Race To The Top: Is Our Education System In Trouble - Essay Example

Race To The Top: Is Our Education System In Trouble? Race to the Top focuses on four areas—or "assurances"—that each is expected to include in its application for grant money. Those assurances include: improving the quality of teachers and the distribution of excellent teachers; having standards in place to improve teaching and learning; using longitudinal data systems to improve student and teacher performance; making sure all students have qualified teachers and improving achievement in low-performing schools (Ross) Over the last few years, democrats and republicans are trying to revitalize American educational system in different manners. Bush introduced the No Child Left Behind or NCLB policy in 2001 whereas Obama introduced Race to the Top or RTT in 2009. In other words both democrats and republicans are equally aware of the problems in present American education systems. However, neither NCLB nor RTT seems to be addressing the real issues in American educational sector. Around 4.35 billion dollar allocated to United States Department of Education to implement RTT successfully. RTT aims to implement drastic changes in the K-12 educational system in America. The quality of American education is getting diminished as time goes on and Obama wants to improve it as much as possible. However Obama’s RTT system seems to be generating mixed reaction among the public. Some people believe it as a conscious and sincere effort by president Obama to improve the educational standards in America whereas others are of the view that it may not yield the desired goals. This paper analyses whether American educational system is in trouble or not, because of RTT. Problems The Obama Administration unveiled its new “Race to the Top” initiative in which it will use the lure of $4.35 billion in federal cash to induce states to improve their K-12 schools. Four billion dollars is a lot of money, but it’s a tiny percentage of what the U.S. spends on education. The Department of Education estimates that the U.S. as a whole spent $667 billion on K-12 education in the 2008-09 school year alone, up from $553 billion in 2006-07 (Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ Who’ll blink first: the unions, or the White House?) The above statistics clearly show that America is spending huge volumes of money for improving the educational standards in America. Moreover, after the introduction of RTT, the school funding amount has been increased considerably. Earlier, the educational funds were allotted to all the states in a standardized manner. Only the number of schools, number of students etc were considered while deciding the funding amount to each state. States distributed the money to all schools irrespective of their performances. Schools on the other hand spent majority of such money in nonproductive sectors and failed to achieve the objectives of school funding before the introduction of RTT. Obama believes that the problem in American school education is the improper usage of funding rather than the shortage of funding. So, he wanted to avoid the wastage of school funding money in the nonproductive sectors and implemented RTT for that. The second problem associated with RTT is the blaming of teachers for the under achievements of American schools. Obama administration believes that the current teachers in America are underperforming because of lack of accountability. In order to raise the standards of teaching RTT proposes promotions based on performances rather than experiences. In other words, teachers with 30 or 40 years of services will be denied promotions whereas teachers with even 3 to 5 years’ experience may get promotions. Teachers with 30 or 40 years of experience will never like to work under a superior with fewer years of experience. It is difficult for the experienced teachers to adjust or adapt with the current trends in teaching and learning. New generation of teachers may well adjust with new trends and they will get promotions easily. “School choice is anathema to the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which also oppose paying teachers for performance rather than for seniority and credentials”(Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ Who’ll blink first: the unions, or the White House?). RTT allows parents to choose the schools for their children irrespective of public, private or chartered. In other words, RTT provides educational incentives to all irrespective of in which school the student is studying. Teachers unions argue that those who are capable of sending their children to the expensive private and chartered schools do not require any financial help from the government. In short, the third problem associated with RTT is the fund allocation; government funds or public money are distributed evenly to all the schools irrespective of private, public or chartered schools. The fourth problem associated with RTT is the enlargement of content areas in schools. It is a fact that knowledge is exploding from all corners, virtually in every second. It is difficult for the human brain to accommodate all the knowledge entering in this world. Trying to inject too much knowledge during a particular year may bring more harm than good. Instead of trying to teach so many things, it is better to teach few things in order to help the students to learn the topics properly. America required specialized knowledge at present. For example, America is facing severe shortage of computer professionals at present. If a student who is interested in IT studies forced to learn other topics also under the RTT program, he may not get enough opportunity to improve his knowledge and skills in IT subjects. Thus, his talents will be wasted if RTT stresses too much on the content enlargements in schools. The first problem; improper usage of funding is a major problem in American educational systems. In order to avoid it, there should be some kind of monitoring agencies to look after how well the allotted funds were used up. Instead of establishing such a monitoring agency, Obama is trying to limit the funding only to the better performing states and schools. In other words, underperforming states or schools will never get any aid from the federal government which means educational standards will never improve in such schools. In fact, Obama should concentrate more on underperforming states or schools to improve the overall educational standards in America. Instead of denying the opportunity to get educational funding, the monitoring of the spending of funds in such schools should be strengthened. The second problem is with respect to the teacher performances and promotion criteria. Obama is trying to put the entire blame on teachers for the underperformance of American schools. In fact, teachers should only be partly blamed for such things. Infrastructure facilities in schools should be improved further instead of putting the blame on teachers. It is illogical to deny the promotion opportunities to teachers who spent majority of their life time for students. Experience also should be considered along with performances while deciding promotions. The third problem of RTT is the funding irrespective of the nature of the schools. Only the public schools in America are functioning without a profit making motto. All the other schools are functioning only for making profits. Education is not an act which is suitable to use for making profits. Profit making mottos should be eliminated from the educational sector as much as possible. The right to learn is a basic right and ordinary people rely heavily on public schools for their education. The RTT funding policy may adversely affect public schools since private schools may have more capabilities and resources to improve their performances. In other words, RTT funding may not reach many of the public schools and therefore the ultimate outcome would be the destruction of public schools and denial of educational opportunities to poor students. RTT funding should be limited only to public schools in order to raise their competitive power rather than providing it to all schools. Content area enlargement will never help students to get adequate knowledge about the topics. Instead of providing all types of knowledge to all students, it is better to provide in depth knowledge to topics which are interesting to the students. For example, a computer savvy student will never concentrate more in a linguistic class. The time wasted for teaching linguistics to that student can be better utilized for improving his IT skills. To conclude, if it is implemented correctly, RTT may improve the quality of American education considerably. Improper usage of educational funds should be avoided as much as possible. Accountability is necessary for teaching profession; however the efforts or strategies implemented to improve accountability should never cause any problems to the experienced teachers. Federal funding should be limited to public schools in order to prepare them to compete more effectively with other schools. Instead of increasing the burden of students through the enlargement of content area, in depth knowledge should be provided to students in some specific areas. Works Cited 1. “Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ Who’ll Blink First: The Unions, or the White House?”. 2009. The Wall street Journal. 30 July 2009. Web. 22 July 2011. 2. Ross, Bob. “Can Race to the Top Save Struggling Schools?”. 2011. Web. 22 July 2011. Read More