Reforms In Public Schools

1
Are They Good or Bad?

Introduction

Schools in America are failing. This fact is no secret and more then likely few people would

argue or disagree with this statement. What is disagreed on and argued about is why schools are

failing. There are some that hold the opinion like our government which is that focusing on

getting test scores up will improve The US overall performance and world ranking. So, they

feel that the answer is to keep implementing new acts and reforms. But, If these reforms should

fail then its the teachers fault or the schools fault or something else like that and the answer is

always a new reform. Then there are those like myself that think we need less of these reforms in

our schools. For the reason that they dont focus on making students their own individual people,

but carbon copies that are all supposed to work and think the same way and whether it was

intended or not they have reduced parental involvement to nothing. In this paper I will attempt to

present and defend the argument that we need less of these reforms, which in the long run do

more harm then good.

Why Reforms Fail

Lack of learning and failing grades arent only because of new reforms, but these reforms are

definitely one of the biggest reasons. Bill Clintons Goals 2000 act, George Bushs No Child

Left Behind act, and Brock Obamas Common Core and Every Student Succeeds act are all just

names for the same thing and every single one of them have failed in enhancing child growth

and development in schools. In fact these reforms havent just failed on what they were designed

to do, theyve actually caused us to go backwards (Ravitch 2010). This is because of an

accumulation of a bunch of things, but in this section well be looking at how these reforms

focus on testing and how they take away parental involvement.

Getting good grades on tests is always important and under normal circumstances they

allow teachers, schools in general, and parents to see that children are progressing and

understanding what their being taught. Of course we want children in our country to have good

grades and in this particular aspect the reformists are correct. The problem with the reforms that

have been passed is that getting good grades on a test has become their god so to speak and

theses reforms adopt a one size fits all analogy. Because of these reforms if schools cant get

their students to increase in test scores then teachers are fired and schools will get shut down

(2010). So, because of this instead of teachers taking a class slower and making sure that each

individual pupil actually understands and retains everything theyre being taught, they rush

through the lesson, always focusing on getting the lesson taught and then teaching their students

how to take the tests. Upon learning this I asked a few students in high school if they felt that

there really was this much focus on tests. They all said yes, one even explained that their class

was supposed to be an hour and a half long but they really only focused on the lesson for about

half of that time and the other half was geared toward learning how to take the tests.

One of the two biggest problems with this approach is that often times children wont

actually understand what their being taught. Because of this they wont understand the value of

the knowledge that they are supposedly learning and why its so imperative for them to learn it.

If they dont understand why their going to school in the first place then we have failed right

there. What is the point of pursuing free or at least easier access to schooling if the ones being

taught dont actually learn or understand the wonderful gift theyve been given. Diane
Ravitch explains in The Death and Life of the American School System that a really good

system for our country would be one that produces well-rounded and broadly educated citizens,

not just students who are trained to excel on multiple choice tests. An example of how to do this

can be found in the book Make Thinking Visible, the authors explain that in order for children to

really learn we have to make them think (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison 2011). So how can

you accomplish this visible thinking? One solution for this predicament would be for teachers to

make their lessons exiting and fun for their students and constantly challenge their pupils minds

by asking them questions. But, these reform acts make it incredibly hard to do this with the

threat of being fired hanging over their heads if their students cant pass the tests.

This leads into the second biggest problem with enforcing reforms and this is, as

mentioned before, the one size fits all analogy. So, not only are students being rushed through

school and not learning, these reforms expect all students to function and learn the same

way(Deschenes, Cuban, and Tyack 2013). This prevents teachers from being able to really help

students on a one on one basis and prevents them from setting up curriculum that is geared more

towered each students success. Because of this students are considered unteachable or less

intelligent then their fellow peers if they dont understand their curriculum or cant pass their

tests(2013). Then because students test scores are low often times higher schools that would

allow for better opportunities wont allow them to join. So many students end up just dropping

out because theyve been taught their whole life that there is only one way to learn and theyre

not any good at it. Obviously one teacher cant help every student, but one answer to this

situation that might prevent more drop outs would be to set up a system that would make it

easier for teachers to get to know their students so that they might find out what makes their

pupils tick.
 The initial goal that the reformists had was very noble. Originally what theses reformists

were trying to do was get parents more involved in their childrens schooling and help

struggling children in school specifically the underprivileged ones. But, what actually happened

was the complete opposite. In the begging these reform activists new how important parental

involvement was and with the NCLB act they seemed to go to great efforts to get parents

participating. This is because research has even found that the more schools make an effort to

include parents, the more parents feel welcomed and like participating(Epstein 2005). But,

despite these efforts many parents have become aliens to their child because of the long hours

they spen at school. After speaking with a few people that recently graduated from high school I

learned that children spend anywhere between 5-7 hours a day at school not including their extra

curricular activities which makes it more like 7-10 hours a day at school. Then when these

children go home they usually have homework. So when do they actually see their parents and

more importantly when do they talk to them? I also asked them if they ever felt or noticed if it

was like the schools were the ones raising the children. The answer was that they themselves had

good relationships with their parents, but that yes it looked like many parents were just trying to

get rid of their children, but contrary to what the parents wanted the schools werent raising them

either. There are quite a few things that need to happen in this instance. But I think that one

answer to this predicament would for children to spend less time in schools. It has actually been

proven that countries that focus on high-stakes testing and spend more time in schools are doing

worse then countries who dont have high-stakes testing and spend less time in schools (Berliner

2012). An example of this would be Finland whos students have less homework and spend less

time in class, yet Finland is considered the highest-achieving nation in the world (2012).

Conclusion
In this paper I have put forth an argument against the public school reforms that have been

passed. As it was mentioned at the beginning these reforms are not the only things that are ailing

our schools, but theyre still one of the biggest problems. Schools claim to be places where

students of all nationalities, beliefs, opinions, styles etc. can go and be themselves. But, their

hypocrites because the very curriculum they promote is meant to create nothing but a whole

bunch of robots. Schools dont dare veer from this curriculum for fear of losing federal funding

and because they are so afraid of not meeting the criteria students, the ones who the schools are

supposedly there to serve, are suffering. Not only this theyve broken the modern American

family. So why are theses systems and reforms still being promoted when its be proven over

and over again that they dont work for the vast majority of students?

References

Berliner, D. C. (2012). Effects of inequality and poverty vs. teachers and schooling on
Americas youth. Teachers College Record, 116 (1). Retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.
org/Content.asp?ContentID=16889.

Deschenes, S., Cuban L., and Tyack D. (2013). Mismatch: Historical perspectives on schools and
students who dont fit them. Teachers college record, 103(4), 525-547.

Epstein, J.L. (2005). Attainable goals? The spirit and letter of the No Child Left Behind Act on
parental involvement. Sociology of Education, 78, 179-182.

Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system: how testing and
choice are understanding education. New York: Basic Books.

Ritchhart, R., Church M., and Morrison K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to promote
engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.