A Nation At Risk - April 1983
Letter of Transmittal
April 26, 1983
Honorable T. H. Bell
Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
Washington, D.C. 20202
Dear Mr. Secretary:
On August 26, 1981, you created the National Commission on Excellence in Education and directed it to present a report on the quality of education in America to you and to the American people by April of 1983.
It has been my privilege to chair this endeavor and on behalf of the members of the Commission it is my pleasure to transmit this report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform.
Our purpose has been to help define the problems afflicting American education and to provide solutions, not search for scapegoats. We addressed the main issues as we saw them, but have not attempted to treat the subordinate matters in any detail. We were forthright in our discussions and have been candid in our report regarding both the strengths and weaknesses of American education.
The Commission deeply believes that the problems we have discerned in American education can be both understood and corrected if the people of our country, together with those who have public responsibility in the matter, care enough and are courageous enough to do what is required.
Each member of the Commission appreciates your leadership in having asked this diverse group of persons to examine one of the central issues which will define our Nation's future. We especially welcomed your confidence throughout the course of our deliberations and your anticipation of a report free of political partisanship.
It is our collective and earnest hope that you will continue to provide leadership in this effort by assuring wide dissemination and full discussion of this report, and by encouraging appropriate action throughout the country. We believe that materials compiled by the Commission in the course of its work constitute a major resource for all persons interested in American education.
The other Commissioners and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to have served our country as members of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, and on their behalf I remain,
Respectfully,
David Pierpont Gardner
Chairman
Please reflect on how you believe the recommendations and findings from Nation At Risk impacted your schooling experience. In other words, what from this report resonates with your own schooling experiences? Do you feel these were positive or negative impacts? Explain.
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Corey Rosenthal
ReplyDeleteReflection Paper #2
A Nation At Risk
10/2/09
After having read “A Nation At Risk” I can see multiple ways in which its finding and recommendations directly affected my own schooling experiences. I also see places where I feel recommendations were made but not followed and could have been beneficial. I think that “A Nation at Risk” had many positive and accurate evaluations of what was, and in some ways still is, lacking in our educational system and how we may rectify that.
One important finding in “A Nation at Risk” which I think carried over very strongly into my own educational experience was the recommendation to increase and improve foreign language education. In my school district students are now required to take at least two years of a foreign language at the middle school level and at least two years at the high school level. In addition to time requirements my school provided a large number of options giving us choices and making it more interesting. I was able to choose from Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, German, and Chinese. I think that learning a foreign language is important because it goes along with the ideals throughout the article to remain competent and competitive on a global scale.
I also think the recommendation to teach computer skills in schools has been followed well and has been a useful addition to curriculum. In my high school it was required to take at least one computer based elective to graduate. Students could choose from basic typing, web design, computer programming, and other such classes to improve practical skills. I think the committee was very well focused on innovation and the future and directing education to diversify in offerings.
Additionally, I can see pretty much an exact match between the recommendations on the number of units of each subject that were thought to be needed to graduate high school. In my school district we were required to take 4 years of English, 3 years of Science, 3 years of History or Social Studies based classes, 2 years of a Foreign Language (which was increased to years for subsequent grades after me) and a number of elective courses in computer skills, fine arts, and life skills. I don’t recall the article making a direct reference to health and physical education however we were required to have four years of physical education, 3 quarters of health (one freshman, one junior, and one senior year) as well as one quarter of driver education in sophomore year. I think that it was important to standardize the number of units for these subjects in order to promote a well-rounded student, knowledgeable in multiple areas. And although people may want to argue the content of curriculum or how to determine what “should be taught” I think that at an age when you mostly have no clue what you want to do for a career, it is important to be exposed to many different subject matters to determine your strengths, weaknesses, and interests.
ReplyDeleteOne main recommendation that I found would have been useful if it were taken into consideration more was the section on study skills. In a Nation at Risk it is stated “…in most schools, the teaching of study skills is haphazard and unplanned. Consequently students complete high school and enter college without disciplined and systematic study habits.” I think that this statement is very true and still holds true today unfortunately. There were attempts in school by my teachers to have notebook checks or tests in order to force you to stay organized to do well on those assignments. However there was never any emphasis on becoming organized in the first place or how to find an organization that works for each student. I believe that study skills and organizational habits are key factors that were self taught in my case and for someone who is not naturally organized, I could have used better assistance in school learning these skills.
Another recommendation I think would be more beneficial to students but has not fully been carried out yet is the recommendation on text books. In the article it claims that “Too few experienced teachers and scholars are involved in writing textbooks.” I think that textbooks are still lacking, especially at the high school level. I think that this not only has to do with the writing of them, but also with the selection of text books, or rather lack thereof, that states impose on their education systems.
Overall, I believe that the subcommittee that wrote the report “A Nation at Risk” did a good job at pinpointing many areas in which our education system could use improvement. Although I find the militant style of writing to be somewhat amusing, it is true that we need to remain competitive and current when it comes to education. I think that the main focus of this report was to specialize education so that there weren’t just random electives being offered to student, but more focused practical life skills and more diverse academic offerings in order to improve the quality of education and the quality of life of students. I believe that there were many positive outcomes from this report that I can directly see were implemented in my own schooling.
Over the course of history, the American education system has gained a reputation for producing the most prepared and advanced students to take on the most important jobs and tasks in the world. In all fields of study, including “commercial, industrial, scientific or technological” fields, the superiority of American “prosperity, security and civility” has always been the result of the unparalleled quality of its schools. That is, until the past couple decades. Ever since the Sputnik challenge and the scare of the Cold War, competition from other nations has become far too real to the American government. A handful of countries in Europe and Asia have proven themselves as major economic, industrial and technological world powers. Their education, training, and level of skilled workers have risen sharply in recent years, but that is not even the greatest concern in the “Nation At Risk” address. The true problem, according to the American government, is not the rising power of others, but the falling fortunes of our own education system.
ReplyDeleteThe “Nation At Risk” address points out several of the deficiencies of American schools and American students. SAT scores are falling, illiteracy rates are staggering, and remedial course levels are becoming more normal than ever. The most shocking of these points, however, is that for the first time in history, the educational skills of the school-aged generation may not surpass those of their parents. Because out entire country is based on the idea of bettering the self and improving by the generation, the tone of this address is urgent, intense, and almost militaristic. There is a strong urge for educational reform is imperative and a serious call to action is being made. In order to keep up with competitors, the government says that we must mandate course requirements for students, engage students in longer periods of more intense learning, and rekindle the commitment to education that helped to earn the United States the worldly status that it possesses today. In my own experience in school, I have seen the products and results of this educational reform, and as with anything, there are some aspects that are working effectively and some that are failing.
In my high school, there was not a required, but a “strongly recommended” set of courses required for graduation that everyone fulfilled because it was made clear that colleges wanted to see certain levels of proficiency in each subject area. One required social studies course was entitled, “Comparative World Studies,” in which we learned about the lifestyles and cultures of other countries and their relation to us. One of the most frustrating sections of the course was the unit on Japan. First of all, it was centered around the Japanese crown jewel of education. We read about it, watched videos concerning in, and had discussions regarding it. We learned that school is an all-day affair for them, homework is more rigorous, classes are longer and more engaging, and—God forbid—they have no summer vacation. My teacher (who was incidentally fired at the end of that year) found no problem with discouraging the class by saying that the Japanese are advancing at such rapid speeds that by the time my generation enters the workforce, all of the high paying jobs in technology will have been outsourced there because their students will be far more prepared than we are. That’s a promising message to send to a class of juniors in high school. This kind of fear and futile attitude is not reflected in the “Nation At Risk,” but it is scary to see that some have simply accepted the outlandish idea that we will soon be incompetent and have no desire to act on it.
In the midst of all this, my high school was one of the first in the state of New Jersey to implement a block scheduling system, which began in 2000. Instead of taking eight periods worth of classes for a few minutes a day all year, I had four classes a day, one hour and twenty minutes each, for a semester long. Most electives changed every quarter of the year; most core academic courses lasted for a full semester. AP courses, as a result of lower test scores among block-scheduled students, were recently extended to last for three quarters. Now, if you’re taking classes that you love, block scheduling is a dream come true, but if you’re stuck with a full schedule of highly demanding, or highly boring, courses, there is potential for a full semester of hell. Many criticisms regarding the block schedule have surfaced, most of which involve students’ lack of exposure to certain subject matter for an extended period of time, and how the one hour and twenty minute class period exceeds the average student’s attention span. However, coming from someone who has been under the block scheduling system since middle school, I have to say that I do support it. I feel like if we take the time to learn to effectively teach for full blocks of over one hour, students can really benefit from the level of engagement and focus that comes about as a result of only having four classes a day, therefore appeasing one of the major concerns addressed in the “Nation At Risk.”
ReplyDeleteSome of the findings and recommendations in the “Nation At Risk” have fostered my educational experience for the better, some have hindered it, and others have just been downright crazy. As a final note, it is amazing to me that the “Nation At Risk” reports how 55% of Americans claim education to be one of the top three priorities for federal funding, but when the idea of putting in the extra tax dollar to improve teacher salaries or overall school quality arises, people become much less willing. One of our neighbors was on the township committee for several years. When a budget referendum came about during the school year that could potentially have raised the salaries of local teachers, she, a mother of two children in the local school district, went door-to-door on my street in a firm campaign against it, claiming that if we “really care about education,” we could recognize teachers in my town were already overpaid for the quality of the job that they did. Sounds like a bit of a contradiction. Interestingly enough, she passed over my house, which is headed by two teachers—my parents. Although the budget did end up passing, it dumbfounded me that in a nation where we value education so much, and fear the intense competition of others, that some of us would go to such lengths to suffocate the quality of education in our country. If attitudes like this continue, maybe my Comparative World Studies teacher will be right after all. We need to take more of a proactive stance in educational reform, and put the students’ needs above all else. Only then will we see a change for the better in our schools.
I feel that there is still an issue of people wanting the education system to solve personal problems that should be taken care of at home. This is very evident especially in high school with sex education. In high school all students were required to take a “health” class. The class was all about being abstinent and if you weren’t you would get an STD. Sex education is something that I feel is the responsibility of parents. I feel that sex is something that is very personal and should not be discussed about in front of a group of others, especially people that you may not know. Also, this is time that I could have spent taking a class I actually was interested in taking. Another problem is the money being spent on these kinds of classes. If more money and time was spent on humanities classes or on teaching teachers to better understand and work with students, more people might enjoy learning and graduate being better prepared for life.
ReplyDeleteAnother part of this article that caught my attention was the line, “Part of what is at risk is the promise first made on this continent: All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost” (pg. 2). This was far from being the case in many of my high school classes. When I was in an honors course I was one of four Hispanic people in the class with maybe one black person in the class. Although I was in these honors courses, I felt that even less was expected of me. I felt that some of the teachers felt that because I was Hispanic, I either didn’t speak English properly or I wasn’t smart enough to understand the material being taught; neither of which were true. Since I had taken all the honors English courses in high school, my senior year I was put into AP English and this had to be the worst teacher I have ever had. Once again I was one of two Hispanics in the class and there was one black student as well. I remember one of our assignments was to pick a college we were interested in and to write an essay based on one of the admissions topics for that specific college. A couple of the white, male students in my class said they wanted to go to Duke, Yale and Harvard and my teacher said those were great choices and didn’t see why they wouldn’t be able to get into them. Then it came to my friends and I, the female Hispanic said she wanted to attend USF and the black female said UCF and I said UM. Well she told us all that we needed to look into community colleges nearby because we would never get into those colleges. I couldn’t believe that she would say that to students for no apparent reason. (I later found out she was fired for racial discrimination). I feel that Hispanics and blacks that are in upper level courses are not expected to do as well as their white counterparts. I also feel that minority students aren’t given as much of an opportunity to be in upper level classes in the first place. I don’t even know how they determine who gets to be in honors or AP courses because I never took any tests. I feel that all students should have the same opportunities and it was very obvious to me that in my high school that this was not the case.
It was also interesting to read that although more people are graduation from high school and college, more people come out of high school unprepared for college or work. This is weird because how are people graduating high school if they aren’t prepared. This makes me look back at ninth and tenth grade and realize how much time was spent preparing students for the FCAT. I don’t understand the purpose of this exam because I feel it’s unfair to expect the same results from different kinds of people. I also find it very unfair that one test can determine whether you graduate high school or not.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue that I had in high school and middle school was there were not many humanities classes. I took geography once in middle school and once in high school and both times all you had to do was color maps, label the places and hand it in. I also took history once in high school and that was it. One of the big issues now with education is geography. There are so many people who don’t know anything about geography and I think that this is a big issue. How can we live in a world that we don’t even know where places are located and don’t know anything about those locations? I wish that I could have had more opportunities to take geography classes because I am horrible at geography. I also feel that English is another class that is very important but needs to change. I feel that less time should be spent on Shakespeare and more time on authors of student’s choice as well as creative writing. Throughout school I was drilled on having structured writing with an introduction, body and conclusion, I rarely ever had the chance to freely express my thoughts.
Finally and what I feel is a major problem is the support of parents. In elementary schools I feel parents are more involved in what their kids are doing at school but once the kids get to middle school and high school, parents seem to get less involved. However, the opposite was true for me, my mother was always very involved in what I did in school including my after school activities like marching band and soccer. My mom always was asking what homework I had to do, did I finish it, did I need help, etc. She also never missed a half time show on Friday nights or a soccer game during all of high school. She was one of three parents that came to the soccer games and one of maybe ten parents that came to watch and help with the marching band. I feel that having my mother be so involved with my school allowed me to do well and keep me on track. I feel that if more parents were involved with their children’s school life, children would do better in school. Having support and encouragement from parents I feel is essential to student success.
Samantha Licata
ReplyDeleteDr. Josh Diem
TAL101
October 1, 2009
Reflection Paper #2
After rereading “Nation at Risk” a few times, I couldn’t seem to figure out why I couldn’t to reflect on the points in this article. For the most part, I understood what the article was saying about our education system and what they think needs to be done to fix it. However, I am finding that I am having a very hard time reflecting on how the faltering education system has played a part in my own life. I realized that I never saw the education system as incompetent or failing. I have been attending school almost my entire life and each year it has always been what I expected. I go to class, learn the information, and then take a test. Of course, there were other aspects of school that I experienced such as projects, building relationships with other students and teachers, and applying what I have learned in my real life. If my education has always been exactly how I expected it to be, then how could I ever see that the system wasn’t attaining its goal of stretching me to my highest limits? As far as I knew, I was being stretched plenty. I was getting good grades and I was staying actively involved. To me, that reaffirmed that I was working to the highest of my abilities. How could anything be going wrong if I was getting A’s on everything I completed? The article also focuses a lot on how education should be a life-long commitment and should always be assisted by parents. Once again, my ignorance has shown through. I never even saw that this could be a problem because this has always been a significant aspect of not only my education, but my life. All through my schooling I have been constantly supported and encouraged by my parents. I also have always been taught and pushed to carry out my education as I continue to grow and succeed. The idea of continually learning throughout all stages of my life has been indoctrinated in me by my parents and educators. Therefore, I found this article really hard to relate to. I’m aware how ignorant and naïve this may make me appear, but I guess now I know what I need to focus on throughout my training before I become a teacher.
The Risk I Took
ReplyDeleteAs I read the piece titled Nation at Risk, one resounding concern I continued to dwell on was the year in which this piece was written. I found myself continuously referring back in order to reconfirm the year, wondering if I had miss read and it had miraculously changed to 1993 or even possibly 2003. Along with this nagging confusion was another emotion, fear. If this brief was written 23 years ago for the purpose of strengthening and committing to educating our children then why, with only a few words changed, does it seem to be stating the state of education today?
One finding glaringly stood out from the others because of an article I had read the day before. The commission mentions that from 1963 to 1980 the average math score dropped nearly 40 points. Why did that stand out for me? It stood out because the day before I had read an article in the New York Times that discussed the reasons why New York has dropped their pass rate for Mathematical achievement tests down to only 44%! Close your eyes, tap your pencil to the page, guess each and every question and you still stand a good chance at passing. The reasons given behind the decision were, in it very basic form, that the questions have become more difficult. Since when has it become general practice to give tests known to be too difficult and then give a pass rate that in any other forum would be considered way below any passing rate? It’s as if the government, federal and state, is contradicting itself between what it says and what it does.
During the first reading of the Article “Nation at Risk” my reactions were purely from the viewpoint of an outsider looking in. I did not relate the information to myself or my experiences as a student. I read the piece as an educator; an educator, disillusioned by the state of education today, who had stepped away from the bureaucracy and chaos of it all. A second reading gave me a better insight to how it related to me.
I was in 5th grade when this brief came out and as an elementary student I feel that I reaped very few rewards from the findings and recommendations made to President Regan. This lack of positive impact on my education continued into my seventh and eighth grade transitional years. Continuing into high school, I took courses that allowed me to keep a decent grade point average without too much effort; classes such as cooking and introduction to preschool teaching. I rarely, if ever, saw the inside of a computer science room. As a matter of fact, my school still offered typing classes which I, in my state of mediocre bliss, of course took advantage of. I laughed to myself at the Commission’s recommendation that math courses should be increased to 3 years of high school because with this idea, I have personal experience. In my senior year I walked out of a math class and never returned the moment I found out it was not mandatory; leading to life long fears and anxieties toward anything mathematical.
Strangely, my husband, who graduated prior to this brief, went to a school that was more ahead of its time and offered more than one computer science course to students on a lottery basis. It seems that my school was either behind the times, or had regressed within the few years between 1983 and the year I entered high school. Delving deeper into our conversation I came to find that his reasons for excelling came not from a motivation to succeed or enthusiasm instilled by his educators; but in great part from familial expectations, something I was less familiar with. My sister, 5 years my junior, and I are the first of our family to attend college. Although we both are doing so at a later stage in life, I believe it is our personal life experience, veering off the conventional path, which has benefited us in our renewed commitment to and desire for education. I took a long time to arrive at this moment, but I do not regret any of my decisions, my educational life experiences have made me who I am.
A Nation at Risk was written in 1983, long before I started kindergarten or my schooling process but it did have an impact on schools across the nation, and therefore my own education years later.
ReplyDeleteIn elementary school I was placed in the gifted program based on test scores and teacher recommendations. I remained in the program through elementary and middle school up until 10th grade, when the gifted program ended in my school district. In the opening paper A Nation at Risk states “Over half the population of gifted students do not match their tested ability with comparable achievement in school.” I can understand how the committee reached that conclusion because as the years progressed I saw fellow gifted seem to not do their best academically in certain classes and their grades would slip. However I disagree with this statement because being in a gifted program doesn’t always mean that an individual is smarter than the average student. I feel that those gifted students that supposedly aren’t matching their tested ability simply might not be interested in certain subjects. If a student isn’t interested in a subject and doesn’t want to do the work they simply aren’t going to, whether they’re labeled gifted or not. In my experience it was only a small portion of the gifted kids that did not do well academically in middle school and high school, but I went to a successful public school in the suburbs so my experience isn’t a fair assessment of gifted programs across the nation as a whole.
One of the recommendations is “Students in high schools should be assigned far more homework than is now the case.” In my experience I would say that this recommendation has been followed through on and students now receive ample amounts of homework, especially those students taking many honors and advanced placement classes. I never complained about having too little homework in high school. I would have different assignments from each teacher and it was always enough to keep me occupied, especially because I was involved in other activities after school.
Even though A Nation At Risk was published in 1983, it is still having impacts on education today.
We are bystanders. As our nation follows the downward spiral in education, it takes along the expectations that we have for our children, the importance of school as an institution, and it shatters our hope.
ReplyDeleteThe global community is changing and America must work on adapting to the advancements and accomplishments of other nations. The diversity in the classroom consists of new faces, exotic cultures, and unique backgrounds. Our intelligence is not meeting up to that of our foreign friends and I realize this now more than ever. I sit in a class where several classmates took calculus in tenth grade in their home country while I’m just grasping the basics of this subject my senior year. This triggers my memory. Children graduate by eleventh grade in Colombia around the age of sixteen and then go on to college or the labor force. At this instant it makes sense how different our cultures and our societies are shaped. In America, we encourage our young ones to stay in school to get their Masters while in South American countries they center on the idea that looking for a job might be the best choice. Here, we also create our own obstacles as more graduating students settle for immediate gratification with a job that pays well but no college degree to look forward to. Unfortunately, mediocrity is prevalent.
Nation at Risk extends the thought that we have lost the sight of the basic purposes of schooling and as we get older, school represents a battlefield as students struggle to get a perfect score on the SAT, to pass the FCAT, to have the most AP classes, and if lucky to be honored as the valedictorian of a hundred hungry seniors competing for a title that some colleges don’t even acknowledge. School becomes a contract, a guarantee that as long as we stay there for a certain amount of years some of us will go on to college. That’s the problem. Instead of learning more and more, our parents are worried with getting us tutors for test prep, teachers are stressing us with deadlines to cover material for the tests in the end of May, and the real purpose of schooling is forgotten. Education is not going anywhere so there’s no need to run. The positive aspect of this college oriented mindset is that we’re encouraged to give ourselves a chance and for once in our lives try for the betterment of what comes next. On the other hand, some may be left thinking less of themselves because they see those overachievers who get the attention but they feel doubt or insecurity about the prospect of their future.
Of equal importance, Americans today are well-informed with the myriad of informational sources that becomes instantly accessible with the click of a button. For instance, in finite math the professor said to look for the definition of a word by next class in order to receive extra credit. In less than five minutes, a girl took out her blackberry and immediately searched it online. No one else got a chance because like so many others she had the advantage at the palm of her hand. In spite of this, our high school and college graduates don’t beat the standards of those graduates decades ago. There exist more distractions, less enthusiasm, and a change in the family structure that impede our success. Why the loss of interest? I’m left speechless when I remember going with my mother to my 11th grade Open House and my entire AP Spanish Language class was empty. There were no parents and therefore no urge to get involved. I do believe America is at risk.
America needs a dedicated faculty to the rescue. As times get tough and the benefits seem to wane, students need to be reassured that they have support, that minimum requirements doesn’t mean less effort because when we tell them we don’t expect much from them, they don’t expect much from us either. The teacher-student relationship collapses and no one is left with intrinsic motivation. The polls in the article indicate that citizens are aware of the shadow covering educational progress; however, I feel that we don’t put the time to take it in our hands and address it. As always, we witness and we walk with the naive idea that someone else will come along and fix our problems without having to act upon it ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think of the United States as a whole you think of us as powerful, on top, number one, country. Reading this piece really shows me that it’s an embarrassment for the U.S. citizens to be so confident thinking we’re ahead of everyone when really we are not; but to argue that, how would we know our schools are at risk since we are in the world (the U.S. in this case) and do with the world. Just as it states in this article that while we are taking permissible pride in what our schools and colleges have historically accomplished, our society is being battered by the rise of mediocrity that threatens our Nation. I sadly wouldn’t have known it was so bad if it weren’t for reading this article. This issue definitely has impacted my school experience because though it is hard to admit, I have had my fare share of what I consider horrible teachers. Some of them just teaching from the mouth and not from the heart and really caring less weather that student is truly learning. This is one of the reasons our nation is being matched and surpassed, educationally. We have lost sight of basic purposes and schooling. It is hard for me to even believe the indicators of risk listed in this article because I thought our school systems taught better than that. Some 23 million American adults are illiterate by the simplest test of everyday reading, writing, and comprehension? Who would have known? I know my writing skills are not the best but I was thoroughly taught how to read, and if we could not read at the level requirement for that grade, then we would not be passed on to the next grade. When it comes down to it, every single one of us in this country makes up the United States, and everything we do and learn affects our ratings; and if we are being surpassed so swiftly by so many other countries, something needs to be changed immediately or we will be taken over. I have seen so many negative experience in my school days that I can confidently say they are negative impacts on this society and children need to be better educated. We need to eliminate and weed out the horrible teachers who do not know how to teach, and fill their spaces in this horrible economy with pupils who are ready, well educated, and know deep down how to impact a student. I can forlornly say that I had way more bad teachers then I ever had good, who were careless, mean, and clearly only in that position to receive satisfaction by power.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in a place like Key West, Florida, I feel my educational experiences were a little different than those who attended schools in other places around the country. We always used to joke that anyone who could show up for class and write their name on a piece of paper could graduate from Key West High School, but I never really realized how much the laid-back attitude of our little island really did effect our schools. I attended kindergarten through my senior year of high school with the same classmates, school district, and school board. It wasn’t until I reached college that I could make the comparisons of my schooling to those from other cities, states and even other countries. When I finally did start this comparison to my fellow undergraduate classmates at the University of Miami, I realized that the schools in Key West do feed in to the many of the examples exemplified in the piece, “A Nation at Risk.”
ReplyDeleteNow I’m not saying that my educational experience was a waste of my time and that the every student who graduates from Key West High School is uneducated and unprepared for the next steps necessary after high school, but I am saying that I have seen some of the problems and findings in “A Nation at Risk” happen in my school. I went through the school system several years after this piece was written and delivered so I am able to reflect on how it has impacted my schooling experience.
Since the piece is directed mainly towards high school education, I first want to show how many of them problems in education revealed throughout the piece are still in full force and have not been changed. One problem they found was that individuals in society are coming out of educational institutions without the proper level of skills, literacy or training needed to enter the work forcer or attend a higher educational institution. It was definitely not a difficult task to graduate from Key West High School. We had many programs to ensure that almost every student could graduate. I knew a boy who dropped out of school for half of his sophomore year, then came back his junior year and was able to graduate on time with a high school diploma. It is rewarding to be able to do that but I am quite sure this particular boy would quite make it if he went to a 4-year college and tried to get through. And I am quite sure he, along with other students who completed high school by the hair of their chin, didn’t have the necessary education to have completed high school. This is exactly what the piece “A Nation at Risk” is talking about. We are allowing individuals to progress through the school system and complete only the bare minimum just so they can have that piece of paper, called a high school diploma, rather than making sure they have the necessary skills to be a productive member of society.
I don’t want to be totally negative about my school and say that we were all a bunch of slackers who did nothing and still graduated. We did have many students who did take advantage of their educational opportunities and did complete high school ready to enter the world and make an impact. Some of the suggestions made in “A Nation at Risk” were implemented at my school. For example, we did have many requirements to graduate (4 years of English, 3 years of math, 3 years of science, etc.); an extensive fine arts program that excelled in chorus, drama, painting, ceramics and photography; a seven hour day; harsh school conduct rules and punishments; and specific “on-the-job training” programs. We also had “stop, drop, and read” every Tuesday during 3rd period when the whole school would stop what they were doing and read a book together in each class. We had advanced placement courses and many privileges for students who did well on standardized tests and had high grade point averages. Key West High School developed many highly educated students, who are now at very rigorous higher education institutions or who are already excelling in the work force. This may be partially due to pieces like “A Nation at Risk”, where legislation took the time to define problems in our educational system in America and find solutions to better educate and prepare our citizens.
ReplyDeleteThe report definitely had some positive impacts on my schooling experience. Luckily I took the path of doing more than just the minimum by taking the advanced placement classes that were available to me and by pushing myself to do well and be prepared for higher education. I met all of my requirements without having to find loopholes and met the high stakes admissions requirements at the University of my choice. But I do have to point out that the findings in this report are still prevalent in society today and the small pathways of bare minimal achievement are still open for young students to take. Like the report says, we as a nation need to realize the piece of paper inside of the nice cover, called our high school diploma, means nothing in the broad spectrum of things and that it is what lead us to get that diploma and the amount of knowledge and skill sets we developed on the way to get it that matter. We still have changes to be made in order to develop all students, not just some, into well-equipped individuals in the world.
While reading the Nation At Risk and specifically “Recommendation A: Content,” I started to make a mental checklist comparing the requirements of my high school. Four years of English? Check. Three years of mathematics? Check. Three years of social studies? Check. One- half year of computer science? Check. My high school required each student to complete these courses in order to graduate and I agree with this content recommendation. I believe that a strong base in all of these subjects is necessary, even for those who do not want to advance in a particular area. I also support the mandatory computer science requirements. Regardless of what someone’s opinion is on whether or not the influx of technology is a positive or negative thing, it is something that all students will have to be able to understand how to use. Some kids do not have a computer at home and therefore having access to one in school is beneficial. Computers are necessary for almost every aspect in life, and without computer knowledge a student will be unprepared.
ReplyDeleteI also share the attitude towards attendance policies that A Nation at Risk conveyed, and feel that “attendance policies with clear incentives and sanctions should be used to reduce the amount of time lost through student absenteeism and tardiness.” My high school recently started cracking down on attendance. Now, when a student accumulates a certain amount of missed or tardy days he/she loses credit in class. I find this to be a positive regulation. Of course there are excusable absences for certain circumstances, but when kids miss too much school it becomes overwhelming for both teacher and student to try to catch up. Teachers should not have to cater to one student because of they didn’t feel like going to school.
Homework is an important aspect in school because it is one way that you can assess students and make sure they are staying on task, but it seemed a little harsh to state, “students in high school should be assigned far more homework than is now the case.” Apparently my school district took this recommendation very seriously because I have noticed that homework for my siblings in middle school and me in high school has become overwhelming. Students in middle school now come home on the bus with a book from every class with hours worth of homework. Although bus stop gossip isn’t the most reliable source, I’ve heard parents complaining to schools about the weight of backpacks being too much for their children’s backs. Regardless of the physical aspect though, I feel that homework cannot be a positive thing in extreme amounts. I think when kids are given too much homework they lose focus and instead of learning what they should be learning they put in minimal effort in each assignment to simply get it done in time. This aside, I do agree with most of what this article has to say, and the aspects that my school has chosen to put into action.
I must admit that I do not remember all the details from my high school graduation in 2007. Looking back, it seems as if it were decades ago. However, one aspect of graduation still resonates with me. In the speech made by the valedictorian of my class, she stated that every student from my public high school class graduated. Immediately, the parents, grandparents, teachers and young children applauded. This seemed like quite an achievement at the time, but to be honest, I was not surprised. My high school was full of students who superseded the expectation of teachers, and six of the 160 students currently attend Harvard University.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the school system I grew up in was one step ahead of Reagan. School committees were implemented in order to strengthen the school academically. Parents invested money and time into the school, in order to create an environment conducive to learning and success. The majority of the student’s parents were highly educated and included doctors, lawyers, and professors. At times, I felt ashamed to admit that my mother didn’t receive a college education, something that is more common than not throughout the country. Clearly, I grew up in an unnatural bubble that had to be broken at one point or another.
After reading “A Nation at Risk” I remain astonished at the statistics that Reagan includes. Even though the speech was given in 1983, I would never expect such unfortunate academic findings. The statistic that, “about 13 percent of all 17-year-olds in the United States can be considered functionally illiterate” is shocking and frankly, disturbing. The statistics given are a wake up call to me. I grew up in a world of the highest achievement, and this is clearly not the case in other parts of the country. At times, I feel that it would have been beneficial to understand such statistics and risks during my high school years. I feel as if I took my education for granted, and I did not realize that my schooling experience was rare. I was caught up in competing with others, than I was in analyzing myself or appreciating the academic opportunities I was given.
I feel as if my high school experience was beneficial to my education, but negatively impacted my perception of education. However, the public school I attended regarded excellence as the primary goal of schooling, which Reagan believes is critical to education. I have grown from these misconceptions of education by leaving my town and experiencing life with students from all over the country. The nature of my high school forced me to strive to do my best, which is has positively impacted me. However, I wish that I grew up in a place that did not mask reality.
Tutoring children in the Coral Gables community quickly unmasked the false sense of reality that I once believed in. Last week I tutored a young student named Trezure. Trezure is 17 years old, however she reads at the level of a third grader. Trezure had trouble pronouncing simple words such as “island”. At this moment, I realized that Reagan’s statistics still prove to be true. I read with Trezure for over an hour. At the end of my session, Trezure said that no one had ever sat with her for such a long period of time and listened to her read while correcting her mistakes. Reagan stated that in order to reform our education, parents must take a leadership role in assisting the development of their children’s natural abilities. I could only hope that Trezure’s parents, siblings or teachers begin to listen to her read and help her grow as a reader.
There are numerous aspects of the speech that resonate with my school experience. In fifth grade I created a TIME magazine in class. In this magazine I wrote (by hand) each article, and I drew each picture (also by hand). Seven years later I returned to the classroom as an intern. The students were crafting the same TIME magazines I had, except the computers were the tools for creation. At that moment, I felt as if my elementary education was outdated, as technology became the basis in the classroom. This furthers the point that computer-controlled equipment is included in every aspect of our lives. Over time, computer-controlled equipment has been implemented throughout schools, and the majority of schools rely on technology. I have not been asked to write a paper by hand since middle school, and I don’t foresee that changing soon. This computer-controlled technology has changed the way businesses work as well. I cannot count on two hands the number of people that “work from home”. Working from home is done through the computer, and without such technology, there would be no such thing as “working from home”. This demonstrates our reliance on technology, and the way in which technology has altered my journey in school.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading A Nation at Risk, I felt that there were a lot of problems twenty years ago that are similar to today’s. I’m sure this report sparked a reform and improvements were made, but the school system outside and within the classroom is still not where it needs to be. In my high school especially, a lot of the problems stated were very apparent. I definitely do not feel like I got the best education possible.
ReplyDeleteAt my high school, it was a general consensus that more attention was paid to the lower level students than the higher level. The administration’s goal was to decrease and as a long shot, ultimately eliminate the drop out rate. Our school was dubbed county wide as “a drop out factory.” Unfortunately, I realized my educational experience was not being optimized a little too late. Once college was in my near horizon, I started to feel like I wasn’t prepared academically. I learned more from my online classes that I took as extra credits than I did from the majority of my in-school classes. If you wanted to gain from a class, you had to most likely “go the extra mile.” We had block scheduling and teachers would always finish before the bell. I supported block scheduling because that gave me an opportunity to finish my homework in class so after school could be dedicated to extracurriculars, volunteering, and sports. I always thought that I was that type of person who could listen in class and not have to study. That may be so, but that was okay in high school and kept me at the top of my class. College is a different story.
I don’t think that all of high school should be spent solely preparing for college. There are lessons and knowledge to be taught and given. But those lessons should incorporate the skills students need to transition easier into college. I think A Nation at Risk should be updated to fit today’s needs to revamp our education system. I believe the requirements and courses needed to graduate and apply to college are on the right track, but what goes on inside the classroom and how the teacher prepares needs to be reevaluated.
There were many things that I found present throughout my education, especially in high school that I read in A Nation at Risk. The tone of the document is severe and is urging the nation to take action and improve education. I think that overall, it has had positive impacts on schools across the nation. Although some points in the document may be irrelevant now, some elements still apply to education and schools today and students can probably relate to many of the things mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe recommendation that was most prevalent throughout my high school education was that of requisites they suggested. In order to graduate from my high school, and I assume probably most high schools, I had to take four years of math, English, history/U.S. government, and science and in addition to that two years of foreign language. When I first entered the requirement was three years but as the years passed they changed the requirement to four years. This shows how the recommendation in A Nation at Risk is still present in schools today. Although some might have complaints to these requirements, I found them beneficial and so I think they were a positive impact on schools through out the nation. These requirements make students well rounded and prepared for college.
The teachers would constantly remind us that we were the future and that the future relied on us. This concept is found in A Nation at Risk. They are scared that the future will not be brighter than the present because of the deterioration of education. I think that this was a positive impact on schools. It is true that the students of now will have an impact on the future. In my own family, I have seen how parents believe their children should and could have a better life than they had. The way we are to attain this better life is through education and hard work through out our school years.
In A Nation at Risk they describe the worsening in achievements of 17 year olds. This impacted me throughout all my years of education. Throughout high school and even middle school, teachers pushed us to do good so we could succeed in the SAT and be able to be placed in honor or gifted programs. I feel that in my school sometimes more importance was given to the honors students and in most schools that was probably the case. When in fact, all the students are equally important and will contribute equally in one way or another to society. This was one of the negative impacts of A Nation at Risk because it suggests that students should be in gifted classes and succeed in all subjects.
Overall, I think that in some way or another A Nation at Risk had a positive influence on schools. It is important that schools try to maintain and improve each year. It is also essential that we keep in mind the importance of education. Not only to compete with other nations but to better our own society and the future lives of the students.
Nastasha L. Pollard
ReplyDeleteReflection #2
‘A Nation at Risk’, states, “ We must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system for the benefit of all.” Within our American society today, I still feel this needs to be a main focus because our education system is failing in many ways. Although, school reform might have improved since this article was last written in 1983, I still feel we have a long way to go and we have fallen short with whatever these “improvements” are. Our school systems are not benefiting all students as they should. Our society’s school system today are contradicting this promise made to the continent that, “ All regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost.” This is very untrue, because all students aren’t getting a just chance. There is racism, discrimination, biases, and expectations of student achievement both at an individual and institutional level that thrives in today’s school systems, excluding students and not allowing everyone equal opportunities. I feel society as a whole needs to work on transforming these biases and discriminations, as well as the institutional structures that are causing barriers to student learning.
I can make my own connections to some of the specific findings within the article that have impacted my schooling experience. ‘A Nation at Risk’, states “Average achievement of high school students on most standardized test is now lower than 26 years ago when Sputnik was launched.” Standardized test scores are still not that great. More importantly, I never have been fond of standardized tests as a whole. First off, not everyone is a good test taker, particularly standardized test taker. I never was. I always achieved high on school tests in the classroom, but never on exams, like AP exams or state exams. I did well enough to pass them, but that was all. And when it came to the SAT or ACT exam, I had no life for three months, where I jus dedicated all my time to studying for this exam that such a huge impact on whether I my application would be even looked at for certain colleges or on what academic scholarships I would receive for college as a whole. I put all that time in and struggled to receive a high score on a test that defined my achievement in a sense, and that had so much importance. I firmly believe that standardized tests shouldn’t take such a prominent role in schooling. I feel that standardized tests have so many inaccuracies and biases, and many limited abilities to measure student achievement, that they are controlling teaching techniques and choking the school’s curriculum. I don’t feel standardized tests should be the main basis for a lot of the educational decisions made for a student through out their career as a student. Speaking to the first point I made about all students aren’t getting a fair chance correlates to standardized tests as well. Research has showed a lot of standardized tests are bias and that mostly privileged white students do well on these tests. Students with a minority background or that are from a low income socioeconomic background aren’t successful on these standardized tests, and usually can’t even afford to pay for test prep.
Another problem with these tests over all is that I feel they require critical and analytical thinking, which has for the most part been removed from our education system. ‘A Nation at Risk’ states, “ Many 17 year olds do not possess the “higher order” intellectual skills we should expect of them. Nearly 40 percent cannot draw inferences from written material; only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; and only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps.” Intellectual skills, inferencing, critically and analytically thinking have disappeared from our curriculum. Now, students are only taught to the test. They just memorize and repeat information for the tests for a grade, and that’s it. Then the information is usually forgotten. So when it comes to having to think for these tests, students are not used to having to think, question, investigate, discuss information. The article even states, “ Remedial Mathematics courses in public 4 year colleges increased by 72 percent and now constitute one-quarter of all mathematics courses taught in those institutions.” Aside from the fact that math just might not come easy to some people, math does require a lot of critical thinking and practice. Especially, as math gets harder, its not just about memorizing and repeating. With that said, I am connecting that to possibly one reason that achievement in math is in decline. I speak from the stand-point as a Mathematics major.
ReplyDeleteOverall, ‘A Nation at Risk’ states “the demand for highly skilled workers in new fields is accelerating rapidly.” This is still very true today. Yes, we do need people to be employed and bring with them fantastic educations and talents to continue to help improve our rapidly changing world and society. However, first we need to get our education system in order first. Two of my suggestions after reading ‘A Nation at Risk’ is not ignoring the discrimination and racism in our education system for one. Then also, just as other international countries don’t standardize test and use other methods to measure student achievement, we need to do away with standardized testing and teaching to the test overall because its negatively affecting our student’s minds.
I don’t know how it was for other people, but I do not think that the schools I attended did a good job of combating our lack of “preeminence” when it came to anything, at least not in the sense of actual learning. My high school was however, very preoccupied with all its students scoring high on the SAT or any standardized test. Although “A Nation At Risk” was written in 1983, my school most certainly contributed to the “rising tide of mediocrity” that was believed to be detrimental to the future of the United States. My school has, and even after graduation, continued to lose “sight of the . . . high expectations” that people have of not only American schools, but also American prep schools. Frankly I think that people put too much weight on the name of the school and that is one of the factors that contributed to my school in particular’s decline in academic standing (but I digress).
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty I don’t understand why it is such a bad thing that other nations are becoming academically competitive. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? That the lives of people across the world are improving? Sure, the U.S. wants to be the best and that’s all well and good, but every academic, technological or industrial advancement made by another country is not necessarily a threat against us. Because I did attend a prep school, regardless of its lackadaisical educational goals, there were still some sorts of qualifications necessary upon admission. Thus I did not truly experience the growing rates of illiteracy, and because I was in AP classes, did not experience the lack of higher order thinking. I was however, aware of the fact that SAT scores my year and college acceptance, in particular of so-called smart kids, was quite disappointing. I can only imagine that it was the same situation the previous year because counselors as well as teachers put a great deal of pressure on my senior class to excel in our SAT scores. We were encouraged to go through extensive preparation and take them multiple times.
Outside of school the pressure was still constantly present. Every adult who finds out you are a high school senior has three questions and they go as follows: 1) Where are you going to college? 2) What are you going to study? And 3) What do you want to do? Well I was a huge disappointment to all of those adults and luckily the same ones didn’t ask me twice because I turned my uncertainty into a game and told every person that asked me something different. Regardless, the one piece of valuable advice I got was relating to the SAT. My tutor told me “You don’t need a perfect score that can get you into any school. You just need the score that will get you into the schools you want.” Well I followed that advice and took the SAT only once because my score was good enough for me, and apparently it was good enough for the University of Miami as well. Sorry to break the news to advocates of perfect SAT scores for international competition but you can still proceed with an education with less than a 650. Granted, I was incredibly nervous until I was accepted into 8 out of the 9 schools I applied to (UM was the last I heard from) because unlike many of my peers I went about college applications lazily because I did not allow SAT prep to consume my life.
ReplyDeleteAs far as math and science go, I am a perfect example of a person whose math, science and technological education has fallen short. I can do the bare minimum on a computer and have done the minimum amount of work necessary relating to math and science. My high school required only 3 years of science and that is exactly what I took. In my senior year I took the easiest math class possible, and that was only because it was absolutely necessary for me to take a math class at all. Sure this is a bad reflection of my academic vigor, but I was more concerned with other classes that I enjoyed. Not only am I not very good at math or science, but I do not enjoy either of those subjects in the least bit (unless the science is psychology). As you can see, my school allowed students to cop out and take a minimal course load by making it an option. The Federal Government would be rather disappointed with my high school.
At the time I loved the idea that I could avoid science and difficult math classes, and I still am grateful. I also know that in the grand scheme of things it is not exactly a good thing that I am not very proficient with math or science. However, that idea has nothing to do with the United States or the federal government. My opinion of this is based solely on me, no matter how selfish that sounds. I would like to improve at math and science but not to help the country become more competitive with its abilities, I want to gain that intelligence so I could have a better understanding of the subjects.
I agree that the support of the public is key in developing a better education system, however it is not the general public that enacts laws and regulates what and how schools must go about educating. Going to a private school I did not see the influence of federal funds or state mandated curriculum and therefore was not impacted by it. Perhaps schools should set higher standards for students, because then they would have no choice but to reach them.
A Nation at Risk put out a straightforward message about the failings of the American education system. For the first time, a governmental agency released a document discussing the crisis of American schools. This article discusses the poor percentages of academic ratings, bad curriculum, and foreign education, which in the era of foreign competition, can be something highly detrimental to American society. The tone of this article says it all, noting the urgency of the reforms needed to get the American education system back on track. The article was written in 1983, the Cold War era, during a very different time in American history than present day. Yet some of the points brought up in the article reflect problems still seen today and or issue that have become progressively worse.
ReplyDeleteI do see a real problem in our country’s education system; however, I feel my particular schooling experience is much different from the kinds of schools the article mentions. I come from a small town, with one school to go to, no questions asked. My school does not have a tracking system. It is not even a problem to switch in and out of honors/AP classes versus regular classes. My high school had a very high graduation rate and a very low dropout rate. Many students went to some form of higher education after graduation.
Yet some problems discussed in this article were present in my years in elementary and high school or are issues that need extreme fixing but have become worse since this article was written. This most seen in the problem of standardized tests. This focus on standardized tests has been increasing with time, especially after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, by Bush, in 2003. I did not feel the impact of the curriculum changes because many of them came when I was already in middle school and taking honors classes. My school offered some vocational training for students who did not want to go onto college or who did not have interest in schooling; however, there were not many technology classes to choose from. The article emphasized technology training, especially in math and science, due to the ever-changing technological tides of the world, and to be able to keep up with high foreign competitors such as China.
Although I did not experience many of the problems this article discusses through my education, I still believe it is a seriously problems in places where it does exist and needs to be fixed for various reasons, including the ones given in the report.
In my opinion, I believe the findings of the article A Nation at Risk had little to no impact on my schooling and educational experience. From the year this article was written, 1983, through my years of formal education, approximately 1995 to 2008, little about the curriculum and schooling ideals changed. For instance, state and nation wide tests are administered to compare students and schools and there continues to be close to no area for exploring personal interests and incorporating creativity into the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteDuring my 12 years of schooling, the schools always decided my track. I was constantly worried about grades and comparing myself to other students. I always wanted to do better and was never satisfied. My school even had a special dinner to honor those students that graduated in the top 5% of our class. Not only did this exist in high school but middle school as well. I remember crying about getting one single B in all three years of middle school. This was, for the most, part the result of not achieving a plaque with my name on it saying that I had achieved all A’s. I remember also being particularly upset because one of my best friends at the time had received the award, and instead of being supportive and proud of her I was upset and angered.
This sort of occurrences seems to be what the article is referring to. Schools are not teaching students what really matter and there is a problem with the American ideals and presentation of schooling. No, we do not still believe our world is going to end per say, but it is evident that competition in schools, between schools, countries, and states, as well as our school system versus other nations school systems is still very much alive.
The article mentions, “the average citizen today is better educated and more knowledgeable than the average citizen of a generation ago – more literate, and exposed to more mathematics, literature, and science” (pg. 4). For the most part this quotation seems pretty accurate and valid from what I have been exposed to. People are always discussing about how times have changed and the world is a different place now than it was several decades ago or even years ago. Years ago it was deemed highly acceptable to graduate from high school, even more recently going to college and receiving a college degree was look very highly upon. However, as time has progressed it is almost accepted that everyone goes to college and if you do not it is looked down upon. It is even starting to be the norm for people to go to grad school or law school, so what’s next? But does going on to such a high level of education really make these younger generations better off? Does this knowledge of math, science and literature really make people better or destined to live a better life? In my opinion the answer is no. Knowing such arbitrary information does not necessarily help everybody; instead, it just seems to create unnecessary competition and sets ridiculous standards for children and students of the future, which is similar to the competition that existed between Russia and America when this article was written.
Conclusively, I do not see how A Nation at Risk impacted my schooling experience. Conflicts and competition cease to exist today, and although they are not exactly the same there is a striking resemblance to issues that were present three decades ago and today. When thinking in perspective on the situation, it does not seem that America has made any changes in the education system that have drastically changed our direction differently from what was present in 1983.
From “A Nation at Risk” to Racism Still Persists
ReplyDeleteYou know, the article “A Nation at Risk” may have been on to something. There has been a growing disengagement of the youth and the education system that has penetrated the country—at least in the last 19 years of my life. For the last 19 years, the socio-economic constructs that have immensely impacted the organization of local government, especially in Lower Merion, PA, have been based off racist views of the inferiority of the minority. So much so, that rumors fly, claiming that there is a NAACP investigation int0 the practices of the Lower Merion School District and school board. I was shocked when I heard these utterances, however, there came a critical moment in my life when I realized that they not be so far off base.
We had just finished reading both pieces by Dubois and Malcolm X’s autobiography in AP English and began to have a class discussion on race. The first question my teacher threw out for the class discussion was: “how do you think it feels to be black?”. I looked around for someone who would give us an answer and to my dismay, horror, and complete outrage, I realized that not only were there no black students in my class, but that the only minority represented my Asian comrade who suffered through the class in the chair next to mine every single day. I wondered to myself, how are a bunch of white kids going to talk about racial tensions in our society? I realized at once that there was no way we’d be able to get much out of the class discussion, being that I understood the perspective given by my peers. I wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear the answer to our teacher’s original question, “how do you think it feels to be black” from someone who actually experienced the answer on a daily basis.
It was in this class discussion that I found out about the NAACP in Lower Merion School District’s tracking practices. Apparently, the lack of black students in my AP English class was a systemic error that was being made in elementary schools across the district. Black students, whose population made up at least 40% of Lower Merion High School’s hallways, had been denied access to being placed in higher tracking levels for the mere reasoning that they were black.
This problem is not entirely Lower Merion’s issue. Rather, I would suspect it is a national trend. The outcries surrounding the lack of standardize test improvement among African Americans ring loud and clear. The current situation could be described in “A Nation at Risk” article—all you would have to do is replace all the “we”s and “us”es with the words “race” and “other minorities”. Our education system does not appeal to the demographic disparities of this country and perpetuate the disenfranchisement of minorities across the nation. The entire nation may not be at risk, but a significant proportion of its population is.
If perhaps, schools could at the very least provide an equal access to equally high education standards, the problem would start to diminish. I also believe that rather than stating the fact that minorities are underscoring whites in standardize test scores is a rather ignorant thing to say. Perhaps, rather than stating the obvious, our national community ought to take a critical look at the agencies that organize and enable racism in our educational system.
Yolanda Richard
ReplyDeleteReflective Essay 2
Professor Diem
A Nation at Risk is a very interesting article. I believe that it is written from a capitalist mindset that places an emphasis on efficiency. I am not in total agreement with the idea that education is a means to capitalistic ends; however, through this article I can see its importance in keeping America ahead of its international competitors. I found that several ideas portrayed in this article resonated with my experience with education.
One of the things that were interesting to me in A Nation at Risk was that the author considers knowledge, learning, and information as raw materials for international commerce. He says that this is the reason why we need to reform our educational system. I believe that this idea is very prevalent in our educational system today. Schools seem to have become a factory, pumping out efficient members trained to participate in and feed our capitalistic economy.
Growing up in the Miami public school system, there was a lot of structure and no real room for creative growth. There was always a bell to signal when to go to the next class. Teachers raced to fulfill the curriculum and comprehension was not the goal. The goal was to improve the grade for the school. In high school, each teacher had to implement a mandatory silent reading time. For the first 10 minutes of class we had to read a book of our own choosing. Silent reading was not an option. It became 10% of our grade. I personally thought that these policies were ineffective because it did not foster a true desire to read. But to the current administration this seemed to be the most efficient way to prepare the students for the exam that would determine the amount of funding they will receive. I was told that this would also prepare me for the “real world.”
The curriculum was not enriched. Tutoring opportunities were not provided. That would cost too much money and time. Therefore I agree with the article that we ought to preserve the idea of learning for learning sake; however, I disagree with article’s starting point. The risk should not be the U.S. loosing its competitive edge in the international realm, but the risk should be loosing our desire to learn. The risk that this article speaks of only creates a culture that learns for the sake of competition and not for learning itself. Therefore, the beginning premise of this article only reasserts the habits it says we need to fight, such as creating a ceiling of mediocrity. If our goal is to simply be competitive and use knowledge as a means for competition, then we can never “develop the talents of all to their fullest.” With this understanding of what the risk is, we endanger the future of our educational system. Our ceiling for understanding will always be just little bit more than a competing nation. We must set our own standard and say that learning for learning sake is what truly is at risk. Not loosing our competitive edge.
“A Nation At Risk” Response
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading “A Nation At Risk,” I found that my elementary and secondary school was greatly impacted by this article. My school, University School of Nova Southeastern University, is a Pre-K through 12th grade college preparatory school in Broward County, Florida. My school prides itself on this idea of a “Learning Society” since students’ are taught the “Uschool” ideals at the age of 4 or 5 all the way until they are 18 years old. For example, on their website they say, “education should find the best in a child. Whatever their strengths—artistic talent, scientific prowess, leadership skills—students need the right balance of guidance and freedom to nurture these abilities.” At University School, they believe that children should excel in all areas of learning--mathematics, English, history, science, foreign language--at a young age. Reagan’s idea of life-long learning definitely holds true at “Uschool,” as well as his idea of “excellence.” University School sets “high expectations and goals for all learners” (5). Students are expected to graduate from high school and then after, all students will attend a university. Guidance counselors push students to take a rigorous course load and students start meeting with a college counselor in 11th grade. The school wanted us to excel as individuals and to “Find the Best in U.”
Although University School claims to excel in all areas, they are certainly not as strong of a school pertaining to science and mathematics, as they should be. In “A Nation At Risk,” one finding was “there was a steady decline in science achievement scores of U.S. 17-year-olds as measured by national assessments of science in 1969,1973, and 1977” (3). Although I was taught math and science starting at an early age, I feel that most students in my grade, unless they were gifted in math, were never scholar math and science students. We constantly had new science teachers at our school, most of who were fired the next year. When it came to A.P. testing time, most students had trouble passing with a 3 on a majority of the tests. Reagan would claim that we would definitely need improvement in this area since, “learning is the indispensable investment required for success in the ‘information age’ we are entering”(2). Not having a strong math and science program is definitely a downfall for my school. They should have followed Reagan’s plan to increase learning in these areas. As a result to a weak science and math program, many students did not plan to study these topics in college; thus leading to less people who want to become doctors or scientists.
While my school did not necessarily excel in science and math, their language arts program was extremely strong. In “A Nation At Risk,” Reagan mentions that our Nation today has an increasing number of people who are illiterate and cannot write. At University School, they follow this idea of Writing Across the Curriculum, meaning that we will write in every course. I remember having to write a paper in my 6th grade math class about probability and baseball. As a result of a strong language arts program, many students did well on state writing exams, as well as on the SAT verbal section. In contrast to the science teachers, the English teachers worked at University School as long as I can remember. For example, one teacher had my 33-year-old brother in her 10th grade English class. Although it might sound ridiculous to be writing in a math class, this curriculum definitely helped me excel in expressing my thoughts at an early age.
Finally, Reagan speaks about how we need more parental supports in our school systems. At University School, there was a huge parental involvement in the school. When I was in elementary, parents were expected to come in for parent teacher conferences monthly and many times students’ parents worked in the school. The school would constantly call themselves our families- a “University School Family.”
ReplyDelete“Certainly there are few area of American life as important to our society, to our people, and to our families as our schools and colleges.” (1) There are also many parent organizations such as UFO (University Family Organization), FFTA (Families for the Arts), and even Athletic Council. It was very common to walk by your friend’s mother in the hallway after they left a meeting. In some ways it did help the school grow from all the donations parents would give and all of the volunteering as well. However, the helicopter mothers would try to twist teachers’ opinions in favoring their child.
Reflection Paper 2
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult to relate the main themes of A Nation At Risk to my own school experiences; first of all because most of the findings deal with the differences with the past and now. I have only been in my own generation of school. I was not there to see what school was like two generations ago therefore I cannot compare without falsely stating that it is or is not different than what is said in A Nation At Risk. I cannot say that my school experience has been more or less effective than a generation before me because I feel that I am fairly well educated. I do not feel the need to go to graduate school or any other higher learning institution and even just barely into my college career I feel prepared to enter the workforce. I have been worked for a while and in a couple different places with different positions and have had many employers offer me jobs. I do not feel that it is because I am more skilled than my other people simply that I am more willing to learn the tasks, take on the responsibility and most importantly, do the work.
Being willing is at least half of the battle, many students leave school and are not prepared for jobs because they are not willing to take the entry level jobs that are offered, or not willing to work. As much as I would love to say that this is the case for everyone I know that it is not true for every case and some students somehow get through school learning very little.
Even people who have only some high school education, can hold steady jobs and move up in the work place, but something I do believe is the decrease work ethic in this generation.
On that note many of the findings include statistics that show test scores being significantly lower than they had been in the past. Test scores. What does that mean? My cousin is a senior at Georgia Tech is majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aerospace Engineering. Very impressive that he is at the top of his class with such difficult courses, but not surprising; he has always done very well in school. His abilities in the math and sciences are mind-blowing, but I have known him my whole life. He may understand these things on paper but implement them in real life? He has never been very capable of actually doing things. Here is where Georgia Tech is failing to be the top notch school, they teach the paper concept but there is no hands on. In Advanced Welding the students are not allowed to weld using a real welding torch (just computer models). My cousin is an example of a traditional student who yields high test scores and low physical ability to implement many of the things he is taught.
I test very poorly, in order for me to fully understand something it needs to be hands on in one way or another. Reading how to weld and how much torque to put on a wrench is not going to do the trick, now if I read how to do it the skill was never with me nor will it stay with me. In reality I know it on paper I do not. Test that! This is not the case for every student but I think that the learning system may be flawed when the things students worry about is cramming information for a test.
ReplyDeleteThe article discusses the need for continual learning; this continual learning applies also learning new ways to teach and the need for things to change as the subject matter and the students changes by decade. This perpetual learning must continue I do agree and it tends to happen on its own in the work setting as knowledge becomes necessary for survival in a career, in school however I think that school systems are more reluctant to change and therefore these tests may not reflect that students are actually learning but are having a difficult time applying it in a test setting, or they may be accurate in which case the learning may not be happening at all in which case it is not only the students fault although it is important but it is the teacher’s failure to make the knowledge relevant, exciting and innovative. Either way tests are not a very good way to measure intelligence, seeing is learning and doing is knowing.
In “A Nation at Risk” there are many great points that represent my own personal beliefs on the education system. I don’t believe the goal of educating children should be based off of test scores and our competition with other nations in the 1980’s, but if that’s what it takes for the education system in America to prosper, then I’m all for it. In all honesty, I never really saw anything close to the end goal of “The Learning Society” in my school years. What I mostly came to know, which was heavily hammered into the reader in this piece, was the importance of succeeding in testing so we can reclaim our mantle as an elite power.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I definitely had certain teachers who attempted to do their part in creating “The Learning Society”, but there’s only so much a handful of individuals can do. The school system as a whole is still focused on standardized test scores. Some of the indicators of our educational problems in the reading were that many students were illiterate and also that many gifted students weren’t trying hard enough in school. But for the most part, the indicators of risk were based off of test scores. Apparently academic tests, College Board tests, and SATs were the indicators of risk.
I feel that with such emphasis on testing came a negative impact in my schooling experience. How are we to ever achieve “The Learning Society” if students aren’t really focused on learning? Students, and their parents, are more focused on shelling out money for SAT tutors so they can get above a 1200 or blindly memorizing a bunch of historical people so they can get an A on their history test. School is more of a test run for college, which in turn is something like a trampoline into the real world. If you get good grades in school, then you’ll get into a good college, and then you’ll benefit society with a good job. But there’s also the part in the reading, which highlights the part about the importance of all citizens learning how to read and benefit society in any way they can. This includes those citizens who are not fortunate enough to have lucrative, respected jobs, but still benefit society working the everyday, common jobs. If education is just focused on test scores, then those students who aren’t academically gifted will just be doomed to a poor job, and won’t even have the fact that they’re marginally educated to fall back on.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see the day where the Learning Society highlighted in “A Nation at Risk” is achieved, but the way the school systems are now, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. I feel that test scores should not be in the same risk category as illiterate citizens. Although the points had some positive impact on my schooling, I believe the focus on testing had a negative impact.