identifying the optimal policy response to the mix of problems that plagues our public schools is complicated by the possibility that these problems might interact with each other” (Jacob and Ludwig, 2009, p. 56). For instance, certain reforms of curriculum might not be effective if they are not provided with adequate resources like the student support services. Although the educational system of America presently faces immense challenges, yet they are not intractable. The keys to successful reform of the educational system are innovation and flexibility, and the commitment of the designers of the educational system to abandon the programs that have failed in the past and embrace the ones that are innovative and flexible. This can be achieved by infusing a quality into the educational system which is America’s bedrock i.e. freedom. In order to bring a positive change in the present system of education, the families in America should be provided with abundant choice of schools, among the traditional public schools as well as the online virtual education system. Schools need to be held accountable through policies which differentiate between mediocrity, dismal failure, and success. Education of the children of America is fundamentally in the hands of the teachers. In order to help the teachers optimize on their productivity, it is imperative that they are treated like professionals rather than replaceable machine parts. Furthermore, the quality of teaching can be improved with the help of the graduates that are talented, have received education in the current setup so that they know the flaws of the contemporary education system, and have immense tendency and knowledge to eradicate the loopholes in the education system. For this, teaching as a profession should be overhauled to enhance its attractiveness and appeal for the best college graduates so that the decisions regarding evaluation and compensation are based on the classroom effectiveness rather than on the paper credentials. Several of these goals have been practiced and found effective in improving the quality of education in the past. “During my tenure as governor of Florida, we embraced each of these strategies and saw dramatic improvements in outcomes, especially for our most disadvantaged students. Gov. Romney made similar progress in Massachusetts. What we did, others can do, too. But to ease the path, we need to get the federal government out of the way” (Bush, 2012). The federal government has long used the money collected from the taxpaying Americans to nurture a system of education that has not yielded favorable outcomes. Presently, parents and the local schools are best able to educate their children. This also makes the control local which in turn makes each state play the role of a democratic laboratory that competes with other laboratories to produce the best educated Americans. Limits need to be imposed on the role of the federal government. The federal government should be primarily responsible to ensure the embracement of the fundamental traits of the expanded school choice by the states and empower the states so that they create unique ways of leading the students towards excellence. Importance of Education The lifestyle in the present age is of such a nature that there are very minimal, if any, opportunities of growth and advancement for the individuals that are not educated. Education is required in every field of life, ranging from engineering to medical sciences, and teaching to business administration. Even business entrepreneurs cannot do without being educated. Even the people who have a large amount of money granted by the parents, education is needed to manage that money and ensure that the money grows rather than depletes as a resource. The educated people can think of numerous ways to dodge a businessman who has a lot of money but is not educated. Education is needed to be eligible for employment in all fields. These days, the level of education of the candidates is one of the most fundamental factors based on which the managers decide whom to recruit for a specific post. Education is not only required to be eligible for employment in a given field; the benefits of education extend far beyond this. For example, an educated person knows how to monitor the diet in such a way that he/she consumes the optimum number of calories to remain smart whereas an uneducated person suffers because of dieting and hunger. Likewise, an educated person has the confidence to convey his/her point confidently in front of a large audience whereas an uneducated person does not have this confidence. More importantly than inculcating the knowledge related to a specific field, education makes an individual aware of the norms and values of the community in a certain setting so that he/she can behave nicely with people without being offensive. In the contemporary age when multiculturalism is spreading rapidly in the whole society, the importance of education has grown manifolds. An educated person knows which behaviors are considered as offensive by people belonging to a certain community so that he/she does not execute those behaviors whereas an uneducated person may hurt another individual without having such intentions because of his/her lack of knowledge of such norms and behaviors. Specifically, the education from Kindergarten to 12th is the most important since it is general education and inculcates the knowledge of most of the values that a student needs in order to deal with others successfully in the globalized world. Education after 12th gets specific and is more about a particular field rather than general. The strength of the economy of the US fundamentally depends upon a trained and skilled workforce. “In the United States we face two major challenges for students entering the workforce. First, a growing number of jobs require more than a high school education. Second, over the past 30 years, one country after another has surpassed us in the proportion of their entering workforce that has at least a high school diploma” (Orfield, 2010). Every day, 7,000 students leave high school in America. For those that stay in the high school and get the diploma, there is no guarantee that the skills required to be successful in the postsecondary academic career and subsequently the professional career have been inculcated in them. About 50 per cent of the college students have to take the remedial courses from the point of graduation from the high school to the point when they have to undertake the college level coursework. The lack of preparation of the college students indicates that the students spend a lot of money to take the tuition to be able to take the college level coursework. Considering this, it becomes very challenging for America to excel when the students are catching up rather than leading. Every year, above one million students in America join the colleges to undertake the bachelor’s course. Of that one million, no more than 40 per cent are actually able to earn the bachelor’s degree within four years whereas 60 per cent of the students do the degree in six years. The participation rate of the remedial courses by the minority students is even higher whereas the rates of completion are significantly lower. It is beyond any doubt that certain level of education and training is fundamental to the attainment of jobs and development of careers to have a good standard of living. To improve the quality of education in America as well as increase the tendency of the American students to acquire good grades in education, reforms are needed in the governmental policies as well as in the educational system. References: Asia Society. (2012). Are Young Americans Losing their Competitive Edge in the Global Economy? Retrieved from http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/are-young- americans-losing-their-competitive-edge-global-economy. Bush, J. (2012, May 30). How to improve our failing education system. The Miami Herald. Retrieved from http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/30/2824609/how-to-improve-our-failing-education.html#storylink=cpy. Coulson, A. J. (1999). Market Education: The Unknown History. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1999. Dillon, S. (2010, Dec. 7). Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/education/07education.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Jacob, B. A., and Ludwig, J. (2009). Improving educational outcomes for poor children. Focus. 26(2), 56-61. National Research Council of the National Academies. (2012). A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. National Academies Press. Orfield, C. (2010, Mar. 9). The Importance of World-Class K-12 Education for Our Economic Success. Retrieved from http://www.help.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=0bebd6b1-56b3-439c-9463- f7e5771cb467&groups=Ranking. Ornstein, A. C., and Levine, D. U. (1984). An Introduction to the Foundations of Education, 3rd Ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. StudentsFirst. (2012). Statistics about Education in America. Retrieved from http://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/the-stats. Williford, S. (2011, Jan. 16). American Education Scores Suffering from Economic Decline. Economy in Crisis. Retrieved from http://economyincrisis.org/content/american- education-scores-suffering-economic-decline. Read More