The American education system is like a failing government, and almost every president has realized this. Sadly, many Americans don’t realize how far this educational “government” is in the toilet. In the last twenty years, America has gone from being #1 in high school education to a place where only 25% its of high school graduates are ready to go to college (11 Facts About Education in America). What happened? Our country lost the hunger for knowledge and value for education that it once had. To resolve this, our educational system needs to become a trichotomy where students are the presidents, the teachers and principals are Congress, and parents judge the system’s productivity.
Just like a president controls their country, students should be at the head of our educational system. Like a president, in order for a student to do anything, they must be taught how to do their job, or in this case, how to learn. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) intend to do this. The plan integrates and overlaps the curriculum of social studies and science with early literacy skills (Hirsch). Also, with Common Core, teachers will no longer be able to spoon feed their students information. Removing this will allow the students to learn for themselves In Finland they also teach their children this skill from an early age by encouraging early literacy (D'Orio). However, Finland has been using their system for much longer, and are now second in education to Japan. Common Core could put America in the number one spot. f The idea that our students are competing with Finland proves a major difference between the American education today, and what it was twenty years ago when America was #1: education, back then was very local, whil...
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...e how much better the country will be when every student is motivated, and so are their parents and teachers. Come on, America, let’s get motivated.
Works Cited
11 Facts About Education in America. 18 November 2013 .
Canada, Geoffrey. Should Teachers Have Tenure?
Coyle, Daniel. "Avoiding the Helpfulness Trap: Why Parents Shouldn't Help their Kids Too Much." (2013).
D'Orio, Wayne. "Finland is #1." Scholastic Magazine 2.
Gurian, Anita PhD. "Involved parents: The hidden resource in their children's education." NYU Lagone 20 November 2013.
Hirsch, E.D. "Why I'm for the Common Core: Teacher Bashing and Common Core Bashing are Both Uncalled for." The Huffington Post 27 August 2013.
Rosemond, John. "Demanding (mean) teachers produce most resilient students." Roanoke Times 21 October 2013.
America has not changed it’s educational system in over two hundred years. For this reason, our students and population are falling further and further behind. Our society has done nothing but move forward, so why hasn’t our learning? Everybody has a story, opinion, or response to education. We need to invest in refining our tools to succeed, to create a better sense of self, and a stronger, more well-rounded nation. The American educational system is hurting students by passing them without merit and relying on standardized tests; however, many are now running back to these hollowed halls to ensure better futures.
Forty-two states have adopted Common Core State Standards. These standards were created to focus only on English and Mathematics. In effect of states adopting Common Core Standards, all other subjects taught in school seemed less important. History and Science standards are no longer stressed. Students are limited to being proficient in only two subjects. The Common Core deprives students’ ability to be skilled in multiple areas. These standards do not provide a slight “break” from the challenging fast past teaching of English and Mathematics. In addition to limiting education to English and Mathematics, Jill Bowden explains that the Common Core is affecting kindergarteners by taking “away from materials that encourage playful learning.” (36).
The common core requires higher standards, standards that are supposed to provide children with a deeper understanding of ...
One of the main issues with Common Core was how it was and still is being taught. The actual intent is now blurry because every teacher teaches differently and has interpreted it in their own way. This applies especially to those teachers who dislike Common Core and find it unnecessary to try and fit their given standards. Common Core itself has created more standardized tests than our education system has ever provided over the course of a school year (“Psych Today”). The problem with standardized tests is that there is no room for complex thought, can’t account for non-verbal learning, and unable to avoid cultural bias. (“Preparing America’s Students for Success”) Along with the increase of standardized tests, the weight of them towards a student’s education has increased as well. This has created an outburst from the students who are currently going through this newly developed curriculum. Students believe that having a standardized test account for how ready they are for college simply isn’t fair. The most common way that teachers seem to prepare their students for these standardized tests is by repetition which is a form of memorization. They have them take multiple practice tests in order to “prepare” them for what to expect during a test. This is ironic because Common Core was designed to abandon the old emphasis on memorization and
The first step in discovering what hides behind the curtain of Common Core is judging its foundations. It its most primitive form, the ideology of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) began as the Elementary and Second Education Act in 1965, which minimally increased the amount of financial support from the federal government which would be allowed in the public school system. The next major step for this government-endorsed education arrived more controversially in 2002, and was renamed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The NCLB raised concerns from individuals of all sides of the political spectrum, as the act enabled even greater federal intervention in the developing of policies in local education establishments. Additionally, the NCLB mandated nationwide testing, that, while states were allowed to develop their own tests so long as they aligned with the NCLB standards, had to be reported in order to determine if any
In “Parents Behaving Badly” by Nancy Gibb (Time, 2005,135,40-49), the author examines how well meaning parents can hinder the educational process by doing things that perhaps are well intentioned, but are quite possibly not for the greater good.
Common Core is a controversial issue concerning many different kinds of people. Teachers are concerned because they feel like the new standards implemented restrict their abilities to create a lesson that fits their specific student’s needs. Students are concerned because of the increased amount of testing associated with Common Core. Parents are concerned because they have no say in what their children learn. Lastly, the government is concerned because of the state our country is in education wise and how far behind we are falling.
(2014) exclaimed that why do 62 percent of parents think the Common Core is not perfect for their kids, despite it has fascinated some entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and the secretary of education. In a case in point, parents should get more involved in the education of their children if they do not approve of measures being used. She agrees to the idea of a federal government using incentives to adopt their specific education program, but then again she only sees that parents complaining and not taking action. In another context, “parents have no choice about whether their kids will learn Common Core, no matter what school they put them in, if they want them to go to college, because the SAT and ACT are being redesigned to fit the new national program for education”. (Pullmann, J. 2014, September 24, p. 1). In fact, Porter (1989) states that the Common Core standards became as opposing to teachers and teaching occupation, and the tactics are not good strong enough for enabling teachers to be dependent. The teacher is often understood to be the planned without rules. Moreover, some voices against the criticism of the common core, they believe that it is meaningless because districts are still permitted to select which material goes out with stem the basis stated by the Common Core
...xist, they are being transformed to apply to the current, postmodern world and are opening up to cross-cultural and international examination. In addition, as education in the United States is sub-par compared to other countries, the government is attempting to direct the field in a competitive direction. Unfortunately, the United States, in an attempt to align the education system in this country with systems in other, higher performing countries, created the Common Core State Standards. This development, while sound in theory, is failing in practice and education is heading towards being based in competition, rather than being based in what it ought to be, that is knowledge. Instead of attempting to compete with other nations, the United States needs to focus on the problems inherent in its systems and the affects of those problems on the students of this country.
“My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core! “(Louis CK (@louisck) April 28 2014). Math for example has change dramatically. On average a 9-year-old is learning fractions or equations instead of making sure they know their multiplication. The testing itself, however, sets standards that are very unrealistic and honestly impossible to reach. The test throws misleading and unanswerable questions at students in efforts of raising expectations for them and their own expectations for themselves, but instead throws these students into a world they have no knowledge of because they were not given any support to help them understand what they are seeing on this examination. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-michelle-johnson/the-core-problem-a-colleg_b_6607636.html). Some parents understand that Common Core is a working progress and they have noticed a difference in their child’s work. To parents, the Common Core is indistinguishable from the curriculum and instruction that teaches their kids every day. In addition, more than a few parents are seeing is confusing curriculum, too much time spent on test prep, and too many days spent toiling on assessments. This goes back test scores many students can either do well or fail. That teacher say that no student is common and not every student was on the same grade level at
Our nation’s forty-third president, George W. Bush, entered the oval office with a monumental vision of education reform. Through countless speeches and impressive promises, Bush sought to improve the academic performance of America’s elementary and secondary schools while, at the same time, ensuring that no child is trapped in a failing school. This tremendous feat later became known as the “cornerstone of his presidential administration”, becoming a main focus during his campaign. Bush recognized that the country’s neediest children were being neglected academically and spent large amounts of money trying to correct the issue. Although well intended, the No Child Left Behind Act did more harm than good for the American students of the twenty-first
Parental involvement has emerged as one of the most important topics in education. The stability of the American family has declined recently, which sparks the interest of what degree parents are involved (or uninvolved) in their children’s education (Jeynes 202). Educators and parents view parental involvement quite differently. Educators see it as helping at school and at home. Examples of this include parent’s attendance at PTO/PTA meetings and assisting children with their homework at home. Although this is the expectation, most parents do not agree, many see parent involvement as getting their children to school on time (if that) and solving issues at home that involve
Gun control, abortion, unemployment, climate change, discrimination, and inequality fill the newsreels every day in our country. Capitol Hill is teeming with debates over issues that hold great significance to the current generation. Many of these topics and ones to come will never be agreed upon by all sides as having a fair situation. In contrast, I believe the improvement of the education system is the most important social issue that can be resolved and then used to improve so many other problems in our society through aspects such as merit pay, Common Core, and increased vocational opportunities for all students
To conclude, my research shows a clear link between parental involvement and children performing better in school. Children who's parents are involved in their education are showing better performance and are achieving higher grades. They also show better behaviour, more enthusiasm, ambition and higher levels of engagement. compared with children who's parent are not involved in their education. My research also shows that parental involvement has great benefits for both children and parents in many ways, so much so that the most effective schools are those who encouraged parents to be involved.
Before the education system was implemented in the U.S., many political figures “wanted to create a national culture and qualified politicians for a republican government” (Spring, 2014, p. 10). Thomas Jefferson was the first to propose “an education, but with limited access for the whole population” (p. 11). On the other hand, Horace Mann called the father of the public schools believed that education was essential to reforming the society and one “important idea was that all children in society attend the same type of school. The school was ideally the common place for all children” with the philosophy of equal opportunity for all (p. 12); however, many were the debates at that time, how to incorporate education in an unfair society. That is why the big question about the U.S. education system is: what are the political and social goals of education since then to now?