Education for Everyone = A Better Future for America

According to the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the United States placed 27th out of 34 countries in math performance and 20th in science performance. Sixty six percent of all U.S. fourth graders are not reading at grade level (according to the results of the 2013 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reading test). And according to the 2012 Nation’s Report Card, average math and reading scores for 17-year-olds have remained relatively stagnant since the 1970s. Based off of this information, it is clear that the United States educational system continues to fall behind other countries. 

What is concerning about this is that a well-educated constituency leads to sustained economic growth, continued ability to compete in the global marketplace, and ongoing support for democracy. Essentially, in order to remain impactful, we have to strengthen our educational system. Now, as I mentioned in my previous blog, there are several ways the government has tried to fix this. Through initiatives like No Child Left Behind, we have sought to create incentives for schools to succeed. But, they have largely failed. 

Over time, it has become clear that in order to rise in the international rankings, we must first sort out the inequalities in our own system that prevent ethnic minorities (which are growing into the majority of the U.S. population) from succeeding. Up until now, my blogs have focused on how the problem is perpetuated. Now I would like to explain the potential consequences if we do not change.

So just how dire are the circumstances? What happens if we do nothing to correct the current inequalities? The most immediate effect is that we experience economic divides. Economic analyses conducted by the Pew Research Center found that Millennial college graduates ages 25 to 32 who are working full time earn more annually—about $17,500 more—than employed young adults holding only a high school diploma. This gap in income can also be observed between those who graduate from high school and those who drop out. And what group of Americans is most likely to drop out of school? African-Americans. Additionally, the less educated someone is, the more likely they are to be unemployed. The more people who are unemployed, the more who are on welfare and the weaker  our tax base. This could lead to economic instability.

Another byproduct of our unequal educational system may be the stagnation of American innovation. As Justin Marquis, a researcher interested in language and literacy education states, "That child who quit school in 8th grade because they were bored in a bad school that couldn’t provide the resources and experienced teachers to challenge them, could have been the person that created an entirely new product, solved the fuel crisis, or cured cancer. But we’ll never know, because the circumstances of their home life and schooling deprived them and us of the opportunity to see what they could have done." Up until now, America has differentiated itself on its innovation and creative abilities. If we prevent capable, creative students from achieving, we may lag behind other countries in the one area we have traditionally excelled in.

Finally, our very democracy may be threatened. The basic idea behind democracy is that it relies on people who are independent thinkers, those who will stand up for freedom. But, most importantly, it relies on an educated populace to make informed decisions. We need a nation full of citizens who are prepared to defend their freedoms and to support and help other countries gain liberty. As President John F. Kennedy once said, "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."

So, it's no longer their problem. It's our problem. We need to make educating everyone a priority because in an unequal society, we all suffer. And that starts with making major reforms to our educational system. As Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." If we can give an education to everyone - rich and poor, black and white - the possibilities are endless. America is supposed to be a place where you can become anyone you want to be. Let's make that a reality.

Minority Children Left Behind

What single word (or acronym) has the power to fill you with dread? Is it Keystone (PA), Regent (NY), PARCC (NJ), SAT, or ACT? If you went to public school, chances are you took a standardized test every few years. And no matter what school you went to, you definitely took the SAT or the ACT to get into college. Our generation grew up with standardized testing. From a young age we learned to bubble in answers on scantron sheets with our number two pencils.

While at the time, we may have seen these tests as only a slight annoyance, for some schools, they are a life or death situation that determines whether they will be able to stay open for another year. This is because of The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was passed in 2002. No Child Left Behind mandated that every child attending a public school in the U.S. take an annual standardized test. The schools would then be measured on whether they achieved "Adequate Yearly Progress," which means that they would have to have steady improvement among their students (i.e. fifth graders this year have to perform better than fifth graders last year). If they achieved the necessary progress, they were rewarded with funding, but if they did not make the cut, they would be defunded.

The motivation behind NCLB was that it would hold teachers and schools accountable, so they would step up their programs if the students were not doing well. But, as I discussed in my previous blog post, underachieving inner-city schools tend to already be at a deficit compared to their suburban counterparts. This prevents them from having access to good teachers and to basic classroom necessities. Ironically, the schools that need money the most are the ones who are penalized by this program. Instead of improving the educational system, NCLB has maintained the status quo, taking away money from schools that are hurting and compensating schools that are doing well. While NCLB was created to close the achievement gap, it has actually maintained it.

One of the other unintended consequences of this program was that it encouraged teachers to cheat. Faced with the pressure of raising students' test scores, they resorted to going through students' tests afterwards and changing their answers to the correct ones. This most recently happened in April of last year when 11 teachers in the Atlanta school district were convicted of taking part in a standard test-cheating scandal.

The indictment stated "Over time, the unreasonable pressure to meet annual APS [Atlanta Public Schools] targets led some employees to cheat on the CRCT [Criterion Referenced Competency Tests]. The refusal of [the Superintendent] and her top administrators to accept anything other than satisfying targets created an environment where achieving the desired end result was more important than the students’ education."

The worst part of this is that the people who are ultimately hurt the most are minority students who already start life off at a disadvantage compared to their white counterparts. In a report published by the Harvard Civil Rights Project, it was found that "since NCLB, the racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps in...reading and math scores have not closed significantly." In fact, many areas have seen significant decreases in proficiency since the creation of the tests (see the maps below that map out areas of Connecticut that were struggling in 1999 and compare it to those struggling in the early 2000s).

Furthermore, areas that have a large population of minorities are more likely to be failing. See the below maps for clarification:

So, NCLB not only failed to close the gap, but it may have actually widened it. The problem we see with this and other programs is that they are (sometimes unintentionally) written for a predominantly white and wealthy middle class student. It has gotten to the point where, today, the best predictor of a students' SAT scores is the student's family income. And another good predictor - you guessed it - race.

 

Now, since 2002, NCLB has been modified in an effort to help it better achieve its goals. But, its unclear whether those changes have significantly improved the situation. There have also been other attempts to close the gap, including President Obama's Race to the Top Initiative. Time will tell if these new initiatives succeed. Either way, we must continue taking steps to equalize the education playing field, so that all students have a chance to succeed.

 

Image courtesy of biologycorner on Flickr