Structural Change In High School Education

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,

We’ve come a long way, baby! Over the past 100 years of public education in the great state of Alabama, changes in education have been literally fought for by blood, sweat and tears. However, with the desegregation issues from 1964 closed for the past 50 years, state legislatures still find plenty of arguments concerning public education reforms. Most of these arguments, though, are essentially concerns about federal control over state. Thanks to several federal acts, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 the students of Alabama schools are all getting a better education. Just by these two acts,

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick, clearly explored the relationship between socioeconomic status and health, it was said that college graduates live 2.5 years longer than high school graduates” (California Newsreel, 2008). This documentary illustrated how one’s level of education not only impacts their quality of life, but also impacts the duration of one’s life.

We all will one day face the reality of growing older. There are many aspects of this change that will affect us in a large way. According to the Merck Manual of Health and Aging, 1.5% of Americans are 85 or older. This research states that the number of people 100 years or older could rise from 1 out of 5,578 in the year 2000, to 1 out of 472 in the year 2050. It brings out that women have a longer life expectancy than men, among people aged 65 and older in the year 2000, there were 70 men for every 100 women. For people aged 85 and older the figure was 41 men for every 100 women. The site goes on to say that approximately 11% of Americans aged 65 and older are below the poverty line. (The Merck Manual of Health and Aging:

College gives most college graduates an improvement in their standard of living by giving them a higher chance of getting a well-paid job. Standard of living is the “level of consumption that an individual, group, or nation has achieved” (“Standard of Living”). It also refers to the environment, wealth, comfort, income, material goods and necessities available to a specific socioeconomic class in a specific geographic area, the number of dependents in a family, and educational opportunities. Factors, such as unemployment and low wages, can bring down the standard of living, while higher wages and an increase of jobs could raise the standard of living. High school is inadequate in preparing students for working in life (Kingsley and Vance). Nowadays, in society, a college degree is needed for the development of a career instead of just a high school diploma. In earlier generations, a high school diploma would be all that a person would need to prepare for a career in life, and college was

In the 1980-90’s, a college graduates earnings were drastically higher than those with just a high school degree (Bernstein 1). While having a college degree of some sort makes getting a job in the real world easier, the quality of the job is what is coming into question. The amount of jobs available for both high school and college graduates will always be enough, but if the quality of the jobs decreases then the poverty class will increase (Bernstein 3). This struggle to find quality jobs with just a high school or even a college diploma could result in a spike in homelessness and even more money needed from the government. The unemployment rate in the U.S. will never be zero percent, and that means there will never be someone that is not homeless.

The video shows the lives of four families with different economic status in Louisville, Kentucky. The life of a hospital CEO, a janitor, a lab supervisor and an unemployed mother during video showed the clear relationship between health and longevity. Families that social economic status is higher can maintain better health status; conversely, the family that socioeconomic status is lower has the worse health status. Poor Americans die almost six years earlier than the rich; American middle man died two years earlier than the rich. In addition, video states that education

One’s level of education is now used to determine employability. The more educated you are, the more likely you are to get a good paying job. As we will have it majority of those who are unemployed or engaged in poor working conditions have a low level of education hence they are unable to make the income that puts in the high-income level. In the text, Jackson (2009, p.99) states that higher – income people are in better health and are more likely to live longer than middle-income people. He also further states that those at the lower-income level are most likely to experience stress from job insecurity and from the workplace and even more hazards from the workplace that can harm their physical health.

In America, the prospect of social mobility is near impossible if one does not graduate from college and secure a stable job coming out of college. In the previous generations, many American families could own a house, have a nice Chevy, and work at a nice paying job with a High School diploma. This would not be the case today, many who graduate out of High School will always be stuck at minimum wage careers. This partly due to racial issues, jobs becoming automated and competitive career fields.

Education is today more critical than ever. College has become virtually a precondition for upward mobility. Men with only a high school diploma earn about a fifth less than they did 35 years ago. The gap between the earnings of students with a college degree and those without one is bigger than ever.

What changes have you seen in your lifetime that have affected what today’s schools are like?

He suggests that the decline in college attendees coincides with the economy’s increasing availability on job opportunities. Ehrenfreund includes statistics concerning the comparable percentage of the declining rates of college attendance between 2011 and 2015. One of which states the following, “According to the clearinghouse data released last week, just 7 million Americans over 24 are enrolled in colleges this spring – a decrease of 11 percent from the apex in 2011”. However, his data collection only concerns the population of those older than 24 years of age. What about the percentage rate of those that have graduated from high school up until 23 years of age? Ehrenfreund presumes, “Many Americans have found that education isn’t necessary to get ahead.” He briefs on the notion that employers are no longer looking for an extensive résumé on educational background. Additionally, he coins the idea that people are only enrolled in college due to the element of not being able to find a

School has changed tremendously over time. School was a lot different back then than it is today. Going to school was not offered to everyone. It was only offered to the upper-class. Boys and girls were schooled separately, but today our schools are diverse and have many different kinds of races. Technology did not even exist a hundred years ago, but today, we use technology everyday in our school work. Through the course of history, education usually matched the needs of society until recently where a gap has occurred between high school and the real world in what skills and content is taught versus what is needed.

Success, achievement and participation at school are not simply a matter of intelligence or ability. Discuss this statement with reference to the concepts of cultural capital, hidden curriculum, class and socioeconomic status.

Education reform is a topic that every student, parent and teacher should be interested in because it effects everyone in the community. Many different approaches to education reform have been tried, and even though they seem to work for the time being, there are always more improvements that need to be made. One of the best ideas that has been discussed in the most recent years is getting the parents and students more involved in the actual reform process. Many school administrators see a problem with involving students, even though they are the ones most affected by the changes within schools. Student’s opinions should be taken into consideration because they are the ones who see what happens inside the school and within the classroom, and are the most affected by it. Involving parents and students in the reform of their schools will improve the quality of education, improve parent and teacher relationships and reduce parent and student complaints.