SWA #20

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.