The Current Educational Reform Of Continuous Improvement

The criticism of the American education system, especially its public schools, increased immensely with the launching of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, by the Soviet Union in October 1957. Eisenhower, in his Message to Congress on January 27, 1958, called for aligning educational programs with national defense needs and recommended the federal government play an important part in this activity. The NDEA was the result of the enlarged federal role in education (britannica).

Before the No Child Left Behind act came into effect there was a report done in 1983 called A Nation At Risk. Within in this report is information and statistics about how academic underachievement had reached national and international scales. In response to this report the National Commission on Excellence in Education came up with 38 recommendations for the schools. The recommendations were divided into five categories: content, Standards and Expectations, Time, Teaching, Leadership and Fiscal Support (A Nation at Risk and

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,

This week, I reviewed my school’s Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) and the School Needs Assessment with my mentor. We focused on the data driven needs of the campus based on the previous year’s State Assessment results. The campus needed to do well enough on last year’s assessments so that it would be removed from both the state PEG list and the Improvement Required list. When looking at assessment data and its effect on the schools Needs Assessment, it showed that the areas that needed the most improvement from the previous year were being addressed in the CIP for the coming year. According to the state regulations, the CIP must be reviewed and updated yearly by the school’s Improvement Committee.

During Reagan’s presidency in the 1980’s the Secretary of Education reported that education in the United States was very poor. The publication of this report enhanced the publics concerns about education. This was the beginning of the gradual process of making educational changes based on research evidence instead of unproven and ineffective teaching practices.

Over the course of many years, several things have changed, including technology, science, and people; however, our culture and idea of education have not. Some of these problems include teachers that are not being as valued as they should be and students who are changing both physically and mentally, but are still not being supported by our education system. The education system itself is also problematic as well, but it can be fixed with a change in our culture. Teachers and students are the base of the education system, and by not helping them, the system is not helping itself. Students are gaining new emotions and viewpoints, but the education system has had a hard time keeping up, even teachers are changing but are still undervalued.

Changes instigated by the U.S. government during the Cold War had a profound effect on the educational landscape, as they altered how people viewed education, who had access to education, what they were taught, how they were taught, etc. Although many changes were done on the local and state level, the most considerable effects are seen after changes were made on the national scale, in legislations such as the National Defense Education Act of 1958, and in government bodies such as the Department of Education.

The Space Race has impacted the political, social, and economic aspects of the US society greatly. It mainly affected the political aspect. A way that the lead of the Soviet Union in the Space Race affected the US Society is “the Vanguard rocket was prepared for launch at Cape Canaveral. On December 6/1957, the slender, delicate instrument was fired, began to rise, and then sank back down on itself, crushing its engines and erupting into a huge fireball. The pathetic collapse was carried live on television, right in front of the world. This was what we were capable of, while the Russians rode the heavens (from Document F).” Another reason why the US was very shocked is because that “it took them four years to catch up to our atomic bomb and nine months to catch up to our hydrogen bomb. Now we are trying to catch up to their satellite (from Document B).”

Education in the United States is in an abysmal state. It continues to spiral downward as students and educators fail to meet standards. The standards are then altered on a patchwork basis throughout the states. The goal is no longer to have a high standard educational system. The goal now is to maintain the status quo, allowing students and educators to strive for the minimum. There is no common approach to achieve success. Incipit Tragoedia, in comes the Common Core, agreed upon by educators, politicians, and

By 1958, the California Legislature proposed a joint committee-legislative and citizen- commission on education “instructed to analyze all facets of education-finances, goals, curricula, the teacher problem, equipment, etc.—and to conduct public hearings on education in various geographical areas.” (Sacramento Bee, March 24, 1958). The Citizens Commission was charged by the Legislature to collect public opinion, report the summary of findings, and make recommendations. Among the five recommendations, four credentials were to be established: the Standard

regulations aimed at overhauling the state 's failing education system. The Education Standards committee’s recommendations included: Upgrading curriculum standards and course requirements. Increasing teacher salaries and possible merit pay. Establishing a

Perhaps the most significant impact of the space race came through education reform. At the beginning of the 1950s most americans had atleast a high school education. But education, especially in technical fields was not seen as overly important or necessary. After all, the United States was built on farming and factory work, jobs that don’t require advanced schooling. After the second world war however the game changed. There was a sort of technical renaissance which

Identify and select appropriate strategies that assure faculty and staff will work as a learning organization focused on continuous improvement of student learning.

The first source, from the Harvard Crimson, outlines the change in education. Colleges had always created challenge each other, battling to produce the smartest and most influential students. This was not just in the United States, but rather spanned across the world. This competition fueled improvements in the field of education, and still does today. However, after the launch of Sputnik by the Soviets, the competition was suddenly much higher. Sputnik was the beginning of a race not just to space, but to improved higher education all around the world. While the United States “didn’t want to be behind” (Christopher S. Jencks) in any field, the space race was a particularly sore area due to the Cold War. Reform had to happen. Even the students

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.