When it comes to America’s
education system, Kumarshiro’s assessment is spot on. I myself wonder why there
is such a disparity of quality education across our country. How is that we can
take a brief drive and encounter both a failing school and at the complete
opposite end of the spectrum- an exceptionally well performing school? Instead
of helping out the schools that are in the most need- it’s often those schools
who those who can help, turn their backs to it and feign ignorance.
Yet these administrators and for
that matter, teachers shouldn’t be the only ones to affix blame onto—a
significant part of the blame goes to top executive leaders like the President
and Congress as well. It’s obvious to most in America that the current state of
education in America isn’t working and needs reform so why is this not an even
bigger deal in the current presidential debates that have been occurring?
Romney went so far to say that he would just eliminate the Department of
Education altogether which if anything, may even exacerbate the problem even further.
America’s school are in desperate need of fixing and reforms yet our government
continues to push for Defense funding and continue to pull and eliminate
critical funding from schools that are in desperate need of it. We have clearly
taken a turn for the worse and this is an incredible graphic from the
Huffington Post that highlights this.
I certainly don’t have all of the
answers, but I don’t think it would be a bad thing at all to model failing
schools based on successful, elite institutions. Although it would be a
significant investment upfront, in the long term this won’t be better for the
next generation of leaders but for our country as a whole. As a nation,
stimulus funding was made available to help private corporations bounce back
into fighting shape- perhaps this could be an option for bringing life back
into America’s public school system. I am no expert though as to how we could
truly finance this but I do know- we have no choice but to find a way to begin
making changes immediately. We need to invest in our nations teachers ensuring
they have the tools to be successful so in turn our children can be as well. What is clear is that spending more on students (see graph below) clearly has not helped us in improving our educational system. Countries like Finland and South Korea rank at the top for their educational systems, yet ironically invest the least ironically. 
We will be able to successfully compete
against other nations, if we take the necessary steps now and begin reforming
our schools. It’s clear that a large majority of the students who do attend
elite schools like Benet Academy and the U. of Chicago Lab schools will become
successful adults that are able to contribute to the betterment of our society.
Why not give that chance to all American students?
I find it really interesting that China has a low graduation rate (40%), a large average class size (54), and an incredibly minimal percentage of students who go on to post-secondary education (5%), yet they have top rankings in math and science. So my question is what happens to the 60% who don’t graduate high school? What happens to the 95% that don’t go to college? What kind of jobs do they have or what kind of lives are they living? And how does it happen that such a small portion of the population is getting a high school education, and an even smaller portion is getting a college degree? How does that happen? Does China adopt an even stricter tracking system where only the smallest top percent of student are allowed a substantial education?
ReplyDeleteA very edifying post Nicole. I think that your last chart, on spending per pupil, is the most illuminating. The chart represents ALL educational spending per pupil (both private and public). Given that private spending is included, its not surprising that we rank so high. I think if only public spending were included, we'd be further down in the pack.
ReplyDeleteAs for China's success in math and science, to some degree this IS a function of the tracking system. Back in the day, the USSR also consistently beat us in math and that was also because only students with aptitude in math and science were allowed to continue on to high school and to take the test...the rest went to vocational schools.