Analyzing Changes in Education

“The NCLB law­—which grew out of concern that the American education system was no longer internationally competitive­­—significantly increased the federal role in holding schools responsible for the academic progress of all students. And it put a special focus on ensuring that states and schools boost the performance of certain groups of students, such as English-language learners, students in special education, and poor and minority children, whose achievement, on average, trails their peers.” (Klein). In 1965, ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) was introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society Program to create a clear understanding of the Federal Government in K-12 school policy, which provided more that $1 billion

According to Michael Fullan (2016) in his book, The New Meaning of Educational Change, successful organizations that demonstrate change followed principled concepts of change. The reason for their success if that there is tangible proof of alignment in keeping components of actions. Fullan (2016) stated that successful change incorporates five factors. In this essay, three of the five factors will be discussed and an example of an organization using components of the change be revealed. Often when organization shave to go through the process of change it means either they have gone through change to repair broken areas or they are going through change as a reflective exercise before embarking on a larger scope of practice perhaps to expand into new growth within their organization. In either course, the larger concern is that organizations must embrace change and engage in meaningful constructed ways to promote the best growth with the fewest steps to reach accomplishment. A key decision factor to change is whether an organize will change because they adopt a model and see a better way or whether they want to save their resources. Fullan (2016) suggested that the reason for the change is largely to work is because, the organizations, “Define closing the gap as the overarching goal,” “Assume that lack of capacity is the initial problem and then work on it continuously,” and “Stay the course through continuity of good direction by leveraging leadership,” (Fullan, 2016,

The National Review in May of this year in an article titled, Two Moms vs. Common Core explains: “Common Core is a set of math and English standards developed largely with Gates Foundation money and pushed by the Obama administration and the National Governors Association. The standards define what every schoolchild should learn each year, from first grade through twelfth, and the package includes teacher evaluations tied to federally funded tests designed to ensure that schools teach to Common Core. Over 40 states hurriedly adopted Common Core, some before the standards were even written, in response to the Obama administration’s making more than $4 billion in federal grants conditional on their doing so. Only Texas, Alaska, Virginia, and Nebraska declined. (Minnesota adopted the English but not the math standards.)”

Common Core State Standards is being heard throughout the education world. Many cringe when the words are spoken and many fight to support what the words stand for. Common Core was introduced in 2009 by state leaders. Common Core State Standards were developed to prepare children for the business world or the reality after grade school. “The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy, also known as ELA” (About the Standards, n.d.). The goals for the standards outline what students should know before leaving his or her current grade level. “The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live” (About the Standards, n.d.). This is an ambitious goal, but with much support can be accomplished. According to Common Core State Standards Initiative (n.d.) The Common Core has been adopted by forty-two states already and is accompanied by District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity. Common Core was developed to improve the academics in society’s schools. Academics in the past years have not been successful and the United States has fallen behind international education. “One root cause has been an uneven patchwork of academic standards that vary from state to state and do not agree on what students should know and be able to do at each

The desegregation of schools in segregated communities is useless. In fact, the implications of economic segregation are synonymous to those of racial segregation. Therefore, to fight the disparities in education, Congress enacted influential federal legislation including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was designed to close achievement gaps between all students by providing each child with fair and equal opportunities to receive quality elementary and secondary educations. The goal of ESEA was to ensure that all children receive an excellent, high quality education, and that no child is left behind regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status. The law mandates that funds should be authorized for professional development, instructional materials, supporting educational programs, and promotion of parental involvement (Howell and Tavakolian,

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was implemented in an effort to help students learn and meet their full potential academically. The NCLB was put into place by the government to have more of an input in the standards that schools must meet. The Common Core initiative was implemented to make schools in every state equal and have the same curriculum. Texas is one of the states that has decided not to adhere to the Common Core initiative. Texas’s standards are based on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Standardized tests are the formal assessments schools use to make sure students are meeting the required state standards. The standardized test that Texas uses for assessment is called the

Educating the next generation of Americans and Crafting an educational system that will allow the nation to strive seems like a daunting task. It becomes even more daunting when it is passed along to the local governments to deal with. The United States Constitution leaves the responsibility of public k-12 education with the states. With this in mind

The role of the federal government in setting education policy increased significantly with the passage by Congress of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a sweeping education reform law that revised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. "Federal policy has played a major role in supporting standards-based reform since the passage of the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994. That law required states to establish challenging content and performance standards, implement assessments…hold school systems accountable…" (Goertz, 2005, pg. 73)

Schools today continue to be asked to do more with less. It is a message we have heard over and over. Across the country, our poverty rates are based on free and reduced lunch percentages, they continue to increase and the needs of our students have also increased. Unfunded mandates come forward, which districts are required to comply with and infuse the needs into current school budgets. The journal article I chose to read and review discussed the implementation of desegregation plans since it is the 40th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas's decision. Gordon (1994) explains the desegregation funding remedies have been inconsistent in nature. He discusses that despite significant federal funding to school districts it has only had a moderate impact on desegregation of our schools (Gordon,1994).

Without question today's society is changing at a rapid rate, we are advancing in every area. However, these advance are due to one main aspect, education. As being a well known lobbyist for education, I feel it is safe to assume that you place a high value on education, that is why I am asking for your help. Education laws in Alabama need to change to better accommodate today's youth.

The Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) was passed by congress, exactly fifty years ago and was considered to be the Nation’s most important laws signed by Lyndon Johnson, in 1965. This act shaped education in these early years, evolving education to benefit all learners of gender, nationality and of different learning styles, which was considered in the past to be a disability. The Education and Secondary Act aided with special education centers and low income students funding, including federal grants for books to students eligible; this also incorporated scholarships for college students considered to be low-income students.

A structural change that has caused a declining life expectancy for white males and females with a high school education or less is that there a fewer high level jobs available to those who don’t have a college education. In history we have seen that people could get a job out of high school and make a wage sustainable to raise a family with. Today, the numbers of those jobs available are low due to the number of higher qualified people with a higher education or robots have taken over many factory jobs that were once available to those just out of high school.

Common Core Standards is a topic that everyone in school, and everyone that has been in school, has heard about. The state of Alabama adopted these standards in the early 2000’s and they have been the core curriculum guide in classrooms since. Recently, the standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts have been renamed and are now known as the Alabama College and Career Readiness Standards. Of course, like any new idea, there has been some controversy about the topic. Educators, students, parents and administrators all have their own viewpoint and opinions about the new standards. As a student, and future educator, I believe that the Alabama College Career Readiness Standards are a great addition to the state of Alabama’s

Browne have also come up with a range of reasons of why boys are not

What is social change? It is a change within a community; a change in the social relationships. For a society to exist there has to be social relationships. Therefore, for change to exist for the entire society it would have to be within those relationships. When observing and studying social change it is generally a type of psychology termed “social psychology.” According to the American Psychological Association, social psychology is defined as, “the branch of psychology that studies the effect of social variables on individual behavior, attitudes, perceptions, and motives; also studies group and intergroup phenomena” (apa.org, 2016). Without social psychology much of the societal information known to date would not be known.