EDUCATION IN AMERICA

AN OVERVIEW

• Education in America is a state responsibility• 85% attend public schools• Goal: to provide quality education to more

people• Private schools v. public schools

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• Entry level: from age 3, preschool, kindergarten• Primary school (first five years)• Middle school (6-8th grade), junior high (7-9th

grade)• High school (10-12th grade)• Community College (Associate of Arts)• University (BA)• Post-graduate (MA)• PhD Doctoral programs

MILESTONES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

• Colonial period: promotion of literacy, private family based instruction, enabling people to read the Bible, Old Deluder Laws

• 1787: Northwest Ordinance, beginning of public education, setting aside 1% of the income of a given district for school purposes

• 1830s: Horace Mann, father of the American public education system

• Purpose of education: promote freedom, republican citizenship, social harmony, democracy

MILESTONES IN THE DEVELOMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

• 1954: Brown v. Board of Education• 1957: The launching of Sputnick-Russians take

the lead in space race• 1983: Nation at Risk• A report prepared by the National Commission

on Excellence in Education:• A rising tide of mediocrity• Functional illiteracy• High drop out rates• Low reading, writing, and math skills

A NATION AT RISK

• Recommendations:• - stronger academic curricula• -stricter academic standards• -heavier homework load, higher grading

standards• -higher salaries to attract well-qualified

teachers

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND• Signed into law by G. W. Bush in 2002• Re-authorization of the Elementary and

Secondary Education Act • Increased the federal role in education• Addressed the needs of disadvantaged students• Main components: annual testing, schools had to

meet adequate yearly progress indicators,• Only highly qualified teachers can teach• School districts with high concentration of poor

children would get more funding

CHANGING EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES

• 1940s: Why Johnny can’t read?• Two main educational approaches: progressives

and traditionalists• 1940s: life adjustment education: basic principle,

utility (substituting radio repair for physics, business English for literature, consumer arithmetic for algebra)

• 1949: how to courses, socio-personal adjustment promote conformity and such courses are considered anti-intellectual

CHANGING EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES

• 1950s, 1960s: promotion of excellence• Main educational goals: identification of talent,

pursuit of excellence• Social traumas and crises of the 1960s weaken

this goal• Late 1960s, early 1970s: Open Education

Movement: promotion of participatory democracy, nonassertive leadership,equal sharing of power between the student and the teacher

• Late 1970s: the Open Education Movement is heavily criticized

EDUCATION FOR THE 21st CENTURY

• A new macroenvironment:• Fundamental change in economy, jobs, and

businesses: change from industrial to information age• Demands for new, and different skills: ICT, language

proficiency• Achievement gaps as compared to the world• In problem solving US is 29th out of 40 countries on

PISA tests• Main task: to promote critical thinking, cognitive skills,

creativity, cross-cultural collaboration (geography, language boundaries) entrepreneurial skills, creativity

A LOOK AT HIGHER EDUCATION

• Colonial period: Harvard College (1636)• Ivy League v. Mass education• U of or State, U systems University of

California Los Angeles, California State University of Los Angeles

• 1946 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, GI Bill• Today: over 3000 colleges and universities

exist

A LOOK AT HIGHER EDUCATION

• 1960s-1980s: major investment in education• 2009: 70% of high school graduates enroll in such

higher education institutions• Increasing number of minorities, low income,

non-traditional students• Challenging the value of a college degree: Richard

Freeman: The Overeducated American (1976)• The expansion of distance education, use of ICT

IMAGES OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL

• 1955: Blackboard Jungle-Richard Brooks• https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=dKZcHwiv0E4• 1985: The Breakfast Club-John Hughes• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkX8J-

FKndE• 1987: Summer School• https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=SiqWPa368q0