Abstract This paper addresses major innovations in educationalreform since 1983 within the United States. This paper focuses on increased accountability in education as a negative aspect of educationalreform.
Tags:EDUCATION / CURRICULUM THEORY AND ISSUES, educationalreform accountability
Abstract This paper discusses reform related to education in the global community. The paper focuses on the attempts of eleven countries, spanning five continents that have attempted educationalreform in the past several decades. This paper then further pinpoints the issues that surround the educationalreform, the problems that it attempts to address, and the results of the reform in comparison with the other countries investigated. The paper is significant in educational research because it develops a pattern of global reform that should be addressed within countries that are developing educationalreform systems.
From the Paper "Although the twenty-first century possesses great aspirations for students that dream of changing the world, educational systems across the continents often do not have the ability to assist with such intentions, and are struggling within society to implement educational reform. Often the complication lies in the ability of the social structure to be made aware of the difficulties that exist in education, or it is society's disenchantment with systems that were long contended as unchangeable that led to a dormancy in action to reform the methods that are devised to provide public education. However, the research indicates that battles are being waged across the globe to instill educational systems that will meet the needs of the children of today within the global community, and prepare a framework for the progress of education in the future."
The paper is a review of literature regarding the historical development of the feminism and educationalreform movements at the start of the 20th century.
Abstract The women's movement and educationalreform movements occurred in tandem at the beginning of the 20th century. The impact of these social movements, occasionally conjoined, occasionally at odds, has consumed the interest of many educational historians. In this paper, the author examines, discusses and reviews five works dealing with the subject of feminism and education in the United States.
From the Paper "Education of women alone cannot be seen as synonymous with social liberation, according to Nash, rather what that education represents and contains must be analyzed and contextualized. These early American's young ladies' educations became a defining component of the middle class in opposition to the values they saw defining working classes. "The newly forming middle class defined itself against the urban poor, which it typed as 'ignorant, careless, [and] rife with immorality," while "the middle class valued moderation, a mode of behavior that they thought separated them both from the licentiousness of the poor," as poor women often worked and were denied learning in the non-technical, non-vocational, arts, languages, and literature. Moderation in education, ensuring that young ladies possessed 'accomplishments' was deemed to be essential, although the aims of their education was not always comparable to that of their male middle-class counterparts."
Abstract This paper explains that the most promising systemic educationalreform plan involves school choice, a school system that allows parents to select which school their children attend, thus giving parents the freedom to move their children out of ineffective schools while at the same time motivating the ineffective schools to improve. The author stresses that the government should only open the school choice program to families who 1) demonstrate economic need and 2) whose children would be assigned to an inadequate public school. The paper states that an effective educational system based on choice must include religious schools among the choice options.
Table of Contents
The Significance of Education School Reform Efforts
School Finance Reform Reform Plans Involving Forms of School Choice
Inter-district Transfer Plans and Controlled Choice
School Choice Systems in Milwaukee and Cleveland
Barriers to Choice-based EducationReform Legal Obstacles to School Choice
A Pyrrhic Desegregation Policy
Political Barriers to School Reform Conclusion: Constructing a Feasible School Choice System
Overcoming Legal Barriers
Religious "Choice" Schools
Designing a School Choice System
Targeted Participation
Maximum Number of Available Options
Funding School Choice
The Choice Process
Evaluating a School Choice System
From the Paper "Ironically, reform efforts to ensure equal educational opportunity have faced opposition from interests pursuing a strict desegregation enforcement policy. Some of these proponents of a strict desegregation policy have confused the means with the ends in providing for equal education through the desegregation doctrine established in Brown. The reasoning by the Court in "Brown" implied that the purpose of integration was to ensure that racial minorities received an equal educational opportunity: "We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?" This implies that equal "tangible" factors are necessary elements of an equal educational opportunity."
Abstract This paper discusses three concepts in education. They are the idea of homeschooling, the educationalreform of the 1980s and school vouchers, and the No Child Left Behind Act. Through the use of professional references the paper discusses the pros and cons of each of these types of school reform. The paper further draws conclusions based on these issues and makes suggestions for future educationalreform.
From the Paper "In the 1980s it was evident to most citizens that school reform was needed across the United States. Parents believed that their children were not receiving the type of education that was needed for them to be successful in the world, and Federal and State governments were beginning to enact laws that ensured that school reform would begin (Cookson 1994). In some cities, (most notably Chicago), there was a plan instituting parents panels that would address educational issues within the public school system. These panels ensured that parents had a say in how their children were educated, and in the process of education itself (Cookson 1994). Yet, this was not the final criterion that would solve issues involved in education reform."
Abstract This paper examines problems in the No Child Left Behind Act, which was considered to be one of the most significant attempts at educationalreform in recent history. The author considers how the Act affects students, teachers, and communities. Additionally, the author takes the position that No Child Left Behind Behind (NCLB) has had an overall negative effect on the educational movement in America and that there is need for a change in NCLB strategies. The author illustrates these points with several reviews of several publications.
From the Paper "Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers asserts that "flaws in the law are undercutting its original promise" (www.aft.org), and federal guidance for states "has been unclear, untimely and unhelpful." Moreover, the AFT statement on their Web site indicates serious concerns about the "pervasive problem" of under funding; the cornerstone for NCLB is Title 1, and the authorization for Title 1 in 2006 was scheduled to be $22.75 billion (according to the legislation). But President George W. Bush has only put $13.3 billion in his budget request. "This continues a pattern of underfunding for NCLB," AFT explains, adding that the $9 billion left out of Bush's request is "crucial" to more than 1,700 secondary schools."
Tags: No, Child, Left, Behind, educational, reform, teachers, students, legislation
Abstract This paper presents a detailed examination of educationreform with the focus being placed on inner city schools. The writer explores many articles in the quest to determine whether or not the reform efforts in the inner city schools have been successful. The writer argues that while intentions may have been good the reform has not worked and will not work until there are also inner city community reforms as well.
From the Paper "For several decades the American public has been demanding changes in the public education system. The children in inner city schools have come under fire for years as being treated as the redheaded stepchild of the education system. Inner city schools have long since been accepted as substandard compared to other schools in funding, equipment, technology and other areas. These deficits have caused the inner city students to fall behind academically from their rural peers. The public and many government agencies have demanded education reform as well. Education reform has targeted many aspects of the nation's educational system to try and improve delivery as well as results. The reform measures for the American public education system have targeted the inner city schools as well as the others. Inner city schools have recently come under public scrutiny because of the obvious and blatant deficits that they are enduring regarding things like computers, textbook availability and other matters. "
Tags: r, inner, city, welfare, poverty, child, student, academic
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts Conant's and Van Doren's different approaches to school reform. Included, is an overview of the social and economic factors that contribute to poor academic performance and opinions of experts on education and school reform.
From the Paper "Conant and Van Doren were concerned for the future of the student. Conant saw the options as a consequence of education and thought that schools should offer programs geared to either the college bound or those needing skills for the job market. He advocated ?the creation of consolidated, comprehensive high schools. The best feature of such schools,?, was that they could offer students a wider variety of academic and vocational courses. "
Abstract The paper begins by exploring the recent shift in focus of high school education from steadfast implementation of standard text to more Socratic means of class participation and individual contribution to larger group goals. It looks at the influence that social circumstances had on high school education in the past. It then moves on to discuss the work of modern educationalreformers, the problem of the perpetuation negative social values in connection with the teaching of American history and the predicament of ethnic advantages/disadvantages in educational testing.
From the Paper "High school education has the singularly difficult task of adapting students to the academic challenges placed before them as they simultaneously undergo a series of physical, hormonal and intellectual developments as yet unknown to them. And given the inevitable diversity of a student body, a factor that is always growing in importance, much planning must go into a curriculum. And as Michael Apple points out in ?Ideology and Curriculum,? the methods that high-schools employ to address this reality have a firm basis in the ever evolving perspective of education's social role."
Abstract This paper looks at the life Mortimer Adler, a well-respected philosopher and educator, who has influenced the religious sector as well as the educationalreform movement. In particular, it examines how Adler's most significant contribution was in education as a result of the summation of his valuable life experiences, intellectual genius, and integration of philosophy and classical literature.
From the Paper "A core emphasis in curricula reformation, promoted by Adler, was the complete restructuring of how knowledge was dispersed and theories taught. His view that philosophy and the literary classics are embedded in all subjects underlied his theory that educational pursuits should follow a great dialogue on all subjects in one forum. Rather than studying distinct subjects, as in Dewey's compartmentalized fashion, Adler believed that the core curriculum should be more generalized to integrate all subjects into one course of studies. From there, the student could augment his studies with an emphasis in his choice of subjects that follow a chosen career path. He proposed that this integrated form of education should begin at the elementary education level and continued on through undergraduate studies, with a B.A. degree awarded at the time of successful completion of such studies, around the age of sixteen."
Abstract This paper makes use of Mortimer B. Zuckerman's article in "US News & World" to state that while the educationalreform plan presented by Bush has potential, it cannot hope to succeed unless it takes a more comprehensive view of society.
Abstract In this article, the writer discusses the meaning of education and the issue of standardized testing. The writer then looks at education as a major economic issue. The writer questions which is better out of the choice of public or private schools. The writer maintains that standardized tests need to be revised or perhaps deleted as soon as possible and the need to blame education and petition for educationreform should not be correlated with how well the economy does. The writer concludes that life education and formal education need to be equalized and parents need to make choices that are best for their child. This paper is written in a personal informal manner.
From the Paper "Standardized testing is any test that is used across a variety of schools or other situations. Most standardized tests are achievement tests and therefore have little predictive value for students, teachers or schools. They only generate good data for narrow skill sets or topics. However, many school systems use standardized testing as a screening tool, as a basis for curriculum or as a broad comparison between students. How can you do such a comparison, when every child is different in both achievement and also in their ways of learning? What happens when tests are administered outside of the context of the mainstream culture? This poses a problem for certain students whose answers might be right, but not in the context of the exam."
Abstract This paper introduces, discusses, and analyzes the Supreme Court case, "Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1954. Specifically, this paper discusses the case, the Court's opinion, what the case says for people today, and why it is still held up as a milestone in judicial and educationalreform.
From the Paper "The justices on the Supreme Court who decided the Brown vs. Board of Education case were legendary in their own right, yet little is written about them personally, just their joint decision in this important case. They were a total of nine justices, including Chief Justice Earl Warren, Justices Hugo L. Black, Stanley F. Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold H. Burton, Tom C. Clark, and Sherman Minton. William O. Douglas went on to serve as Chief Justice in his own right, and each of the justices served lengthy terms, but most of them are remembered for this decision, which came to be one of the figurehead decisions in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s."
A review of David Tyack's "The One Best System" discussing school reform as it pertains to the centralized educational system from the beginning of the century.
Abstract The first part of the paper deals in depth with two of Tyack's arguments on school reform prior to the establishment of a centralized educational system in the United States: The social evolution argument and the balance-of-power argument. It goes through them in four distinct ways: by showing that educational policy is in turmoil, by questioning the need for reform, by concentrating on differentiating policy implications, and by examining varied policy outcomes. The second part of the paper follows the guidelines established by the first, but focuses on modern educational problems, rather than the problematics of the centralized educational system. The paper concludes that the educational crisis in the U.S. is not so much the result of bad public school education as it is the result of the inability to reach a compromise on the mode of education; that social and economic factors require diverse models of teaching; that societal value shifts bring about school policy changes.
From the Paper "In "The One Best System", David Tyack focuses on the origins of schooling in America and the emergence of mass education. He starts with an analysis of the problems of rural education during the 19th century and presents his readers with an explanation of how the changing nature of religious, moral, and secular institutions in urban areas affected the institutionalization of educational practices. From there on, he traces the development of the idea of "the one best system", and how differing political interests came together to form a consensus on future educational policies. The main questions he answers include: which were the forces that wanted to centralize the control of public schools and why, what were the arguments of the opposition, how school structure changed as the result of centralization, and why the system ultimately failed to address the needs of the masses."
Abstract The paper explains that systemic reform in education is a concept that has emerged in education policy over the last ten years throughout many nations; regardless of the geographical setting, it embodies three integral components: 1) the promotion of ambitious student outcomes for all students, 2) the alignment of policy approaches and the actions of various policy institutions to promote such outcomes ,and 3) the restructuring of the governance system to support improved achievement. The author reviews five pieces of legislation designed to encourage comprehensive educationalreform throughout the U.S. by appropriating federal funds to entice the states to join voluntarily in the reform movement and by supporting opportunities for all to learn and achieve, formative summative assessment, professional development of teachers and administrators, school-based management and accountability, systemic programs of school-to-work transition, safer schools, and educational research to support these provisions. The paper states that educationalreforms in the United Kingdom are sufficiently different from the U.S. discussed above; of all the educational inequalities regarding policy-making, gender has shown the most dramatic shift in the United Kingdom.
From the Paper "In order to ensure improvement throughout the educational system in the United States, the National Goals Panel was established in 1990 and recognized the need for the development of "new, clear and ambitious standards for the educational achievement of all students." A few months later Congress established the National Council on Education Standards and Testing, a committee that recommended the creation of a voluntary national standard and a voluntary national standard of student assessments. This Panel adopted a charter for a National Education Standards and Assessment Council (NESAC). The mission of the NESAC was to "ensure that the many standard-setting activities currently underway move forward expeditiously and reflect a broad national consensus about what American students should know and be able to do if they are to achieve at world-class levels.""
