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The Failure Of Failing Public Schools

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Introduction
As a result of the latest rating of failing public schools in education, United States schools are rated around twenty-ninth in the world. What is a failing school? Researchers may never agree on a single definition of failing schools (Connelly, 1999). OFSTED says that “A failing school is one in which learners make very little progress in relation to their prior attainment; consequently, the value-added analyses of the school’s test scores are very low when compared with similar schools. This definition may be extended to include some process indicators. There is no doubt that the three most consistent factors found in weak schools are the underachievement of learners, unsatisfactory or poor teaching and ineffective leadership (OFSTED, 1997, p. 4).
In the research article by Stein (2012), two questions were addressed for guiding the study. First, how should educators and the public respond to the suggestion that most failing schools either need a complete makeover or aren 't worth saving? Second, what message are we sending the students and parents of such schools, and their respective communities in general, if we allow them to believe their schools should be kicked to the curb or used as a research laboratory? Stein also believe that hearing that America 's students are becoming less competitive globally with each successive year is depressing enough, but it 's worse to hear that

we should either reinvent how schools operate or give up on some

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