Reform to Education is Needed

Our education system is broken.  We have students that are struggling and we are locked into a system that rewards teachers for hanging in there the longest, not ones that effectively teach and inspire their students.

Teaching is and will remain some of the most important jobs in America.  Teachers instruct and enlighten new generations, driving them towards success.  We need to ensure that those who fill these jobs are both well qualified and well prepared to do this.  Merit based teacher hiring, promotion, and retention will encourage teachers to be the best they can possibly be.

This is not all on the teachers though.  Instructors who teach teachers need to be the best they can be also.  Teachers need to be well prepared so that they can succeed. Ensuring that we have extensive teacher training is essential.  Teachers should be informed on strategies that help motivate students.  They can share their ideas so they all can succeed.  Such collaboration must be encouraged in the education system.

In order to push students to learn more, we must challenge them, but not beyond their limits so that they are overwhelmed.  In our educational system, there are often only two streams: Grade Level and Honors/Advanced Placement.  There is no middle ground.  Often students feel they are unready or unprepared for the most challenging class, but then, devoid of options, are frustrated with the simplicity of the Grade Level Class.

This needs to change.  Teachers in all classes need to asses student skill and willpower to offer or assign tiered assignments varying the challenge that students have.  Some students may not be able to go beyond what Grade Level requires.  Very well.  Others can have a challenge, so that they may still challenge themselves and expand their knowledge without overwhelming themselves.  This would not require any additional "Accelerated" classes from being added to the school course offerings, thus eliminating any additional class/teacher cost.  Though all assignments may not be tiered, as to ensure grade fairness, a significant amount of increased challenged could be added to the courses with this system.  Teachers can assign some tired assignments, and present a choice to the student on others, encouraging students to challenge themselves, but within their limits.  This provides a way for all students, not matter their skill level, to push themselves without increasing their stress level.

W.B. Yeats once said, "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire."  By challenging our students, we can light student's intellectual fires so they burn bright and powerful into adulthood, catalyzing and illuminating their futures.

Education Reform

As we make several posts on education reform, we'd like to share some very informative videos and articles that share interesting and different perspectives on education.  These varying perspectives are essential in revolutionizing our education system and adapting it for the 21st century.  Today, we'll share some clips of Salman Khan the man who founded Khan Academy.

Posted by ReasonTV, Khan talks about education reform in our country and how we can restructure the education system.  Early on, he advocates paying teachers more, establishing teaching as a profession on par of highly-trained doctors.  He feels the country needs to change to dynamic in the classroom and the teaching profession.

Below is a nice 60 Minutes piece complied by CBS.  It details the specifics of Khan Academy and how it can change education.

By creating videos such as this, Khan is effectively using technology to further education.  While technology used ineffectively can certainly stall student learning, there are many situations when technology can prove effective.  This is one of those cases.

Additionally, here is an interesting video put together by edutopia with more information on Khan and his creation, as well as his views on how it can be used.

A New Global Policy

A major problem that we face when trying to bring about peace around the globe is education levels in developing and war torn countries.  One way to measure this is by looking at the adult literacy rates, then comparing the rates to other countries.

Literacy Rates by country

The results we see are not promising.  Countries in the Middle East have literacy rates significantly lower than those of developed and even developing nation, especially for women.  This translates into fewer opportunities for members of those societies.  Without strong educational institutions, the youth in Middle Eastern and North African Countries have few opportunities to advance themselves, leading to rampant unemployment.

Without opportunities, often the only choice young people have is to associate with terrorist organizations. These young people have no future and no voice.  These young people need to be given a voice that does not involve setting off bombs.  Perhaps the Arab Spring has allowed the young people to find some way of expressing themselves and helped them vent their anger, but more needs to be done. We need to give them more, the future of a higher education.

So how does this affect our foreign policy?

In order to promote peace throughout the world, we must promote literacy and education.  Young, educated people are forces of change throughout the world.  By providing an education to lower class women, we can empower them more than ever before.  Instead of using bombs, we ought to use books to create a new global policy.  The Middle East has extreme poverty and although we may not think it is our problem, we need to make it our problem.  It is much more effective to bring up a country through education than to use crash and burn tactics of military action.

The United States must work with other countries to promote more NGOs to work inside these countries to promote education reform.  They must work with local governments to provide funding for schools.  Additionally, we must open our own doors to these young people who wish to pursue a higher education within the United States.  Politicians at home may not appreciate this policy, but it is much better in the long run to pursue a strategy of youth empowerment than to simply use military action.  We need to pursue a foreign policy of inclusion if we are to bring about peace in the Middle East, not one of exclusion.

Education Reform

Education is a big area for reform in America.  With the introduction and failure of the No Child Left Behind Act, there is a huge space for new education reform.

                       

While No Child Left Behind highlighted some of the issues in our education system, it did not really fix our problems.

With spending increasing in the education sector of our economy, we have only seen a tiny improvement in scores:
                           

Now, test scores are obviously not everything that matters in education.  The tests that are used no not necessarily measure academic competency.  Even so, with this much money being spent on education, we would expect to see some improvement.  But, in fact, we do not.

Teaching is and will remain some of the most important jobs in America.  The sooner we all realize this, the better we are suited to go about reform.  Teachers instruct and enlighten new generations, driving them towards success.  We need to ensure that those who fill these jobs are both well qualified and well prepared to do this.  One inspiring can make a positive contribution to a students life.  These contributions are often impossible to quantify for wage purposes.  We can, to a certain extent however, pay teachers based on their affect on the students.  Merit based teacher hiring, promotion, and retention will encourage teachers to be the best they can possibly be.
                          

This is not all on the teachers though.  Instructors who teach teachers need to be the best they can be also.  Teachers need to be well prepared so that they can succeed. Ensuring that we have extensive teacher training is essential.  Teachers should be informed on strategies that help motivate students.  They can share their ideas so they all can succeed.  Such collaboration must be encouraged in the education system.

In order to push students to learn more, we must challenge them, but not beyond their limits so that they are overwhelmed.  In our educational system, there are often only two streams: Grade Level and Honors/Advanced Placement.  There is no middle ground.  Often students feel they are unready or unprepared for the most challenging class, but then, devoid of options, are frustrated with the simplicity of the Grade Level Class.

This needs to change.  Teachers in all classes need to asses student skill and willpower to offer or assign tiered assignments varying the challenge that students have.  Some students may not be able to go beyond what Grade Level requires.  Very well.  Others can have a challenge, so that they may still challenge themselves and expand their knowledge without overwhelming themselves.  This would not require any additional "Accelerated" classes from being added to the school course offerings, thus eliminating any additional class/teacher cost.  Though all assignments may not be tiered, as to ensure grade fairness, a significant amount of increased challenged could be added to the courses with this system.  Teachers can assign some tired assignments, and present a choice to the student on others, encouraging students to challenge themselves, but within their limits.  This provides a way for all students, not matter their skill level, to push themselves without increasing their stress level.

We should strive for high standards so America can produce the best and brightest.  It is important for our future as a nation.  We should have more early childhood education opportunities.  Foreign languages should be taught much earlier, such as in elementary school.   Underprivileged children should have the same opportunity to go to and succeed in school as anyone else.  Education is greatly important in our country as we strive for success in the future.  There should be a better system for paying teachers.  Merit pay is one option, but other options could be implicated.  Instead of states “dumbing down” their standards so more kids pass, we should raise standards and make sure we make them.  

More money can be spent in education, but overall, it should be spent more efficiently. We need to evaluate what programs really work in engaging kids, and funding those programs.  With better education, our children will be our future. They will be able to create better renewable energy resources, increase the US front on science and technology, and reach greater achievements on the economy. We must also include a larger range of foreign languages and arts in the studies. This will increase respect for the nation, and our future people will be able to meet with foreign people in an easier fashion. In terms of teachers, they must receive a higher pay. In these times, with huge lay-offs, we must remember, talent not tenure.  

Our education system is broken.  We have students that are struggling and we are locked into a system that rewards teachers for hanging in there the longest, not ones that effectively teach and inspire their students.

W.B. Yeats once said, "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." By challenging our students, we can light student's intellectual fires so they burn bright and powerful into adulthood, catalyzing and illuminating their futures.

Education

Education is very important all across the world.  With an education, children know have a future.  Please support efforts to educate children worldwide, so they too may have a future.  This will go a long way in combating violence and terrorism.