Education Development System in the USA - Essay Example

?Development in USA Education System Table of Contents Development in USA Education System Table of Contents 2 Introduction 4 2. World Culture Theorists Point 4 3. History of the United States Public Education System 4 a) Early History 5 b) The Beginning of the Public Education System 6 c) High Schools 6 d) Involvement at the Local and Federal Level 7 e) Gender Equality 8 4. School Restructuring 9 5. ‘Success for All’ (SFA) reform 10 Program Description 11 1. Program Components 11 A. Reception 11 B. Beginning Reading 12 2. Eight week Reading Assessments 13 3. Reading Tutor 13 4. Family Support Team 14 5. Program Facilitator 14 6. Teachers and Teacher Training 15 International Evolutions of SFA Adaptations 15 6. Discussion or Analyze World Culture Theory and Anthropology 16 7. Conclusion 17 1. Introduction The essay is about the development of the USA education system from international point of view. The essay will describe the public education system and the school reformation process (1990s) in the USA as well as the prominent improvements in the educational system and the analysis of world cultural theory and various perspectives of education system. 2. World Culture Theorists Point According to the point of view of ‘World Culture Theorists’, the fundamentals of general schooling system are considered to be ideals, central structure, educational institutions and content as well as instruction. These topics are described in the history of USA education system. 3. History of the United States Public Education System In the international framework the school development attempt in the USA must commence by two relative considerations which are the size of the nation and diversity of the nation. The American history looks for amendment in the name of improvement. With regard to size, the population of the USA is in excess of 280,000,000 who reside in 50 states including Washington, DC. As a consequence of delegation of education system, 15,000 LEAs (Local Education Authorities) had been established. Among them, dozens of them provide education to less than 100 students with an exception that certain LEA even serves above 1 million students (Harris & Chrispeels, 2006). Most of the schools in the USA have students of European origin, on the other hand, many schools provide education to Central or South American or African students. According to a study of NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), the students of suburban and rural areas of Northeastern and Midwestern districts of the USA possess equivalent knowledge in TIMSS (Third International Math and Science Studies) at par with the students of highest scoring districts in the USA (Flanagan and Grissmer, 2002). However, certain urban areas of the USA perform similarly as third world countries (Harris & Chrispeels, 2006). The USA is known as the most diverse nation internationally as it has variety of contributions, procedures and yields regarding educational issues. Another major feature of the USA’s educational system is the inclination to embrace variety of change attempts for development of education (Flanagan and Grissmer, 2002). a) Early History There is difference in the education system of America with other countries in the sense that in America the education is the primary duty of state and that of individual schools. The formal educational system in the USA was established in 19th century. At that time, an American leader named Jefferson had recommended for establishing the public school system. In the 18th century, the private school system became standard form of education. The education system was primarily religious. According to Jefferson, the education ought to be directed by the government and must be free from religious preconception. He thought that the education should be available to each person without concerning the class in the society. Besides Jefferson there are other leaders who provided an undertaking for government educational system were Benjamin Rush, George Washington, Robert Coram and Noah Webster. b) The Beginning of the Public Education System Up until the period of 1840s, the educational system of the USA was biased and only the rich people were able to take education. The opposing parties did not welcome such educational system. Their resistance for free education of children had resulted in the introduction of public education which is controlled by government in the elementary level. Thus, every children of America had gained equivalent opportunity to take education by 19th century. In the year 1918, each state of the USA had enacted regulations that every child must complete the elementary education. c) High Schools In the year 1635, the USA had started its first secondary school controlled by government, named Boston Latin. At the outset, the number of students was quite low in the secondary schools due to specialized and tough syllabus. The rate of students who completed the secondary education did increase to 85% in 1996. In 20th century, America had experienced huge growth in the number of educated students. Many states had passed regulation for making education obligatory up to age of 16. d) Involvement at the Local and Federal Level In America, the central government possesses high power over the public education. In the long run all the states of America had established their own educational division and passed act for finance, presence of students and developing syllabus. To meet the requirements of cost regarding education the public school often depend on local property taxes. In the 20th century, the majority of states took a more dynamic authoritarian role compared to earlier period. The school regions were merged into large divisions by ordinary methods. As a consequence, the number of school regions had reduced to 15,000 in the year 1990 compared to 1940 when the number was over 117,000. It is the duty of state to manage funding for education. The local property tax accounted for almost 68% of the public school expenditure and the remaining 30% was supplied by the state government. It has been seen that about 47% of public schools earnings were provided by the local regions and state jointly. From 1980–1990, the state had focused their concentration towards developing the level of the education. A federal report in the year 1983 illustrated that the educational success in public school is extremely less which had made state to engage more in the educational system. Another report suggested that though the American students had outperformed much better in the international examination compared to students of other civilization but their score in the examinations had also showed declining rate after a while. This condition had developed the need for restructuring of the education system which can focus on the regular examination and more advanced syllabus. In the year 1958, as the Congress brought the ‘National Defense Education Act’ and the ‘Elementary & Secondary Education Act’, the need for finance in the public school had increased extremely. These two acts had developed the issues such as providing educational prospect for the poor children as well as improving the ignored educational topics such as science, foreign languages and mathematics. To concentrate on these issues many other regulations were passed, for example, in the year 1963 the Vocational Education Act and in 1966 the International Education Act. The general model of school education in America says that each child possess the right to receive public education (Katheryn, M. & Anderson, levitt). In the year 1950, the USA had concentrated on bias factor towards education because of impartiality in school. The federal government was anxious about the impartiality factors in the school regions. e) Gender Equality The USA had always maintained gender equality in the educational system. Men as well as women had relatively contributed for providing education. Certain famous women educationalists whose role is important in education are Catharine Esther Beecher, Emma Willard and Mary Lyon. These educationalists had introduced the subjects that were previously not allowed or considered redundant for woman. In the year 1833, the first co–educational institution was established in the USA named Oberlin College. The first educational institution in the USA especially for woman was Bryn Mawr College which was started in the year 1880. The introduction of women’s right is a balanced mode for removing the gender inequity. As the technology has progressed, new methods of teaching have evolved in the public educational system. Yet, presently there are several issues which have negative impact on the education in public schools, for example, taking drugs, alcohol, and cigarette in the school area, creating violence. It is always a major concern for American government to introduce a fair system where there is no inequality and restriction for general students. The disruption in culture had transformed the system from time to time. Many instructors speculate for improving the educational structure because of disgraceful standard of high school. General public must take responsibility to encourage free education. 4. School Restructuring The period of late 1980s as well as early 1990s was the basis of school restructuring in the USA. The development process in this phase is restricted to the decade of 1990s i.e. from 1980 and throughout 1990s. There were two motives behind the reformation of the education system which are: 1. Traditional development attempt was not adequate, and 2. There was a need of reorganizing the school for genuine educational reformation In the 1990s, the direction had changed from ‘equity to economy’ in the school education development research. The focus of reformers had altered from resolving the difficulties of school to developing that kind of school which can create more workforces which was required in 21st century (Bickel, 1998). The movement for developing the economic oriented school was started by the publication of ‘A Nation at Risk’ (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and ‘A Nation Prepared’ (Carnegie Forum on Education and Economy, 1986) in the year 1980. The reformation was done on the basis of relatively broad changes in the fundamental structure of the education system which consists of motivating the instructor and the guardians of the students. The basic steps for reformation of education system in the USA were: Introducing SBM (Site Based Management) which was a step toward reorganizing the school system. Through SBM system the authority of local school became decentralized Transformation of the coaching methods Better parental engagement in school Making the timetable to be more flexible Developing the sense of responsibility among students These movements towards school development were admired in the USA in early and mid 1990s. At that period many large school regions went through the reformation process. 5. ‘Success for All’ (SFA) reform The educational theorists had judged the reformation of other countries and came to a conclusion that the reformation has certain basic features which are: Equivalence of education and delegation of control Independence of educator for educating students and at the same time there is need to manage the teachers The education should be on student basis as well as the education must be based on satisfaction These features can be seen in the reformation of educational system in the USA which is also known as SFA. Program Description 1. Program Components In the United States, the accomplishment of the SFA was initiated in the year 1987 in ‘Baltimore’ primary schools and from time to time it had spread to other schools. In the spring of the year 2003 almost 1500 schools in 500 regions of 48 states of the USA had acknowledged the program. Afterwards, the program was accepted in other countries such as Canada, Mexico, England, Israel and Australia. As for England, the program proved to be successful in the schools of London, Leeds, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Hull and Essex. The requirement of school and availability of resources to execute the program can accomplish the objectives of SFA (Slavin and Madden, 2001). For SFA to become successful there are requirement of certain basic components which are illustrated below: A. Reception It is the first component for the success of SFA. The present version of SFA program is known as KinderCorner. The primary objective of this program is to offer a fair and proper education for kids. The syllabus for this program is designed in such a way that it can improve the usage of language. Through this program the students will be more eager towards education. It develops phonemic responsiveness and knowledge about alphabet among students. Besides, this program educates about music, art and group activities through a range of thematic units. B. Beginning Reading The reading is another activity of SFA which is also known as STaR (Story Telling and Retelling) program. This program is based on restating the stories which had formerly been interpreted by the educator. The reading syllabus of SFA program was founded on the basis of research and efficient practices in commencement of reading (Adams, 1990) & (National Reading panel, 2000) and successful utilization of mutual education (Stevens & Et. Al., 1987) & (Slavin, 1995). There was also much emphasis on improving the responsiveness of students which helps to develop listening skill. A program named FastTrack Phonics was developed to help the students learn about alphabet and sound combination. Another program named Reading Roots was established for improving the constant reading abilities of co-workers as well as educators. The ‘minibook’ is used for improving the oral abilities. These programs are initiated in the first year of SFA. The second year starts with the introduction of program named Reading Wings (Stevens & Et. Al., 1987). In this program the mutual learning is used which is based on composition of story, forecasting, making a gist, building expression, practicing translation and story based writing. In this program students are involved in reading and discussing about the formation of the story. Students perform as a team to enhance their expertise in language and making the content of the story (Slavin, 1995). According to the research of CIRC report, it had been found that this system can successfully develop the comprehension ability of students and their language skill (Stevens & Et. Al., 1987). Besides these activities, the educators also help the students in reading and improving comprehension ability. For assisting the educators various books and readings are provided and students are also offered to freely select books of their choice for doing homework. In the ‘book club’ conference the homework of the students are shared once in a week through effective presentation, gist of their reading and other means of education. The syllabus of program was prepared in such a way so that it can cover six months of students’ literature and the contents of the literature were basic and widely used materials and albums (Stevens & Et. Al., 1987). Students within 1–6 years are reorganized for reading in the form of ‘Joplin Plan’. The objective of the regrouping was to develop reading skill in primary level (Slavin, 1987) & (Gutierrez & Slavin, 1992). 2. Eight week Reading Assessments In the eight week time period, the reading educators evaluate the students for determining the impact of their lessons and requirement of any change in the reading team. Through this evaluation, the teacher can identify the need for additional assistance to the students, for example, visual learning or detecting any problems of students such as hearing problem. The evaluation is done by the observation method and formal appraisal of reading comprehension. 3. Reading Tutor Reading tour is the most significant part of accomplishment of SAF. In this program teacher is used to sponsor a student to judge the success of reading of the student (Wasik & Slavin, 1993). To communicate regarding specific problem about students and their needs, the teachers use brief form at regular time interval and coordinate their approaches to students. 4. Family Support Team Families are the essential element of SFA program. In every school there is family support team which helps students to make them happy in school environment. They are used to provide specific services and support the education. This team is responsible for arranging several programmes such as parenting talent seminar in the educational institutions. The family support team mutually works with educator and the parents for resolving issues related to student performance and problems. 5. Program Facilitator The task of program facilitators is to assist in supervising the function of SFA and making it successful. They are responsible for preparing the program; assisting the head tutor in developing routine. They often look over the classes and assist educators in individual problem. 6. Teachers and Teacher Training In order to educate properly, the teachers need certain preparation. Thus, they are provided with certain guidebook and in-service training at the commencement of school period. To resolve any issues of teachers and share problems, the facilitators at times arrange several casual conferences, where they discuss and provide recommendations on education of students. International Evolutions of SFA Adaptations It has been found from the longitudinal report that the performance of eighth grade students of ‘Baltimore’ schools was comparatively much better than the controlled school students (Borman & Hewas, 2003). The American Institute for Research had also appreciated the education system for the achievement of SFA program and acknowledged its efficacy (Herman, 1999). Several countries had conducted studies for evaluating the impact of adaptation of SFA in the schools. In countries such as Canada and England minor alteration has been made to adapt the SFA program in schools in contrast to Mexico, Israel and Australia where major alterations has been made to adapt the SFA program. These modifications are political and finance requirements. One of the studies for evaluating the success of SFA was conducted in Canada where two schools were taken, one is controlled school and the other is SFA integrated school. The results of the study signified that students where SFA program was employed possessed superior reading performance compared to the controlled schools (Chambers, Abrami and Morrison, 2001). Another study in England’s SFA School had also generated similar results where SFA students were found with more reading skill than the students before introduction of SFA (Harris & Et. Al., 2001). In Australia, the adaptation of SFA is known as SWELL (Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy). It is a basic form of SFA where the instructional method was followed and the books used in that program was of Australian origin. According to Australian study of SWELL, it had been found that SWELL has positive impact on students compared to control school students (Cente4r & Et. Al., 1997) & (Freeman & Roberson, 2001). It is the responsibility of school staffs to reorganize the school to fulfill the requisites of SFA program (Berman & McLaughlin, 1978). 6. Discussion or Analyze World Culture Theory and Anthropology With respect to schooling there are two diverse perceptions: one is ‘anthropologists’ and the other one is ‘institutionalists’. The anthropologist focuses on state dissimilarity and variation from region to region. On the other hand, the institutionalists argued on the dissimilarity view of anthropologists and said that many schools all over the world are becoming alike with time. Every school is slowly taking the same educational structure. The world culture theorists are greatly aware about the changes that happened in the educational institutions, regional schools and local classrooms. The innovation in the educational system cannot be overlooked (datnow, Hubbard, and Mehan, 2002) & (Jacob, 1999) & (Jennings, 1996). 7. Conclusion The anthropologists must realize that the culture theory has great significance for education. The researchers must not mislead others and themselves by ignoring the real picture as well as the reformers also should be careful about the new educational system. The reformers must not ignore the international education structure. The researchers who are ignorant of the international models underneath the prevailing diverseness in local perspective are merely playing with the outside of educational reform. Read More