education reform in america
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EDUCATION REFORM IN AMERICA
A STUDY OF CURRENT ISSUES
Anna PriddyU.S. History, Blue 1
History
Roots of American Education
Primary mode of education = charity school
Lancaster schools (England) show that schools need adult supervision
Started as theoretical learning progressive shift toward classical learning
Moor’s charity school
inHartford
, CT
Joseph Lancaster
Andrew Bell
Major Events in Education, 1800s
1787
•Young Ladies Academy opens
1791
•Bill of Rights created
1817
•Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opens
1827
•The state of Massachusetts passes a law requiring towns of more than 500 families to have a public high school open to all students
1829
•The New England Asylum for the Blind opens
1836
•The first of William Holmes McGuffey's readers is published
1837
•Horace Mann becomes Secretary of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education; first students arrive at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary
1839
•First “normal school” opens
Major Events in Education, 1800s
1848
•Samuel Gridley Howe helps establish the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children
1849
•Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from Geneva Medical College
1852
•Massachusetts enacts the first mandatory attendance law. By 1885, 16 states have compulsory-attendance laws, but most of those laws are sporadically enforced at best. All states have them by 1918
1854
•Boston Public Library opens to the public, Ashmun Institute is founded
1856
•First kindergarten in the U.S. is started
1857
•The National Teachers Association is founded
1859
•Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species is published
1862
•The First Morrill Act becomes law
Problems in the Late 1800s
Length of school year Teachers underpaid,
under qualified Religion invades learning
– need secular schools 1890 – most local boards
accept public schooling (not the South)
Jacob Riis exposes New York classrooms
Roots of Progressive movement
Horace Mann
“The father of American public education”
Promoted public education Beliefs met with
controversy European influence
Secretary of Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837
The Progressive Era
School increasingly focused on technical/industrial training (thanks Dewey!)
Fewer American laborers, more immigrants
Compulsory school attendance first established in 1852
Children need to experience adolescence
Assimilation
Differences in mental ability
Opposed compulsory attendance
Standardized testing good
Immigrant naturalization
Educational assimilation for immigrants
Help teachers and administrators
Naturalizing immigrant children
Edward Thorndike: Educational Psychology (1903) E.P. Cubberley
Both approaches met with resistance after 1929 as Dewey became more popular
Administrative Progressives
Junior high school program adopted
Psychological tests, vocational guidance
Fewer local high schools, more large, centralized high schools
Curricular differentiation
Increased state and federal regulation (standardization)
Edward Thorndike
John Dewey
Philosopher, educator, Pragmatist that led opposition to standardization
Heavily influential from 1900-1940
Argued for experimental education, criticized “dead” education
Influence declined after Second World War
Reforms Since the 1950s
Civil Rights Reforms (1950s – 1970s)
A Nation at Risk (1980s)
Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (1990s)
No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
Overall Effectiveness
No one solution yields the “perfect” education system
Biggest reforms came in the 1890s and with Administrative Progressives
John Dewey = most influential reformer in modern perspective
Today’s reforms = more legislative, less dramatic change
Modern Perspective
Latest Issues
Money The economy and
education Cost of college tuition Teacher compensation
Assessment Replacing “No Child”? National standardization
Quality of education Online vs. in-class
instruction
The Economy and Education
In Michigan, universities and prisons competing for shrinking state budgets
Smaller budgets fewer programs Students can’t afford to attend college
Increased demand for college education “We are spending more on a prisoner in
one year than we are to help a Michigan student go to college for four years.”
-Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan
The future depends on education – North Carolina
Cost of College Tuition
“"We can't keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition. Colleges and universities need to do their part to keep costs down as well ... We are putting colleges on notice…”
Solution? Split $1 billion among states
whose colleges contain tuition
Proposed "College Scorecard"
Teacher Compensation
Want to hire “the highest-quality educators in the most cost-effective manner” Paid enough already Money wasted
Many teachers paid for qualifications, not quality New teachers vs.
veteran teachers Unrealistic
expectations
Replacing “No Child”?
10 states exempted from “No Child Left Behind”
“Take a careful look at the policies at the heart of NCLB, because they have not worked, [and] if they are not working, we need to change them."
-Monty Neill, chair of the Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA)
Emphasis on high-stakes tests is misguided, should be used more as a “sample”
Alternatives?
National Standardization
Removes parents from decisions about content taught in children’s schools
Obama Administration wants to “nationalize” content taught in public schools across America
Common Core Standards Initiative
Problems
Online or In-Class?
Scheduling flexibility Classroom-like
experience Technical proficiency Hard to tell if students
grasp material Honor system Easier?
Up-close and personal
Forced to focus Social factor More rigorous?
Online In-Class
Bottom line: depends on
personal learning style
Proposed Solution
No More Standardization
Nationalization is not the answer! Parents need to be
involved, nationalization ruins this process
Road to recovery Reflect on why we
began to set standards No more standardization
legislation Give states more control
of education
Five Steps to Better Compensation
1. Avoid Across-the-Board Pay Increases2. Pay Teachers for Their Performance, Not
for Their Resumes3. Screen Teachers More Intensely After
Hiring Them 4. Transition Teachers from Traditional
Pensions to 401(k)-Style Plans5. Maintain Sober Expectations
- From Jason Richwine’s A Better Way to Pay
Other Reforms (Revisited)
Testing Consortium
school Learning
record Funding The issue of
control Abandon No
Child
Challenges
Too much? Skepticism Legislation Major challenge:
impatience Extra costs would not
be too significant Most state boards have
enough money, just not budgeted correctly
Summary
History of education reforms stretches back to the 1800s, continues to present major challenges today Horace Mann John Dewey Modern legislation
Reformers have tried numerous approaches, but there is no magical solution
Need better budgeting, less federal control Only way to change is to act!
Bibliography
Bibliography (cont.)
Bibliography (cont.)