The US lags behind the rest of the civilized world in educational benchmarking results; recent tests indicate that the US is above 20th place out of 29 places in every tested academic field. Even before I read the report on our international ranking, I knew our schools were in trouble, and had worked out a few methods of correcting this problem. Some may argue that our lack of standing is due to poor salaries or low funding, yet this view is not easy to prove. Let us examine the key components that enhance education; teacher compensation, student engagement, and the logical flow of curriculum.

Education is possibly the most important investment that a nation can make; the continued advancement of a nation depends entirely on education. Though the US spends hundreds of billions of dollars on education a year, statistics show that this investment is coming to nil. Many of our high school graduates lack simple literary, geography, or mathematical skills. Despite this fact, the US graduates thousands of students a year that excel in these fields. In fact it is the discrepancy between the overachievers and the underachievers that underscores our educational system. Why do we have such a large gap between our students and why do minorities and first generation immigrants do more poorly on average in American schools versus their foreign school counterparts? Part of the answer to this question can be answered by stating cultural and political differences among nations and the process of culling the flock that is common practice in many foreign nations. Never would I suggest that the US should determine at middle school what profession each child should have and rather they should study for trade school or collage. This is practiced widely in other nations. Neither would I suggest that the Federal government mandate a curriculum to our schools; this violates the constitution. Yet while each state is responsible for its own education system, national benchmarking is necessary.

After seeing these results, “We have learned that teaching and assessing both content and 21st century skills are critical for student academic success and success in the workplace. The United States ranks below many other countries in providing a world-class education in mathematics and science. Along with scale scores, the 2006 PISA uses six proficiency levels to describe student performance in science literacy, with level 6 being the highest. The United States had greater percentages of students below and at level 1 (25%) than the OECD average percentages on the combined science literacy scale (19%). In the United States, only 6% of 8th-grade students reached the advanced benchmark for international mathematics standards compared with: 45% for Chinese Taipei, 40% for the Republic of Korea, 40% for Singapore, 31% for Japan, 10% for Hungary, 8% for England and 8% for the Russian Federation”(2), Minnesota and Massachusetts voted to adopt international standards for education.

Massachusetts also plans to create a “state wide master teachers compact” which includes high pay and compensation to teachers(International Benchmarking, p 3). New Hampshire responded by passing legislation that required all high school students be ready for collage by the 10th grade. 11th and 12th grade is reserved for trade school or a 2 year collage degree(International Benchmarking, p 3). Utah is focusing on creating “high-performance schools and districts” to implement some of the recommendations from The New Commission on the Skills of the American workforce. Another focus is on providing high school counselors trained to help students make thoughtful decisions about college or work”(International Benchmarking, p 3). Each of these states took radical steps to improve their systems and each has seen some results.

Other options of reform exist. Children learn by example and repetition, as does society. Though we incorporate this fact into our education system,it is possible that we do so in the most efficient way. School is divided into Math, science, literature, grammar, history, the arts, and physical education. These subjects are taught separately and as if they were unrelated. Yet as cultures emerged and progressed these subjects were often interrelated. If each subject were taught as it was learned throughout history using physical and written examples to teach, students could conceivably gain a better understanding of these subjects with less effort being put forth. Currently American schools are divided into Elementary, middle school, and high school. There is little change in how school is taught at each level of school, though a kindergarten age child is very different from a 4th grader.

Schools should be divided into four segments k-2, 3-5,6-8, and 9-12. K-2 would study reading, writing, and basic mathematics. The curriculum used to teach these subjects would need little change. Starting in the 3rd grade literature and writing would become much more of a focus, a second language would be added to the curriculum, and math and science would be taught from a historical setting. I believe that teaching concepts in the order they were learned throughout history would be of a great benefit to our students. Grades 6-8 would be more focused. They would choose a third language to learn and subjects would be taught in both their primary and secondary languages. English would not be taught as a subject but each subject would have grammar and literature incorporated into it. Literature would be divided into both English and Spanish and the student would be required to make translations from English and Spanish into their chosen third language. The Math and science would still be taught from a historical perspective, but would cover Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Biology, Earth Science, and Physical Science. Grades 9-12 would be divided into two sections. 9th and 10th grade would be higher education, while 11th and 12th would be internship/ work-study. Classes would be taught on a college level, block style format. 9th and 10th graders would spend 6hr days taking collage level classes. 2 classes per 8 week segment. They would also be required to complete a research project in all three of their known languages each eight week segment. This would allow a student to complete 8 college level classes, 24 credit hours, their first and second year of high school.

By the time students reached their junior year they will have completed 48 credit hours of school. The junior would continue his or her collage level courses but would also work an internship in their chosen area of expertise. They would work for 15hrs. a week and school 20hrs. a week. At the end of 4 years of high school students will have accrued 98 credit hours , worked 1280hrs, and would have written 48 collage level papers in three languages.

Each of these suggested reforms has merits. In choosing the best reform one must consider many factors; cost, feasibility, effectiveness, and means of testing. By excepting international standards we could get instant results and save the money of creating new curriculum but we would be limited to the results of the other nations. Paying teachers better may or may not improve the level of education our children receive, but it is likely to call more qualified people to teach. Requiring our schools to have our students ready for collage by the 10th grade would benefit our young but would do little to improve our benchmark scores for 8th graders. The other option explored would allow high school students the ability to accrue 98 credit hours of collage while increasing the level of education at every level above 2nd grade. It would be expensive to implement, requiring a complete restructuring of curriculum and is totally untested. The advantage of the system is that it raises the bar so far above international standards that even a substandard American student would score above average on an international benchmark test. By increasing what is required of our students we would increase the quality of education received by a failing student making them more likely to succeed in the real world.

Since the information taught under the other proposed system would be structured in the order and context in which it was learned historically, students should be able to learn and retain more than they would if taught in a typical, disjointed method. Students should also gain a more in depth understanding of history, geography, and human nature since all curriculum is covered within the culture and understanding in which the item or concept was discovered. Though reform my be imminent, the methods of reform are unlimited. The proposals covered in this essay are not all inclusive. As the subject of reform takes more notice in the national arena, you will now be more informed about the issue. According to caliteracy.org “Greenland has fallen in the number one spot for literacy rates which is defined as anyone over the age of fifteen years old that can read and write. Both males and females have are at 100% literacy. In the US, adults with a high level of literacy are at 19%, a low level of literacy are at 49.6% and a moderate level of literacy at 31.4%. That difference in literacy rates are outstanding.” In 2003 I took an entrance exam to Enter Augusta State University. I had been out of school for 4 years, and the person testing me was surprised that I aced every exam. She informed me that they were used to most students strait out of high school required remedial classes in at least one subject. In 2007 I lost my job and in 2008 I was attempting to find a position using Vocational Rehabilitation and once again I learned to my horror that most employers want certification beyond a high school diploma that a perspective employee can read, write, and has basic mathematics skills. There seems to be little evidence that the revenue we spend on education has lasting results.

Bibliography

The Progress of Education Reform; April,2009 vol. 10 no.2:

Alliance for Educational Excellence; March 2008 fact sheet; IntlComp_FactSheet.pdf

caliteracy.org, Literacy Rates- How Many are Literate?, 2008

<http://www.caliteracy.org/rates/>