Essay on Education Reform

Education Reform Term Papers

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The educational system of New York City is in a state of turmoil at this point. There are a number of teachers, many students are failing and most parents have lost faith in our unqualified educational system. This brings us to the question of who is responsible for the problems and how can we rectify our educational system through the use of

school reform.

According to Webster’s Dictionary , the definition of the word school is a place for teaching and learning(218). There are a group of persons devoted to similar principles.

In other words, a school is where someone goes to learn and be taught. The schools start

to break down and fail when children are not learning and teachers are not relaying the

proper information. There are basically three types of institutions a child can attend, They

include public, private or catholic and charter. A public school is a school that is open to

all city children without the cost of expense i.e tuition fees. A child has to attend the

the school that the district mandates. This is the traditional form of education for a large majority of children. There are many noticeable problems with the public school system.

There is overcrowding in the classrooms where there are often thirty to forty children

in one room. This makes the ability to learn and to concentrate very difficult. Each child does not always get individual attention when necessary. The school buildings are often

run-down and in an advanced state of deterioration. The paint is coming off the walls,

the floors have cracks, and sometimes there is evidence of lead and asbestos contaminants within the buildings. The supplies that the children receive are not all in

good condition. Their textbooks are very old with torn and missing pages.

I recall that when I was in school during my elementary and secondary years my textbooks were mostly in bad condition. The books were barely held together by tape.

There were many pages missing and the books themselves were old. The conditions of

the classroom were not great either. The desks were very old and in need of repair. The

teacher to pupil ratios are way too high and this disturbs the learning environment and makes things difficult. The lighting in the rooms were not very bright and sometimes we were not even in a designated classroom. It was a different room that was turned into a classroom. If there is such a high expenditure per pupil then there is absolutely no reason

for these horrible conditions to be present. If proper budgeting and allocation of

funds is done there should not be any problems. One can get the sense that tax dollars

are being totally wasted and used on things and people that they are not supposed to be used on. A lot of individuals in general believe that there are many inequalities in

school spending and this does have an effect on the states role. Some educators

believe that a school should be funded according to the quality of education it provides.

So if it is a highly ranked and successful school, then they would receive a lot of monetary support as opposed to a failing school that is not making the grade. I totally

disagree with this notion because all schools need to receive proper funding to maintain

their services. Everyone should receive a fixed amount of money to use for students,

services, and programs. The schools should practice proper budgeting guidelines and

assign the monies where they belong.

Charter schools use a form of child based funding where the school districts are not involved in taxing and they provide necessary services to schools on a competetive

basis. The charter school itself is a highly controversial yet very successful alternative to

public schools. They provide unique services nap deliver them in ways that the traditional

public schools do not offer. Charter schools serve a disproprtionate number of students

traditionally considered to be at risk or low achievers. These schools first came into play

about five years ago and since then has influenced education and it’s policies in a

positive manner. There are nearly five hundred charter schools in existence that were opened between 1996 – 1997. Unfortunately, a lot of these schools have been discredited

by administrators, union officials, and administrators. Charter schools have proven to be successful according to studies. These schools and catholic schools normally appeal to the most successful students.

A Catholic and or private school are institutions that require tuition costs in order for a

child to attend. The private school as opposed to the public school is usually very rigid and run under strict rules and management. They have very strict guidelines and offer

punishments when rules are broken and not followed. These schools are less bureaucratic

than public schools, enforce conduct and dress codes and have fewer discipline problems.

It has been shown that catholic school children on average, performed one grade level

higher than public school students. In terms of financing, the average catholic school

tuition is around $2,178 compared to an average per pupil expense at public schools of

$6,459. In my opinion those figures are absolutely ridiculous. Why do the public schools

allocate so much money for each pupil and where does it all go? If the catholic schools can survive and thrive with their budget spending about $4000 less than the states, that

should be something to take note of. In some instances the tuition for these school can

be as low as $1,300 per year or as much as $10,000 for the entire year. A private school

is a good alternative to the public school system but some families face the obstacle

of affordability. A tuition fee is required to attend these schools and some families just

cannot and do not make that type of money. Some families have multiple children

and a lot of expenses so spending money on a school in the two thousand dollar range

and up per year is just too much for some people to handle.

This is where the idea of school choice comes into play. This particular term refers to

The opportunity and power that parents are given to choose the school their child

will attend. This gives lower income families an advantage because now they do not have

to allow their child to attend their zone or district school if they do not want to.

This system gives children better opportunities for success. Most school choice programs

are done by full choice which is through the use of vouchers. The parents are provided

with a portion of the public funds for their child and the child can use it to attend the school of his or her choice. It can be a parochial, public, charter or private school.

The choice is totally up to them. I think this is a wonderful idea because more educational

opportunities have been created because of it. A child can now afford to attend a better

institution than he or she would have otherwise been able to attend. Besides the full choice programs there are also private scholarship programs which award children

with scholarships to attend a particular school. Usually the children are high achievers and have excellent grade point averages.

A person can easily state that school choice is the answer to most the problems within

the system but there are some problems. The main issue is the subject of school funding.

Depending on the cost of the school that the parent chooses, he or she is supposed

to receive the cost of the school for their child. This poses a problem because some educators oppose this notion. The option of school choice actually imposes better

standards on schools which is good news. The charter and private or parochial schools

do indeed have and maintain higher standards than those of the public school systems.

There are two types of criteria that standards fall under and schools need to meet this criteria.The first one is content and the other is performance. Everyone expects good content in order for learning to take place. It is important that the information in the schools in terms of what every pupil needs to know must be clear and concise. It is

imperative that teachers, text authors, students, parents, and test makers work together

to achieve this goal. There is evidence that states have been trying to create rigorous

standards but not nearly enough is being done. Only nineteen of forty-nine states have adopted clear and specific standards according to the American Federation Of Teachers. Only seven states now require that students meet standards in order to be promoted to the next grade compared to three in 1996. Many schools do not have decent policies,

quality board members, teachers and officials. According to scholars of the Thomas

B. Fordham foundation they only found that only one state had truly rigorous standards

in English, one in History, three in Geography, three in Math and six in Science.

In some cases there is community conflict over curriculum where parents and educators do not agree. Some parents wonder why certain courses are necessary and

if the children have to know certain things for everyday life like a supplementary angle

is 180 degrees. I the children do not know certain facts then they are penalized

and end up losing out because of it. In some cases children are totally miseducated

by their own teachers. I was told in elementary school that Christopher Colombus discovered America. I did not find out that the Indians really discovered America until I started my freshman year at this college and took a History 101 course.Where are the level of standards within the states? All states require the use of the (NAEP) exams which

is the National Assessment Of Educational Progress exam to measure general knowledge

of the different subjects on different grade levels. This test is used as the most valid

barometer of student achievement. I chose to compare the report cards...

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