The American School System: Enter
the Wasteland.
According to the National Center for
Education Statistics, in 2012, 41.9 million children were enrolled in public
elementary and secondary schools, with an estimated 3.4 million expected to
graduate at the end of the school year (NCES). With such a high figure, one
would not expect that this will only account for roughly 70-75% of the
twelfth-grade population. This means that 25-30% will not graduate, and will either
have to retake their senior year, or will drop out and seek a GED or a low-wage
job. Some of the students that do graduate will only do so by a very narrow
margin. The question begs to be asked; why are these numbers so low? The reason
lies not only in the student, but in the American education system and its
flawed policies and missed potential. Quite blatantly, the American education
system is failing our students.
Every year approximately 1.3 million
students fail to graduate high-school on time, with the primary reason being
low academic performance in the areas of English and Mathematics (NCES).
Roughly 70% of students entering ninth grade read below their grade level. This
may explain why there is such difficulty for some, when it comes to reading out
of textbooks to understand a mathematical equation or a soliloquy by William
Shakespeare. Sadly, that 1.3 million that fail to graduate will neither be
prepared for the modern work force or for attending college classes without
multiple remedial classes or the presence of a GED. The issue ultimately lies
in the way that the American education system runs her schools. Many of these
schools abide by standards set by Washington D.C. (which has its own alarmingly
low graduation rate of 56%); while the states further establish more detailed
and particular standards internally. This creates an education gap not only
between the states, but the federal government as well, making it even more
difficult for transferring students to achieve any kind of excellence in their
education. Without a consistent nationwide standard, one cannot expect success
in students nationwide, let alone have the ability to perform a detailed and
accurate assessment of pass/fail rates. This is further exacerbated by the fact
that the states and the federal government are unable to set up a single,
high-rate standard for all schools to achieve. This will assist students
transferring not only state to state, but from school to school, as they will
have one directed and effective path. Unfortunately without this sort of
attention paid to a new standard, the schools are not only destroying each
other, but damaging their own fragile repertoire. With school focus switching
to change the education gap through the use of improving test scores, many
other important programs are being done away with.
Dr. Camika Royal, a 14 year teacher,
and teacher’s coach in low-wage urban communities, has said:
Test score mania has turned our schools into
test prep factories where the study of languages and music and art—those
elements that humanize people—those things are sacrificed, and we pressure
students to catch up so that the gap is closed (…) ‘Catching up is made nearly
impossible by our structural inequalities (Royal).’
This is affecting our children in a profoundly
negative way, as is proved by the decreasing number of high-school graduates.
We owe children a quality education that is tailored to the style of learning.
For this, a fair assessment of each child must be made, and then they would
need to be assigned to a particular school or class where they could learn in
their own style. For example, if a child is an audio/visual learner, they would
be assigned to a public school where there is a focus on that particular
learning style. Why can we not be the country that separates out public schools
by the learning style of our children? Teachers who have been going against the
standard of learning would be able to flourish and impact their students in
more positive ways, without having to live in fear of disciplinary action, or
hypercriticism from their peers.
One may attempt to argue that this is a
form of segregation; however, without actually looking at the benefits of such
separation. With this “segregation” comes a greater ability for teachers to practice
in their preferred learning styles, and children to receive high quality
education in the style that they learn. Is it segregation to separate children
based upon their location such as district lines or zip codes? One child living
at a home may be in a completely different school than his best friend next
door simply based on district lines, which can – and have split streets in
half.
Ultimately the suggestion of separating out
children by learning style comes not from the idea of segregation, but simply
that there isn’t enough space in most schools across the country to house this
new and special form of teaching. Without explosive expansion, schools would
have to be divided by learning style, just as they are already split by set
district and capacity lines. Ultimately this change would assist students in
meeting the newly defined national education standards, while keeping them interested in school.
Most students today enjoy the
nonacademic aspects of being in school such as social, sports events, and
special activities, which isn’t a problem intrinsically. Where the problem
lies, is that many of them find the classroom portions of school boring and
have no desire to attend aside from the aforementioned reasons. This highlights
a major problem in schools that likely accounts for at least a portion of
drop-out and failure rates. If learning cannot be made meaningful to a student,
then how can we expect them to perform at a high level of proficiency in basic mathematics
and English courses. It is high time that there is a shift in the way that
school is done. Currently most public schools focus on only a narrow aspect of
cognitive growth, while largely ignoring emotional, ethical, and social growth
(Townsend). This harms those students that are social learners, while
completely leaving ethical development to either autonomous means, or relying
on the parents to enforce it. There is the idea of a “dream-school” for some
teachers. It involves having community and parental involvement in the school,
the student, and the class in general. Without these two pillars, the education
system will remain as crippled as we find it today.
The sad truth is that many parents
rely simply too much on the school to teach their sons and daughters not only
the educational requirements but also the social and ethical skills required to
be a productive member of society upon graduation. This is a faulty line of
thought. Parents still need to be parents, not just from the end of the school
day to the beginning of the next, but all day, every day. We need to be more
engaged, and more involved with our children, because only then will they end
up as well rounded as we hope they will be upon graduation. Teachers on the
other hand need to be more grounded in socio-familial frame of thought,
understanding that the child has some sort of family, and makes it a priority
to be involved and in communication with the family. Former Los Angeles math
teacher, and mathematics department chair, Rahila Simzar, clarified this idea:
A
“dream school” would be a community of teachers, school leaders and
administrators who share a goal of nurturing, supporting and encouraging each
and every one of its students. This requires components of a “dream community”
as a prerequisite—with all members of a community contributing to and caring
about the development of its youth. Bridges between students’ school life, home
life and social life need to be built for students to experience a wholesome
and connected learning environment. A “dream school” would be a school in which
each teacher truly loved his/her students and cared deeply for their futures
(Forbes).
This means that for this dream
school to exist, all members of the community need to be involved. This
combined with proper nurturing from the teacher could cause a level of growth
not previously seen by the education system since the early 1900’s when the
first compulsory school laws were passed! We can see just how close we are to
achieving a major breakthrough in modern education, but without proper
guidance, schools will continue circling the drain while parent’s blame the
teachers.
It is hard to be a teacher today,
with such a centrifugal force being focused on the teachers unions, rather than
the student’s environment. Most teachers operating today have the opportunity
to be under tenure. This basically assures that once the teacher has served a
certain amount of time (typically two years), they are unable to be fired
except under cases of extreme negligence, extremely poor performance, or sexual
misconduct. While tenure is a great thing for top-performing and all-star
teachers, this also means that poorly performing teachers are simply shifted
around to different classes or schools (Lawyers.com). These poorly performing teachers
are a major black-eye to the education community, and account for another
portion of failing students and drop-outs. In some cases, these teachers are
shifted into other schools together, assisting in creating what is referred to
as a drop-out factory. These drop-out factories account for almost 10% of the
nation’s schools, and contribute to the figure that one in six students will
not graduate this year (Woessman). This simply points back to the fact that a
major reform or restructuring of schools needs to occur. The 1960s featured a
collegiate reform movement formed based off of the students’ voices. Reform can
only be directed by those with the loudest voices (McFarlane).
With all signs pointing to the fact
that not only are schools failing their children, but lack of activism of the
parents as well, we can see that our responsibility is to assist our children
in achieving higher grades. We can also see that funding alone cannot change
schools let alone alter the status quo. We must be more aware, more engaged,
and highly involved in the education of our children. Teachers must find
themselves more engaged in the family and social aspects of the child’s life,
rather than just in the classroom. This assists in building a better foundation
for tomorrow, and will undoubtedly bring on the kind of change that educators
are hoping to see. It is long past time that the American education system
takes a long hard look at itself, rather than at the test-scores of the
children. “Test-score mania” isn’t going to provide any answers as opposed to
good, quality education that focuses on the needs of the child as a student, a
human, and an individual.
It is high time to focus more on the needs of
the child, and base our reform movements off of their voices. With America
focused on democracy, maybe it’s time to give our children the power to fuel
the reform movements, and let their voices, and their beautifully unique
learning styles build the future of America’s schools. Until then, we will
simply continue down the same path, throwing money at useless statistics, and
ignoring the students themselves. Wake up America. Give your children a future,
and change the outlook of the American wasteland we’re bringing upon ourselves.
McFarlane,
Bruce. "Re-framing Student Academic Freedom: A Capability
Perspective." Springerlink.com. Springerlink.com, 14 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 May 2013. <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-011-9473-4/fulltext.html>.
Royal,
Camika. "Our Education System Isn't Broken, It's Designed to Create
Winners and Losers." GOOD.com GOOD,
30 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.good.is/posts/our-education-system-isn-t-broken-it-s-designed-to-create-winners-and-losers>.
Townsend,
John. "How Should We Rebuild the U.S. Education System?" Forbes.com Forbes Magazine,
15 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/02/15/how-should-we-rebuild-the-u-s-education-system/>.
Woessmann,
Ludger. "Education Next." RSS. Education Next, Dec. 2009. Web. 20 May
2013. <http://educationnext.org/whystudentsinsomecountriesdobetter/>.
NCES.
"Fast Facts." NCES.ed.gov, n.d. NCES
Web. 31 May 2013. <http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372>.
Lawyers.com
"The Pros and Cons of Tenure for Teachers." Lawyers.Com. Lawyers.com, n.d. Web. 31 May 2013.
<The Pros and Cons of Tenure for
Teachers>.
