The condition of secondary education - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... lt, secondary schools in the US are under constant pressure to perform regardless of the availability of materials and programs capable of improving educational quality.
The vast majority of American secondary schools are public institutions dependent on funding from local, state, and federal governmental sources. However, this funding is contingent on the performance of students on standardized tests within core academic areas. The “No Child Left Behind Act” requires that schools maintain certain levels of achievement in math and English and provide proof of this through yearly state testing of the student body. This law applies to both primary and secondary schools, and facilities which fail to achieve the required standard risk losing their federal funding and may fall under the requirements of their state (New York Times, 2011). Besides the additional expense related to standardized testing, this increases pressure on teachers and administrators and limits the flexibility of the educational system in general concerning topics of academic concentration and teaching methods.
While secondary education is subjected to constant governmental statues demanding compliance with current statutes, that funding which is available is not adequate to provide schools with all of the required materials, staff, faculty training, and educational programs needed to provide high quality education. As over 90 percent of secondary schools are public institutions, they bear near total responsibility for educating the minors within the population. Overcrowding within dense populations further strains available text books and other learning materials and limits the availability of instructors. Recent studies suggest that the combination of these circumstances greatly inhibits a student’s ability to learn (wik.edu.uiuc.edu, n.d.). This threatens the ability of individual schools to achieve testing standards in order to gain future funding while reducing the quality of education ...Download file to see next pagesRead More