EDUCATION REFORM IN AMERICA

A STUDY OF CURRENT ISSUES

Anna PriddyU.S. History, Blue 1

History

Roots of American Education

Primary mode of education = charity school

Lancaster schools (England) show that schools need adult supervision

Started as theoretical learning progressive shift toward classical learning

Moor’s charity school

inHartford

, CT

Joseph Lancaster

Andrew Bell

Major Events in Education, 1800s

1787

•Young Ladies Academy opens

1791

•Bill of Rights created

1817

•Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opens

1827

•The state of Massachusetts passes a law requiring towns of more than 500 families to have a public high school open to all students

1829

•The New England Asylum for the Blind opens

1836

•The first of William Holmes McGuffey's readers is published

1837

•Horace Mann becomes Secretary of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education; first students arrive at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

1839

•First “normal school” opens

Major Events in Education, 1800s

1848

•Samuel Gridley Howe helps establish the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children

1849

•Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from Geneva Medical College

1852

•Massachusetts enacts the first mandatory attendance law. By 1885, 16 states have compulsory-attendance laws, but most of those laws are sporadically enforced at best. All states have them by 1918

1854

•Boston Public Library opens to the public, Ashmun Institute is founded

1856

•First kindergarten in the U.S. is started

1857

•The National Teachers Association is founded

1859

•Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species is published

1862

•The First Morrill Act becomes law

Problems in the Late 1800s

Length of school year Teachers underpaid,

under qualified Religion invades learning

– need secular schools 1890 – most local boards

accept public schooling (not the South)

Jacob Riis exposes New York classrooms

Roots of Progressive movement

Horace Mann

“The father of American public education”

Promoted public education Beliefs met with

controversy European influence

Secretary of Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837

The Progressive Era

School increasingly focused on technical/industrial training (thanks Dewey!)

Fewer American laborers, more immigrants

Compulsory school attendance first established in 1852

Children need to experience adolescence

Assimilation

Differences in mental ability

Opposed compulsory attendance

Standardized testing good

Immigrant naturalization

Educational assimilation for immigrants

Help teachers and administrators

Naturalizing immigrant children

Edward Thorndike: Educational Psychology (1903) E.P. Cubberley

Both approaches met with resistance after 1929 as Dewey became more popular

Administrative Progressives

Junior high school program adopted

Psychological tests, vocational guidance

Fewer local high schools, more large, centralized high schools

Curricular differentiation

Increased state and federal regulation (standardization)

Edward Thorndike

John Dewey

Philosopher, educator, Pragmatist that led opposition to standardization

Heavily influential from 1900-1940

Argued for experimental education, criticized “dead” education

Influence declined after Second World War

Reforms Since the 1950s

Civil Rights Reforms (1950s – 1970s)

A Nation at Risk (1980s)

Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (1990s)

No Child Left Behind Act (2001)

Overall Effectiveness

No one solution yields the “perfect” education system

Biggest reforms came in the 1890s and with Administrative Progressives

John Dewey = most influential reformer in modern perspective

Today’s reforms = more legislative, less dramatic change

Modern Perspective

Latest Issues

Money The economy and

education Cost of college tuition Teacher compensation

Assessment Replacing “No Child”? National standardization

Quality of education Online vs. in-class

instruction

The Economy and Education

In Michigan, universities and prisons competing for shrinking state budgets

Smaller budgets fewer programs Students can’t afford to attend college

Increased demand for college education “We are spending more on a prisoner in

one year than we are to help a Michigan student go to college for four years.”

-Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan

The future depends on education – North Carolina

Cost of College Tuition

“"We can't keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition. Colleges and universities need to do their part to keep costs down as well ... We are putting colleges on notice…”

Solution? Split $1 billion among states

whose colleges contain tuition

Proposed "College Scorecard"

Teacher Compensation

Want to hire “the highest-quality educators in the most cost-effective manner” Paid enough already Money wasted

Many teachers paid for qualifications, not quality New teachers vs.

veteran teachers Unrealistic

expectations

Replacing “No Child”?

10 states exempted from “No Child Left Behind”

“Take a careful look at the policies at the heart of NCLB, because they have not worked, [and] if they are not working, we need to change them."

-Monty Neill, chair of the Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA)

Emphasis on high-stakes tests is misguided, should be used more as a “sample”

Alternatives?

National Standardization

Removes parents from decisions about content taught in children’s schools

Obama Administration wants to “nationalize” content taught in public schools across America

Common Core Standards Initiative

Problems

Online or In-Class?

Scheduling flexibility Classroom-like

experience Technical proficiency Hard to tell if students

grasp material Honor system Easier?

Up-close and personal

Forced to focus Social factor More rigorous?

Online In-Class

Bottom line: depends on

personal learning style

Proposed Solution

No More Standardization

Nationalization is not the answer! Parents need to be

involved, nationalization ruins this process

Road to recovery Reflect on why we

began to set standards No more standardization

legislation Give states more control

of education

Five Steps to Better Compensation

1. Avoid Across-the-Board Pay Increases2. Pay Teachers for Their Performance, Not

for Their Resumes3. Screen Teachers More Intensely After

Hiring Them 4. Transition Teachers from Traditional

Pensions to 401(k)-Style Plans5. Maintain Sober Expectations

- From Jason Richwine’s A Better Way to Pay

Other Reforms (Revisited)

Testing Consortium

school Learning

record Funding The issue of

control Abandon No

Child

Challenges

Too much? Skepticism Legislation Major challenge:

impatience Extra costs would not

be too significant Most state boards have

enough money, just not budgeted correctly

Summary

History of education reforms stretches back to the 1800s, continues to present major challenges today Horace Mann John Dewey Modern legislation

Reformers have tried numerous approaches, but there is no magical solution

Need better budgeting, less federal control Only way to change is to act!

Bibliography

Bibliography (cont.)

Bibliography (cont.)