3 to 4 pages of essay
about the two problems in American education
decipline and lack of parental involvement
and 5 reference/citation page.
Answer-
School discipline
has been, continues to be, and hopefully will not continue to be
the number one problem and duty of the school principal and his or
her teaching faculty. Providing a "safe and secure" learning
environment has always been the hallmark of a successful school
principal and a successful school.
The importance of school discipline is
emphasized repeatedly in surveys, polls, and literature about
education and student achievement. The Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup
public opinion poll has consistently rated
discipline as the number one or two problem in
response to the question what is the biggest problem facing public
schools. Bennett (1999) states that most surveys show that
Americans complain that too many schools are disorderly,
undisciplined places. He blames schools for not holding students
accountable for their actions, and follows that up with an
indictment of parents who criticize or sue when the schools do try
to instill accountability.
One of the more disturbing revelations about the conduct of
students in our schools is "bullying". Many of the authors and
researchers suggest that the reason for bullying in our schools is
that it is modeled by school faculties and school leaders. If we
define "bullying" as Webster does: the act of intimidating a weaker
person to make them do something, then Marr and Field's (2001)
statement maybe much of the cause of the problem in our schools.
They clearly state that if bullying is rife in the playground then
it's likely to be rife in the staffroom, and vice-versa. Many of
the discipline problems dealt with by school
principals are generated by teachers. It is not uncommon to hear
principals complain that the discipline problems
in the school are caused more by the teachers than the student.
Educators have always been aware of the difficulties that
disciple causes in our schools. Student discipline
patterns are predictors of future failure in high school,
delinquency, special education referral, alternative school
placements, and incidents of school violence. While public
education was founded with the goal that all children should have
access to an education, merely offering the opportunity to learn is
no longer enough. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that
schools take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that learning
actually takes place for all children. Educational literature
repeatedly emphasizes that good school discipline
is a prerequisite for learning to take place. At the same time that
more is expected from schools in terms of academic outcomes, many
students come into the schoolhouse without having acquired the
social and behavioral skills they need to succeed. Urban students
in particular may have learned the skills they need for survival in
the community, but those skills are frequently at odds with the
expectations for acceptable behavior in the school. Teachers under
pressure to show improvement in their students' performance on
state-mandated assessments tend to have little tolerance for
classroom behavior problems. Clearly, improving student
discipline is not only a safety issue, but also an
academic and social imperative.
It is very clear that little learning is going to take place in
a school where there is poor student discipline or
as he refers to it as a "wild culture". The first and most
important job of the principal is to provide a "safe and secure"
environment for the students. To be successful as an instructional
leader the school principal must first create an environment that
is conducive to student learning and this requires getting the
relationships right. This requires each principal to understand the
uniqueness of the problems of their school and thorough
understanding of the resources available to them to help solve the
problem. Each situation will be unique and different and leaders
must apply strategies that work for that particular school
community.
Lack of Parent
Involvement.
Of all the things out of the control
of teachers, this one is perhaps the most frustrating. Time spent
in the classroom is simply not enough for teachers to instruct
every student, to teach them what they need to know. There must,
inevitably, be some interaction outside school hours. Of course,
students at a socio-economic disadvantage often struggle in school,
particularly if parents lack higher levels of education. But
students from middle and upper class families aren’t off the hook,
either. The demands of careers and an over-dependence on schools
put higher-class kids at risk too when it comes to the lack of
parental involvement in academics.
The other important aspects
that need to improve in education
system are as
under.(Citation
page)
- Schools are closing left
and right. It’s been a rough year for public schools. Many
have found themselves on the chopping block. Parents, students and
communities as a whole feel targeted, even if school board members
are quick to cite unbiased numbers. There is no concrete way to
declare a winner in these cases, either. Sometimes, a school
closing is simply inevitable but communities should first look for
other solutions. Instead of shutting down underutilized public
schools – icons of the community – districts should consider other
neighborhood uses, such as a community center or adult education
classes. Closing public schools should not be a short-sighted
procedure. The decision should focus on the only investment that
really matters: a quality public education for all our nation’s
children.
- Our schools are
overcrowded. The smaller the class, the better the
individual student experience. A study by the National Center for
Education Statistics found that 14 percent of U.S. schools exceed
capacity. At a time where children need more attention than ever to
succeed, overcrowded classrooms are making it even tougher to learn
and tougher still for teachers to be effective.
- Technology comes with its
downsides. I am an advocate for technology in the
classroom. I think that ignoring the educational opportunities that
technology has afforded us puts kids at a disadvantage. Being said,
screen culture overall has made the jobs of teachers much more
difficult. Education has become synonymous with entertainment in
many ways. Parents are quick to download educational games as soon
as kids have the dexterity to operate a touch screen, and with the
best of intentions. The quick-hit way that children are learning
academics before and during their K-12 careers makes it even more
difficult for teachers to keep up in the classroom setting,
particularly since each student’s knowledge base and technological
savvy varies.
- There is a lack of
diversity in gifted education. The “talented and gifted”
label is one bestowed upon the brightest and most advanced
students. Beginning in early elementary grades, TAG programs
separate student peers for the sake of individualized learning
initiatives. Though the ideology is sound, the practice of it is
often a monotone, unattractive look at contemporary American public
schools. District schools need to find ways to better recognize
different types of learning talent and look beyond the typical
“gifted” student model. The national push to make talented and
gifted programs better mirror the contemporary and ever-evolving
student body is a step in the right direction. Real change happens
on a smaller scale though – in individual districts, schools and
TAG programs. That progress must start with understanding of the
makeup of a particular student body and include innovative ways to
include all students in TAG learning initiatives.
- School spending is
stagnant, even in our improving economy. As the U.S.
economy continues to improve, according to news headlines, one area
is still feeling the squeeze from the recession years: K-12 public
school spending. A report this month from the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities found that 34 states are contributing less
funding on a per student basis than they did prior to the recession
years. Since states are responsible for 44 percent of total
education funding in the U.S., these dismal numbers mean a
continued crack down on school budgets despite an improving
economy. If we cannot find the funding for our public schools, how
can we expect things like the achievement gap to close or high
school graduation rates to rise? It was understandable that budgets
had to be slashed when the bottom dropped out of the economy. Now
we are in a more stable place, though, it is time to get back to
funding what matters most: the education of our K-12 students.
- We are still using the
teacher training methods of yesterday. With respect to the
students of the past, modern classrooms are full of sophisticated
youngsters that show up with a detailed view of the world formed
from more than home life experiences. Instant access to information
from instant a child can press a touchscreen on a Smartphone and
widespread socialization from as young as six weeks old in the form
of childcare atmospheres – kids arrive at Kindergarten with less
naivety than previous generations. Teachers don’t, in other words,
get a clean slate. Instead, they get young minds cluttered with
random information and ideas, all of which need fostering or
remediating.
- There is a lack of teacher
education innovation. It stands to reason that if students
are changing, teachers must change too. More specifically, it is
time to modify teacher education to reflect the demands of the
modern K – 12 classrooms. There are policy and practice changes
taking place all over the world – many driven by teachers – that
address the cultural shifts in the classroom. Public education in
America needs teachers who are better trained to meet the needs of
specific student populations, understand the necessary role of
distance learning, and are willing to speak up to facilitate
classroom change. Without these teachers, effective reform to meet
global demand is not possible.
- Some students are lost to
the school-to-prison pipeline. Sadly, over half of black
young men who attend urban high schools do not earn a diploma. Of
these dropouts, too, nearly 60 percent will go to prison at some
point. Perhaps there is no real connection between these two
statistics, or the eerily similar ones associated with young Latino
men. Are these young people bad apples, destined to fail
academically and then to live a life of crime? If some of the
theories of genetic predisposition are true, perhaps these young
men never stood a chance at success and have simply accepted their
lots in life. But what if those answers, all of them, are just
cop-outs? What if scoffing at a connection between a strong
education and a life lived on the straight and narrow is an easy
way to bypass the real issues in K-12 learning? Students who are at
risk of dropping out of high school or turning to crime need more
than a good report card. They need alternative suggestions on
living a life that rises above their current circumstances. For a
young person to truly have a shot at an honest life, he or she has
to believe in the value of an education and its impact on good
citizenship. That belief system has to come from direct
conversations about making smart choices with trusted adults and
peers.
- There is a nationwide
college-gender gap, and surprisingly, we are not focusing on
it. If you have been following education hot button issues
for any length of time, you’ve likely read about the nationwide
push to better encourage girls in areas like science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM). The thought is that by showing young
women that these topics are just as appropriate for them as their
male peers, more women will find lasting careers in these
traditionally male-dominated fields. I’m all for more women in the
STEM workplace but with all this focus in one area, are educators
neglecting an even larger gender gap issue? I wonder how much of
this trend is based on practicality and how much is based on a
lingering social convention that women need to “prove” themselves
when it comes to the workforce. Do women simply need a degree to
land a job in any field? If so, the opposite is certainly not true
for men – at least not yet. Will the young men in our classrooms
today have a worse quality of life if they do not attend college –
or will it be about the same?
- We still do not know how to
handle high school dropouts. It seems that every time the
issue of high school dropouts is discussed, it all centers on
money. U.S. Census Statistics tell us that 38 percent of high
school dropouts fall below the poverty line, compared with 18
percent of total households in every demographic. Dropouts are also
40 percent more likely to rent their residences and spend $450 less
per month on housing costs than the overall population. Only around
60 percent of dropouts own vehicles and they spend over $300 less
on entertainment annually than average Americans. It’s clear that a
high school diploma is in fact the ticket to higher earnings, at
least on a collective level. The negative financial ramifications
of dropping out of high school cannot be denied, but the way they
are over-emphasized seems like a worn-out tactic to me. Instead of
focusing on students as earners, we really need to value them as
learners so that we can encourage them to finish their high school
education.
- We have not achieved
education equity. Equity in education has long been an
ideal. It’s an ideal celebrated in a variety of contexts, too. Even
the Founding Fathers celebrated education as an ideal – something
to which every citizen ought to be entitled. Unfortunately, though,
the practice of equity in education has been less than effective.
Equity, in the end, is a difficult ideal to maintain and many
strategies attempting to maintain it have fallen far short in the
implementation. To achieve equity, school systems need to have an
approach for analyzing findings about recommended shifts in
learning approaches and objectives. These approaches should also
help teachers and administrators understand not what they have to
avoid but what it is that they can do to achieve optimal equity
moving forward.
- Technology brings a whole
new dimension to cheating. Academic dishonesty is nothing
new. As long as there have been homework assignments and tests,
there have been cheaters. The way that cheating looks has changed
over time, though. Technology has made it easier than ever. Perhaps
the most interesting caveat of modern-day cheating in U.S.
classrooms is that students often do not think they have done
anything wrong. Schools must develop anti-cheating policies that
include technology and those policies must be updated consistently.
Teachers must stay vigilant, too, when it comes to what their
students are doing in classrooms and how technology could be
playing a negative role in the learning process. Parents must also
talk to their kids about the appropriate ways to find academic
answers and alert them to unethical behaviors that may seem
innocent in their own eyes.
- We still struggle with
making teacher tenure benefit both students and teachers.
One of the most contested points of teacher contracts is the issue
of tenure. Hardline education reformers argue that tenure protects
underperforming teachers, which ends up punishing the students.
Teachers unions challenge (among other reasons) that with the
ever-changing landscape of K-12 education, including evaluation
systems, tenure is necessary to protect the jobs of excellent
teachers who could otherwise be ousted unfairly. It can often be a
sticking point – and one that can lead to costly time out of
classrooms, as recently seen in large school systems like New York
City and Chicago. Now, I’m not suggesting that teachers just “give
up” but I would support adjusting the expectations for tenure. It
seems an appropriate step in the right direction for teachers in
all types of schools. That energy then can be redirected towards
realistic and helpful stipulations in teachers’ contracts that
benefit the entire industry.
- More of our schools need to
consider year-round schooling. Does it work? The
traditional school year, with roughly three months of vacation days
every summer, was first implemented when America was an
agricultural society. The time off was not implemented to
accommodate contemporary concerns, like children needing “down
time” to decompress and “be kids.” The system was born out of
economic necessity. In fact, the first schools that went against
the summers-off version of the academic calendar were in urban
areas that did not revolve around the agricultural calendar, like
Chicago and New York, as early as the mid-1800s. It was much later,
however, that the idea as a whole gained momentum. Overall,
year-round schooling seems to show a slight advantage academically
to students enrolled, but the numbers of students are not high
enough to really get a good read on it at this point. What does
seem clear, however, is that at-risk students do far better without
a long summer break, and other students are not harmed by the
year-round schedule.
- We are still wrestling the
achievement gap. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department
of Education released student performance data in its National
Assessment for Educational Progress report. The data is compiled
every two years and it assesses reading and math achievements for
fourth and eighth graders. This particular report also outlines
differences between students based on racial and socioeconomic
demographics. The data points to the places in the U.S. that still
struggle with inequality in student opportunity and performance,
otherwise known as the achievement gap. The achievement gap will
likely always exist in some capacity, in much the same way that the
U.S. high school dropout rate will likely never make it down to
zero. This doesn’t mean it is a lost cause, of course. Every
student who succeeds, from any demographic, is another victory in
K-12 education and it benefits society as a whole. Better
recognition by every educator, parent and citizen of the true
problem that exists is a start; actionable programs are the next
step.
- We need to consider how
school security measures affect students. In theory,
parents and educators would do anything to keep students safe,
whether those students are pre-Kindergartners or wrapping up a
college career. Nothing is too outlandish or over-the-top when it
comes to protecting our kids and young adults. Metal detectors,
security cameras, more police presence in school hallways, gated
campuses – they all work toward the end goal of sheltering students
and their educators, protecting some of the most vulnerable of our
citizens. Emotions aside, though, how much does school security
really increase actual safety? Do school security efforts actually
hinder the learning experience? It sounds good to taut the virtues
of tighter policies on school campuses but is it all just empty
rhetoric? Given the fact that state spending per student is lower
than at the start of the recession, how much should schools shell
out on security costs? Perhaps the best investment we can make to
safeguard our students and educators is in personal vigilance.
Perhaps less reliance on so-called safety measures would lead to
higher alertness.
- We need to make assistive
technology more available for students with disabilities.
A key to improving the educational experience for students with
disabilities is better accommodations in schools and continued
improvements in assistive technology. Assistive technology in K-12
classrooms, by definition, is designed to “improve the functional
capabilities of a child with a disability.” While the word
“technology” automatically conjures up images of cutting-edge
electronics, some assistive technology is possible with just simple
accommodations. Whether high-tech or simple in design, assistive
technology has the ability to transform the learning experiences
for the children who benefit. Assistive technology is important for
providing a sound education for K-12 students with disabilities but
benefits the greater good of the country, too. Nearly one-fourth of
a specific student population is not being properly served and with
so many technological advances, that is a number I believe can
drop. Assistive technology in simple and complex platforms has the
ability to lift the entire educational experience and provide a
better life foundation for K-12 students with disabilities.
Some of these reasons are well-known
and long-standing issues. However, others—such as the emergence of
a screen culture—are new and even somewhat unexpected challenges.
However, the nature of each issue does not matter. All of them are
standing in the way of our becoming globally competitive.