Andrew Kulinski Eng. 112 4th April 2013 Megan Keaton Annotated Bibiography Klein, Joel.

"The Failure of American Schools." The Atlantic. N.p., June 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-failure-of-americanschools/308497/>. In this article, the author Joel Klein tells a lot about the education system and why it is failing. He talks specifically about his local school district in New York City but his points can be made for the education system as a whole. Klein spends the beginning of article talking about the crooked politics behind education and uses his own personal experiences as examples. Klein also refers to the teachers union multiple times throughout the article. He portrays the teachers union as being an organization with having unlimited over the education system. Very specific examples such as the ridiculous amounts benefits and pensions and the inability to terminate bad teachers paints a very clear picture of the teachers union. With the benefits and pensions supplied by the union being reason. Klein eventually comes to make a point that unaccountability among teachers is a root cause of the failing education system. The second half of this article dwells into how to fix this broken education system. Klein claims that three big changes are essential: rebuild our entire K12 system on a platform of accountability; attract more top-flight recruits into teaching; and use technology very differently to improve instruction. Joel Kleins view in this article is that education is failing because teachers are too powerful and have to incentive to do what needs to be done to give children the best education.

Joel Klein gave a very convincing argument in this article. He relied more on his own personal experiences recent political events as evidence for his argument. This is much more effective than just using mundane statistics to support an argument. Klein referred too much towards to New York City making his argument less relevant to the entire nation. This article made some very enlightening points backed by cohesive evidence. I will likely use some of the same recent political development Klein wrote about to support my own statement. I will unfortunately have to discard all of Kleins points using New York Citys school system because my paper is going to focus on problems with the education system throughout the United States. Yet, there is plenty of useful information in this article that can be used to make a wide variety of points. Before reading this article I had not considered making individual teachers more accountable for the success of their students. I almost completely agree with most of the ideas Klein is saying in this article. However, I do not think teachers should be accountable to the point where a teacher should be fired for an academically struggling student. I think that teachers should be more accountable, not completely accountable. Some of the direct quotations I might use include: Accountability, in most industries or professions, usually takes two forms. First and

foremost, markets impose accountability: if people dont choose the goods or services youre offering, you go out of business. Public education lacks both kinds of accountability. It is essentially a government-run

monopoly. Whether a school does well or poorly, it will get the students it needs to stay in business, because most kids have no other choice.

By recruiting teachers mostly from the middle and bottom of their college classes, as

America has done for decades now, not only did we not get the talent we needed, but we also fostered a culture where excellence and merit dont matter.

Keener, Danny. "Why the Current Education System Is Failing Future Generations: A NoteFrom a Teacher." PolicyMic. N.p., Feb. 2012. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.policymic.com/articles/9744/why-the-current-education-system-isfailing-future-generations-a-note-from-a-teacher> It is practical that one of these sources should be written by someone who has a career in education. Why the Current Education System is Failing Future Generations: A Note from a Teacher is an article written by a high school teacher named Danny Keener. Keener starts the article by saying he is a high school teacher in California. He also denies that teachers have little to do with todays problems in education and that the problem lies in systematic implementations such as standardized testing. Almost half of the article is about how the brain functions when learning. Keener makes a point that the brain naturally learns better when having fun. He then uses that fact to make a point that standardized testing turns off our ability to learn. Keener continues to criticize standardized tests by saying it prevents from any type of fun or innovative learning. The article ends with Keener suggesting a solution of allowing teachers to teach in creative manners. This article had some sound points in an argument against standardized tests. After explaining functions of the human brain, Keener makes a good argument saying standardized tests are counterproductive in education. He boiled learning down to a one simple science, he

used scientific terms to explain that if students are interested in what they are learning they natural learn the material. Since he used actual scientific information to back his claim, the argument is strong. I will use this article when forming my opinion on standardized testing. Before reading the article, I had never considered using facts on the way our brains function to form my argument. This article gave me a different perspective on the way people learn. I can use this new found information in numerous ways in my paper. Some of the quotation I might use includes: When a student takes a test, he or she is usually afraid. Some students are more afraid

than others, but there is usually a good dose of fear connected to these types of tests. The testing itself, however, is not the only problem. Since so much emphasis is placed

on standardized tests, for teachers and students alike, a good portion of the school year is dedicated to it. This means that instead of using innovative, creative, fun, energetic means of educating students, teachers are compelled to teach to the test. Learning is not boring, and kids know this intuitively; we just also need to demonstrate

this through our education policy.

Drum, David. "The Kids Are All Right." Mother Jones. N.p., Oct. 2012. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/kids-school-test-scores-charts-kevindrum>. An article on education titled The Kids Are All Right was written six months ago by Kevin Drum. Evident by the title, Drum supplies a counter-argument to the common belief that

the school system are in deep trouble. Drum claims that it is just a myth. He supports his claim by using statistics from the federal governments national assessment of education progress. He refers to these statistics as the nations report card. Drum further legitimizes his own statistics by accusing state tests of varying widely and occasionally dumbed down. He addresses six common criticisms on todays education and argues against them using the aforementioned statistics. The article ends on a realistic note by saying that contrary to the tired annual horror stories about how Johnny cant read, the truth is at worst, our kids dont know any less than we do, and at best they may know quite a bit more. Admittedly, the message of this article is very difficult to argue. That being said, Kevin Drum only provided statistics to back his statement. The question of whether Americas schools are in a state of turmoil is never really addressed. Instead Drum just answers a few very specific criticisms. Drum only uses statistics in America. He does not address the fact that many other countries are ahead of America in education statistically. Drum also only asks the question are students learning as much as kids in the past. He does say whether or not kids are learning enough. The way Drum uses the statistics were effective and logically sound, but the article itself did not have a strong enough argument to change my opinion on the topic. The points Drum makes with the statistics were solid and I could use them to create a counter argument in my paper. I could have a counter argument saying that the actual problem in the education system is much less drastic than media makes it. Some quotations that I might use include:

Not only are all these gains consistent across race, gender, performance level, and type

of school, they've also been pretty steady over time. You can't attribute these achievements to No Child Left Behind (passed in 2001) or to any other single change. Standardized tests may not tell us everything there is to know about a school like

Mission High, but that doesn't mean they don't have their uses. Contrary to the tired annual horror stories about how Johnny can't read, the truth is that

at worst, our kids don't know any less than we do, and at best they may know quite a bit more.

Zhao, Emmeline. "Best Education In The World: Finland, South Korea Top Country Rankings, U.S. Rated Average." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Nov. 2012. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/best-education-in-thewor_n_2199795.html>. This article shows how Americas education system is failing statistically. The article summarizes a study of forty developed countrys education systems. The study ranked all of the countys education system based on various math and reading exams. Americas education system was ranked in the middle, behind countries like China and South Korea. After presenting all of the information, the author analyzed and expanded on it. The author claims that part of the problem is that education is not valued enough in society. Based on information from an international study, the worlds education systems have been ranked. America is ranked in the middle. The author further legitimizes this information by stating that The rankings are calculated based on various measures, including international test scores, graduation rates between 2006 and 2010, and the prevalence of higher education seekers. The author supplies

possible answers to why America is ranked behind so many other countries. One suggested answer is that American culture does not value education enough. The statistics shown in this article are startling. It is undeniably a problem that Americas education system is way behind other countries. These statistics are credible and are not skewed in any way. The study was done with the sole purpose of finding which countries have the best education system and how those countries created a successful education system. It does not however, take into consideration the differences among these countries. Factors such as population do not come into play. I will use the statistics and the other information from this article in my final paper. I will use the statistics to support my claim that the education system is failing compared to other countries. I will also use the argument that American culture does not value education as one of my main points. This article supplied useful information that will have some form in my final paper. Some of the quotes I might use are: Students in Latvia, Chile and Brazil are making gains in academics three times faster than American students. Just 6 percent of U.S. students performed at the advanced level on an international exam administered in 56 countries in 2006. The study notes that while funding is an important factor in strong education systems, cultures supportive of learning is even more critical -- as evidenced by the highly ranked Asian countries, where education is highly valued and parents have grand expectation.

Helms, Ann. "4 CMS Board Members Commit to Running Again." The Charlotte Observer Apr. 2013: 3B. Print. An article in the local newspaper titled 4 CMS board members commit to running again. This article talks about current and recent events of Charlotte Mecklanburg Schools or CMS. The story in this article is that four out of the six school board members are up for reelection. The article also talks about the recent events happening in the school system. One example is the massive layoffs and school closings resulting from the economy crashing. Also, the former superintendent Peter Gorman resigned amid the economic crisis leaving CMS without a leader. The article does end on a positive note saying that the economy is strengthening again and the school board preparing for the first bond referendum in six years. The author of this article is simply reporting the news not making an argument. This article does say that CMS was in turmoil with the bad economy leading to the former school board and superintendent leaving. Using CMS as an example, the author suggests that the problem with education is that funding is being cut. The recent history of CMS demonstrates what school system are struggling with. Evident by the real events in the school system, funding has been a huge setback in educating students. If one school system has experienced a problem it is likely that many other similar school systems are facing the same issue. I plan to use this article as specific real world examples of how the education system is struggling and why. Schools like CMS have struggled with massive teacher layoffs and school closings for many years. I thought, since the article was written very recently, it would be an accurate portrayal of what is happening in education. This article made me realize what is happening to school systems like CMS. It made me realize how much of an effect the recession

had on education. This article will work nicely into my final paper by providing recent information on a specific school system. Some of the quotations I might use include: The district plans to build and renovate schools in ways that support an education vision based on public school choice and options. CMS emerges from a period of school turmoil.

Superintendent Peter Gorman resigned amid controversy over closings, testing and teacher morale.