The United States Department of Education’s (USDE) mission is “to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access” (“Home”). Even though the federal government provides programs and additional resources to ensure academic success, the system is still unfair. Not all of the students, like 9-year-old Rayola Carwell, have the opportunity to have a simple learning experience. The USDE has implemented several programs to serve to the needs of specific individual needs. The government assist students, so that they can achieve in school. For example, the government provides additional funding called grants for students who are eligible for financial assistance (“Apply for a Grant—ED.gov.”). The USDE gives students living in disadvantaged areas the freedom to transfer This particular story was special in capturing the emotions and struggles of Rayola. It is difficult for most student to adjust to a new school environment. However, for students like Rayola, the transition had to be at least 100 times complicated because she was accustomed to her Englewood school environment. Children coming from bad neighborhoods and declining school districts deserve a chance to be in better school. Thanks to the NCLB act, Rayola and many other students in her situation, have the opportunity to do so. According to Banchero, Rayola is a good student: “she pays attention in school, never gets in trouble and does her homework diligently” (Banchero). Not only were the reporter and photographer documenting Rayola’s success at school, but recording her home life too. The goal was to see if how difficult the transition would be for a student like Rayola, due to her
Pashtana said she would rather die than not go to school and acted on her words. Her education is limited and she doesn’t have all the recourses to make school easier, yet she still loves and wants all the knowledge she can get. While I sit in my three story private school, a clean uniform free of holes or loose seams, my macbook air in my lap, the smell of cookies rising up from the cafeteria, wishing to be anywhere else but there. No one has beat me because I want to go to school, no one has forced me into a marriage, I’ve never put my life in jeopardy for the sake of education. Pashtana’s life and choices made me take a moment to stop and reflect on my own life and how fortunate I am to have what I have.
Often the change and transition to middle is a difficult one for students, so it is no surprise that a student of Juanita’s caliber would be having trouble as well. Her regular middle school teachers were not going above and beyond to make sure Juanita succeed, if anything it seemed as if Juanita was a burden to them. If it was not for the Ms. Issabelle’s effort, Juanita would have failed the 6th grade, and possibly fell through the cracks of the education system.
America’s public school system started off very rough, but through the dedication of many hard-working Americans, it was starting to shape into a system that allowed all children, regardless of race, gender, religion, or nation of origin, to have an education.
A key to ending the cycle of poverty, is educational equity. In America today, public education is unequal racially and socioeconomically (Honda 11). Internationally, America is not excelling academically. When looking closely at American student’s Program for
Funding inequalities has been an issue from past to present, especially in the low-income communities. In fact, students in urban areas with less funding have low attendance, score lower on standardize testing, a low graduation rate. Also subjected to outdated textbooks, old dilapidated buildings, Students in the inner cities need to compete with their suburban and wealthy counter-parts for this reason funding inequalities must end and more money should be directed to these communities from: federal, state, and local governments.
Compulsory education laws define America’s adolescent people today. Without these laws many people wouldn’t get the education they need in life or for their future. Compulsory education helps people develop or expand many skills that they will need in life, such as social and thinking skills. By abolishing compulsory education laws in the United States people wouldn’t develop such skills or be prepared for life ahead of them. By removing this you would have a generation full of young people who wouldn’t know how to think.
Lacking the necessary support, many start to devalue the importance of doing well in school deciding that perhaps school isn’t part of their identity. In Susan’s case she’s eliciting multiple forms of subordination, and within each dimension she’s being subjective to different types of oppression; racial oppression, gender oppression, and class oppression, she’s experiencing cultural alienation and isolation and is not only based on her ethnicity as a Latina but is also influenced by how she is treated as a female, as a member of a certain socioeconomic class, and in relation to her English language proficiency, and even her perceived immigration status. In this sense, students like Susan experience different forms of discrimination or marginalization that stems from
For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused elsewhere, particularly in the inner city schools.
Many believe that women take education for granted and that they do not think about or realize all of the hard work it took to attain the right of education. “Title IX Education Amendments Act of 1972 was an act that protects students from discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs that receive federal financial assistance. The principal objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sex discrimination in education programs and to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices. Title IX applies, with a few specific exceptions, to all aspects of federally funded education programs or activities. In addition to traditional educational institutions such as colleges, universities, and elementary and secondary schools, Title IX also applies to any education or training program operated by a recipient of federal financial assistance.” Also enacted in 1974 was the (WEEA) the Women's Educational Equity Act, this act was one of the several landmark laws passed by the United States Congress outlining federal protections against the gender discrimination of women in education. Another factor that impacted and shaped the education system was social class status segregation. In previous years it was not as common to find a high-poverty child receiving a good education or even any at all. With being said, living in such high-poverty neighborhoods for multiple generations, it causes a barrier for achievement. As years gone on, it has been shown that the government has made it more feasible for children to receive an elementary, middle, secondary and collegiate education. “Ensuring strong opportunity for every child in America and protecting the vulnerable and underserved have long comprised the mission of the U.S. Department of Education. Nearly three-quarters of Department funds go toward three major areas: Pell Grants that help
Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most importantly, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students. School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons.
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
The downfall of the US Public Education system is very concerning to me. A number of children are leaving the school system without the proper tools for them to be successful and productive. Over the years, schools have been victims of budget cuts; therefore, they are no longer able to supply children with sufficient and basic needs for success. There are several factors other than budget cuts that contribute to young adults leaving school without the proper tools for success.
President John F Kennedy once said “children are the world’s most valuable resource and it best hope for the future”. When people speak of the future they imagine a time where the all of the world’s problems are solved and everyone is kind to each other and happy. If we want this future to be possible then as Kennedy stated the children are the key. We need our children to be well educated so they can grow up to be the future leaders we need to change the world. Unfortunately with the two education systems that have been educating this nation’s children for the past fourteen years have not been doing an adequate job. The No Child Left Behind Act and the Common Core standards both have fragments that work to benefit students and help them develop
Their zoned school was primarily low-income and hispanic, they noticed that the population of white students enrolled elsewhere-- contrary to their zone school assignments. The school had a Spanish dual-language program and had small class sizes, both of which interested the two parents, but there were many options open to them. Ultimately, they too chose to go to a different school-- Manhattan School for Children. “While most of the students in District 3 are black or Hispanic, nearly two-thirds of the students at Manhattan School for Children are white.” (The New York Times) Elana and Adam were conscious of the race disparity in the district, the parents considered their zone school to help combat this to some degree-- their children would still benefit-- but they still chose to enroll their child in the predominantly white
In society, education can be seen as a foundation for success. Education prepares people for their careers and allows them to contribute to society efficiently. However, there is an achievement gap in education, especially between Hispanics and Blacks. In other words, there is education inequality between these minorities and white students. This achievement gap is a social problem in the education system since this is affecting many schools in the United States. As a response to this social problem, the No Child Left Behind Act was passed to assist in closing this achievement gap by holding schools more accountable for the students’ progress. Unsuccessful, the No Child Left Behind Act was ineffective as a social response since schools were pushed to produce high test scores in order to show a student’s academic progress which in turn, pressured teachers and students even more to do well on these tests.