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Zach Sisler

Professor Patricia Houston

ENGL 2089

17 October 2017

Divided States of America: A Failing Education System

In a world of exponential advancements and a never faltering global economy, the United

States seems to always be on top. But how much longer can we keep this balancing act up?

Every day, workers in our industries retire and are replaced with new younger workers. Usually

these newcomers are fresh out of a University or degree-granting institution. At the root of our

national economy is our education system. Early education (K-12) is essentially the foundation

for the future generations of workers. The concepts they learn both educationally and about the

world itself during this period of their lives shape who they will become and what abilities they

might be capable of attaining later on. The United States Government crams the most money

into its education system, and has the least results to show for it internationally, by a longshot.

So, as many puzzled congressmen and equally qualified monkeys alike may have scratched their

heads in contemplation of: why does our education system perform so poorly compared to others

around the globe? In the following paragraphs I will break down what I have found to be the

main causes of our countrys poor education results through my research, and provide a brief

outline of what must be done to correct these factors. With some reallocations of funding, a few

changes in our curriculums and school cultures and slight teaching modifications, our education

system could perform exponentially better than it is currently.

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Standardization

Although President Bush had good intentions with the No Child Left Behind Act, he

started a wave of standardization and performance based assessments that still cause issues to

this date. Students were reduced to numbers and scores, and schools that had low student

performance on these tests were penalized with decreased funding and even the possibility of

being shut down. These sanctions put immense pressure on teachers, principals, and virtually all

school employees who wished to keep their job security. Waves of scandals swept across the

country, as test administrators cheated in many ways such as helping students with answers and

even altering test scores. Generally when a student does poorly on a test, it is an indicator of

their surroundings. That could be home life, or a poor educational setting. No matter how good

a teacher may be, they cannot force a student to learn or perform well academically. Punishing

schools with poor student performance might make sense in theory, but not in reality. Schools

that perform poorly are almost always the ones that need more funding and attention! As former

Governor of Georgia Roy Barnes said: If the goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is to ensure

that all children meet state standards, then allowing large numbers of the most disadvantaged

children to fall between the cracks is unacceptable. Not all students in America, a single state, a

single school district, or even a single town are in the same socioeconomic groups. Trying to

standardize performance and education on a national level is a disaster and highlights the idea

that big federal government should stay out of the educational realm.

Unbalanced Resource Allocation

According to the publication The Condition of Education 2017 by the National Center for

Educational Statistics, almost 50% of public school funding in the United States in 2015 came

from the local areas surrounding these schools. As can be assumed, this means that the amount
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of funding between some schools in intercity areas and areas of poverty can vary drastically.

There are some balances in place in certain states to help correct this, but they are mostly

ineffective and not widespread enough to make a large impact. Some schools in wealthy areas

end up spending more on their sports programs than schools in the projects and areas of

disadvantage have available for new materials and technology. Rothstein (2004) found that the

actual school spending per pupil from 1996-97 ranged from $9,667 in New Jersey to only $3,704

in Mississippi. This kind of standardization in testing and funding has undeniably hindered our

education system, and widened the divide that must now be bridged.

Cultural Family Crises

According to James S. Coleman in The Coleman Report, the two biggest indicators of a

childs educational performance are family life and peers. In 2017, over 50% of American

children will see their parents become divorced or separated. Approximately 43% of these

children will grow up without a father figure. It is not news that America has been going

through large cultural and political changes in recent times, and division economically, racially,

and socially has been growing. Drug problems are also devastating many families, with

overdoses rising all over the country. The cultural divide between parents and their teenagers

has arguably never been greater in human history than it is now. Many children dont grasp the

value of their education and performance without parent involvement and motivation. American

high schools especially have been transformed into a cultural fixture: less known for education

and more known for football, cliques of hormonal teenagers, bullying, and stoners. The

American society is sensitive of and very hesitant to try and tackle these issues, and it is showing

in our student performances.

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Ineffective Teaching Methods

It is a pretty well-known fact in our day and age that students learn best when

engaged. Take a trip to a local college and sit in on a lecture in a big lecture hall odds are less

than 15 minutes into the class you can look around and see at least a handful of students with

their heads on their desks taking a boredom induced midday snooze. America has some of the

best STEM teachers, they really know their stuff. However, a lot of them are focused upon

research rather than teaching, or lack the proper teaching skills to translate their knowledge to

students in a way the students can master the advanced topics and most importantly understand

the concepts behind them and how they can be applied. Application teaching is something that is

catching on in our modern society, and for good reason. The days of students just memorizing

terms and mindlessly putting numbers into a formula and spitting out an answer they hope is

right must come to an end. Students need to learn how to fail, to recognize why they failed, and

to take that knowledge and use it to succeed with another attempt. A future employer probably

doesnt care if you got an A+ or a C- in your 12th grade calculus class. They care that you can

prove you are competent to apply things youve learned to the industry, that you can solve

problems quickly in a way that satisfies all parties, and that you are willing to grow and learn as

you stay in the company. Learning new concepts and ideas is always beneficial, there is no bad

knowledge. However what our students learn must be targeted and applicable to the fields that

they may work in one day!

Conclusion

The ingredients for a revolutionary education system are all already present in the United

States. The funding, teachers, technology and students are all prepared for the next big jump,

lying in wait in our 50 states (and other territories). With the reallocation and effective
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distribution of our funds and technology, we could improve disadvantaged schools immensely.

No more students from any background, race, or socioeconomic group should fall through the

cracks of the system. If family life and everyday quality of life could be improved through a

more comprehensive education program, our graduation rates would rise and thus our industries

would be provided with more qualified and educated workers. With a slight modernization of

our teachers presentation methods students could begin to learn more efficiently, and as a result

would be enabled to learn more material in a more applicable fashion in less time.