Destiny Blog USA School System

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

The United States of America Education System pt.3 How American schools measure up to schools around the globe?

 Good day my fellow “uneducated” Americans. I will be discussing an interesting video in which Jeffrey Brown talks to Andreas Schleicher of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development about how the United States compares to other countries in regards to PISA. I want everyone to watch the video after reading this entry and really think about why the United States is lagging behind other countries.

The video starts off by explaining what PISA is and how it is administered. PISA stands for Program for International Student Assessment. It is a test that is given to fifteen year olds in sixty-five different countries every three years since the year 2000. Obviously the United States of America hasn’t fared too well when compared to some the other sixty-four countries. The United States of America ranks 30th in math, 20th in reading and 23rd in science. The countries with the best test results reside in East Asia.

Jeffrey Brown starts off by asking Andreas Schleicher about what we are learning from the results of the tests and the lessons that come from them. As countries in East Asia and some parts of Europe go from having good test results to having great test results the United States is still average. Jeffrey Brown then asks one of if not the most important questions in this video when he asks, what are other countries doing well that we aren’t doing in the United States?” Andreas Schleicher first says that in East Asia for example, education is highly valued and that they attract great people into the teaching profession. He then states that each and every student in East Asia considers themselves the owners of their success. Andreas uses one of the most important words in this video when he says the word “effort”. Now that right there is the most important aspect of education. When a student takes control of their education and puts the efforts into becoming the best student they can be then the results will become better. It’s easy to suggest that we have terrible teachers and the curriculum is the reason why students aren’t as successful as they should be but the most important aspect to success resides within the student.

Mr. Brown then brings up a very interesting statistic when he suggests that the United States has a higher proportion of lower income students. Immediately Andreas Schleicher rejects that theory and suggests that the United States is in the average of lower income countries. Mr. Schleicher brings up Vietnam for example and says that it has quite of a bit of poverty and still has better results than the United States city averages. Andreas then points out how those countries and some in Europe for example try to put those lower income children in the best education system possible. Now I agree that the United States doesn’t do the best job of doing that but on the other hand the cultures are vastly different. If the United States of America had a culture that focused more on values than I would assume the results would be much better.

At the end of the video Andreas Schleicher makes a wonderful comment when he says, “the world is a wonderful laboratory” when trying to understand what works and what doesn’t. Perhaps the laboratory in the United States of America has the wrong “equipment” or possibly the students themselves aren’t trying to use the “equipment” that is given to them properly.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

The United States Education System pt.2 The Right to an Education

 Good day my fellow “uneducated” Americans. I have read an interesting article about the United States education system and how a few other countries view education and teach it differently and I want to share it and discuss it with you.  The link of the article is at the bottom of the page and I encourage everyone to read it with an open mind after reading my interesting and obviously correct analysis of it. The article details how other countries succeed with their style of education and that the United States should follow that same path. Now that sounds wonderful and I agree with the “idea” of such an approach but the fact remains that it will never happen in this country because of one major difference, American culture. Let’s get deeper into the subject and analyze it.

The article is called, “The Right to Education”. It is fairly new and written in October of 2016. The article begins by explaining how the United States views school as a determinant of intelligence and success and basically just a grade. The student doesn’t get enthusiastic or appreciate the fact that we have the ability to have a free education. It asks the question, why? Why are students in the United States unmotivated and unfocused? Why are the students underperforming compared to other countries? It then reveals a mind-blowing statistic which is performed by the OECD, which stands for the Organization for Economic co-operation and Development. A specific way the OECD monitors the countries education systems is by a PISA test. The PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment and is given to fifteen year olds worldwide. The test consists of multiple choice and short answer questions in math, science, and reading and has a problem solving section. Unsurprisingly, out of 65 countries the United States ranked 30th in math, 23rd in science and 20th in reading.

The article then goes on to suggest the reasoning behind the poor rankings. One word comes up and that word is “boredom”.  Tmac makes a good point and writes, “In America, teachers and students alike speak of boredom. A long time teacher and award winning educator John Gatto discusses the boredom in American educational systems, “Who wouldn’t get bored reaching students who are rude and interested only in grades” (Colombo, 1992, p. 148)? When Gatto asked students why they are bored they replied by saying, “They want to be doing something real, not just sitting around.” (Colombo, 1992, p. 148). I agree that that the issue is students are becoming increasingly bored but I believe it is for different reasons altogether. As I previously stated, the reason students get bored is because America has a different culture compared to other countries. Perhaps we should ditch the teachers and only teach students with interactive video games? The article continues with a surprising fact that in countries such as South Korea, teachers are a highly sought after profession and have higher salaries unlike the United States.

Tmac finally gives his opinion on how the United States can actually begin to solve this problem. He points out that other countries are showing students how to learn and not just take tests. For instance, in Finland students have about 30 minutes less homework and go to school fewer days than students in the United States. In South Korea children are required to go to school from age six to fifteen. After elementary school children go to junior high for three years where they are grouped based on ability in math, English and science. After junior high students will attend a senior high school for three years where they can learn General/Academic, Vocational/Technical, or Specialist/Special purpose schools which offer specialized core subjects. Basically Tmac is suggesting that the students are selecting certain paths for their education and are not “forced” into furthering their education with something that they aren’t interested in.

The fact remains that the article suggests that the United States of America should do the same style of teaching as that of other countries such as Finland and South Korea but forgets those countries have different cultures. I believe there are many options for students and we have many career choices but it’s the students that aren’t choosing to further their education. Once the United States of America changes its culture and values then perhaps it will become more educated.

 https://anth101.com/realizations/the-right-to-education/#!

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

The United States Education System pt.1 What is the issue?

 Good day my fellow Americans, my fellow “uneducated” Americans. Well, that’s not my exact thoughts, even though I think Americans as a whole aren’t as educated as a lot of other countries but that’s what the majority of people across the world think. I’m not talking about our latest election cycle; I’m talking about the United States of America’s education system.

Actual statistics show how far behind other countries we are. Now there are a lot of opinions regarding to the reasoning behind such numbers. A lot of individuals want to blame the government or the teachers but most don’t look at the students themselves. As of right now I am looking forward to writing this blog entry. I mean I literally woke up this morning and thought only about this topic and how fun it was going to be writing about it. I canceled my EverQuest computer game raid and I told my girlfriend that I didn’t want to go see a movie with her because writing this blog entry was going to be a lot more fun. I’m sure you all could sense my sarcasm there right? Well those previous few sentences I just wrote actually had a point to it. The point is a lot of American’s don’t care about school, they care about other things altogether. Hold on a second, I’m reading Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr all at once here. I got distracted there; I’m back now, sorry about that. As I was saying, American’s are so wrapped up in other things than their actual education that the education itself takes a back seat to whatever else they have going on in their life. It’s easy to blame everything else but if we really look at the root of the problem it is the motivation of individuals themselves and what they truly want to achieve. There are a lot of students that don’t want to be at school and there are quite a bit that are just satisfied with passing. The culture as a whole has changed throughout the decades and it’s become a lazy culture. We are living from our past, not creating a new and brighter future from the present. Now of course this isn’t everyone, there are a lot of bright minds being produced right here in the United States of America but as a whole, we have definitely lost a step.  A lot of individuals blame the tests, teachers, curriculum and even the government but we rarely see American’s blame themselves. Most American students need to start with actually looking within themselves and wanting to achieve better. A lot of students do that with the sports they play, they want to achieve greatness and practice that particular craft but yet they don’t put that same effort into education. Education isn’t as fun as knocking down a 3 point shot in a playoff basketball game. I had a choice to write this entry with my creativeness or just with my sense of wanting to get it over with. I chose the former, I think? Oh, wait, the basketball game is starting; I’m going to end this entry now and go watch it instead of writing more.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

How The U.S. Education System Fails Kids

. Follow Me - Twitter: @RawSanity Tumblr: http://rawsanity.tumblr.com/ . . Comments disabled because the new comment system SUCKS!

This YouTube video is pretty much putting the U.S education in the spot. It starts out by saying that one of the BEST scenarios to have happen for the educational system is Hurricane Katrina because it “it made educators improve their schools.” Really? A freaking natural disaster out of all the possible solutions that could have been thought off, a hurricane was the best for the state of New Orleans. Last time that I checked, a hurricane is one of the worst things to happen to a populated area, the worst. The education in America sucks, it’s true, we really do suck comparted to the rest of the countries. According to 8th grade report cards, only thirty four percent are proficient in math, twenty-nine percent in science and thirty three percent in reading. Not even half of the 8th graders. Money isn’t at fault here either, according to the video, America spends more money per child than any other jurisdiction in this country.  Maybe the educators were the problem, so what better way to step onto the right path than to change the head of the school, the principle. With the new principle around, one of the schools raised up their expectations. Uniforms were introduced, more authority by the teachers were demonstrated in the classroom and the school even held Saturday school. Thanks to these changes, math test scores went up twenty five percent in math and seventeen percent in reading. This exactly what I did when I was a student at an elementary school. Having that extra day of school on Saturdays, in my opinion, helped not just myself but mostly all the students test grades. At the beginning, it seemed that the video was just bashing the education system, however by the ebd if the video, it shows that their might be hope for it. If only more schools would be more willing to spend more time with their student and have some authority, then maybe we won’t be among the worst education systems in the United States of America.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

From this picture it demonstrates how everyone is different in their own kind of way. Specially us students that we all have one type of personally or how different we look are but how we think in general. Seeing how they all have to complete one task yet how can they all go for it if from how they are being taught is not correctly nor even good enough for them to all know what to do to be able to complete a task that is made for them to do. It's just silly how the teacher does not explain that to them and just tell them it's only fair if I tell you guys what to do and not teach you. Going straight to the point the picture just shows how everyone is going to take a test yet in different areas of schools have a different mentality or different perspectives of learning. Which in my point of view is true how things are by the way teachers teach us for example I got taught differently by two teachers in math and both had different points of view in education and also in ways of teaching students which surprisingly I only learned more from the teacher who was more excited to be in school than the other one. Our education system is just a whole big disaster when it comes to testing students as well to their ability on not producing a good capacity of knowledge like knowing basic stuff in general yet not all will succeed because of bad education. The picture to me shows a product of how in my school when learning teachers just say what we have to do and make us do them on our own. Without even being taught how to do them yet it's the way it's suppose to be taken by the laws of the education system in general. I just dislike the fact how the school system is in general from education to how they handle anything in school because there are better ways to make this system better rather than ruining it now . Maybe it's an outrageous thing for people to see this as bad but other see it as what is our world going to become if students don't get the education they need in the first place to be able to over any obstacle in this world. Maybe it is time for a change a change for better and not for worst since it's just crazy how we are all going to end up being just basic people that don't know much and end up climbing a tree the most difficult thing to do in the world when there other ways around it you just have to think and overcome it. Separate from this I disagree from the education system we have now at the moment since it's so mest up , we do have to make a change in the world and even if it makes it slowly but we now have to fix this by speaking up and actually getting what we deserve a education.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Towards this video it's a whole different perspective of teachers seeing education not as being their fault but not getting what they deserve for their hard work then why work in the first place. Making a scenario of if you don't help me why should I help others which does make conflict from us students even having a future. From this video teachers made they are say inspiring things that many students should hear to know how some teachers do care. Yet from another perspective not many teachers think like this which makes our education system bad but then again there's another top dog in this to fix this such as the economy doing a better job in paying teachers and even setting more perspectives for them. From actually teaching to caring more about every single student because from my point of view is it just depends on the teacher if they give a good education and the student to being able to want to learn as well. As well they point out how different areas the economic problems are worse than others which does concern them because less teachers would want to teach in lower areas it's just a main problem of economy doing it's part. Basically I'm turning the point to the teachers by this video they specify why they feel they don't get enough benefits to even teach but that's their passion why give it up. Then again they state how their is places where low income school are where most teachers are needed and students are just way off because there is no help for them. Teachers can not do it all maybe the pay is to bad but they do put some time to even see how a student's life goes and they notice how there resources are low to even lend a hand as well. In my perspective teachers that I have in my school are really different we can say some teachers care so much that it's inspiring and make you want to learn ,but then others are just bad like even how we enter the classroom feeling those bad vibes that they don't want to be there. So it's pretty difficult to know how to handle students but if from their part of the page is not good it won't translate to us. But then at the end the whole education syst is meat up not only for us students but as well for the ones teaching us which makes it more difficult for our generation to succeed in life and have a big turnaround in our situations. Because from what I encountered in my old school it's a massive conflict from teachers and students for not getting the right treatment , education, or in general not enjoying what they have to learn. I just think it all goes from students , teachers , then all going back to the whole education system that is in place and there should be a change not only to better our future generation but to actually make a change for good.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Education System

The education system has been failing in teaching students the right way to approach the upcoming life that every student will lead to after finishing their years of elementary through high school. Teaching students book work does involve their way of thinking but as soon as teachers stop trying it's just a matter of letting students go and pass them yet still not having a good education. For example, yes about 80 percent of students are graduating high school but less than half of them are not even close to being ready for what’s next in life. Being certain the high school rate of 80 percent  graduating is high yet not high enough rate of future engineers,teachers, or doctors. Because maybe 40 percent of all the students possible pursue a future for themselves and others just go into the wild without the right tools to conquer the world to find a real meaning to themselves rather than ending up in a minimum wage job. Even if seniors receive their diploma most of them still have not majored standard college math or even reading skills. Stated in the article about 10 Reasons the U.S Education System is failing “The problem is that students are being passed on to the next grade when they should be held back, and then they are unable to complete grade-level work and keep up with their classmates.” Then as soon as they do hit college there is a huge possibility they either don't succeed or just drop out by not being prepared at all. In my specific article ,Is the American School System Damaging Our Kids?, it says “Parents send their children to school with the best of intentions, believing that formal education is what kids need to become productive, happy adults”, but clearly is totally the opposite. The education system from the beginning it starts with the teachers yet they are passed by what they are told to do so or just are to careless to give knowledge to students to actually move on in life. On top of that the downside of all this is every kid is forced to go to school as well forced to graduate even if they are not prepared. Towards the end of all the education system is just wrong by not only holding a lot of students back but wanting to release us without knowing what to do. This is when a lot of students realize that school was just a waste of time because they never actually got taught what they were supposed to learn because life outside of elementary to high school is totally different from the real life in college and life itself really is. The education system should actually change and make teachers teach the subject and some life skills or another example is make a class where students actually get a chance to learn about what they want to be when they grow up and pursue it and actually keep talking about what to do when coming out of high school and not get so many “dumb” people out here but receive actually dreamers.

http://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/american-school-system-damaging-kids/

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Lack of teacher innovation (2/3)

The graph demonstrates a study shown by the state of Tennessee of how the teachers way of teaching or the students way of learning is a young student over a 3 year period. In the graph, “The effect of teacher quality” it clearly states that teachers really have an impact on students. Most people say that its always up to the students to perform at a certain grade level. According to the graph, the ages where the teachers way of teaching. The influence. Greatly impacts those in the ages of 8 through 11. The students who have a low performing teacher, are greatly impacted, especially during the pre teen years. Now, this doesn’t mean that the teacher is not knowledgeable of the material, they could have all the knowledge in the world but if they don’t interact, care for their students, then the students are the ones that suffer. On the other hand, the students seems to have a ninety percentile of students performances when they have a high performing teacher that has a great influence on the class. As time passes by, with out a great teacher, the students will just drop and drop in performance until eventually, they might even drop out of school. Which is also a great influence on way the U.S education system is going to crap due to the drop out rates. If the percentage keeps on going down and down, then eventually the world will begin to lack important people. As in doctors, medics, lawyers, even teachers to help the approaching generation.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Lack of teacher education innovation (Blog 1/3)

No doubt that the U.S education system is failing, but why? There’s numerous reasons why its failing however the reason that I am going to present might be one of the few if not the main reason of its failure. A huge valid point of why the Education System in The United States of America is that “There is a lack of teacher education innovation”, according to the article “10 Reasons the U.S Education System is failing” by Matthew Lynch. This issue in the article states that “if students are changing, teachers must change too.”, Which is a very reasonable statement, just think about it, if you have an extremely old fashion teacher teaching a class, most of the time the students in that class will not pay attention to him/her, some might just not even be attending that class again because they might think the subject presented to them is dull. However, let’s say you have a young teacher, maybe in his middle 20’s or even early 30’s, matter of fact age is not a contributing factor, if the teacher is up to date with today’s trend, the students will most certainly be more engaged in the subject. A teacher should not be a teacher, as broad as that sounds, it’s true. A teacher should be one of them, not as a student, but as a friend.

Have you ever thought about a coach and its athletes in school? If not, then you should because that’s a prime example of a teacher being a friend to the students. Pay attention to the chemistry of them when you get a chance, it’s like non-other, the teacher cares about the student, not just educationally but emotionally and physically as well. The coach of course would love to see their athletes be successful out in the field or court, and even take the school to the play offs and win district however, even though it’s a priority for the coach to be a coach, education will always come first for their students, no coach, as hard as it might be for them, no coach will allow their students to participate in the games is they’re failing a course. Call it tough love, if you want, but it shows that the coach cares about the student. They want the students to be successful, they push the student to go onto a university and make it big, maybe not in a professional sport but in a major, they don’t want to see them idiotic things that’s going to hurt them. A student athlete and they’re coach, have one of the best if not the best connections with one and another. All teachers should be like this, caring and exciting with their students.

For some people, it might not seem like a big deal for a teacher to do all those things, but it’s still a huge contributing factor towards the student’s success, not just educationally, but in their life, all it takes is just one mentor to get them on the right oath of success.

Article:10 Reasons the U.S. Education System Is Failing By Matthew Lynch http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/education_futures/2015/08/10_reasons_the_us_education_system_is_failing.html

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Teachers Say What's Wrong With Education In The U.S.

States across the U.S. have reported teacher shortages. AJ+ spoke with some teachers who are still working in the classroom about what's wrong with public ed...

What about our teachers?

   Teachers in the United states feel as if they aren't appreciated like they should be. If we don't have teachers , we don't have education. Teachers need to be understood and put on a higher scale. If our teachers aren't satisfied , how do we expect them to satisfy our expectations for our students. The whole education department needs to be re-evaluated. Teachers are the ones that spend the most time with kids. They understand what needs to be done for each student to learn. Even if they know how to teach , every student has their own distinct way in how they learn. Teachers having opinions on what we need to do to improve need to be heard.We need to be interacting and listening to our teachers. Education is the most important key to the future. we should be treating anything that could help the system as high priority. These challenges are approachable , The United States just needs to be more open to exploring for different techniques . 

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

What Does the PISA Report Tell Us About U.S. Education?

When the OECD releases the PISA report every three years, many people use the ranking to claim public education in the U.S. is failing and push their corpora...

What we really need to question When it comes to The United states education system. 

  The people of the United states need to consider many variables when it comes to questioning why the United states education system seems to fail many. How can we ensure we are providing the best that we can to see  progress and increase our graduation and degree rates.

 Many citizens believe in blaming everything on the school or the government or even the teachers. But the truth is, The united states spends more money in the education department than in anything else. 50% of our funding goes to  education.  That is way more than the majority of different countries spend on their education system. Even when it comes to people claiming that the teachers don't exactly know how to do their jobs. That is a myth. The truth when it comes to better accuracy rates relating to the  intelligence our kids hold , has many subjects to it . Like the backgrounds in the students life , poverty , is the student provided with everything they personally need to improve their academic life. 

 The worst outcomes when it comes to testing is always in the areas where the poverty rate is slightly higher than in other regions. And yes poverty  grammatically has its affects . Even though we do spend more than we need to on our education , that doesn't mean that all families have enough to support kids in school. Not having money to provide whats needed for the kid can be very discouraging for kids who are desperate to just have money. Thats where drop rates increase for kids whore decide that working full time is better than less money and a full education. This generation is completely going in its own direction, the kids are the future yet if our education systems seems to be falling apart, how can we ensure a better future for education in the United States. 

  Parents and all governments , teachers etc.,need to stop looking at obvious problems and start looking at systems that are working for others around the world. We need to look into what we can change in our department to make the improvements that not only the students need but also our teachers. 

    Now look behind the problem, dig deeper , think bigger. How can our teachers learn from other teachers with higher practice rates. Are our teachers interacting and providing the information our kids need to preform well in their academic courses. Comparing our ideas and programs to others around the world wouldn't be the worst idea. Trying different methods always has its good outcomes. So when it comes to saying its our teachers and government not providing enough for our students , think of the real issues behind the matter. Don't just blame or let the issue settle. Improvement needs to be applied in multiple ways to our system. And that’s what people need to understand.

 The United States needs to stop settling and thinking we have the best systems we can provide. If we spend so much money on education than other countries but  yet we still have lower rates them , we aren't spending the money on what we need to be spending it . Trying new methods is the way the system needs to look into.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Dr. Matt vs. The US Educational System Pt. 3- The Test Rant

Hello again. It’s Dr. Matt, and this time I’m going to be dissecting my own brain. More specifically, I’m going to be doing a brain dump on my personal opinions about school, it’s effectiveness, and maybe a few personal ideas on what we could do to make it better.

Now, let’s dissect.

 If you haven’t guessed already, you ought to know that I’m not a huge fan of the United States Educational System. On an international level, we lag behind. On a personal level, we don’t really learn that much. I mean, we get all this information shoved into our brains, but it’s not necessarily for the betterment of ourselves, but so that we can get passing marks on our tests so the teachers can breathe easy. That’s not to say I think teachers shouldn’t be able to breathe easy; that teachers shouldn’t care what students get on their tests. No, it’s that those tests are the one and only qualifiers for success in our student lives. It’s that we use paper tests instead of practical tests to determine how proficient we are at learning something. We don’t teach our kids what the meaning of anything we’re learning anymore when it comes to the real life applications; especially in math. I mean, let’s be real. After a certain point, math leaves the realm of practicality for most and enters into the abstract and theoretical, and it’s pretty early. I mean, the majority of my family gets by without applying any serious form of algebra (at least in the sense that they’re not thinking it of it as algebra), and it’s fine since they don’t need it; but I’m sitting in Trigonometry learning the seemingly impractical fact that sinπ/4 = √3/2. And to prove my point, I bet you didn’t know that √3/2 isn’t actually the answer, it’s √2/2. In fact, I’d actually reckon that any math past Algebra 2 is almost impractical to everyday life. So why do schools teach it? Funnily enough, my Algebra 2 teacher told us. He told us that the higher level maths were important to us because they help develop an otherwise hardly touched part of our brain that deals with logic. Granted, I haven’t actually confirmed that statement, but as it stands, it makes sense to me, and makes math quite a bit more relevant. Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of other students get the same liberty of having the importance of what they’re learning bestowed upon them.

 On the subject of tests, something I never understood about them was how they encourage learning, or more importantly, retention. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for tests and their advantages; however, I do think that the “test culture” schools currently have is ridiculous. As I said before, tests determine your worth to some respect. Tests are the main drives to your grades, and thus your GPA as well. GPA can be used by employers and scholastic organizations to determine how smart, intelligent, or hardworking one may be. This in itself doesn’t sound illogical in any one point in the chain (save maybe the last part), but I pose this question: If I can get all those rewards from taking tests, what’s the incentive to actually know anything? By this, I mean that it’s quite common among students (and some teachers) that tests are basically brain dumps. Before the test, we study up on what’s going to be covered on it, we take the test, then we promptly forget most of the things that we on that test, until the comprehensive final. With this being the way many take their tests, it could be said that our grade is a cumulative average of how well we brain dump, rather than how well we learn and know things. Then we get showered in praise from all sides about how well our grades our doing, but we might not understand as much about that class as our grades may suggest. We might’ve just been able to memorize steps to specific problems or situations. To me, this is a rather toxic culture for learning.

 So, the Doc’s rambled on for long enough; what’s the cure? How do we fix the “test culture”, and encourage kids to learn; and then accurately understand the things they are learning? I think we have to take a step away from the importance of tests just a little bit, and make a more concerted effort on not only bringing relatability and practicality to our classes and lessons, but we should also take the time to get to the principles as to why certain things are the way they are, and give reasoning behind what students are learning. Once we get kids to understand the principles of what they’re learning, I think only then can we begin clawing our way out of the deep hole the education system has dug for itself.

But then again, I’m a Doctor, not a Necromancer; it’ll take one heck of a miracle before anything of that magnitude happens for us to make that change.

 -Dr. Matt

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

An article written by another glorious Matthew explains 3 problems that the American Education system has that we need to address.

Dr. Matt vs. The US Educational System Pt. 2- 3 Big Problems

It’s time once again for Dr. Matt to dissect an article on the internet. I, and the article, are going to be talking about the United States Education system, and why it’s currently sucking. This particular article isn’t going to be blasting the education system like I probably would, but it highlights some issues the government could most certainly improve on in order to improve the educational standing of the United states on a global scale. I’ve got the link for you if you want to follow along down below.

Now, let’s dissect.

 The article begins by introducing us to the PISA; that is, the “Programme for International Student Assessment”, a program that does exactly what the name implies. In more than 70 countries worldwide, students at 15 take a test and get compared to others to get world rankings for how countries perform in reading, science, and math. The article references a 2009 PISA assessment where the USA ranks 14th, 17th, and 25th in each of the categories respectively. The article gets a little confusing, but those numbers are in the context of 34 countries (OCED I assume) participating in the test. In perspective, with 17th being the perfect median of ranks, we perform around the middle in science, above in reading, but well below in math. Now, what I don’t understand is why an article written in 2016 decided to use 2009 data. There’s a 2015 PISA that I just so happened to check out, and out of 35 OCED countries, we placed 19th in science, 20th in reading, and 31st in Math. With a median rank of about 17 or 18, it’s quite easy to see that America’s been slipping in the worldwide education field, but why? Matthew Lynch offers 3 possible reasons.

The first reason he offers is that students in America aren’t spending the same amount of time in school that children in high-performing countries are. For example, he notes that Korean students spend 225 days of schooling a year for about 16 hours a day. That’s a huge difference in American schools; 8 hour days and a little less than 200 days a year. He goes on to talk about how Obama was in favor of increasing the amount of time spent in schools, but both parents and teacher unions (and probably the students too) pushed back with their own concerns. The parents thought students were stressed enough at school as it was, and the unions want to know how teachers would be paid for the extra time spent in the classroom. Personally, I wouldn’t increase the number of hours in school necessarily, but instead I’d increase the amount of days spent in the classroom, just as a start at least.  

Then, he cites that we don’t show teachers the proper respect they deserve; but not in the way I’d expect. In other countries, teaching as a career is seen on par with, say, doctors or lawyers here in the states. I have known for a while now that some cultures (Asian cultures particularly) were very strict on how students act towards a teacher, and how one would show respect to the teacher; but I had never thought about other cultures thinking that teaching was such a prestigious profession. I think I could speak for most students when I say that teaching in America (for anything below college at least) doesn’t seem prestigious. With that said, I can’t help but fully agree with what he brought out.

Finally, he gives a short paragraph on how we should increase attention on the arts. He relates an interesting study where a low income school in New York made an effort to include more arts subjects and they saw almost 10% increases in reading and math, and less absenteeism.

So, what does the doctor think? Well, the diagnosis is obviously a case of America slipping behind in the competition of international education. If nothing changes, then best case scenario is that our placements on PISA won’t change, but likeliest case is we keep going downhill. Cure? I’d say we should start with the teachers. Make teaching an attractive profession, like they do in other countries. Let the teachers feel and be important, so that they may be better at teaching their children. Of course, that’ll only change if students’ and society’s view of teachers change too. Once we get that straightened out, we can start thinking about our other problems.

 -Dr. Matt

 Source:  http://www.theedadvocate.org/3-issues-that-are-hurting-the-american-educational-system/

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-2015-United-States.pdf

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Dr. Matt vs. The US Educational System Pt. 1- Michio Kaku’s take.

Hey, it’s Dr. Matt again, dissecting an education-related medium on the internet. This time around, I’m going to be looking at a short video where physicist Michio Kaku gives a comment where he says, “the US has the worst educational system known to science”. Yikes. Of course, if you want to watch the video yourself, visit the bottom of the post.

Now, let’s dissect.

 Starting off, it should be noted that the whole video isn’t Mr. Kaku trashing the educational system. It seems like it was cut out of a larger piece where they were talking about world business. It takes about two and a half minutes before Michio starts talking. He starts by talking about how science is the engine of prosperity, and how it gave rise to numerous technological advances (to which his colleague tries to “correct” him, but screw that guy). Almost immediately after is when we get that quote from earlier. Then he says something almost as extreme: “Our graduates compete regularly at the level of third world countries”. Wow. He goes on to say that we’re, “producing a generation of dummies” and that “the stupid index…keeps rising”. Of course, I can’t disagree. From personal experience, I’ve seen many people do and say stupid things. Not only that, but given the PISA results from 2015, we’re not getting much better it seems.

 The next (and pretty much final) thing of interest that he talks about is “America’s secret weapon”. Apparently, it’s called the H1B. What is the H1B? It’s the genius visa; where geniuses the globe over come to America, go to our schools, get their PhDs, and, hopefully, work here by the end of it. There’s two glaring flaws with the strategy, however, and he points both of them out in his own way. Firstly, as he says, “America is like a magnet, sucking up all the brains of the world, but, now the brains are going back.” Yes, some of the people who come here on a H1B visa are apparently going back to their home countries and starting up their own sorts of Silicon Valleys oversees. This, of course, wouldn’t be too big a deal if it wasn’t for the second problem, which is what the first problem is based off of. We wouldn’t need a H1B visa if the US was educating enough people to fill those spots to begin with.

 Ok, so remember that guy I said to screw off? Well, we’re bringing him back. Michael Schrage comes back and offers one final comment on this subject. He condemns most colleges that seem to use introductory science and engineering courses as “flunk out operations”. Now, he never explains how this is done, but I personally don’t see what he means (then again, I’m not taking science yet, so maybe I’ll get back to you once I take my Calc-based Physics class).

 So, diagnosis? Obviously, the US education system is far from perfect, but Michio Kaku highlights some ways that make it the worst. The fact that we have to outsource our high-level jobs is a very dire problem indeed. Prognosis? Well, if we continue down the course we’re going, obviously, we’re just going to keep falling behind; simple as that. Cure? Restructure the education system. How? Unfortunately, I don’t really know yet; but something has to be done.

 -Dr. Matt

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fphPeRvhjQ

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-2015-United-States.pdf

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Is America's School System Truly Broken?

Maybe U.S. education doesn't need to be disrupted after all.

The article states that the high school of America are different to the system and if the student care about their school work and grades. The article is the education is somewhat good and bad to the case. The system can be rebuilt and reformers argue but need a case to restructure the school to come proactive in the case of one another to know the causes of corruption of aged, declined, and broke with education system. That are problem is nobody inside the schools seems to care, innovators outside the establishment have developed some simple solutions to create of society to make student enjoy their work. Across many generations, the schools have slowly and steadily improved but is the improvement in encouraging the student to work through society. The schools purpose is to create better people in the world to create less problems for the country to focus are national budget. But why are they acting slow on this problem to solve this equation. Is education more important than are businesses. By look backward would reveal an end to a progress point at which the system stopped working. In the class room, the student should do more work in the plans given. Would that be educators generally had little if any student teaching experience prior to entering classrooms, and they received no preparation for teaching content areas. I believe not because you would the need to information to teach the class about the need education to given to the content need to ready to ask question to understand the topic. Does that mean that today’s system of teacher education is without flaw? Hardly. But there is also no question that the average teacher in the U.S. today is better prepared than the average teacher from any past period. I believe I teacher care to much about are student to make the work easier for the students. That’s means are teachers are good today. The early 20th-century workforce needs” has been repeated so frequently that it has a kind of truth status. Are the schools perfect? No. But they are slowly improving. And they are certainly better today than at any point in the past. Why the hysterical claims that everything has broken? Because of technology growing in through new centuries to grow more lazy teenagers today. Money and influence may go a long way in setting policy agendas. But in a decentralized and relatively democratic system, it still takes significant momentum to initiate any significant change. The schools need striking the right balance. Twenty-one percent felt that the schools were “too ready to try new ideas,” and 20 percent felt that the schools were “not interested enough.” To least to care about school. About 56 percent who issued those grades. This, despite the fact that 70 percent of public school parents give their children’s current schools an “A” or a “B” rating. In other words, despite people’s positive direct experiences, the barrage of negative messaging has done serious damage to the public school brand. Consequently, many anxious parents are now competing. The parents need to care more about there child to give their young one the education need to one. The evolution of America’s school system has been slow. But providing a first-rate public education to every child in the country is a monumental task. Today, 50 million U.S. students attend roughly 100,000 schools, and are educated by over 3 million teachers. In the development need to make more progress in the education system then competing against one another to further are high school education.

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

Teacher Describes an American High School: "Chaos"

Lee McNulty is now retired after 27-years as a public school teacher in Paterson, New Jersey. His descriptions of the school in which he worked, a regular di...

The information provide is the idea of the student being not paying attention or ignoring classes which is bad for the student and the education system with this interview the teachers are fearing their jobs to the education of the passing the failed student with everyone trying to raise the rate of the high school. The teacher of a high school is in Patterson, New Jersey and his name is Le McNulty. The story of the New Jersey education schools is that the students are missing classes and their attendance is worst because the always miss class at a rate of 21 days and another 21 days of cutting class which are just failing by attendance alone but they want to pass them alone especially senior. The education in the system is are just bad in every case. In case of a student which Le had did nothing in his class with bad grade and all. In the year, the kid talk to his counselor to see how to pass with the attendance with the case was if he went in early for the next two week and make up his work. But he did not come in at all. They ask him again what he can do to pass him but their nothing can do to pass this senior. In the end with this student pass by schedule error and pass a class called art appreciation. the kid pass any way. First in there an even a class called art appreciation I would say not. The student is just to aggressive because the student get away with everything they do even fighting in the class even with finding with dumb reason to the video case. I think this too dumb to be real but it is because the security does nothing to the student but give him/she the talking too. Like a student, a repeating student that failed so many times and did nothing in class. He also always causes interfere with others education in the school. He interfered to many times until he got sued and kick this guy out of the school with being a bad student in school. I won’t believe this case at all but it sees true. We need fix the system by showing these kid the real world with all the laws in the police in the school should show more disciple in these rules .

[destinyusaschoolsystem]

The graph states that public high schools of dropout rates occurring to each state listed with Virginia, National, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland. The facts of the school are that people are done with school in these words of I’m done learning after middle school or junior high school but around elementary school if the kids wants to learn. The facts of nationwide is that dropout is 4 percent in the country which needs to lower at these state rates of 2003 to 2012. The state of Virginia is the idea of being lowest rate at equal balance with the years of 2003 is 3 percent to 2012 is 1.9 percent is the rates are going down to the policy to increase going to school and graduating classes which is the best thing for now. This is the state with the best record in 2005 but got beat out in 2009 to 2012 in the graph or image above. That state was New Hampshire which lower their rates through the years of 2003 to 2012. The rate were 4 percent in 2003, 3.5 percent in 2005, 3 percent in 2008, 1.6 percent in 2009, and 1.2 percent in 2010 throughout 2012 which is good in this year of time. The rates are the best of each one which is going at the leader with the following as Virginia rates are falling in the years. The rates of drop outs in North Carolina are high. The rate are 5.2 percent through the years 2003 to 2005. I still don’t why there is no average between the years of 2005 in 2007 but I believe it higher the 10 percent in the graph those years. The future comes in 2007 the rates are 5.5 percent and decreases their rates in those to come in North Carolina. The rate going at down as 2009 at 5.2 percent, 2010 at 4.2 percent. 2011 at 3.9 percent, and 2012 at 3.1 percent. The Tennessee of drop outs are looping up at a unsteady rates at 2003 at 3.2 percent, 2005 at 2.5, 2008 at 4 percent, 2010 at 3 percent, and 2012 back at the 4 percent with bad and schools mix through the years of everyone in line. The rates of Maryland is the mix of good and bad students by looking at the drop out records. The rates are 4 percent in 2004 through 2008 and the percent decrease until the rates go back up in 2012 to a 3.5 percent back.