Improving the Quality of Education in the Urban Schools - Essay Example

Improving the Quality of Education in the Urban SchoolsWhen one talks about urban schools, a large percentage of Americans picture schools that are located within large cities and are in deplorable conditions. Many students in the urban schools perform poorly compared to the students in the suburbs or those in the private sector According to an article written by Matthew Miller in the Atlantic Monthly, there are various actions such as improving the teachers quality and improving the schools’ conditions that can be implemented by the states and the federal government to improve the quality of education in the poor urban schools (Miller 32).

Ameliorating the teachers’ quality will play a significant role in improving the quality of education in poor urban schools. Miller states that improving the quality of teachers in the urban district schools will play a very crucial role in improving the quality of education in urban schools. I think that Miller is right in saying that the pay that urban teachers receive is very discouraging when reviewed against the high cost of living in the urban areas. This discourages many teachers from teaching in these schools ad makes it hard for them to attract top talent from other schools or from graduating college students compared to the private schools.

Statistics show that a large percentage of the experienced teachers in the urban schools will retire in a decade leaving seven hundred thousand new and untrained school teachers in the urban district schools. In my opinion, this will contribute significantly to increased poor performance in the urban schools as the students will be taught by inexperienced school teachers. There is also the issue of bad and poor-performing teachers the urban schools who contribute significantly to the poor performance in these schools (Miller 34).

Miller suggests that the state should review the salaries of urban school teachers to enable them attract top talent. I concur with him and also suggest that the urban school teachers should have pay perks that will help in motivating them by giving bonuses to the top performing teachers. The federal government should increase their salaries at least by fifty percent, thus attracting college graduates who would have joined other professions due to the salaries. By increasing the teachers’ starting salaries to sixty thousand annually, the union will entice many talented teachers and attract others.

However, the issues of poor performing teachers should be addressed. Miller states that the process of removing bad or poor performing teachers is usually lengthy and the union should review it. I think that reviewing the process to ensure that bad teachers are dismissed would be beneficial to the urban schools, which have a high percentage of bad and poor-performing teachers (Miller 36). I think that the new teachers employed in the schools to replace the retiring teachers should be trained.

This will give them the necessary skills needed to provide the students with quality education (Miller 35). Through the state government, funds can be channeled to the urban schools to ensure proper training of teachers is conducted. With these improvements, the urban schools will be able to attract highly-performing teachers who will disseminate quality education, therefore raising the standards of urban poor schools. Work CitedMiller, Matthew. "A New Deal for Teachers." Atlantic monthly [Washington] 1 July 2003, 292 ed., sec. Education: 32-36. Print.