http://youtu.be/yl7evSLeABA
The premise in our last class was the education system in the United States. As the video shows and what we see around us the education system in America is lacking. The video states that out of the top 28 countries in education America is number 20, a huge decrease since the last several years. In my opinion, I feel that this country focuses more on making a profit out of education than investing in education for the future of the country. Standards in getting a job are getting higher and higher while efforts to get those standards keep lacking and lacking.
The heart of this issue is the educational institution itself. Schools hire teachers with low qualifications and thus students are in the hands of those “professionals.” Also, salaries for teachers are low and so teachers themselves have a low incentive to be effective. Some states don’t even require teachers to have a master’s degree, so how effective can a teacher even be if they only have average academic qualifications?
One of the bigger issues in the education system in this country is the cost of higher education and the student loan debt problem. The cost of higher education continues to rise and many students are unable to pay for those kind of tuitions. With the way the job market is students are even reluctant to take out college loans and so the other way out is by not going to college thus leading to an unprogressive future for this country.
To remedy the issue of education I believe that higher education should at least be affordable, teachers should have higher qualifications and higher wages to establish a positive reinforcement for them, and the country as a whole should stop focusing on making such a profit out education and start investing more and more in it.
The American education system is in real trouble. This post addresses many of the issues with American education, but I believe there is another great issue. So much pressure is placed on students to perform well on standardized testing. This is an issue present from elementary school to high school.
When I was in elementary school, all we did was prepare for the the New York State tests such as the TONYSS (Test of New York State Standards) or the ELA (English Language Arts) tests. In classrooms, learning was once an exciting and enriching experience, but it has now become preparation for such state examinations which ultimately lead to how much funding school districts get from the state. We spent all our time preparing for such tests that when I was confused about how to do long division in fourth grade, it was not my teacher that helped me, but my parents. It makes me wonder what the point of elementary school is if teachers are not even teaching us what they are supposed to. They are simply teaching for the sake of state examinations.
As we grow up, we get used to this way of teaching and learn to accept it as we enter into the regents stage of our lives. Again, another test courses are taught towards. Learning is no longer done for the sake of learning and this is leading towards a lack of interest among students.
Finally, the SATs are another standardized test culprit. While they are not exactly taught towards like regents and determine funding to school districts, they determine what colleges a student can get into. Many students are flat out just not good at standardized testing and it is unfair to place such weight on one test. Another reason why the SATs are a large problem for students is that students from more affluent backgrounds can afford better preparation methods than the student from the average family. Then the kids that are able to afford better prep courses are often getting higher scores and possibly disadvantaging kids from less affluent backgrounds. And if it is not the prep course, kids from affluent families are even finding ways to cheat on the SATs.
The need to cheat on tests like the SATs or APs show America that it needs to re-examine its method of standardized testing. Most standardized testing is a business or simply for school districts to get more funding, in the case of state testing. Children need to be taught for the sake of knowledge and information rather than towards standardized tests.
Just to add on to what Israel was saying is that the educational system in America compared even to Albania where I come from that isn’t on the top list of the 28 developed countries is much worse than there. One of many reasons why I think this is, is because students being at a young age don’t understand the importance of education. Without teachers and parents not stressing it enough to their children that education is the key to a better future, this problem continue. Many scholars have said it that a person with a college degree earns a lot more money than a person without a college degree over their lifetime. And it doesn’t take a scholar to figure that out.
Another reason why the educational system is poor and getting worse in the United States is because how it is structured. There are very low expectations and standards. I am speaking out of experience because when I was in Albania, I attended first, second and third grade. We had to our homework every day because when or if the teacher questioned us on the material, we were expected to know it otherwise we would be in big trouble because teachers are allowed to hit students. We were disciplined because of the consequences.
As Israel also pointed out teachers don’t take their job seriously because they don’t have high enough wages. If they would have batter wages and higher expectations they would they would make a very big difference on their student’s lives. But as classes get bigger and less investment goes into public schools, schools start to crumble. It doesn’t add up, more students and less investments. A great country like America should figure something out how to better educate its future.
I think the education system in United States is indeed in trouble, this video addresses a very sad issue about this country.
I think the main problem with education system is the tuition fee. A semester in CUNY cost you like 2800 bucks. Compare this with a great German University in Munich, where the tuition fee is not even a 1000 dollars. Big difference, isn’t it ??? I accept that there are very expensive universities in developed EU countries, but the tuition fee in Europe is still much less in comparison to United States.
Like most of the other countries in the world, US education system is exam based. People study to excel in exam. I asked 10 high school graduates about US population and not one of them could answer it.
Another issue might be the attitude and mentality of some people here in the United States. Indian-Americans have a bachelors rate of 70%, Asian-Americans have a graduation rate of 48%. However, the graduation rate for Americans in general is 28%. I think that some group values education a lot. I have seen poor people from my country coming in US and studying in universities. Some of them even have to work for more than 40 hours a week and still doing quite well in getting a degree. People in some communities don’t value study at all and it is sad.
The mentality of some people also amuses me. I know some workers in some fast-food chain restaurant who says to me that they don’t want to study because they earn enough here. Sad thing is they can’t think about long-term achievement, instead they opt. for short-term success and profit. Some of them are very content with that as well.