Abstract
This paper is going to discuss the current education situation in the United States and recommendations to be suggested on the trend this system should embrace so as to address the changes that are bound to arise in the future. To aid in the discussion, factors like the curriculum, methodology, technology, bilingual and diversity should provide clear guidelines as points of reference.
The curriculum is all about the education structure put in place to coordinate the education activities in a certain country. The curriculum provides guidelines to spearhead the education programs. With technology, the education system will have to embrace things that are positive to education and are in line with the ever changing modern world. In terms of the methodology, the education system should come up with ways that make learning appealing to the learner and promote effective learning. For instance, a method that is purely teacher centered will leave the student out as they will feel that they are not part of the teaching learning process. Again, bilingual aspect will tend to forecast more on the language aspect. More attention should be directed towards this aspect so as to cut off the barrier of communication among the students. All groups of students that make up a class should be put to consideration when implementing any strategy in relation to the language issue. Lastly, it is known that the education system present a given country is inclusive of students from different parts of the world who have different background. The curriculum should be sensitive to all the background and appreciate them. This will make the students to feel recognized in the education field.
Introduction
The education system in the United States is made possible by the governing body. The government finances the education system by collecting funds from the general public. Attending school is a must especially at the primary and the secondary levels of education. The schools have organs known as the board which is charged with the function of coming up with the curriculum of schools, strategies to be adopted in the education system and the entire process of learning. These boards are not in charge of matters relating to the finance of the school.
Mostly, research indicates that the age at which children attends school differs that is the widely preferred age is that below 19 years. America is reported to have various types of schools which include the special programmed schools, public and private schools. In the private set up, the approaches towards the education process are not in line with the notion of No Child Left Out –NCLB. In public schools more emphasis is put on this notion.
There are so many issues in line with formation of a curriculum in the United States. The critical issues include weather or not to include topic like history of the past, English, and information about sexuality in the entire curriculum. Therefore, there is need to critically evaluate the education system in the United States so as to detect area that need to be rectified for purposes of enhancing quality education. This will be done in line with the following categories: the curriculum, methodology, technology, bilingual, and diversity.
The Curriculum in the American Schools
Looking at the school curriculum in America we find that there exist a number acts that deal with education one of then being The No Child Left Behind Act which the federal implemented in 2001. This was done by improving the standards of the services the schools offer and also providing students’ parents with the flexibility of choosing the schools that their children can attend. This also created an increased focus on reading. (Heller, 2000)
In the NCLB legislation deals with theories of education reform that are standard based. Initially, it was known as an education that is outcome based. This is based on the belief that goal setting and high expectation always results in the overall success of student performance. It is a requirement in the Act that an assessment criterion has to be given to students in specific grades. (Fred, and Allan, 2006)
This is in line with the basic skills that the students have acquired.It is a requirement in the Act to distribute the student’s particulars to the military recruiters. Such information includes the address, telephone contacts and the names of every student. There have been various arguments raised towards the benefits of the NCLB whereby we find that some of the critics say that NCLB plays a big role in reducing student learning and effective instruction. This is because it can influence the state to lower the necessary goals for achievement. This can also play a big role in motivating teachers to try out teaching to the test. Some scholars assert that when systematic testing is carried out, it provides data which helps in showing the schools that are not teaching the basic skills quite effectively. This is done such that such that such interventions can be put in place to help in reducing the gap of achievement especially for the disadvantaged and the disabled students.
Quality of teachers
According to the No Child Behind Act, it is a requirement that all the teachers in primary and secondary schools be highly qualified. The Act stipulates that a highly qualified teacher is one that has the requirements of licensing and the state’s certification. The teachers also have to demonstrate expertise in their fields or in their areas of specialization. The teachers who are new in profession have to demonstrate knowledge in their teaching subject and also the necessary skills that accompany.
These are areas that are quite basic in the entire curriculum of elementary school. The middle and high school teachers have to demonstrate a high competency level in every teaching subject that they take. This demonstration has to be done by going through rigorous test in academic subject. The high school teachers have to have done coursework that is comparable to an undergraduate major.
Monitoring the success of the learners
This has to be carried out annually especially for the reading and the math grade. Testing for grades 10-11, 6-9 and 3-5 have to be carried out by the end of the year 2007-2008. The Act allows that the assessment can actually take any form as long as this system is used for all students within a state. Research shows that many states have chosen an inexpensive system of carrying out the tests that are standardized. The No Child Left Behind Act has really discouraged the issue where each state adopts the ranking of each of the student’s performance in relation to each other. The No Child Left Behind Act state that the assessments have to include tests that are criterion referenced. This actually focuses on whether the student has the required content and skill according to the standards at the state level. (Howell, 2002)
There are the referenced tests that are norm based that are used in the comparison of performance of each student in relation to the others. There are different groups of students that are exempted from this test. This includes the students that English is not their first language and so they are still learning it. After the first year, the students can then participate in the assessment tests. The progress of each and every student has to be monitored and the overall report has to be made public. all the students in various population groups have to meet the proficiency standards in line with academics. The disadvantaged, special education students and the ethnic/racial groups are also exempted from these tests. Students have to be tested annually according to the examinations that are set at the state level.
The Act on Various Studies
The act ensures high level of standards in various studies offered such as music this highly encourages teachers to teach a subset that is quite narrow of the skills. This makes the teachers not to go into the deeper details of the various subjects. This makes most teachers not to invest in the practical in the pragmatic applications of the subjects taught. The very fact that each state produces its own standardized test, many of them decide just to make the tests very easy so that they can have the highest scores compared to other students. Such standardized test are also very subject to bias because they are marked at the state level and in most cases the teachers marking the answer sheets have a very good knowledge of the students.
A study conducted by the American Heart Association show that the No Child Left Behind Act does not favor or support other subjects like music in schools. Research shows that this has greatly influenced the increase in the levels of obesity amongst children. Surveys carried out in United States reveal that 71 percent of the elementary schools had cut the instructional time for music subject to make room for math and English subjects. This is actually the major focus of the entire law. These surveys show that since the implementation of The No Child Left Behind Act, a large percentage of the instructional time for the arts subject has been decreased. This has played a big role in the deterioration of music subject in K-12 schools.
Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, access to arts and music education in K-12 schools has been difficult. There is a big focus on the disparities in the accessing of music education amongst various groups of students. They include affluent peers, non-minority and the low income students in K-12 schools. Research shows that when students participate in arts and music education, they tend to have positive behavior and great achievement in their examination results.
Since the initiation of the No Child Left Behind Act, multiple changes have occurred in relation to music and arts education in K-12 schools. As earlier on highlighted, the start of NCLB has led to the reduction of the time that is allocated to the teaching of the music subject. (Heller, 2000)
This means that it has been quite difficult for teachers to accomplish the entire syllabus in time. This subject always needs a lot of time so that the teacher can handle both the practical lessons and the theory lessons. Due to the reduction in the instructional time allocated to the music subject, teachers are not in a position to deal with deeper things in this subject. Some of these things are examinable and this has resulted in the decline in the student’s scores in music subject. (Heller, 2000)
This has also influenced the students very negatively as they tend to think that the music subject is of lesser value than math and English. The students therefore do not take much of their time studying this subject. It was also noted that some students were not taking the subject seriously especially at the time when the teacher is teaching. All these have played a big part in the deterioration of music education in K-12 schools.
The access of music education has been quite difficult since the initiation of this Act. Problems have also come up concerning the access to arts and music subjects especially for the minority students in K-12 schools as compared to the non minority students. It has also been difficult for the low income students, that is, those who come from poor families to access music education compared to the non low income students. This is because offering of these subjects has become very expensive since the start of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Actually, various disparities exist in the accessing of arts and music education since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act. The implementation of this federal law has resulted in various barriers that affect schools negatively in relation to offering of subjects such as music and arts. All these factors have led to the deterioration of music education in K-12 schools. (Fred, and Allan, 2006)
Methodology
In public education children are offered the education by the government. It always refers to offering of basic education which is secondary and the primary education. In the United States these is carried out at the state level. This is according to the United States constitution.
Research shows that school vouchers contribute a lot to the failing of the education system in the United States. This paper aims at expounding on how the school vouchers have played a role in failing the education system in the United States.
This has been quite evident in places where the students come from low income families. It is also a common practice in programs of special education. This practice is quite prevalent in areas where there are schools that have lower performance in comparison to the others. Milwaukee has incorporated the use of the school vouchers in the schools therein. Currently it has got approximately 15,000 students that are using the school vouchers.
The following table shows the comparison of use of school vouchers and family income.
School voucher
This is also known as an education voucher. This certificate enables parents to pay fees in any school that they choose instead of the public schools that their children were assigned. The idea of school vouchers was started long time ago. Milton Friedman was the one who founded this methodology and since then this idea has been incorporated in many states including the United States. In the United States the school vouchers started being used many years back. The Bush government also supported the use of the school vouchers in the education system.
Proponents
The people were for this idea reasoned that this venture would assist in the promotion of the free market. They reasoned that competition in the schools would greatly increase and therefore the performances would also increase. They reasoned that the poorly performing schools would end up closing or they would reform. They were greatly against having government standards in the schools but rather advocated for localization of accountability measures in the schools. The proponents said that economic diversity would increase due to the use of school vouchers in the education system. This was also supported by Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman. (Leibowitz, 1971)
Opponents
The voucher system has received much criticism since it was initiated. The argument in this case is that there is a possibility of doing without the school vouchers and still be in a position to choose different schools. The opponents reason that many people think that the private schools are better than the public ones.
Weakens public schools
School vouchers have adversely affected the education system in the United States. The voucher system plays a big role in weakening the public schools. Research shows that when the voucher system is used, it does not guarantee that the students attending the private schools will have enough funds. The public schools have been weakened in the sense that the tuition fees are greatly increased. In most of the large cities in the United States, the student body is predominantly non white. This is quite disadvantageous since the vouchers only provide the ‘white flights’ to be used by the students. (Leibowitz, 1971)
Grade inflation
The use of the school vouchers leads to increased grade inflation in the public schools. This is because there is usually a high chance that the students are given higher grades in various subjects so that they pass highly. This of course will attract the students and every parent will want his or her children to enroll in such a school. The parents believe that when their children enroll in these schools they will also pass very highly when in the real sense the students are not that clever. In Dayton, studies show that there are students who used vouchers in their schools. Research shows that these students however did not improve in their mathematics and their English scores.
This graph shows the decline in the performance of the students when the school voucher system is incorporated in the education system.
Sampling
This is one of the tools that are used in data collection in relation to school vouchers being used in the education system. When vouchers are used in the education system, samples reveal that the public school performance suffers a great deal. This is because the voucher system allows the picking of the top performing students from the public schools. This has made the public schools to suffer a great deal. Public schools have lost quite a substantial number of students to the private schools. The data was collected by a random sampling method in the public schools that are in the United States.
Abuses
There is a record of abuse in the schools that have embraced the use of vouchers in Milwaukee. There is increased negligence in the schools and this is causing harm to the children that learn in the schools. Research shows that in a period of eight months, approximately three schools were denied access to the voucher program due to these problems. An example is cited in a school known as Alex’s Academics school of excellence.
Statistics show that the school received approximately $ 2.8 million in a span of three years. The school’s founder was convicted of rape. The school’s principal was also accused of sexually harassing the students especially the female ones. The employees in the school also practiced vices like marijuana smoking yet the administration did not bother. This occurred until the school was denied access to the voucher program.
Poor discipline
The chart shows the increase in indiscipline cases as schools use vouchers.
Data is also evident in the Academic solutions centre for learning. Research shows that within a span of two months, there were reports of five student fights within the school. The March year 2007 was when the last fight occurred.
When information sources were interviewed in the school it was evident that when the incidences occurred there were no teachers in the school for the whole day. This is because the teachers failed to turn up just because they were not paid. This incident involved approximately 100 students. In fact the police intervened in stopping the fight. They were fifteen in number and yet this was not so easily settled. This took almost one and half hours in stopping the fight. This shows that the school vouchers have contributed a great deal in encouraging the students to be undisciplined in the United States. (Leibowitz, 1971)
Dictation in public schools
There is a big problem in relation to the source of the school vouchers. The sources of the vouchers greatly influence the operations in the public schools in the United States. These sources hinder the government to carry out its regulations on the schools. For example in the United States there are public schools that are run by the church. There are instances when such schools accept government vouchers. This may lead to compromising on various issues in the management of the schools.
There are instances where the government becomes very vocal if the schools are against certain issues like homosexuality and matters dealing with abortion. In such a case the government also tries to manage or control the activities carried out in the church. There are arguments that when the government funds such schools then it is quite unconstitutional. This is because there is high promotion of state sponsorship of the specific religion that is in charge of the school. When the government grants money to the religious and the private schools, it leads to great control being exerted on the education that is non-government based. This normally greatly affects the running of the public schools hence leading to the failing of the education system in the United States.
Leads to discrimination in schools
The use of the school vouchers encourages segregation in the education system. This is because research shows that most of the students that participate are whites in comparison to the black students in the United States. The other reason is that the students who come from families that are highly educated are more likely to participate than those from the poorly educated families.
There are high chances that the private schools will carry out discrimination on the students during the admission process when the school voucher system is encouraged. In fact research shows that this is already happening in some of the schools in the United States. There is discrimination on the students during admission of the students on the basis of their religion.
There are those that prefer the male to the female students and vice versa. This denies the students equal access to this important facility. Some of the schools deny the students admission into the schools because of their academic level. Most of them prefer the students to be in low academic levels than in high. The students with behavioral problems are normally turned away. This is quite inhuman because the schools would have rather dealt with the improving the behaviors of the students. (Day 1983)
Instability on the public schools
The use of the school voucher system in the United States is quite disadvantageous to the public schools in the United States. This is because the school voucher system creates so much instability on the public education in the United States. This system of using vouchers allows the private schools to skim away the students who are better performers in the public schools. They admit the bright students to the private schools instead. In fact the students that remain the public schools are those that have problems with learners. One finds that all the fast learners are skimmed of the private schools leaving the slow learners only. Most of the students have got physical problems and also other moral problems whereby they cannot be admitted in the private schools. This is quite demoralizing to the teachers in the public schools because they strain in teaching students and their efforts are thwarted by the private schools.
School Administrators
When the private schools skim off bright students from the public schools, the income in these public schools is greatly affected. The public schools are left with poor students and therefore spend a lot of money in buying teaching aids. The costs in the public schools greatly increase and yet there are few students who are paying tuition fees. These costs include the fixed costs like the payment of the teachers their salaries at the end of the month. The private schools thriving due to the school voucher program usually offer their teachers better salaries. This makes the teachers in the public schools to seek for employment in the private schools since they are better paying.
No state regulation
The use of the school vouchers in the education means that the state would not enforce standards on the schools. These standards include those that are concerned with safety and quality in the schools. This is clearly shown in Prop 38, where the schools that use the vouchers will not necessarily be required to employ teachers who are credentialed. They will not necessarily employ the college trained teachers. This would create very poor comparison with the rest of the students in other schools. It is a concern of parents that the building regulations in the schools will be greatly ignored. There are high chances that the safety measures of the students will not be taken seriously and will not be standardized. These include the requirements of preventing earthquake striking the students and the teachers in the school.
Technology
In terms of technology, the United States has come from far. The ancient school did not have facilities like boards, geographical diagrams, among other basic things. Feathers of some birds were used to making writing equipment. The quality of the paper used for writing was poor as it was dull and without lines. Several papers were put together by sawing them together. Around 1840s the idea of adopting boards used as a teaching aid was adopted in most schools. This was seen as the greatest achievement in the education sector. As years went by, things like books, textbooks, various teaching aid were entrenched into the education system.
Most of the reforms that have been adopted are in line with the notion of NCLB. In this light, a strategy was formulated to cater for students that are far from the education centers. This is what gave yield to long distance learning approach. Initially, this method used video films but with time the computer by use of the internet has really made work easier. Nowadays, some students don’t need to be in a school set up in order to learn, the introduction of laptops have largely aided this evolution. Also, conferences organized by companies can be held world wide through telecasting means.
Therefore, the technology has to be embraced as all cost because it is important. The following benefits come along with adopting new technologies in the education sector. To begin with, technology en lights the students about the current happenings in the world there by improving their IQ, it improves the performance of students especially with problems like the blind, the deaf and the dump among others among other.
Teachers on their part are charged with the responsibility of coming up with strategies that incorporate these new technologies in the curriculum so as to be part of the learning process. This is because technology is positive in the lives of the students as it exists beyond the classroom. For instance children are getting acquainted to the use of computers as a very early age and therefore this is a change that cannot be stopped by the education system by be adopted. If necessary changes are made, the education system will be a par with the changing world. (Fred and Allan 2006)
Interactive whiteboards
Recent studies have looked at how interactive whiteboards influences learning and teaching processes in schools. It suggests that whiteboards offer visual display that go in line with the explanations offered by the teacher thus helps students to understand better. It further explains that it has a motivational effect especially when used at the primary school level.
Such ICT technologies are:
- Interactive whiteboard,
- Videoconferencing,
- PowerPoint research presentation
- Internet use
ICT technicians in schools
ICT technicians are the most useful people in the information society and they do this by teaching students by first about ICT and secondly assist both the teachers and the students to use ICT in their teaching and learning processes respectively. Adequate training is required for these technicians to provide sufficient guidance for the schools but the cost of doing so is also high for both the government and schools themselves.
Better communication between teachers and students
Just as the name ICT itself suggests, ICT has improved communication standards between students and teachers not only in America but also elsewhere around the world where ICT has been implemented. Most teachers today in America give out assignments and demand that the students give them back to him or her in soft copy either via an email or any other ICT related information channel
Designing of education curriculum
The design of a credible education curriculum is very tedious and demanding but with the use of ICT helps to improve the process. In anticipation of future developments and other new technological advancements, curriculum must be designed to take into considerations such issues. ICT in its capacity is capable to provide necessary educational design skills to sufficient to form future teaching profession. The federal through the ministry of education has set a program referred to as curriculum online that enables all stakeholders in the education sector to know what is expected of them and more importantly to buy academic materials from accredited suppliers.
Administrative tasks for teachers are made simpler
Teachers mostly use ICT for the following routine tasks; record keeping, information presentation, lesson plan development and basic information search from the internet. With ICT therefore, all these tasks are tackled effectively and in an easy way. Initially, with introduction of ICT for teacher use is an important motivational tool to promote and enable teacher professional and career development. Effective ICT use helps teachers and students to meet such increased needs as, provision of models and simulations of effective teaching practices, learner support networks and face to face communication. However, introducing and using ICT in learning and teaching processes in schools is time consuming for teachers hence teaching processes will be slower
Access to better education content
Better education content is usually obtained through his use of ICT and computer technologies. Almost all journals, newspapers, books and academic articles are available through the internet and this provides better quality information for educators in the world. Access to information is considered one of the most important benefits of ICT in American schools today. Learning materials in an electronic format are easy to obtain, edit, read, understand and more so available in large quantity.
Bilingual
Bilingual education deals with teaching students starting with their first language to the use of English language later. Language is attributed to ones culture and therefore more attention should be directed to this aspect in the education system. In most cases, adaptation of a learner from one type of language to the other is not easy the reason being most languages do not share the same grammatical experience. Due to difference in languages, students can be discriminated by their classmates hence destroying their ego, being looked down upon, succumbing to pressure from the others. This would largely disorient many students if the teacher does not take up language matter as a critical issue in the learning processes. (Day 1983)
In the United States, the language aspect has undergone various changes due the dramatic evolution in the history of the countries and also a change in the negative perception build towards the groups seen as lesser. The original speakers of the English language were highly placed and taken in schools and government offices easily. The evolution experienced in the political arena, matters of the economy and sociological ideologies have positively impacted to the aspect of the language in the United States. Groups of missionaries advocated for the English language to be used by the foreigners who were migrating in the United States. The designers of the curriculum in the United States to some extend thought that it was the business of the foreigners to came up with strategies that will make them acceptable in their new place. The foreigners include Asian, Cubans who attended the schools that were in the United States. They had the need to retain their language and also learn the English so as to attend the schools in the United States. At some point, the government in the United States ventured into strategies that harmonize the background of students so as to come up with a curriculum in the schools that does not prioriterises the English language. Due to discrimination in the schools, an act was made to do away with this kind of practice- English Language Learners (EEL). The immigrant group of students was to be taught in the second language and not their own language so as to attain proficiency in the English language. When the groups gain the competence mark, a challenge on how to preserve the mother language arose. Again, the curriculum had to accommodate both the original speakers of the English speakers and the foreigners. The reforms made to the education system impacted positively to the students.
Diversity
Diversity involves removing the lines drawn among the people on the basis of race, tribe, among other issues. When this aspect is incorporated in the education sector it affects positively all other sectors in the economy. Creativity can be enhanced in the work areas if people with different backgrounds are employed.
In the United States, the spirit of diversity was created by reform groups that demonstrated in the quest to make known to whites about the ill treatment that was directed to the people who had a black origin. The education curriculum planners were to include strategies that would help deal this issue of black people being segregated. Other grouping of people also added a voice in making the two groups of people to understand each other. A discussion was prepared by the military people that turned out to be successful in promoting diversity. (Day 1983)
Diversity in faith, difference in sexual behaviors like lesbian and gay people, sex difference among others was experience in the years of 70s and 80s. This led to programs to be designed to preach what was morally upright in relation to the society. Recently in the United States, laws have been set up to protect different groups of people. Largely, this approach has alleviated the prejudice directed to various groups of people. Universities in the United State like Fullerton and California stated to offer courses in line with diversification. (Fred and Allan 2006)
Conclusion
In conclusion, in line with the education sector, the curriculum, technology, methodology, bilingual and technology factors have to undergo regular changes so as to marry the future expectations of the education system. Largely, these changes cannot be controlled by the education system not to happen, therefore the system should brace up for such future challenges.
According to the No Child Behind Act, it is a requirement that all the teachers in primary and secondary schools be highly qualified. This has to be carried out annually in every school in the states. The No Child Behind Act has received various criticisms since it was passed. There has been reduction in the instructional time awarded for the arts and music subjects. This means that it has been quite difficult for teachers to accomplish the entire syllabus in time. This subject always needs a lot of time so that the teacher can handle both the practical lessons and the theory lessons. This has played a big role in the deterioration of the music subject in K-12 schools.
School vouchers play a big role in failing the education system in the United States. This is in terms of performance, discipline and the weakening of the public schools. The use of the voucher system seems good but it has got many negative implications on the education system.
References
Day, H (1983) Race relations training in the military; Handbook of Intercultural Training, Vol. 2 Issues in training methodology; New York.
Fred, C and Allan, C. (2006): Educational Administration Concepts and Practices; 4th Ed; New York; Macmillan Press.
Heller, F. (2000): Education in K-12 schools; An overall overview; San Francisco, CA; West Edition.
Howell, W. (2002): No Child Left Behind Act; Results from Three Randomized Field Trials; Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 21(2), 191–217.
Leibowitz, A (1971) Educational policy and political acceptance; The Imposition of English as the language of instruction in American schools Washington, DC.