Farris-Berg, Kim. “There's No ‘I’ in Teacher Autonomy.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Jan. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-farrisberg-/theres-no-i-in-teacher-au_b_8931904.html. The article There’s No “I” in Teacher Autonomy by Kim Farris-Berg, was written to inform the reader about the problem in schools from the lack of teacher freedom which making instructional decisions regarding the students curriculum. Within the article, Farris-Berg makes several points to show the reader how collective autonomy, could be extremely beneficial to a students education. Some ways that Farris-Berg suggested to solve the problem of missing autonomy was to have teachers work together collectively to help make decisions that would be the …show more content…
The authors of the article start off by comparing the problem of wealthy house holds and low income households and how it effects the graduation rates at school and also how it effects the education received. The article talks about how a public school teacher has a curriculum that is provided by the state through funding, which gives the teacher no room to teach out of the box. While at a private school, there can be teaching done that not strictly following the curriculum which can provide a deeper learning for the student and a better chance of …show more content…
Khan brings up the point that the teachers are only teaching enough so that the student can provide answers for the test questions and that really all the students learn and study. Khan talks about how this is ineffective and also that the traditional method of lecture, take home homework and study, and then review and quiz on it is also ineffective but the students aren’t obtaining the knowledge their learning in their memory but their just forgetting about this information was the test it
Although states have increased funding for education, the community reflects their value of education. In affluent, urban communities where education is highly valued, teachers have higher salaries. Conversely, in low income areas where education is not valued, teachers’ salaries tend to be low (Debertin & Goetz, 1994, p. 3). Another difference between urban education and rural education is course offerings at the high school level. According to Debertin (1994), “Curricula in many rural schools often consist of course mandated by the state plus one or two additional offerings, such as vocational agriculture, home economics, or industrial education, designed to cater to student interests.”
Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...
Some people may believe that education all over the United States is equal. These people also believe that all students no matter their location, socioeconomic status, and race have the same access and quality of education, but ultimately they are wrong. Throughout history, there has been a huge educational disparity between the wealthy and marginalized communities. The academic essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, an American critical thinker and researcher in education, conveys that depending on the different economic backgrounds students have, they will be taught in a specific way. He reveals that the lower economic background a child has then the lower quality their education will be and the higher their economic background is the higher quality their education is. Anyon’s theory of a social ladder is extremely useful because it sheds light on the
Education is an institution that parents want to control as a way to insure/provide their children with the best education possible. Parent control/choice has slowly regressed from the colonial era where they could choose not only the school their child attended but also the textbooks used and the curriculum taught (McDonald 2001). Parents still obtain the right to choose the school that best tailors their child’s special uniqueness and educational needs, but due to social diversities and expansions parents have many factors that they now must take into consideration before choosing the best kind of school for their child (Russell 2001). Complexity, diversity, and financial status are some of the main denunciating factors many parents look into when choosing a public or private school for their child.
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
The Quality of a child’s education often either limits or opens up a world of opportunities. Those who study the purpose of public education and the way it is distributed throughout society can often identify clear correlations between social class and the type of education a student receives. It is generally known by society that wealthy families obtain the best opportunities money can buy. Education is a tool of intellectual and economical empowerment and since the quality of education is strongly influenced by social class, a smaller portion of the American population obtains the opportunities acquired from a top notch education. Many people believe that educational inequalities are perpetuated from the interests of specific classes, but some researchers like John Gatto believe that there are even stronger social forces in play. In the essay “Against Schools” the author John Gatto presents three arguments: (1) that are educational system is flawed, (2) that the American educational system is purposely designed to create a massive working class that is easy to manipulate, and (3) alternative teaching methods should be applied to teach children to think for themselves. In this essay I will be summarizing and relating each of these arguments to other educational essays. Also, I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument.
Before entering into defense of the argument, it is important to communicate that the current situation is one which demands reform. It must be understood that the state of the public school system is not simply confined to the domain of education but is instead very much interrelated with the distribution of wealth. The current opportunity gap-which affords those who are middle and upper class greater access to higher quality education-is the cause of the inequality seen in the distribution of income. “Children born into the top fifth of the income distribution have about twice as much of a chance of becoming middle class or better in their adult years as those born into the bottom fifth (Isaacs, Sawhill, & Haskins, 2008)”.
Income inequality in the United States is directly correlated with education decline over the past 40 years. People with lower incomes tend to have less opportunities for a good education than those with higher incomes. American education, when compared to other nations, has dropped dramatically due largely to a rise in income inequality since the 1970s. Not only has economic inequality lead to academic decline and disparity, but academic disparity has also tended to lead to further economic inequality. Because of this, improving the American education system can effectively decrease the income gap. If done correctly, the usage of an alternative school model, specifically the private school model, rather than the usual public school model can reduce economic inequality.
In today’s society, schools in wealthy communities are better than those in poor communities, higher income schools are simply better at preparing their students for their future. In the reading “The Banking Concept Of Education As An Instrument Of Oppression” by Paulo Freire, he believes that teachers are depositing information into their students. He states that there are two educational systems, the “banking concept” is when teachers are filling their students up with information but the students aren’t fully understanding the material. On the other hand, the “problem posing concept” is when the teacher lets the students communicate with each other. It opens the classroom to a learning environment. Especially when students are more comfortable enough to ask the teacher a question. Esentionally he prefers the problem posing concept. Futhermore, “Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum Of Work” by Jean Anyon an educator at Rutgers University, Newark. She researches how students of different economic backgrounds are interacting with school work and teacher interaction in their elementary schools. Also, she supports her research by looking at the various ways public schools provide particular types of knowledge and educational experiences of the different social classes.
Our education system allegedly provides an equal opportunity to all members of society to reach their potential. The research by Richer, particularly in elementary school, leads us to believe that this is not essentially the case. Our school system has a “hidden curriculum” that produces an inequality between the middle and lower class as well as men and woman. When a child enters a school environment they are required to adhere to a set of values proposed by the teacher and classroom environment. This school environment is competitive, teachers r...
In an education journal, Anyon (“Social”) provides the reader with the concept that there are four different types of schools, working class schools, middle-class schools, affluent professional schools, and executive elite schools, after observing five schools. The working class schools are made up of parents with blue-collar jobs, with less than a third of the fathers being skilled, and the majority of them being semiskilled or unskilled. “Approximately 15 percent of the fathers were unemployed… approximately 15 percent of the families in each school are at or below the federal ‘poverty’ level…the incomes of the majority of the families…are typical of 38.6 percent of the families in the United States” (Anyon, “Social”). In a more recent study conducted by Anyon (“What”, 69), she states that,
With their increased wealth, the rich, from 19762 to 2006, have increased their spending on enrichment activities for their children by 151 percent, compared to only 57 percent for poor families (O’Brien). This gives rich children an advantage over poor children. This gap is further extended in public education. Rich children often go to better schools that provide opportunities that children in poor schools do not receive. This is “an educational system that provides such privilege to some students, while willfully and purposefully denying it to others” (Strauss). The current education system allows rich children to succeed while it tells the poor children that “they are inadequate instead of educating them” (Strauss). Even when poor children achieve in school, they are just as likely to succeed later in life as rich children who have dropped out of school (O’Brien). This creates an atmosphere where the education provided to the poor is woefully inadequate when compared to that hoarded by the rich. This, in turn, continues to place poor children in a situation that keeps them
Having an education is also vital to an individual being able to find a career and live a wealthy life. However, not all people receive an equal opportunity when it comes to obtaining an education. One inequality that sociologist have explored with the education system is the difference in education between rural and suburban areas. According to Roscigno, Tomaskovic-Devey, and Crowley (2006), “Students living in inner city and rural areas of the United States exhibit lower educational achievement and a higher likelihood of dropping out of high school than do their suburban counterparts” (para. 1). Causes of these inequalities could be due to their local economy and the availability of resources. (Roscigno et., al 2006). Communities that thrive off a strong economy may have access to better jobs, school systems, and services. Likewise, students that attend the schools in these communities may have access to better public libraries, school resources, and extracurricular activities. As can be seen, communities can take advantage of their wealth by providing more options for increasing individuals learning
The first lady I interviewed said that the lack of control over the students and lack of supplies needed to teach was causing major issues in her community. She noted that many of the children are just passed along through the system until they eventually drop out. My second subject said he was happy with the education his children received but noted the classes are much larger for his children than what he had in his rural home town. The final subject I interviewed said that the lack of preparedness the public system has for college caused him to place his children in a private school to receive the education he felt they needed. Urban teachers described their classrooms as overcrowded and noted that in many instances there were not adequate resources available to teach the children (Goldring, 2002). Students in urban schools have a 50% chance of being taught by a certified mathematics or science teacher (Foote, 2005). Some of the teachers were under qualified to teach. Not only are urban teachers less likely to be prepared in their content areas, but these teachers also score lower on literacy skills measures on teacher certification examinations (Goldring, 2002). All of these finding combined lead to the inability to properly teach children and prepare them to pass exams (Ihlanfeldt,
Along these two weeks we have been prompt to make a recall to our own way of learning and why we became a teacher: Was it because coincidence, due to life circumstances, maybe because family tradition, was it a conscious decision or because someone influenced us? Whatever the answer is, we have to face reality and be conscious that being a teacher does not only means to teach a lesson and asses students learning. It requires playing the different roles a teacher must perform whenever is needed and required by our learners, identify our pupils needs and preferences, respecting their integrity and individuality but influencing and motivating them to improve themselves and become independent.