English Paper #2…
17 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
Why Our National Public Education System is Failing
A hundred years ago an American education was highly valued, and seen as a particular decoration on one’s resume. Today our universities are still among some of the most prestigious worldwide, but the quality of our elementary and secondary schools has reached abysmal lows on the international spectrum. Recent studies by education researchers indicate that American students are testing well below the top ten in all subjects, and below the top twenty in a few (http://nces.ed.gov, Digest of Education Statistics, OECD). What has gone wrong with our education system?
Brian Crosby suggests that the problem is that “today’s education system is yesterday’s education system.” (Crosby, xiv) While the countries around us have modified their education systems to follow our rapidly advancing civilization, the American public education system has remained virtually the same since its inception. The International Review of Education included this thought in a recent periodical:
Considerable data have emerged in the last 25 years suggesting that US students lag academically behind their counterparts in other industrialized countries. Like many Americans living in the US, the international community might also be wondering how and why the nation whose universities and research institutions are the world’s finest, cannot provide its elementary and secondary students with a sound academic preparation. (IRE Vol. 54, No 1, Jan 2008)
Other people are concerned by the school system as well. Every election, whether local or on a national scale centers around politicians who promise that they can and will change the education system for the better. Attempts have been made. Notably, former President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” and President Clinton’s 1994 reauthorization of the “Elementary and Secondary Education Act”. In 2009 about 153 billion dollars were poured into the education system (www.febp.newamerica.net), and that number was not significantly different from past years. Even with these funds going into the school system, the results continue to be substandard, and even regress a little over the years. Testing data that has been collected and analyzed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement have assessed American students as “performing very poorly in comparison to most other countries.” (McAdams, 10)
Where we once were among the leading nations in education, we are now not even average, as our students place well beneath the top ten in key areas such as science, mathematics, and reading.
We report to the American people that while we can take justifiable pride in what our schools and colleges have historically accomplished and contributed to the United States and the well-being of its people, the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur–others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments. (A Nation at Risk)
So far as I can see, however, our attempts to improve the system have not seriously involved drawing a comparison between the educational systems of countries who we must consider peers in the field. What makes our education system different from the education of the countries in Western Europe who routinely score higher?
One reason that I see is how their entire school system more closely models a vocational school and begins early on to prepare students for a field of work. The first five years of education take place in a primary school. The fifth grade through the ninth or tenth grade, depending on the country, will involve students actively choosing a profession and beginning to take classes preparing them for that career. At the ninth or tenth grade level, students and their parents must decide whether they will join an apprentice program while taking remaining compulsory classes, or attend one of two more options: A high school that will specifically lead to technical or business school, or the much more academically rigorous program that will conclude at the 12th or 13th grade with acceptance to a university.
Our education system is very different on many levels. Children are certainly not encouraged to pick a profession so young—in some cases, it is advised that a decision not be made until after the first few years in college. If they were encouraged to come to a decision, it would do little good because the system is still tailored to provide nothing but the most general, limited background necessary to “complete” a high-school education. This is not to say that nobody does well in this program. Plenty of students are still accepted to colleges and universities each year. But plenty of students will never further their education because the entire effect of school was demoralizing, and they aren’t prepared for the more rigorous studies of higher education.
In the small town where I grew up, we heard of people who graduated from our high school and were still unable to read, write, or do math. These people were not mentally handicapped. It is simply evidence of a system that does not work. Is there any possibility that they were accepted to a college or university? Very, very little, I think. In that situation they will either get a low-end job and probably work for minimum wage for the rest of their lives, or they will join the growing numbers of unemployment. This instance is not specific to my little town in the middle of Kentucky. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 12% of adults in Kentucky are without basic literacy skills, but 19% of adults in the District of Columbia are illiterate. (National Assessment of Adult Literacy 2003)
Some people might argue, “This is America, land of opportunity! If they want to drop-out of high school, and skip college altogether so they can flip burgers for the rest of their lives, it’s their choice.” And yes, the choice to attend college or not is a personal decision, and should be, but literacy is essential in today’s society.
There is the undeniable fact that some people are not of a personality that benefits from college. There is nothing criminal about that inclination, but it’s a tough line to draw if we say that people who don’t attend college don’t even deserve the opportunity to have a decent job. Wouldn’t it be better to have a trade or vocational school option readily available during high school for kids who don’t think they’ll go through college for any reason?
Yes, there are trade and vocational schools in the United States, but they are so far outnumbered by traditional high schools and colleges, that we can’t honestly say we have tried this option. The past years have shown us the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression, but maybe the economy would be better boosted by a larger number of skilled trade workers than burger-flippers.
Also in European countries, the academic program is much more rigorous. In talking with foreign exchange students, I have noticed that they are amazed by how easy the work is in American schools.
Academically powerful countries like Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore demand more coursework from their students and expect them to work hard to master the material. They spend more time in class and more time doing homework. (International Review of Education. Vol. 54, No. 1, Jan. 2008)
Through the past century we have slowly been relaxing our standards. Other countries maintain a strict level of rigorous coursework, and the students are expected to spend more time learning it, and keeping up with the homework. Diane Ravitch and Antonia Cortese suggest that, “We are the only industrialized nation that considers the mastery of basic skills to be the goal of K-12 education.” (Why We’re Behind, 2) And we aren’t even doing a good job with the basic mastery of basic skills!
People may ask what the disadvantages to the international education systems are, and with good reason because every system has its failings. However, I was not able to find any articles or books discussing possible disadvantages. At this point, I believe that to be because the American system is at a level so far below our peers, that we are focusing more on trying to diagnose the problems of our education system, and rightly so, than picking apart other systems in the world.
In conclusion, it is obvious to me that the decline of academic achievement is related to our inefficient education system, and the lack of significant change in the education system over the centuries. The problems cannot be blamed entirely on the educators, or entirely on the students. Both parties are responsible, and it will take both parties cooperating to turn the education system around.
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