Important Facets of the Educational System in the USA - Essay Example

346190 Running Head: Education in USA Educational System in the USA Name: Class: University: Educational System in the USA Introduction The intention in this essay is to critically discuss some important facets of the educational system in the USA, compare that system with that of England, examine the extent to which the system is rooted in the values, culture, politics and the economic situation currently prevailing in the USA and evaluate the ‘impact’ of globalisation on the educational policies of the USA. Education, its constituents, its purposes and hence its policy prescriptions are seen differently by different people and so advocated in different ways by them. Education has also been made to accommodate different ‘ideological stances’ at different periods of time so as to suit different perceptions about human society and the individual members of that society. Education is an acquired quality of the mind which makes one a ‘better human being’ and a ‘better social being’; it is both ‘light-bearing’ and ‘fruit-bearing’. It tames the instincts and emotions and makes them auxiliaries to reason. At the level of the human being and in its ‘light-bearing’ role, education provides the individual with the ‘light of knowledge’ brightening and broadening the horizon of his/her perceptions. Further, it provides the individual with the wherewithal to acquire what Cardinal Newman said, “a cultivated mind, a delicate taste, and a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life” (Newman). And as a social being education enables the individual to strive and attain ‘the good life’ or the moral perfection that Aristotle spoke of as being possible to achieve only as member of society (state) and only through society (Aristotle, Politics, book v., ch. xi.). That is to say, education gives the individual as a social being, the capacity to ‘transform oneself from what one is to what one has the capacity of becoming’. This has been the implications of the word ‘education’ that history has impressed upon it. Some aspects of the US educational system The US educational system is organised at three levels: elementary, secondary and post-secondary. Compulsory elementary education starts usually at six years of age compared with five years in the UK. Education is primarily a responsibility of each state which has the right to manage and control its education system as it considers proper. The federal government has only the task of providing financial support and guidance on educational issues of broad national concern. Funds for ‘public education’ at the school level usually come from the proceeds of the local, state and federal taxes, while for higher education they usually come from both public and private sources and from tuition fees. Government grants are provided to private institutions, but they are, for the most part, financially autonomous Education in the US starts at the age of five/six in the 'primary school'. After completing five grades, the student will enter 'secondary school' to get the 'high school diploma' after successful completion of twelve grades. There is no national structure, curriculum or governing law; all laws and policies are set and enforced by the 50 state governments and the over 14,000 local school districts. However, all states have set the secondary school graduation level to obtain the ‘High School Diploma’ at the completion of 12th grade. Higher education Those who complete high school and would like to attend college or university are expected to attend 'undergraduate' school. These are schools that offer either a two-year degree or a four-year degree in a specific course of study which is called the ‘major’, and which comprises of the main or special subjects. The next level of education system in the US is 'graduate school'. After getting the undergraduate degree, the education can be continued for next two levels. The first one is studying to get 'master's degree' as an extended specialized study of the subject taken up in the under graduation course. It is of two years duration. The next level is to pursue PhD that leads to a doctorate degree. The minimum duration for this is about three years and may vary up to even seven to eight years depending upon the specialised and chosen topic and the ability of students in presenting their thesis (Structure of Education System in the USA). Higher education in the U.S. is imparted by an autonomous community of publicly and privately supported institutions of different categories. ‘As of this date that there are some 2,819 institutions offering a Bachelor's or higher degree; 2,657 institutions offering at least an associate's degree but less than a bachelor's degree; and 4,927 institutions offering shorter non-degree programmes of less than two years duration’. The higher education system is accessible, diverse and autonomous. The federal government does not have any jurisdiction over the recognition of higher educational institutions, members of the academic professions, programmes or curricula, or degrees or other qualifications. Almost all U.S. higher education institutions are licensed, or chartered, by a state or municipal government to operate under the ownership of either a government or a private corporation mostly as ‘not-for-profit enterprises’. Educational quality is ensured mostly through voluntary accreditation, and the reputation of the institutions among their academic peers. “Accreditation is a self-regulating process of quality control sought by the U.S. postsecondary education community to ensure minimum standards of academic capability, administrative competence, and to promote mutual recognition of qualifications within the system. Six regional accreditation associations set minimum standards for institutions chartered in the states of their respective jurisdictions. In addition, other recognized accrediting associations set and regulate minimum standards for individual subjects or related subjects, particularly in professional fields, and for specialized institution” (RAA). There are no national criteria on standards and so American universities and colleges prescribe their own regulations to select their students for admission. Generally the “criteria used to select students include their achievement in the high school diploma, the reputation of the school attended and the recommendations of school teachers. One of the key determinants of students’ acceptability is the admissions testing programme. There are a number of such tests including the scholastic assessment tests (SAT I), the American College Testing (ACT) programme and the advanced scholastic assessment tests (SAT II) which help colleges decide an applicant’s suitability for a bachelor degree programme. Additionally, outstanding high school pupils may follow advanced placement test (APT) programmes. APTs earn students degree credits in advance of going to university. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is used to determine suitability for a graduate programme of study” (Education in the United States of America) This pattern of education is not much different from that which obtains in the UK where full-time education is compulsory for all children aged between 5 and 16 (inclusive) throughout England. This can be provided by state schools, independent schools, or ‘home schooling’. In England, compulsory schooling currently ends on the last Friday in June during the academic year in which a pupil attains the age of 16. Current government proposals are to raise the age up to 18 years during which time students could receive some form of education or training. This is expected to take place by 2013. Students usually transfer from six years in primary school to secondary school at age of 11 years. The first year of secondary school (the old first form) is now known as Year 7 and study at that level from Year 7 through to Year 11 according to the National Curriculum. After Year 11 a student can opt to remain at school, transfer to a college, or to leave education and seek work. Those who stay at school enter Years 12 and 13. These years are traditionally known as the Sixth Form ("Lower Sixth" and "Upper Sixth"), and require students to specialise in three to five subjects for their A Levels. In ever-increasing numbers since the 1990s some students also undertake more vocational courses at college such as a BTEC or other such qualification (Teacher Net). Does the US Education System reflect American Values? America is a multicultural society. Apart from the original native tribes of America, the country has many other racial, religious, ethnic and cultural minorities such as the Afro-Americans, the Hispanics, the Asian-Americans, the Roman Catholics, the Jews etc etc. Their cultural ethos, beliefs and customs are different from those of the Protestant Anglophile early immigrant-settlers in the country who now form its ‘ruling class’ or the ruling ‘elite’. America has also a democratic polity and a ‘free-market’ capitalist economy. And currently it is the fervent exponent and undisputed champion of ‘globalisation’ in the comprehensive meaning and implication of that word. In such an environmental setting, it is not out of place to expect that the country’s system of education would reflect these values and be attuned towards these values being preserved and strengthened. In the context of the ‘multicultural’ feature of the country, we consider here the case of Hispanic Americans. Many Hispanic Americans are the descendants of Mexican people who lived in the Southwest when it became part of the United States. Almost all other Hispanic Americans or their ancestors migrated to the United States from Latin America. The three largest Hispanic groups in the United States are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. Hispanics constitute the largest minority group, by place of origin, in the United States. African-Americans are the nation's largest minority by race, as Hispanic is not considered a race, because a Hispanic1 person may be of any race, white, black, Asian, Amerindian, or mixed (Hispanic American Culture). What has been the position of this ‘cultural minority group’ in the educational system of the country? “School desegregation efforts in the United States have traditionally been aimed at providing black students with equal access to quality education. Although the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in the Keyes case clearly stated that Hispanic students also have a right to desegregation remedies, few attempts to integrate Hispanic and non-Hispanic white students have been made. In fact, while the level of black student integration has remained relatively stable since the late 1960s, Hispanic students are more segregated today than they were 20 years ago. Meanwhile, gaps in educational attainment and earnings between Hispanics and non-Hispanics continue to widen, offering strong evidence that segregated schools are not preparing the rapidly growing Hispanic student population to succeed in a predominantly non-Hispanic society” (Wells). Efforts have been made to rectify this mishap in the educational system. Desegregation for Afro-Americans and bilingual education for Hispanics have been the respective yardsticks by which these two communities judge improvement of their educational condition. However, Hispanic “participation in desegregation cases has been limited to attempts to protect the integrity of existing bilingual programs; ensuring the successful integration of Hispanic and non-Hispanic students has not been a serious concern” (Fernandez & Guskin, 1981). Public education in many southern states was officially segregated until the 1960s, with African-Americans and whites attending separate schools. Desegregation was heralded by the policy of ‘bussing’, which involved transporting children by bus from one neighbourhood to another in order to achieve some sort of integration. Public schools are now integrated and officially Afro-Americans have equal educational opportunities, much education is in fact still segregated. “Afro-Americans and other minorities are also attending colleges and graduate schools in greater numbers, although the percentage remains far lower than for whites. However, education opportunities for blacks and other socially disadvantaged groups, such as Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans and poor whites remain woefully inadequate, and even when they’ve a superior education, it isn’t necessarily reflected in increased employment opportunities. Many school districts question whether bussing is necessary and would like to end it. Many people believe it would be better for children to attend local schools, rather than spend up to two hours a day on a bus. Despite bussing, ‘segregated’ schools are the norm in the US (particularly in cities) and the number of white pupils attending schools with black students is falling rapidly throughout the country” (Public schools in the US). Tolerance and ‘live and let live’ philosophy of good-neighbourliness is still to become a guiding principle in American life and education. As mentioned earlier education should cultivate the mind, and in order to do so, should open wide the vast canvass of human strivings, achievements and failures of the past, of the ‘building tools’ and opportunities found at present and of the perceived requirements for the future prospects for humankind. The US is the only ‘super power’ at present. Historically, it is at the height of its ‘power’eversince the end of the ‘cold war’ and the disintegration of the erstwhile USSR. The educational system should be such that the opportunities and more so the responsibilities of the ‘sole super power’ in the light of its position as such in the present-day world and of its own historical experience vis-à-vis the rest of the world should be an important and integral item of instruction in the educational curriculum of the nation. In this context it is considered appropriate to quote what Esther Mitchell has to say on the matter. She says: American ignorance of world affairs is indeed pathetic in this era of globalisation. However, enough has been said about it above, so that it is time to turn to a consideration of another important item in the value system of American society, namely democracy, on which its education is based. Democracy is both a qualitative phenomenon of society and a device of government of a state. As a ‘qualitative phenomenon, a democratic society is one where the ‘values’ enumerated in the Preamble to the Constitution of India are operative: ‘values’ such as “Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; Equality of status and of opportunity…Fraternity (and) the dignity of the individual” – where these ‘social values’ are prevalent and assiduously promoted (Constitution of India). The American Declaration of Independence declared that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Although the document declares that “all men are created equal”, America did not practise it very overtly for a very long time; and even now it is covertly disregarded in every-day life, especially in its educational system. A part explanation for this may be that the doctrine of equality is a moral concept based as it were on the words of St. Paul, that “there is neither Jew nor gentile, man or woman, slave or free”, but every one is equal in the eyes of God. But when God has been banished from the class rooms and every public place, this concept of equality also seems to have been banished from the socio-political life of the nation. School ‘bussing’, ‘affirmative action’, ‘civil rights movement’ and all such devices cannot compensate for the virtual abandonment of the concept of equality. And to the extent that this concept has been abandoned, to that extent there has been an amputation in the values of a democratic society and of the basis of education. “Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship” is another of the foundation stone on which American education is said to be located. And liberty is the product of rights. Laski says that liberty “is the atmosphere created by rights. Rights are those conditions of social life without which no man can seek in general, to be himself at his best” (Laski). The ‘fear psychoses generated during the McCarthy era and that of the ‘cold war’ years has again come to the fore in many legislations since 9/11 has curtailed many rights . The right to liberty has been attacked on other fronts too. It is attacked when my right to work and as its corollary, my right to life depends on the pleasure of others. This is a distinguishing feature of ‘free-market capitalism’ of America on which also the American educational system is located and which aspect will be considered later in the essay. Without labouring too long on these values of education in a democratic society, it can be said that “schools need to discover the value of freedom of speech and the right of human beings of all sexes, races, religions and classes to dignity and to education. In short, they need to be educated to live fully in the world, not merely trained to perform a set of limited and limiting tasks”( Bassnett) Democracy is also a form of government. The essential test of such a form of government has been the belief that the source of political authority must be and remain in the people and not in the rulers. The people have the freedom to determine the nature and content of political power, to place and replace ‘magistrates’ in positions of political trust, and to enact and revoke the laws by which they are governed. It may be mentioned in passing that the people’s freedom and power to place the ‘supreme magistrate’ in position was usurped by the US Supreme Court in 2001. As a form of government the democracy is a process of government by discussion based on reason, which proceeds through the four stages of the party, the electorate, the parliament and the cabinet. The parties formulate the subjects for discussion, and the electorate at the general election chooses one among the programmes of the parties and hands it over to the parliament for a more refined discussion and appropriate legislative enactments. The parliament submits the results of its discussion to the cabinet for executive action. In this process of discussion a democratic society must enlist the thought of the whole community. This involves a broadening of civic intelligence and an extension of civic knowledge. These are the results of education. They must have the knowledge to judge the actions of the government in the light of their moral and civic requirements. It has been mentioned above that one grave drawback of American education is the abysmal ignorance of its ‘products’ about people and events, their history and culture, their requirements and motivations, outside the US. All these are ‘alien’ to their system of education. In this situation, their approach and judgements in respect of matters such as ‘Iraq’, global warming, ‘wasting’ the limited resources of the globe to cater to the luxuries of their affluence, and blaming the rest of the world for their failures and ‘misdeeds’ seem to be reflection of the ‘inadequacy’ of their educational system to meet the requirements of America’s current ‘imperial status and ambition’. This gap in their education needs to be rectified if American democracy is to be truly democratic and the different organs of government respect the legitimate role of each in the system of government by discussion. There are many people who are dissatisfied with the content of American education. A couple of its critics say: “In our view, 'education', whether it takes place in the classroom or the canteen, it must be informed by certain values. Education, unlike indoctrination, embraces a commitment to: Respect for persons; The promotion of well-being; Truth; Democracy; Fairness and equality. These values should inform both the content of conversations and encounters, as well as our behaviour and relationships as educators. Julius Nyerere once said that education should liberate humans from the restraints and limitations of ignorance and dependency. ‘Teaching which induces a slave mentality or a sense of impotence is not education at all - it is an attack on the minds of men”, which seems to be the state of current education in the US (Jeffs & Smith). The US Economy and the US Education In a paragraph above ‘ignorance’ of the ‘average educated American’ about other countries was bemoaned. It has to be partially amended here: Americans have now become aware of the ‘existence’ of countries such as China and India. In earlier decades the “American Dream” drew many people of diverse intellectual capacity from all around the world to the US to share in that dream. Now the power of that attraction has declined, partly because of the ‘decline’ of the country’s economic superiority and partly because of the increase of the economic clout of other countries such as China. Current economic scenario of the country is rather ‘depressing’. Some of the current depressing economic facts which have a bearing on the country’s education sector are: “The US government is currently running a budget deficit of $1.8 billion/day, which has already weakened the dollar both internationally and domestically and is apt to cripple the economy. In 1981 the national debt was under $1 trillion; 993, it had gone up to $4 trillion. Currently the US National Debt is around $8.5 trillion, and to pay it back taxes have to be raised. The total of all debts in America (government debt plus all private debt, including debt of households, financial sector, and business) now stand at $48 Trillion, and is growing faster than growth of the total economy. America is more debt-dependent than ever before. Foreign investors are no longer investing in American companies. They are investing in Chinese companies. The health problems resulting from their unhealthy diets combined with a shortage of doctors is causing the US healthcare system to collapse. Global warming is causing the US Wheat Belt to turn into desert, and is causing record hurricanes, tropical storms, floods and ecological disasters in the South-Eastern United States. The US economy relies on the consumption of goods at a decadent rate. If something happens that throws the economy for a loop, it can very easily fall into a depression. The baby-boomers are retiring, creating a shortage of skilled workers. US universities aren't creating enough graduates to compete on the global market. Tuition is too expensive and there aren’t enough university professors. Oil prices are $90+ per crude barrel, there is a shortage of oil refineries and demand is growing due to more SUVs/trucks. Automobile companies keep laying off unionized workers and moving their factories to China. The only car company building new plants and hiring workers is Japanese car-maker Toyota (which only hires non-union workers). The US government can't afford to pay for its soldiers serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea... as a result, they are scaling back pay, pension and benefits for their soldiers. Injured soldiers have a crippling effect on the US economy and drain precious money from US coffers and families of the soldiers suffer economic consequences because they have to pay the hospital bills. The US dollar is notoriously easy to make counterfeit bills of. Its value of the US dollar is growing steadily lower. Thanks to modern computer printers, counterfeit is very easy to make” (American Economic Collapse). American economy no longer serves American education. At all levels of education, the country has to depend upon ‘alien’ scholars. And because of the extreme difference in the income and wealth of the rich and the poor, benefit of education is denied to many and the educational system is not based on an acceptable economic value system Globalisation and US Education America is the strong proponent and champion of “globalisation”. America could not help promoting ‘globalisation’, because it is the ‘logical’ next step to its ‘mature capitalism’. Marx and Engels saw its inevitability. In the Communist Manifesto they describe the modern day American capitalist, the product of American capitalism and American education and the emergence of modern globalisation. To begin with, they say that already the “bourgeoisie (capitalist) … has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together”. But then the capitalist cannot rest, because he “cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.” By revolutionizing the means of production the capitalists have created such an abundance of wealth (in America) that, “The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them.” One way they try to get over this problem is “by the conquest of new markets and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones”. Take the conquest of new markets. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country”, which is now called ‘globalisation’. Another aspect of this globalised capitalism is: “The bourgeoisie compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeoisie mode of production… to become bourgeoisie themselves.” Consider now the other aspect of expanding the market by greater exploitation of the old markets. “Independent, but loosely connected provinces with separate interests, laws, governments and systems of taxation became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class interest, one frontier and one customs tariff.” (European Union and earlier USA and Canada). Capitalistic globalisation has “stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science into paid wage labourers.” And so too “The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relations into a mere money relation.” (All the quotes in this section are from The Communist Manifesto, 1848). Globalisation has ushered in world situation where the exploitation and the misery of “less-developed” nations are the basis and the consequence of the affluence of the “highly developed” nations as the US. Globalisation is something like a two-edged sword; it has its advantages and disadvantages. Robert Shapiro says that American businesses and workers adapted quickly and well to the forces of globalisation, and as a “result, the United States has experienced stronger growth and productivity gains than any other nation. These same factors also have adversely affected new job creation and wage increases (Shapiro). Shapiro advocates an expansion of public investments in critical areas of education and reforming health care and energy policies, without forgoing the benefits of globalization. He advocates investment in “our workers and kids … focus significant new investment on giving all Americans the skills and knowledge needed to work productively in the emerging idea-based economy; initiate a new national commitment to provide all Americans deep training in information technologies and ubiquitous and inexpensive access to the evolving global communications network itself” (Shapiro). Thus, while globalisation has been instrumental in increasing productivity and profits of American corporations, it has also been instrumental in a large-scale ‘business process outsourcing’ to foreign firms in Asia which perform the same job at a much lower rate. The Asian countries like China and India must have forged ahead of the US in the ‘knowledge economy’ which is fast replacing, if it has not already done so, the ‘industrial economy’. Hanushek points out that education expansion in the United States outpaced that of the rest of the world in the 20th century. He says: “We enlarged higher education remarkably by further developing land-grant universities, adopting the G.I. Bill, and funding grants and loans to students” (Hanushek). “However, other nations of the world, both developed and developing have rapidly expanded their schooling systems, and many now surpass the United States. In a comparison of secondary-school completion rates in 1999, the United States trailed a large number of other countries and fell below the OECD average completion rate. From his study he concluded that, “The quality of the labour force as measured by math and science scores proved to be extremely important” and that “in the international exams of math and science, the United States has been at best in the middle of the pack, at worst well below average” (Hanushek). At the same time the US has become the world’s superpower. He wonders ‘how to reconcile these diverging trends?’ (Pearlstein). A conclusion drawn is that “going into the future, the United States appears unlikely to continue dominating others in human capital unless it can improve on the quality dimension” of its education. (Pearlstein). It would appear that American education could not keep pace with the American economy in the ‘race of globalisation’. If American technology is in demand in foreign countries and exported to these countries, foreign Maths and science teachers are in demand in America and imported to that country from foreign lands. American business schools regularly offer courses and specialised seminars at foreign locations to foreign managerial personnel. Among the teaching staff in many American Business Schools, there are many foreign educated scholars who are very highly regarded in the academic community. In fact immigrant scholars formed the bulk of the teaching community in the US not long ago. The quality of the American school education suffered a set back only in recent years, and its cause cannot entirely be attributed to globalisation. Conclusion In concluding this essay on American education in the context of globalisation, it is recalled that the topic has been dealt with against the background of the country’s cultural diversity, political foundation and economic pre-eminence. It has been found that the educational system is yet to fully reconcile itself with the cultural diversity found in the country. The country’s political foundation erected on the tenets of democracy needs to be strengthened by the ‘appropriate’ kind of education suitable for a democratic society which gas acquired the status of world’s super power. In its economy, as a capitalist one it has reached its maturity and its further growth, in terns of the Marxian analysis, has to be along the path of ‘globalisation’. So the economy raced along that path, not fully equipped with ‘educational apparatus’ necessary to successfully tackle the ‘knowledge economy’ for the benefit of the American workers too, because of wide gaps in education and in labour-rewards across the world. On all these counts, it would appear that the US educational system requires to be revamped. ____________________________ Number of words: 5239. 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London, 1907; at www.newmanreader.org/works/idea/ - Pearlstein, Mitchell B, PhD (2005) Globalization and the Education of the American Workers: Are we living in a Fool’s Paradise? at www.americanexperiment.org/uploaded/files/pearlstein041505.pdf - Public schools in the US: Organization and educational policies, an extract from Living and Working in America at articles/education/organization_and_educational_policies RAA: Education in USA-Regional Accrediting Associations, at www.useducation.com.pk/stpages/typesofaccreditation.html - Shapiro, Robert: The New Landscape of Globalization: How America Can Reap Its benefits, at www.ndn.org/advocacy/globalization/The-New-Landscape-of-Globalization.pdf Structure of Education System in the USA: at www.euroeducation.net/prof/usa.htm - Teacher Net: UK education system, structure… at www.teachernet.gov.uk/educationoverview/uksystem/structure/ The Declaration of Independence at www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/ Wells, Amy Stuart: (1989): “Hispanic Education in America: Separate and Unequal”. ERIC/CUE Digest No. 59, ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. www.ericdigests.org/pre-9214/hispanic.htm/ - 26k Read More