History of Educational Reform

John Dewey is considered to have been a pedagogical progressivist, meaning he focused on education reform by first reforming the way that the teaching was actually done. In the past education focused on teaching children facts, mostly by learning with repetition. This was a problem because it taught children information but not how to use that mindfulness with critical thinking in real-world situations. These problems led John Dewey to write a series of articles that described his views on teaching and how it should be improved upon, this is called “My Pedagogic Creed”. Dewey wanted to equally incorporate a psychological, the abilities and interest of the student, and sociological, the needs and commitments of the society, aspect into teaching. He believed that children were born with blank slates and throughout their lives they would receive guidance “unconsciously” and be molded into adults (Dewey, 1). So the introduction of these aspects would help the molded children into better citizens and that would help drive the social economy into prosperity and overall a better democratic society.

Public schools before the 1830s weren’t technically public because education was not open to the general public. At the time, the “public” schools were made up of a majority of white children, because their parents were wealthy enough to pay for their education. While some schools in both the North and the South allowed African Americans to attend, a lot of the African American families still could not afford to send their children. On top of not being able to afford school, in the South most schools did not believe in educating slaves. The monetary problem holding kids back from getting an equal opportunity to access education was what sparked the movement to reform the public schools.

First and foremost, the American Educational System has received numerous advocates offering crucial inputs on education from centuries ago up to the present time. Even so, with focus, shining on past advocates, three well-known men who are still receiving constant acknowledgment for their ideas and contributions regarding the system. Notably, Dewey, Man, and Jefferson all share major impacts, alike and unlike, resulting in significant effects on the American Educational System.

The author's main point in this article was focusing on the problems of standardized testing in the school system. Ronald Roach states how in the past decade since the no child left behind program was established that there was no sufficient gains in the overall student math and reading scores. The author then goes on to explain how the Obama administration has been criticized over the issues of no child left behind program and how they are not effectively improving the program.

Every year thousands upon thousands of children, ages seven and upwards sit down to take their scheduled standardized tests. This generation has been classified as the most tested in history. "Its progress through childhood and adolescence" has been "punctuated by targets, key stages, attainment levels, and qualifications" ("Stalin in School" 8). Each year the government devises a new standard and then finds a way to test how each student measures up to this standard. They have come to the conclusion that the easiest way to chart the success of school reform is to follow the results of standardized testing. But rating education strictly by the numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex as learning,

Even though America's first public high school opened in 1821, the idea of a nationwide system was advocated by Horace Mann and many other educational reformers who had a longing opposition of the idea of having to purchase their own learning. Due to their efforts,

Growing up in school, when “Dewey” was mentioned, one more than likely thought of the Dewey decimal system, which was used in libraries. However, that system was created by Melvil Dewey, and while he was an important person, there was another Dewey that impacted education in extraordinary ways. That man is known as John Dewey. John Dewey shaped the education system that we have today by reconstructing the progressive education. Dewey was a philosopher, and educational theorist who used experimentalism, as well as many other theories to change the way the American Education system was done. He lived during the time period where traditional and progressive education were coming together, so he used both to create his own personal philosophies. Once of his major philosophies was relating learning to society. Additionally, he used dualism as an approach to his philosophies that changed the education system. He impacted today’s education system in many ways, with his different ideas still being seen in school’s today. Incorporating multiple subjects into school’s, as well as taking a hand’s on learning approach are two theories that while many other philosophers believed in as well, Dewey used to develop the education system. John Dewey was a model citizen, that benefited society and the American education system in a variety of ways.

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

In political debates, mainstream news reporting, and traveling political speaking events, politicians speak of a variety of hot topic agenda items; unfortunately, education is typically not one of the focal points. No matter the importance of education for children and no matter the political candidates’ point of view, it seems to be shadowed by a variety of other political agenda items. Nonetheless, each candidate has a point of view and some history of education policy impact.

As the 20th century turned into the 21st, there became an exponential increase in the competition in education. There became a sharp increase in qualified students applying for undergraduate education; thus competition for grades and extracurricular activities fiercely rose at the high school level. Yet, the competition among students and parents does not stop or start there. There are waiting lists for daycares and kindergartens across the United States. Before this new round of competition in education began, finding a reliable source of motivation for children and youth has been a challenge for teachers and parents alike. As the United States is a capitalist country, some parents and educational professionals are trying to motivate students with money. Furthermore, money as a motivation for students extends beyond class grades, but is also used to motivate students to prepare and perform well on standardized testing. New research shows that the affects of cash as a motivator for higher test scores are inconclusive. Since 1989, educators have been aware that there are multiple kinds of intelligences. Standardized tests, particularly during the 21st century, have been found to be biased on top of that these tests do not engage all nine types of intelligence. Within this context, the paper will ask and attempt to answer if the use of test scores as a measurement of academic potential is

John Dewey is known as leader of the progressive movement in the history of the American education system and his book, Democracy and Education: an introduction to the philosophy of education, could be used as a textbook to teach the foundations of the movement. Discrediting all previous educational and philosophic approaches as intellectually incomplete or inaccurate, Dewey first presents a new perspective on the nature of knowledge, education, society and philosophy. One fundamental theme of Dewey’s progressive movement is that education is growth and that growth is, in and of itself, the objective. Rejecting any notion of innate knowledge or of an ideal goal to strive for, the progressive

system─ is on results. And while this focus on results is understandable (see, e.g., Schmoker, 1999, 2001), it is also important to consider the means by which the ends are achieved. The questions emerged: What was the effect of a political decision─ to demand public school accountability─ on pedagogical decision making? How might the demands of a new testing program affect how teacher teach and how children are expected to learn?

Reform has been known to mean a “change”. Now this change can be viewed at in terms of policy, practice, procedure, or organization. However; the term reform is usually misunderstood as being a strategic method to correct or identify a problem. John Dewey was one of the matriarchs in educational reform with his advocacy for public education and social reform. The Encyclopedia of the Social & Cultural Foundations of Education, (2008) states that Educational Reform has three competing concepts: Essentialism, Progressivism, and Holism.

“The period between 1965 and the end of the 1980s witnessed significant developments, not only in the provision of post-primary schooling in Ireland, but also in the way in which schooling was understood.”

“The period between 1965 and the end of the 1980s witnessed significant developments, not only in the provision of post-primary schooling in Ireland, but also in the way in which schooling was understood.”