The Mayers Policy Analysis Model

There was a time when America’s education system was top-notch according to the culture and society. With time, a myriad of things has changed, but unfortunately what has not evolved is the American education system. The country is still following a system which was not designed for the current global economic climate. Equality, as positive as it sounds is not as sufficient when it comes to education. The system treats students equally yet expect a similar culmination and outcome. Every child has his individuality and distinct abilities; one cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. Conversely, a few of the prominent reasons why the education system is failing are overcrowded schools, the rise of technology, and following the same old school hours.

America used to thrive on its education system and that is why it became one of the greatest nations in the world. Education is the backbone of our country, and we must give high priority to improve its current condition. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades, the education system has been regressing. It has been on the decline and not as effective. The quality of education in a country has an influence on GDP growth, social cohesion and social well being in general. In order to improve the quality of education in the U.S., the following must be taken into consideration: the structure of our education system must be reanalyzed, we must compare and contrast our education system to systems of other countries with higher rankings, and finally, there must be a solution.

Since prior to the 1980’s, the American education system has rapidly declined in all areas. The article, “A Nation at Risk,” written by President Ronald Reagan, depicts the many issues in the U.S. school systems regarding the content, standard and expectations, time, teaching, and leadership and fiscal support. This piece, apparently, has led the country into an extreme educational reform to improve all aspects of our school system. Based on my experiences in high school, student test scores, and current school conditions, I believe that while all issues raised by the commission in the report are not necessarily a problem anymore, issues with student growth.

Diane Ravitch, an “educational historian”, answers four questions in her book, Reign of Error. Is American education in crisis? Is American education failing or declining? What is the evidence for reform being promoted by the government and adopted by many states? What should we do to improve our schools and the lives of our children? According to Ravitch, the “crisis” concerning American education is actually a myth. In this book, she addresses myth after myth providing adequate clarity and information. She looks deep into the facts and brings to light what is actually happening in education in America in the following areas: test scores, achievement gaps, graduation rates, teachers and test scores, merit pay, charter schools, virtual school, government involvement of failing schools. In the latter chapters she offers specific solutions with detailed plans and recommendations to preserve and improve American education. Ravitch’s thesis is that American public education must be protected against government privatization and that we must work together to improve our schools. I couldn’t agree more with Ravitch. Government involvement in education has negatively impacted education since the passing of NCLB. Our focus has changed from being innovative teachers to cookie cutter teachers. Government officials should not make decisions without advice from educational professionals. We must all work together to make education work.

For the past decade, our country’s education system has reached a flat line in results. Studies show that the United States is the number one country in education spending in order to improve our results, but standardized test scores have plateaued. During President George W. Bush’s term, he initiated a program titled “No Child Left Behind.” No offense to President Bush, however his educational initiative is the most ironic title due to its produced results. So far, no state in our country has reached one hundred percent proficiency in mathematics and language arts and the system has gotten deficient and is failing the millennial generations. Education is a key component to success in our fast-paced society and our system needs to change, for

Education is the essential foundation for the progressing of our nation as well as the stimulation for our children. Now, as some may or may-not know that learning gives forth children the accessibility to succeed in physical, intellectual, and even emotional endeavors. Education tends to incline us to widen the door towards attainment in the future. As individuals receive an education, they are more capable to obtain better employment. Views tend to be various to our educational system. Throughout America’s history, students, parents, educators, and government authority have discussed what changes must be made in America’s public school system. We agree changes need to be made to reach goals that will prepare our future for the future properly. However, the voices and cries for positive changes have yet to be heard. Sometimes, many of those changes are established far too quickly for results to be thoroughly examined. The most popular cries for education changes comes from Geoffrey Canada’s stating that “billions of dollars spent on testing, the data cannot be used, because the results come back too late (Canada, 2013). Now, the average person may not be too alarmed, but when companies, like Microsoft or Apple, has to hire computer programming engineers from other countries to fill positions since American’s are academically unqualified, which brings this education system to light on such topics (Moore, 34-36). In all, the public school system is

Educating the next generation of Americans and Crafting an educational system that will allow the nation to strive seems like a daunting task. It becomes even more daunting when it is passed along to the local governments to deal with. The United States Constitution leaves the responsibility of public k-12 education with the states. With this in mind

U.S Education policy has always been a subject of debate in American society. Americans have always struggled with the question of how to educate the next generation. The 10th Amendment states; “ powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Although this does not explicitly state that education is exclusively under the jurisdiction of the states, the precedence of this practice was set during the foundations of our government. However, despite its decision to relegate education to state and local government, the federal government has been known to intervene in local systems.

Over the past decade or longer schools in the United States of America have been tasked to produce successful students. In 2002, then-President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, yet another phase of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (Cook, 2011). This has done little if anything to prepare students for college or life in general as the standardized tests used for assessing knowledge are actually a ranking method for evaluating aptitude rather than achievement and derived from United States Army Alpha Test, which was used to determine army recruits qualified for officer training (Cook, 2011). The success of schools, school districts, educators, and the students themselves has been measured by these standardized tests and higher ranking in overall scores equates to more funding for schools and higher pay for educators. What is left out of this equation is the students, how they are prepared for their future, and how successful they actually are or perceive themselves to be.

America is persistently investing in education to keep up with the competitive nations, but their efforts have been unsuccessful. By understanding the current system used in America, as well as those used in the countries that out perform us, we can discover the cure. Through research I have found that the greatest strength to any education system is the funding it receives. This paper will go into detail about the education systems that outperform America, particularly how they function, and how they are funded. We will also discuss details as to how much the United States is spending on their education system and what President Obama has in mind to correct the problems America is currently facing with their curricula.

The NCLB was signed into law in 2001 by President George W. Bush. The act is was meant to give assistance in establishing good reading and math programs. Programs such as reading first “ funded at $1.02 billion in 2004” were made to help states and their districts set up “scientific, research-based” reading programs for students in K-3 grades by having districts compete for federal money (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center 8). Billions of dollars had been put towards programs like reading first but much of that said money has either been cut or never reach the set target goal of promised money. Despite the intention to increase student academic achievement, the act has failed to do so in several cases arguably putting us in a worse situation than before.

Almost thirty years later and the United States still face an educational downward spiral. The local, state, and Federal governments continued inefficiency to fully reform the education system as well as to fully implement the recommendations of the NCEE, have continued to place the

Education is the foundation of American society. It empowers the youth of America to become the successful leaders this country needs for the future. Education has been one of America’s top priorities since 1965, when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed. Now, education is controlled by the No Child Left Behind Act, which was launched in January 8, 2002. This act was passed with intentions from the government to provide Americans with a more superior education system. However, The No Child Left Behind Act carried many flaws which were left unseen to a vast majority of the public. This act limited American students by not allowing them to demonstrate their full academic potentials while proceeding in school. While the

The United States’ education ranks low on multiple ranking sources, ranging from literacy levels to mathematical abilities and every curriculum in between. We rank 17th overall, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Not only is the United States ranked educationally low, the gap between the United States and the country in first place, South Korea, the gap is over one hundred points on the literacy tests. The top educational countries around the world have shown to accelerate their test scores by government involvement helping all ares of the country, especially the ones with sociocultural and economic issues that score the lowest, giving all students the same opportunity for academic success. The United States has had minimal attempts to successfully follow through with policies to increase the opportunity for underprivileged students in impoverished region around

This paper is a review of Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in Patton, Sawicki, and Clark, (2012) third edition, Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning. Chapter 1 discusses problem review, the analysis of difficult problems, the complexity of problems and how the decision makers will make their decisions (Patton, 2012, p. 2, 3). Chapter 2 examines the policy analysis process, the types of policy analysis, the role of the analyst and ethical considerations. Chapter 3 discusses the gathering of data, interviewing, statistical analysis and communicating results. This paper contains (1) an overview of the chapters, (2) summarize the key points, (3) summary of the reading, and (4) underscore some implications/applications for policy and practice at a local, state or national context.