The Importance Of Education In Education

"Making Sure That Schools Measure Up." Education Week, vol. 36, no. 16, 4 Jan. 2017, pp. 18-20. EBSCOhost. PDF. In this periodical article, Alyson Klein, reporter for Education Week, reflects on Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), an update to the K-12 education law, in the one year since it was passed in 2016. Klein discusses how the ESSA was designed to improve shortcomings of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the previous version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Klein also examines concerns over greater flexibility given to states and districts regarding issues such as standardized test, school choice, marginalized students. The Obama administration wrote how the accountability portion of the law would work, allowing states to pick their own goals, both a long term goal and short term goals. These goals must address students’ proficiency on tests, English-language proficiency, and graduation

I personally agree with Richard Rothstein, the achievement gap cannot be closed without the collaboration of outside groups. Teachers cannot close the achievement gap on their own, if they could then I think the achievement gap would be closed by now. So, being that the achievement gap is not closed, it shows that teachers being high quality educators is not the

The United States educational system is failing. This topic is in the news repeatedly. Failing schools are a problem that must fixed. However, it cannot be fixed until we figure out its real cause. Many people put the blame on the government, school officials, and teachers. Critics such as Geoffrey Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, say that the problem lies within the public schools. He states, “Public schools are bad, privately managed charter schools are good” (Ravitch 1). This may be a true statement but there must also be an underlying cause for low school performance. Nobody ever thinks the students may have something to do with this problem. The students are the ones who are taking the tests, paying attention in

Possibly one of the most critical issues the nation is faced with is public education in the United States. One time declaring the United States as a “Nation at Risk”, the educational commissions started to carry out one reform policy after another. With attempts to improve education, there have been reformers have modified class sizes, graduation requirements have been revised, and standardized testing implemented. Proponents of the policy feel that America’s public education system has improved, children are receiving the best instruction from the most qualified teachers, because of the increase in funding students receive extra help and parents now have a choice in what is best for their students education.

Schools are facing major issues due to several reasons discussed by superintendents and principals. These issues hinder the learning curriculum standards set by the government. The No Child Left Behind Act is a mandate set forth by the federal government. “The major focus of No Child Left Behind is to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.” But they still face a dilemma, they need talented leaders to meet the challenges of schools and districts. In order to fulfill the Act set forth by the government, these talented leaders are essential for schools in order to fulfill the “promise of excellence and opportunity for all children”. There are numerous issues discussed that have been found to have the most impact on school and district improvement. The first is money and mandates, not to my surprise. Insufficient funding is the biggest challenge faced by superintendents and principals. Even when the money is there, the mandates pose a problem. It’s like a circle of issues that they cannot get out of. There

When it comes to accountability there has been four major influences that recur in developing policy makers, educators, and families as they have sought to improve America’s schools. The four influences are advances in technology by economic competitors, the low achievements scores of U.S. students when compared to those in other nations, the need for well-trained domestic workforce, capable of retaining U.S. economic technological, and military supremacy in the world, and the civil rights movements on behalf of students who are female, and who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds or who have disabilities (p. 129). These developments have practical consequences for partnerships.

Change is inevitable. When the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative finally became defunct, a new accountability system emerged. In San Francisco Unified School District, central administrative teams began a transition phase starting as early as four to five years ago when Common Core State Standards were introduced to low performing schools. As the Instructional Reform Facilitator during that time, it was exciting because new and more robust learning/content standards also required a change in our approach to instruction and assessment. This was the lever in my mind that this could help close the achievement gap. However this new initiative also brings uncertainty and apprehension for many teachers.

access had not led to equal achievement. Imagine an elementary school where all teachers are able to differentiate their students’ lessons daily in order to meet their individual learning needs; that would be a school where all students would be making academic gains in all subject areas. However, the truth of the matter is there is not enough time for one teacher to make individual lesson plans for each child in her classroom. As a result, students in the same classroom receive the same lesson even if they are three grade levels behind. The reality is, not all students are at the same level and although teachers do their best to close the achievement gaps, by the time some of these students get to the third grade, the gaps are often much wider. The gap seems to be continuously growing. Students entering the third grade have gaps that range from kindergarten skills, where they are unable to pronounce letters, to second grade skills where they cannot comprehend what they are reading. The ideal state would be having all students ready to enter kindergarten.

The education system is something that is very important to our nation. Unfortunately our nation’s most sweeping education law, “The elementary and secondary education act of 1965, is sadly outmoded and broken. The act is better known as the “No child get left behind act.” The act was passed in 1965 to set a high bar for students, provide our nation’s children with a solid education, and good pavement to settle life in a middle class. However, over the years government officials and schools have become too wrapped up in demanding the same skills out of all students. Everyone is different and has their own set of skills and abilities.

To understand how to solve a problem, we must first understand what we are trying to fix. Throughout America’s history parents, educators, and government officials have been debating what changes must be implemented for American children to receive every opportunity possible to gain an education that will prepare them for the future. However, these cries for reform are often rushed, and done for the sole purpose of pleasing the public, not to actually correct the problem. In my opinion, as a student myself, the problem is the public education system as a whole. With America’s diverse 50.1 million school children, America cannot stand as a nation under a single philosophy of teaching. The greatest threats in today’s educational system are the rigid curriculum and the undying stress placed on testing.

The ideas of No Child Left Behind have been debated from the start of the implementation of the initiative. Increasing the successfulness of underperforming students is certainly an admiral goal that should be a focus in schools across America. The No Child Left Behind Program, however good it’s intentions may have been, has failed to bridge the gap between the lowest performing students and their peers. What it has done is increased the need for supports for challenged learners which has in turned has required more money from the schools ever tightening budget cuts.

Throughout the years there have been many changes throughout the education department. In the early 2000’s the main idea was for all students to be equal (Croft, Roberts, & Stenhouse, 2016). In 2001 the No Child Left Behind Act went into effect. The act was to have statewide testing and schools must record in grades 3-8. The education department in each state determined that they wanted every student to be proficient by 2014 (Neill, 2016). Throughout 10 years that the No Child Left Behind Act was in effect, there were no significant gains in students achievements. The student 's scores made the government realize that it was going to be impossible for every student in the United States to reach proficiency (Croft et al., 2016). Knowing that not every student can reach proficiency but yet Obama is increasing teacher’s accountability through high stakes tests scores of students.

Education reform has been a topic discussed at every political forum, and one on the hearts and minds of most Americans. Performance testing has become a primary focus each school year. The importance of testing,” has creased substantially over the past decade” (Dennis, Bhagwatwar, Minas, 2013, abstract). Student’s ability has been the primary concern, in regards to performance testing, however, motivation is also a key factor in performance (Dennis, Bhagwatwar, Minas, 2013). The students of Marshall Metro High School had low performance scores, most of which seemed to be attributed to a lack of motivation (Ferrell, Ferrell, Taylor, 2010). This school was one of the schools that received federal and grants as part of a program that, “targeted 1,247 failing schools nationwide,” in an attempt to reform the education system (Ferrell, Ferrell, Taylor, 2010, p. 405). The school used part of its turn-around funds on antitruancy efforts, as well as on curriculum improvement, among other things (Ferrell, Ferrell, Taylor, 2010).

If the purpose of school is to learn, why do we censor educational material? By removing parts of our history, knowledge, or real world experiences, students receive a distorted perception of educational subjects. The fact that society is trying to keep children pure for as long as possible is destroying advancement within society since that information supports not only academic knowledge, but knowledge regarding everyday life as well. Hiding the truth does not stop the tragic and graphic situations that occur everyday. I completely understand the necessity of basic rules regarding general disorder, however I do not think it is essential to prevent critical thinking as children transition into the real world. How are children supposed to be expected to understand independence, and how to think for themselves if their entire lives were filtered and spoon fed to them? Avoidance and censorship within schools promotes ignorance. For example, restrainment of teaching about the history of slavery in America, result in children to grow without understanding the struggle of acceptance that people of color face, or the significance of rallies and marches for black rights in current society. Or the watered down sex education prevents practically any knowledge that would be useful in modern day life. Currently, majority of what is taught in sex education is abstinence. Although beneficial knowledge, it is unrealistic to expect every child to follow that recommendation; especially

The educational obstacles faced by high school students today are vast and varied. The ancient structure of education in this country has not changed in over a century and by no means reflects the nature of the work environment that high school students will face. Mechanization, globalization, technology and collaboration are the future, yet the high school students of today are trained in the same fashion as those at the turn of the century when they were preparing for factory work. Today’s students are tomorrows’ innovators and problem solvers and thus need to be educated in a manner that will allow them to take on these roles. In order for today’s high school students to