Jonny Leon
English
102-111
March
21, 2012
SWA #20
Title: Fixing American Education:
Solutions to a Failing System
Thesis: The problems with the American
education system are great and numerous, but solutions to the problem appear to
be promising.
I.
The
American education system has been failing its students for quite some time now
and attempted solutions, while good in theory, never seem to work out properly
and have very minimal effect on changing the American education system. The United
States used to have the top education system in the world but now it is far
behind most European countries. The No Child Left Behind policy had the greatest
impact of anything so far. There are many critics of it, but just like any proposed
change.
II.
Teachers’
Unions pose one of the greatest problems for the education system.
a)
Under
the idea of tenure teachers remain teaching regardless of how effective they
are.
i)
Teachers’
Unions have brought about the idea of tenure so teachers have a very small
chance of losing their jobs.
ii)
In
most states, tenure can be gained by working just two or three years.
iii)
After
receiving tenure, teachers will rarely be fired because of ineffectiveness.
iv)
Many
teachers’ unions require a teacher to be a part of the union if they want to
teach in the state.
v)
Ineffective
teachers will remain teaching which can have very negative effects on the
students.
b)
Evaluations
of teachers’ effectiveness should be done instead of the idea of tenure.
i)
Teachers
should be evaluated on their effectiveness to determine if they are adequate to
continue teaching.
ii)
Some
critics of the education system say the effectiveness of teachers is the
biggest influence on students’ ability to learn. It is not solely based on the
quality or type of learning environment.
c)
This
view is held members of the government and some teachers.
III.
Performance
on standardized tests is the way most states determine how much money to give
to the schools.
a)
Standardized
testing fails to correctly evaluate student performance.
i)
This
type of testing causes teachers and administration to only focus on improving
test scores.
ii)
Teachers
begin to only “teach to the test” which means they only teach students what is necessary
to do well on tests and nothing more.
iii)
Schools
that do not do well on these tests get reduced funding and the students only
tend to do worse there.
b)
There
are more effective ways to evaluate student performance.
i)
The
United States is one of the only countries in the world that evaluates student
performance solely on standardized tests.
ii)
A
better determining factor of student performance would be teachers’ evaluations
of students doing learning tasks rather than a standardized test.
c)
This
is the view of many members of the government and also the view of some
teachers.
IV.
The
No Child Left Behind policy originally started in 2001 as a way to evaluate
student performance
a)
This
policy started as a way to improve schools performance by adding incentives to
schools that do well according to a set of standards that were set.
i)
This
creates some major problems within the school system.
ii)
Underperforming
schools get penalized for not meeting the set standards.
iii)
Schools
may lower their standards so they are not penalized but this then causes the
students to get a less effective education.
b)
Obama
plans to make a complete overhaul of this policy.
i)
Obama
wants to focus more on the underperforming schools which may cause changes in administration
or even closing the schools down.
ii)
Obama
wants to create a set of standards that are agreed upon by all states but these
standards would be less focused on standardized tests.
c)
This
is the current view of many members of the government including the president
and the secretary of education.
V.
Gifted
students are treated as superiors and therefore given more attention.
a)
In
most schools gifted or exceptionally smart students are given much more
attention by teachers and the average or poorly performing students are
forgotten.
i)
These gifted students are put in special class
and allowed to be in special programs that allow them to get even smarter.
ii)
It
may not be a bad thing but then more money is spent on these gifted students
while the rest of the students suffer.
Conclusion:
The American education system is a growing failure and will not improve until
someone enacts real change. All of the problems within the education system
cannot be solved so determining which is the most important will have the
greatest effect on bringing about any real change. This education system is
something I have experienced firsthand and would like to see changed before it
fails more children. I believe the biggest problem is the focus on standardized testing and changing
that may bring the greatest improvement to the education system in the United
States.
