American Education Quality

The American College Testing (ACT), 2010 concluded that a large number of high school students and high school graduates do not possess the knowledge and skills for college level work or career training. With the creation and implementation of common core standards, states and school districts have a clear set of student expectations to target

Now a lot of people may ask, how can we fix our very broken education system? First of all, we need to upgrade the Standard Common Core. What i mean by upgrading is that we need to change it to make it better and more advanced. We should also try to fix how we teach literacy, math and other subjects. And last of all, focus more on education than almost anything else because if we don’t, we’ll be left behind in the

Success is everyone’s ultimate goal. In today’s day and age, every country wants in the fight to become the best of the best. This mindset of becoming the superlative holds a lot of value to a country’s leaders, as they believe it will lead them and their people to be the front-runners of the world. Education has long been an area in which countries feel indicates how successful they are and will be. As a result, educators continue to use a variety of methods to ensure that their country’s children are receiving a superior education. While many are aware of the educational system in Japan or the United States, France continues its fight to offer the best schooling in the world. In hopes to achieve this objective, French educators have

Many of the subjects needed to succeed outside of school had to undergo budget cuts “because there are only so many hours in a day [and] there was less time for subjects that were not tested” (106). “Successful” schools are given high rankings by the government simply because of their test scores despite the amount of time they spend on the material that is tested. Subjects that should be emphasized are specific courses or career based classes that can help students narrow down their career path and prosper beyond school. If only the basic subjects are taught, than some students could have no idea what they are good at or what kind of career could benefit their life as a whole. Curriculums in schools need to provide more courses to offer their students the best education they can

Accountability. Public Education is in a bit of a crisis at all levels because to be truly successful, everyone needs to simply do their job. The problem is not that people aren't capable of doing their jobs, it is that they too often look for someone to do their jobs for them.

High schools have a set core of classes that each student must take and pass, mandated by the government. There is very little flexibility or creativity a student has to use as an outlet, class wise. Students must all learn the same materials, regardless of future life goals. The objective of the class load in high school is to pass

As educators discovered and were exposed to the Kodály Methodology, they looked for ways to implement these ideas into their own classrooms. As teachers began to adopt the Kodály Methodology, several challenges developed within the American classroom.

Besides not being economically ready for life, high schools deprive graduates of many other life skills necessary for success. For the 2014-2015 school year it was projected that 2.2 million of 3.3 million students enrolled straight into post secondary education (Education Commission of the, States). That leaves 1.1 million students going straight into the world of adulthood. High schools must take responsibility and make sure these young adults know how to manage living by themselves. Ignored basic skills, including doing the laundry and cooking a decent meal, are necessary in life and ought to be taught to students. Millions high school graduates will go off into the world this year unaware of how to function in society. After thirty five hours a week for thirteen years sitting in a

The lack of college readiness is also of growing concern due to the increasing demand for technically trained individuals. “The U.S. Department of Labor projections indicate that nearly 50% of all new jobs created between 2008 and 2018 will require some form of postsecondary award or training” (Shultz and Stern, 2013, p. #). Changes in technical skills demanded in the work place today have created fast paced and industry specific courses which leave very little time to address core competency deficiencies (reading, writing and arithmetic) in the classroom. If a student is unable to comprehend required college level material or perform pre algebraic calculations necessary for a skilled trade, instructors are forced to either leave those students behind or carve out already limited additional time for them after class.

Don’t you hate when you’re at the checkout line buying twelve watermelons when the cashier tells you that your total is 3x^2 + 2y-4? This has most likely never happened to you, yet these are the closest examples of “real life situations” we are teaching in public school. You may, however, felt the frustration of trying to do taxes, buy a house, or balance a checkbook for the first time and felt underprepared. Our public school system leaves students unprepared for the adult world. Public k12 school curriculums don’t teach students to be informed adults, but rather teach them to recite random facts for tests without absorbing the information or applying it to life. Many high school graduates feel underprepared for college or to for the workforce, let alone everyday adult responsibilities. Students are all different people and may require different paths and methods of learning in order to be successful or fulfilled in life. I feel that we leave students graduating high school with some useless and skewed information but little knowledge on how to function in the adult world.

The best solution to solve this problem would be to make more classes (mostly electives) available for students. Doing this would allow students to have a greater range of options that pertain to that person’s interest. “It’s letting people learn about what they love rather than dictating what they should be learning,” said Morgan McDaniel, a senior who added the rock ’n’ roll class to her schedule. Schools will claim they already have a variety of electives and they don’t see the need to create more. What they fail to realize is that most of the electives offered are not relevant to students in this day and age. Schools need to start implementing the new classes to let students have the best high school experience.

The American education is overly stressful and outdated. Neither student nor teacher genuinely want to be there. Students either want to go home or learn something they believe will be helpful in adult life; Teachers either want to go home or teach students who aren’t bored and are willing to listen. Teachers and their student counterparts tend to build a wall made of boredom and disrespect between themselves, making the hour long lectures and lessons that much more unbearable. Many times the feeling is mutual for a simple reason: neither teachers nor students always want to be at school. The harsh routine of 8 to 3, sometimes longer, isn’t ideal for virtually all people trapped in the tiny walls of this repetitive cycle. Mutual boredom causes disrespect, making the teachers’ jobs harder and the students’ emotional health to suffer as their grades do.

The Montessori Method is a method of learning debated and talked about for decades, and yet there is still a large amount of controversy. There is, however, an education issue even more largely in question: the American education system. Education in the United States has been openly criticized and questioned on topics such as retention of learned information, lack of preparation for ‘real life’ scenarios, causing stress and other mental health issues, as well as a general lack of enjoyment and overall effectiveness. Public schools in the United States are government funded, but spending and cost is an issue as well. In general, would it be better for American schools to use a model more like Maria Montessori wished for our future?

High schools need to focus on all subjects equally. No subject should be more important than another. The way to accomplish teaching all subjects equally is to hire more personnel and teach in smaller groups. The high schools today need new rules to fit society today. Students need to be treated as adults to mature and prosper in the outside world. Teachers who gave more responsibility to their students have seen improvement. The high schools today have many problems which need to change to become more successful, and so the students can become well-rounded. High schools of this age do meet the standards, and they must change to accomplish it.

Some people believe that today’s education system is not adequate, because the state funds only certain topics; leaving key life learning courses out of the question due to tight budgets. Many students much like myself are left clueless after graduation on many things that our parents were taught in high school classes; such as cooking or sewing which is normally covered in a FACS class (Family and Consumer Science class.) Due to the lack of funding, today’s student’s graduate high school not having the knowledge of how to balance a check book, or without knowing the true meaning of