Crisis In America Essay
Many people believe that there is a crisis in the educational system in America right now. People are especially worried about the low scores that high school seniors recently received after taking an international placement test. The U.S. was ranked very low in comparison to forty other industrialized nations. Because of this, a large group of politicians and educators want to increase the standards expected by high schools for their students. However, there are several reasons why this sort of change would be difficult for schools to accomplish. There is some question about whether or not these test scores truly reflect the mathematical abilities of today's students. Two of the bigger problems expected originate from the issues of public
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seniors, certain authorities want to initiate a new set of higher standards in these subject areas. They believe that the trouble stems from poorly trained teachers who do not understand or care about their jobs (Times 1998:1). This is not the case. The real issues are out of the control of educators. One example of these issues is poor school funding. The majority of public schools receive funding locally from property tax; therefore, students who live in wealthier neighborhoods will have access to schools with higher funding because the tax payers in that area will have more to give. On the other hand, students who live in poor, impoverished communities will not have the benefits that more affluent schools have. This creates a problem because until there is some sort of equity in funding for all public schools, raising the standards of education will not be realistic. In a poor school, teachers are scarce and the teacher to student ratio is highly disproportionate. There are often an overwhelmingly larger amount of students than there are of teachers at main public schools. Without the money needed to hire more teachers, update textbooks, and renovate old and decrepit facilities, raising academic standards will not only be a futile venture, it may also put underprivileged students at more of a disadvantage than they already are. "If [students] are told that they must meet higher standards, orworseif they are chastised because they cannot do so, then they will have been punished for events beyond their control" (Biddle 1997:
seniors, certain authorities want to initiate a new set of higher standards in these subject areas. They believe that the trouble stems from poorly trained teachers who do not understand or care about their jobs (Times 1998:1). This is not the case. The real issues are out of the control of educators. One example of these issues is poor school funding. The majority of public schools receive funding locally from property tax; therefore, students who live in wealthier neighborhoods will have access to schools with higher funding because the tax payers in that area will have more to give. On the other hand, students who live in poor, impoverished communities will not have the benefits that more affluent schools have. This creates a problem because until there is some sort of equity in funding for all public schools, raising the standards of education will not be realistic. In a poor school, teachers are scarce and the teacher to student ratio is highly disproportionate. There are often an overwhelmingly larger amount of students than there are of teachers at main public schools. Without the money needed to hire more teachers, update textbooks, and renovate old and decrepit facilities, raising academic standards will not only be a futile venture, it may also put underprivileged students at more of a disadvantage than they already are. "If [students] are told that they must meet higher standards, orworseif they are chastised because they cannot do so, then they will have been punished for events beyond their control" (Biddle 1997: