Can there be little doubt the school system in the United States is failing? According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than a quarter of U.S. schools are failing under terms of the No Child Left Behind law. A least 24,470 U.S. public schools, or 27 percent of the national total, did not meet the federal requirement for "adequate yearly progress" in 2004-2005. (Washington Post)
Of course, we don’t stack up very well internationally either. An interesting new documentary has come out titled “Two Million Minutes,” which examines the daily life of individual students in China, India, and America. Compared to the U.S., China now produces eight times more scientists and engineers, while India puts out up to three times as many as the U.S. Here in deep South Texas, there has been a lot of discussion about some high schools being “drop-out factories.”
This is a crisis that will bury America in the future.
Just a couple of questions, things to point out...
1. I hope that the rate quoted is based on percentages and not just mere numbers... of course nations that have populations far greater than ours will produce more scientists and engineers... so I hope that the math is being used properly and deceptively (or did that come from one of the failing US systems?)
2. How do we measure educational success? I agree, we're not anywhere near perfect, far from it, yet we tend to compare apples to oranges... the systems are fundamentally different. We have a system based on opportunity for all, many other nations give opportunity only to the highest test scorers... we should hone in on the (for lack of a better word) "smart" ones, but not drop our low scoring students, which I believe is key to the diversity and entrepreneurial spirit we have here.
3. In my travels to Europe, those that do not graduate from the "higher" high schools, have a much diminished chance of attending college (albeit, it's a way to filter students for subsidized system). Career opportunities are severely limited without proper "credentials"... it's becoming that way here, but one can still start something from a grass roots movement...
Just my two cents...
Posted by: TravisM | January 26, 2008 at 05:17 PM
Annual Yearly Progress is not a simple easy statistic. It is quite normal for high quality districts to not make annual yearly progress because it requires improvement no matter how good you are. It also has multiple categories. I'm not sure, but it may be 10 to 15 categories. If you miss improvement in just one category the school fails.
The urban and rural school districts in the USA are extremely challenged. What worked academically for their parents will not work for them because the world is changing so fast. When parents did not succeed in school and reading is not a part of their daily life how can their chlidren succeed in school.
Additionally, there is research that shows children's language skills are determined between age 2 and 4,before they are in school, based on family income levels. Unless schools have massive reading interventions for students in early elementary school they actually fall farther and farther behind as they progress through school until they dropout usually around 16.
Posted by: Tom | January 29, 2008 at 07:22 PM
About the "schools are failing under terms of the No Child Left Behind law" report. For me, it's a "half full" glass philosophy point of view, so it's depended on how positive/negative one view at the report I would say that's is a good news indeed!
Without the doctor to tell me early about how bad I am so I can plan for my treatment, or a law to measure the effectiveness of our education system, we'll never know until it's too late.
Thanks to the Democrat, the liberals, the dead beat parents - who wanted to discard the grading system, just push our children through motion, learning from emotion rather than from the fact, getting away from tough subjects like, Math, Science, and worse of all English, the language that those immigrant like myself should learn in the first place if they decided wanted to come to this country.
So that's a good news, what next? The 2008 Election of course...
That's just my whole dollar of today allowance... :-)
Sam
Posted by: Sam | January 30, 2008 at 10:16 AM
I noticed several things in US education system - sometime the kids are spoiled and parents tend to take up for the kids instead of supporting the teachers. In Vietnam, teachers are hold in high regards. My aunt told me that during Tet, you visit your parents the first day, your relatives the 2nd day and your teachers the 3rd day.
The other thing is American parents are more worked up about the sports their kids are playing instead of the homework they should be doing. Not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with playing sports.
Posted by: Thuy | July 08, 2008 at 09:45 PM