What, if anything, is wrong with the public education system in the U.S. and what can be done to improve it?

What , if anything , is wrong with the public education system in the U .S and what can be done to improve it

2007

The educational system of the United States has not kept up with the changes in the world . American education must raise its standards because students need more advanced skills than ever to compete in the global world . No longer can people find high-paying jobs with minimal education . In the United States , the government mainly provides for public education . However , the funding and control do not come chiefly from

federal government , and funding percentages differ from state to state . The control of funding is split among federal , state and local bodies . Therefore , public schools are completely inequitable when it comes to resources . Schools with higher percentages of students in poverty and /or minority students lag behind in every way . Many times the most inexperienced teachers teach in the districts where students need the most help . In addition , school boards determine the curricula teaching , and other educational policies . There are no national standards and state standards vary greatly . Standardized testing drives education more and more , and yet there are no national tests . More and more charter schools are opening up based on the failures of the public education system , and while they are technically public schools , they do not solve the problems of the public education system . The previous attitude toward social promotion is also a problem in American education . In addition , American schools have had to take on electives and so many other s that were previously covered by families that there is actually less time than there has been in the past for academics . Lastly , home schooling as a movement has taken large numbers of students from public education , which further decreases funding

It is important to understand how the United States ranks around the world and to compare American public education to public education around the world . According to Diane Ravitch (1999

Another the Third International Mathematics and Science Study - which compared the performance of half a million students in 41 countries at three grade levels . In fourth grade , American students did very well among eighth-graders , American students were below the international mean in mathematics and just above it in science . But by the end of high school , American 12th-graders performed very poorly , outscoring only those in Cyprus and South Africa (p . 2

By even a cursory glance at this data , the United States is just not performing well . If America ever had a competitive edge in the world market of human capital , it appears that they are losing it fast Various studies have been done that show America as close to last or dead last in the quality of schools available to rich children vs . poor children

In a study done by the University of Michigan , Miller (2007 ) summarizes that "A slightly higher proportion of American adults qualify more scientifically literate than European or Japanese adults , but the truth is that no major industrial nation...