Goals of Public Education Essay

The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.

The use of standardized examinations have long been debated in American society. In fact, the last several years have seen an immense shift from the prioritization of standardized testing to more holistic measurements of student achievement. Despite this shift, many school districts across the nation and college/university entrance requirements still place a significant, if not pivotal, emphasis on test-taking and standardized exam results. Throughout this paper, I will explore 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) arguments for and against its practice, as well as 3) situate the consequences of its use in one of the three philosophical goals of schooling. All of this will subsequently paint an investigation into the purpose of schooling in American society.

Ideally, the education system in the United States aims to serve as the great equalizer in the constant struggle to counter decades and centuries of historical oppression against those of non-European descent. The ideology of education as a great equalizer purports a pedagogy as a starting point for those oppressed and separated by such forces as race and class to have access to a quality education, and hence an equal chance at all the US has to offer. It attempts to bring children from disparate realms in a place that serves them all equitably. This ideal constantly challenges the broader values of equality, liberty and democracy considered to be at the core of American ideology. In interpreting this

Since 1983 public education has been an issue in America. The system has been constantly changing every year with reforms. This constant change has been driven by the American people’s perception that education has declined and something should be done about it. First there was an increased emphasis on basic skills, making school years longer and more graduation requirements. Second, many began focusing on increasing teachers professionalism. Third, they began restructuring many things such as how the schools were organized and how the school day was structured etc. Now today the most of the American people believe that not enough money is given to public schooling. They associate academic improvement with the money the school is funded.

First and foremost, let’s start at the beginning of public education with the Man who started it all. Horace Mann was an educational reformer who is known as the “father of American public education”. Mann was dedicated to the idea of free and “universal education”. An educational system where all people, no matter their race, or social class to receive an equal opportunity in education. Family income doesn’t limit the quality of an education. As seen in the Union City School District which has “poor” and “mostly immigrant kids”. Immigrants and the poor class have a stereotype of being lazy or unintelligent. However that’s not stopping them. Kirp describes a “long term strategy” starting with “Pre-K to High School”. Students are not

I am quite positive that a vast amount of applicants have begun to answer this question by stating how prestigious Georgetown is and how significant a degree from your school would be for their future career. So while yes, Georgetown’s reputation is something I have much esteem for, my interest for studying here goes much deeper and is much more personal. As a military wife and mother of four small children I have had to put myself and my aspirations behind the rest of my family’s. I have never resented being “on the back burner” as I sincerely love being a mother and remain so committed to supporting my husband as he supports this nation; however, that is not to say that I have ever given up on my goals. With the brief wait I had to endure

The idea of educational reform is not a new concept in America. In the years following World War Two, the citizens of the United States were not strangers to poverty and low-levels of education as well as gender and racial discrimination in schools. One of the main focuses of the US legislative branch was to provide federal aid to resolve these major issues. In response to these concerns, the US government decided to pass several laws to begin to equalize educational opportunities for all students no matter what their background was. (Office of Education (DHEW),1969).

When American 's think of education, they almost automatically think of public education. Through the years it is slowly changing. Many parents ' today are deciding to home school their children. Although most people think that a public education is better, most statistics and facts tend to show that homeschooling is beneficial in more ways. It is estimated that parents are now teaching over two million children at home, rather than in public or even private schools. Education in our public schools has been on the down slope for over twenty years now. Public schools have lost all values and biblical morality. This was what our country was founded on and it has been replaced with humanism. One example of humanism in our schools is that they

The second model is the Sorting-Machine Model that employs standardized tests results in conjunction with the “impartial decision of teachers, counselors” (Spring, 61) in a process of classification based on students’ abilities that would be used to determine the type of training – vocational, collegiate – and subsequent employment opportunity that each student would receive. ¬-These “intelligence tests seemed to furnish a scientific means to achieve equality of opportunity based on individual ability” although cultural bias was not

Public education in the United States is closely linked to its very founding. Puritans who left England to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony brought with them the egalitarian idea that universal education was necessary with the rise of the secular state to ensure individual autonomy and remove “ecclesiastical and monastic control of education...exercised by the Catholic Church.” (Walker, 1984, p. 266).

Twenty percent of the total American population consists of public school students K-12 at the expense of the government because there was a shift in belief from the beginning of colonization that education should be prioritized despite taxation and government regulation (“The Common School: 1770-1890). The main intent behind sending children to school in the eighteen century was to preserve the status quo, whereas the overarching goal of public education present day is to provide a liberal education for all in the sense of enabling students to lead full lives made rich by learning.

It’s no secret that education is the primary foundation for genuine success in life. Therefore, it’s imperative for us to ameliorate our nation’s education system as much as possible for the future generations. For the most part, up until this point, most Americans who have pursued an education have done so through private means. I am by no means saying that free schooling in America today is non-existent, but it’s evident that the education provided by these institutions is inadequate due to a lack of trained professionals. Therefore, we must sedulously work towards fabricating a greatly needed public education system in our beloved nation. The challenges that America has faced

The idea of educational reform is not a new concept in America. In the years following World War Two, the citizens of the United States were not strangers to poverty and low-levels of education as well as gender and racial discrimination in schools. One of the main focuses of the US legislative branch was to provide federal aid to resolve these major issues. In response to these concerns, the US government decided to pass several laws to begin to equalize educational opportunities for all students no matter what their background was. (Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.. 1969 37 pp. (ED033459).

A Proposed Framework that Maximizes the Social and Economic Returns of Public Education in Egypt

Education considers as a central need of all people around over the world. All children have the whole right to learn. According to Aske, Connolly, & Corman, (2013), “all children in the United States have the right to a publicly supported education regardless of race, social class or religious beliefs is an American value.” The important point that we should take care of in the rights of education do not look at students’ social levels, race, and religions. Therefore, early reformers attempted and worked hard to improve the education system by some processes such as training the educators, or combine some schools for better productivity (The U.S. Department of State, 2008). Moreover, the development of schools began from the nineteenth century (Pulliam and Van Patten, 1999).