US Education Reform

[The_Iceflash]

There has been a lot of discussion about Education reform. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed by the Bush Administration and more Education reform is going to take place under the Obama Administration. We have seen the establishment of national curriculum standards (which in itself have been a cause for debate due to Education being fundamentally a states' issue) and increased emphasis on standardized testing.

Now the Bush Administration with NCLB held the school districts themselves responsible for poor standardized test grades/student success. The Obama Administration from what I heard intends to hold the teachers themselves responsible for standardized test grades/student success.

Can we really hold one group responsible for student success? Who should really be held responsible for student success, School Districts, Teachers, Parents, Students, all of the above? Just as important though, how do we hold those we deem responsible for student success responsible?

I'm sure many of heard about the Education debate going on in New Jersey. What do you think about that as a student, teacher, parent, etc?

What direction do you think Education reform should take?

Those who aren't residents of the US, what do you think of this in regards to the education systems set up where you're at? I would be interesting to get an insight on your educational systems.

Sorry if this is all over the place. lol

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, since I'm currently in college for English Education, I've felt first-hand some of the changes. The curriculum has been seriously intensified. What I would have done (if I had only been one year sooner! DAMMIT! ) was just two or three classes and then one final internship for the last semester (Student Teaching, where you basically take on the teacher's role). Now, however, you have to take some 7 internet classes, plus 4 or 5 other standard classes, and you have to have 4 internships, along with all the other stuff you have to do to meet your regular major's requirements (in my case, English).

While that does sound like a good idea for really preparing teachers prior to joining the workforce, I can't help but be a little discouraged personally. They try to jam all those classes into such a small window of time--if you're trying to graduate in 4 years or so, it's next to impossible. Those Internet classes sound simple, but you do as much reading as you would for a regular class. I can't do all that bs and then have to do regular English major classes, too. College sucks.

But, yeah, I really would do something else, but education's the only job I can really think of. As far as what the effect might be beyond myself, I have a feeling less teachers will be coming out of college in the future. There's already a high percentage of first-year teachers quitting and deciding to go into different careers, so I'm not sure anyone's going to want to go through all this trouble just to be an under-paid teacher. It's bad enough that standards and requirements change so often. Teaching is a job like any other, and there has to be some incentive to lure people into it. Unfortunately, there aren't that many plusses to this job.

[The_Iceflash]

Well, since I'm currently in college for English Education, I've felt first-hand some of the changes. The curriculum has been seriously intensified. What I would have done (if I had only been one year sooner! DAMMIT! ) was just two or three classes and then one final internship for the last semester (Student Teaching, where you basically take on the teacher's role). Now, however, you have to take some 7 internet classes, plus 4 or 5 other standard classes, and you have to have 4 internships, along with all the other stuff you have to do to meet your regular major's requirements (in my case, English).

While that does sound like a good idea for really preparing teachers prior to joining the workforce, I can't help but be a little discouraged personally. They try to jam all those classes into such a small window of time--if you're trying to graduate in 4 years or so, it's next to impossible. Those Internet classes sound simple, but you do as much reading as you would for a regular class. I can't do all that bs and then have to do regular English major classes, too. College sucks.

But, yeah, I really would do something else, but education's the only job I can really think of. As far as what the effect might be beyond myself, I have a feeling less teachers will be coming out of college in the future. There's already a high percentage of first-year teachers quitting and deciding to go into different careers, so I'm not sure anyone's going to want to go through all this trouble just to be an under-paid teacher. It's bad enough that standards and requirements change so often. Teaching is a job like any other, and there has to be some incentive to lure people into it. Unfortunately, there aren't that many plusses to this job.

As a future teacher myself I feel your pain.

[Goliath]

I've read that a higher education in the US is hardly affordable (if you don't get in on some kind of sports-related scholarship). I've read about people who, after having graduated, have to pay of their debts (which they made to be able to afford going to college) for some 15 or 20 years!

Going to college isn't being stimulated in the US. Unless you go into the army, of course. In exchange for having your legs blown of, killing some 'collateral damage' and being traumatized for life, you get to go to college.

I don't know from experience, but statistics about the American schoolsystem (especially in comparison to other countries) suggest the US has fallen far behind most other Western countries, and even behind some Second World countries. I don't believe it's one group's fault. It's just the way the system is set up to work.

Bill Maher believes the teachers are not to blame, but the parents. How that works out, you can see below, but I don't agree. Though there is a lot of thruth in what he says, a lot of parents are too busy working two or even three jobs (especially if they're single parents) and they can't always take care of their children the way they want to. Surely, Bill could've known that.

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George Carlin believed, in line with philosopher Pierre Bourdieu, that the educations sysytem sucks because it's supposed to suck; that it is designed that way. Not a bad assumption, if you ask me, certainly not after I've read Bourdieu's readings on this subject.

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[milojthatch]

I actually work in education right now as a Para Educator, and have tons of family that are teachers. My personally perspective is more from the special education side, as I personally went through that program in Los Angeles and that is now who I work with.

I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do know some things I have seen and some things I have come to the conclusion of. I think, this issue first off, is that is needs to be understood that it is many people who have a responsibility to make this work. It is not fair to hold just one group in question responsible and not the rest. I think that the two groups that have the MOST impact though are teachers and parents. If either is not invested, then it can't work.

So far as teachers go, I can tell you I've personally had some really rotten one that made me really hate going to school. Teachers can make or break a child's views on school based on how well they connect with said child and how they treat them. I had teachers that basically discarded me and wrote me off before it was found out that I have a dyslexia. Some of them even would make it know without full on saying it, that they thought I was just dumb, some did say lazy. What it really was was that I wasn't clicking with what I was being taught fast enough to keep up.

Parents on the other hand are VERY important. Last year, I work out a school with a child in a wheel chair. I forget what his illness was, but he had to do these stretches daily and often to stay limber and not bunch up, possibly even get out of the chair from time to time. I personally helped this kid at school with his stretches, but each year he was staying the same, if not getting worse. Why? Because mom wasn't helping. It was her job to stretch him at home after school, on the weekends and during summer break. She never did, but then yelled at my teacher I worked for that her kid wasn't improving. That mentality this mother held I have seen in MANY parents. That being that school is something of a glorified baby-sitter and everything is on the teachers to get stuff done and that they have no responsibilities.

But, without proper funding, even responsible teachers and parents can't do the job right. We keep in this country saying how education is so important, and then we don't put our money were our mouth is. I think many Americans just thinking giving the students more busy work is the answer, and will save money. Such a flawed mentality is why we have so many problems in the first place. There is a basic concept in business, that to make money to need to spend it. That concept very much carries over to education. Education in this country will only be as good as the time and money we put into it. And that we only have ourselves to blame.

I think the last thing is how people are taught. That is all well and good that some people do well with traditional tests or being told orally what to write down for notes to then take home and study. But, besides that fact that I think most school don't do a very good job a of showing kids HOW to study, there are other kinds of intelligences. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences from 1983 needs to be better respected in the class room. I defiantly believe there is a lot of reality to his study. I can orally tell you about all kinds of stuff, but if asked to write it down for a test, I forget it all. I don't feel I'm alone in that.

I believe that education is if doing it's job right, meant to excite children and ultimately adults, into wanting to learn instead of making it out to be a chore or full on scaring them, which is what happens these days. If we can admit that not one single person, president or not, can change this, but that it has to be a social change, then we can fix it. If not, I expect we'll have this talk in 20 years again. That is my two cents.