Englightment on Educational Reform

Pulling from School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade by Diane Ravitch, calling credit recovery a scheme was inaccurate. I graduated from a recently reformed failing high school where credit recovery was offered and saw the beneficial impact. While several students used it as an excuse to be lazy and not work hard during the semester, there was also sizeable percentage who needed and took advantage of the second chance. As such I would propose a screening method, where even before the standardized tests the child’s whole academic performance and effort was evaluated by the teacher and guidance counsellor to determine whether or not to allow them to go to summer school or night school. If it looks like the student was doing well up until a certain point then they qualify for school versus the student who slacked off all semester and wants an easy C.

As a past teenager, I think I speak for all when I say I would rather spend my summer earning money, and hanging out rather than going to summer school. Another incentive to reduce the number of students in enrolled in recovery courses is to entice them about all the money they can earn through a summer internship or even going to a conference in different city to learn about something they care about. Educators and parents need to promote such opportunities more and earlier in the semester so that students can have another reward for doing well in school.

Referring to the Obama administration, there was a large amount of competition based, reform which I found disturbing. There many states who didn’t get the funding they needed through race to the top so what happens to them? While I like the competition idea, I don’t like the idea of losers when it comes to education system because the ignor...

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... academically with good parental support and monitoring.

In conclusion, while both arguments had valid solutions and argument I am siding with Diane Ravitch because of her more clear cut and less problematic solutions, and the obama administration seemed to just be throwing money in hopeful directions. Ultimately, less politics and more parental and teacher involvement in shaping these policies is better than the politicians who will not feel the affect of them as much.

Works Cited

Ravitch, Diane. "School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade." The New York Review of Books. NY, 29 Sept. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .

"Obama Administration Record on Education." The White House. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .