Small and Effective Fixes for a Broken Education System
In my quest to find a school for my kids, I was disappointed by what my options were. Being that my kids and I are a low-income family we also have limited housing options, were there are the better schools. I decided to give the local area schools the benefit of the doubt and enroll my two kids, Mikkayla and Pharoah. Over the school years I made notes on the things that I saw and learned about the schools and my neighborhood. My goals are to establish ways to improve the school system and help bring about change in the school’s neighborhood.
To successfully communicate my findings and goals, I have divided my paper into three sections, with two sections having a sub-section. The first section will explain the Oklahoma City Public School grading system. I will also take two schools and explain some factors that contribute to the grades each school received. My second part will lay out the research about ways to help improve our education system. The sub-section would be on ways to fund such improvements. I will then close out my paper with my proposal on getting more parental involvement in the schools. The sub-section would be on ways to get the school’s neighborhood more involved. Before I can explain my research, I will start off with going over the experience that I had with each of my two children’s schools and what piqued my interest in picking this topic to research.
My children are Mikkayla and Pharoah. Both started their schooling with Headstart. This program is offered to low-income families and funded by the state. Both Mikkayla and Pharoah benefited greatly from this program. There were smaller class sizes and the teachers were able to teach and the children...
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...y should still be involved in the school system.
Community involvement as a key factor. Our community is where we live, work, and play. Improving our community and helping each other is just as important. Putting money into the community and sponsoring events to bring the community together is key. When everyone feels welcomed they are more likely to care more and become more involved.
Community organizations can be formed to help with the effort.
I have found that we have to take the time and care for our children. They are who will take care of the us. Parents becoming more involved in their children’s lives, communities working together with schools, better technology, a better mix of instructional material and legislation that stops the cutting of educational funds are key ways to aid in the support that our children need to succeed in school.
...it, set higher aspirations, have better attendance, come to class more prepared to learn, and have fewer behavior problems” (Robbins and Alvy, 2009, p.178). These achievable improvements should be priority for school districts.
Students who go to school in urban schools are not given the same opportunities as a child their age in a suburban area school. Students who go to school in urban schools are put at a disadvantage compared to students who go to school in suburban areas. As a pre-service teacher it is my responsibility to work toward fixing this injustice and inform my surrounding community. As we look into this injustice we see how there are many solutions to this problem and that the government and people need to educated about this issue. There are some who are against changing or do not feel it is necessary to fight the educational system even though their children might be impacted. Through my research I found information supporting my viewpoint of helping to improve our educational system in the United States, but I was unable to find research or a scholarly article that agrees with the current educational program.
As is common in the school systems, more prolific neighborhoods can use sources not available to another school in a poor neighborhood. There is a common thread in education that the students with access to more options, consistent teachers and environments perform better. This is revealed in HST to an excessive degree. In 2002 the No Child Left Behind was enacted. This act was fuel in the fires of HST, and ironically was meant to rectify the problem of poverty dictating education. “The NCLB (2002) places a significant emphasis on increasing academic achievement for all students, regardless of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status (SES), limited English proficiency, or students with disabilities on the local, state, and federal levels.” (Domond) NCLB (2002) was meant to challenge schools to address the gaps in the socioeconomically affected areas. Nonetheless, HST has exacerbated those gaps and penalized the schools in the geographical locations that have a higher poverty
For the past several years the McComb School District has achieved incremental progress in improving measurable student academic achievement. Too many of McComb School District’s students are not appropriately served by our current outdated education system. Based upon the
All schools and children must held to the same high academic standards and outcomes, but the means to that end must often fit the necessary
Both Marzano and Schmoker provide practical, research-based techniques to improve schools. They describe programs that a school could use directly to improve current programs. This course helped convince me that simple changes would really help students learn. It was my opinion that a major overhaul of the system was the only way to improve our educational system. What I became convinced of by reading these authors is that we don’t need to change the whole system; we just need to make sure teachers are doing their jobs. Teachers must meet already existing standards set up by the state. The teaching techniques needed for improvement are already well researched and available to all teachers.
In America, the idea of equality between people is important, it is in fact, written into the Constitution. However, for years the American educational system has operated in a completely inequitable manner due, in part, to the way that schools are funded, mostly through local or property taxes. The differences between schools in wealthy neighborhoods and those in poor neighborhoods are, many times, reminiscent of the differences between white schools and black schools before the end of segregation. While there is a desperate need to fix this broken system, there has been little progress. The issue is so divisive and the problem so big and entrenched in American laws, many politicians refuse to even attempt to come up with a solution. The answer lies with the federal government. To make American public schools equitable the federal government needs to step up its role in funding and administering the schools.
It acquires great measures to fix issues, but it’s also important to acknowledge the social causes. For instance, a significant cause is related to social class and the the distinct separation between various racial/ethnic groups. Also, the government and the local districts have great responsibilities in operating communities, both in the suburban area and urban area. Lastly, the public itself seem to have impactful roles in the community. This includes representatives that informs the state of what is undergoing in the society. While many children lack the improvement they deserve in quality schools, they also grow into unchanging and neglected
36). The school leadership team reviewed the Continuous School Improvement Plan to assess the needs of the school and student achievement. Data from state assessments, school incident reports, and other local data was used to suggest strategies, professional development, and budget requirements for school improvement. The findings were shared with stakeholders. The system has determined through the SWOT analysis, the development and implementation of a strategic plan to improve the school organization. This plan will allow the school to use limited resources with input from stakeholders. Also, the plan will provide opportunities for input in the areas of parent engagement, improved and increased communications. Recognizing the strengths and weaknesses, and adding opportunities and threats into actions through the planning process will make this school a quality educational organization in our community and
Funding is one way that affects the quality of the education system. Schools that enroll students that is from high-income communities supplement more funding for each student than low-income community schools. This means that wealthier children experience education with adequate teachers, with efficient and effective educational literatur...
The study looked at 43 children, 18 boys and 25 girls, from a variety of backgrounds; socially, ethnically, and economically. The school was located in middle class-upper middle class neighborhood and serves neighborhood children as well as children bussed in from transient housing.
The article, Organizing Schools for Improvement, discussed five essential roles to advance school improvements. In this essay, I will aim to demonstrate why these five essential support systems are needed and I will also give reasons what issues and challenges could arise while trying to integrate all five factors.
Implementation of Comprehensive School Reform and Its Impact on Increases in Student Achievement. Journal Of Education For Students Placed At Risk, 11(3/4), 309-329. doi:10.1207/s10824669espr110304_6
Education is a very important aspect of the lives of all people all over the world. What we learn, not just in the classroom, shapes who we are. We take our education everywhere we go. We use it when talking to our buddies about sports or music, we use it while solving a math problem, we use our education while debating with our family whether or not we should watch TV or go to the movies. Our education is the foundation of who we are, since every decision we make and every thought we think is dependent on what we know. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone craved learning to such a degree that at lunch tables all over the world the topic of conversation isn't who likes who, or how drunk someone got over the weekend, but it would be what books were read over the weekend, and what new ideas were thought of. This crave for learning would be an ideal but still suggests need for improvement with the current educational system. It seems that the problem with education is that somewhere along the lines the human race forgot (assuming they, at one point, understood how valuable information is) that learning is not just a mandatory process, but also an opportunity to transcend and open the gateway to a better understanding.
When I interviewed the Kindergarten teacher she was very eager to share all of the partnerships that her school is participating in. She stated that the biggest challenge facing schools today is the increasing class size, poverty, and cuts in funding. As a result, “sage funding” was put into place to help with smaller classes, but is now being cut from the La Crosse School District. In regards to poverty, she says that schools can help get families in touch with community organizations that can provide them with some of their needs.