Education Reform
EDUCATION REFORM
Education Reform
It is undeniably clear that we have serious problems with our education system.
Talk to any teacher and you will hear the same complaints; overcrowded classrooms, lack
of supplies and text books, unfairness of the grading system, discipline issues, drugs,
underpaid teachers and the list goes on and on. The result; our children can’t read, spell
or solve basic math problems without a calculator. Many students can not even find their
own country on a map. In the midst of debates going on in many different levels, the big
question is how can we fix these problems?
The National Commission on Excellence in Education delivered a devastating
assessment of American education in 1983. According to the commission’s findings;
23 million American adults were illiterate by the simplest tests of reading and writing.
Almost 13 percent of all 17 year olds in the United States were functionally illiterate.
Illiteracy among minority young was a scaring 40 percent.
Scholastic Aptitude tests ( SAT ) showed that average verbal scores fell over 50 points
and mathematics scores dropped 40 points from 1963 to 1980.
International comparisons of student achievement revealed that on 19 academic tests
American students were never first or second and compared to the other industrialized
nations, were last seven times. ( http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html (3 of 10
,2005 ). These findings alarmed the nation and in 1989, an education summit involving
all fifty state governors and president George H.W. Bush resulted in the adoption of
national education goals for the year 2000. The same year, National Council of Teachers
Of Mathematics published the Curriculum and evaluation Standards for School
Mathematics, a standards based document. ( Schwardz, 2000 ). Standards based
school reform has become a predominant
Education Reform
It is undeniably clear that we have serious problems with our education system.
Talk to any teacher and you will hear the same complaints; overcrowded classrooms, lack
of supplies and text books, unfairness of the grading system, discipline issues, drugs,
underpaid teachers and the list goes on and on. The result; our children can’t read, spell
or solve basic math problems without a calculator. Many students can not even find their
own country on a map. In the midst of debates going on in many different levels, the big
question is how can we fix these problems?
The National Commission on Excellence in Education delivered a devastating
assessment of American education in 1983. According to the commission’s findings;
23 million American adults were illiterate by the simplest tests of reading and writing.
Almost 13 percent of all 17 year olds in the United States were functionally illiterate.
Illiteracy among minority young was a scaring 40 percent.
Scholastic Aptitude tests ( SAT ) showed that average verbal scores fell over 50 points
and mathematics scores dropped 40 points from 1963 to 1980.
International comparisons of student achievement revealed that on 19 academic tests
American students were never first or second and compared to the other industrialized
nations, were last seven times. ( http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html (3 of 10
,2005 ). These findings alarmed the nation and in 1989, an education summit involving
all fifty state governors and president George H.W. Bush resulted in the adoption of
national education goals for the year 2000. The same year, National Council of Teachers
Of Mathematics published the Curriculum and evaluation Standards for School
Mathematics, a standards based document. ( Schwardz, 2000 ). Standards based
school reform has become a predominant