Since we all know that there is a flaw in the education system, many people have various thoughts and ideas on how to solve the problem. While some people believe that it is the school’s fault and they aren’t doing their jobs in preparing students, some believe it’s the government's fault for not being able to properly fund children’s education. Even though fingers can be pointed in different directions, many are working to find the solution. Since President Obama has been elected president, major changes have been made to Bush’s No Child Left Behind as well as the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) and develop major plans to enhance the classroom experience.
Obama’s changes and revisions of existing laws include:
Since the creation of the The No Child Left Behind Law, it has created a mix of confusion in our educational system. The Obama administration has introduced a plan to make fundamental changes in the program. During the last decade, more that a third of America's schools have been identified as failing academic standards. The current law focuses on grade level proficiency and many children never reach their full potential. The new changes will reward schools for progress, especially for poor and minority students. The new bill will also establish higher educational standards that will guarantee that students are ready for college or a career. The White House is proposing a $4 billion increase in federal education spending, which most republicans opposed. Some of the features of the new plan includes that by 2020 all students graduating from high school will be prepared for college or a career .The law will give more rewards to high poverty schools that realize big gains in student achievement; however, the lowest performing schools will be punished. The plan has been described as a culture shift and the old name will be dropped and a new name will be given for the plan.
Recently, the Obama Administration has released a plan that will make changes to the ESEA which will challenge the nation to accept new educational standards. These changes provide incentives for each state to make it their goal to meet higher academic standards while ensuring that students will succeed in today’s global environment. America has always been a leader in education and these new guidelines are designed to prepare and measure student’s growth and create accountability standards to ensure success. The needed changes were determined after research was conducted to support the need for reform. The plan provides support in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for students and gives needed support to families, teachers, and communities. The plan will include a reward for excellence and creativity and it has provisions for all schools both in public and low performing schools.
By raising standards in the classroom, many children will be better prepared for the future, allowing American students to be more competitive in the world as well as more motivated to receive a higher education.
After reading the initiatives of the Obama administration, I have to wonder if these solutions will be just another poor attempt at education reform. The U.S. continues to significantly drop in competitive education and nothing seems to work. Sure, No Child Left Behind was good in theory but look how that turned out? Teaching is done to the tests. Have standards really been raised as a result? I would be interested to know how more specifically all graduating students in 2020 would be prepared for college or a career. How can that goal reasonably be reached in a certain time frame? In other words putting a year on a projected goal so broad is basically ridiculous. Not to mention how specifically are schools going to be improved. Sure they get rewards but what is actually going to cause this change? It is easy to make claims but only action can actually constitute for a change. In my opinion, only a deeper cultural view of the importance of education is going to ensure change. The government needs to look more at the roots of the problem instead of claiming goals that probably won't happen.
ReplyDeleteYes Ms Ed. I agree with your comment. The government does need to look deeply into the cause of our problems and try to figure it out. Realistically, I’m not sure if Obama’s plans will work by 2020. There is so many issues going on in schools that the government can’t solve all the issues by then. While it might not succeed 100%, I do like that fact that Obama is now realizing that raising standards in schools is more effective than trying to have students make a certain score on a test. Even though it will be struggle, at least the teachers and schools that actually see increase in performance will be rewarded, instead of being punished for not having students making certain scores. By doing that, I believe more schools feel more inclined to raise their standards and helping students, leading to a better performance. Even with his plans, it takes more than the government to solve our problems. It takes involvement from students, teachers, and pretty much the whole community to make our schools successful.
ReplyDeleteI probably should have mentioned in my blog that this is one of the possible solutions to problems going in public schools, not the only.Like I said in my previous comment, its takes more than the government to solve our problems.
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