Why is the us education system failing
Here's Why The U.S. School System Is Broken
throughout much of the 20th century the
United States education system was
extremely flawed teachers weren't
trained schools were heavily segregated
and the curriculum was overly focused on
subjects that were quickly becoming
irrelevant like Latin and Greek a half
century of reforms have mitigated some
of these issues however US public
schools are still widely regarded as
inefficient and standardized test scores
are considered not up to par with the
rest of the developed world so what's
going wrong here is the u.s. education
system broken while US public schools
are in a unique predicament because
they're largely funded and controlled by
state and local governments this
combined with varying demographics mean
that schools in some states like
Nebraska and South Dakota struggle with
low test scores and enrollment while
others like those in Massachusetts and
Connecticut outrank much of their global
counterparts as such it's difficult to
render a one-size-fits-all explanation
for why the country schools are failing
some say that the u.s. is struggling
school system is a product of inadequate
teachers who have little incentive to go
that extra mile because of their
excessive job security endowed by unions
and tenure laws of course there's no way
to prove that this is motivating
educators to underperform but there is
evidence that job protection keeps bad
teachers from being let go in 2009 it
was reported that less than 2% of LA
Unified teachers were denied tenure
after their mandatory two-year probation
period and these tenure track teachers
are very rarely terminated according to
a 2014 study over the course of a decade
just 47 out of 100,000 teachers were
fired in New Jersey almost none of which
were from the City of Newark which is
said to have some of the lowest
performing schools in the country some
experts argue that inadequate teachers
are simply a product of low salaries as
skilled professionals are less inclined
to take a low-paying job high school
teachers make an average of $50,000 a
year compared to roughly 95 thousand for
higher ed professors another common
critique of the public school system is
overcrowding this is particularly common
in urban areas where populations tend to
grow faster than schools
momaday for instance in Chicago's North
Side growing enrollment coupled with the
closure of more than 50 schools has led
to massive overcrowding with some
classrooms accommodating up to sixty
students or twice their capacity the
issue has reportedly gotten worse since
2002 when the Bush administration's No
Child Left Behind Act went into effect
the Act allowed parents to transfer
their children from low-performing
schools to higher performing schools
thus causing imbalances within school
districts and there are a number of
other factors at play many have argued
that learning standards like common core
forces teachers to solely focus on test
prep thus discouraging any incentive to
innovate others say poor schools are
simply a product of underfunding however
the u.s. actually spends roughly one
hundred and fifteen thousand dollars per
student placing it fifth in the world
what's more recent studies have shown
that public education may actually be
improving many studies show that
standardized test scores have risen over
the last four decades particularly among
black and Latino students and the
percentage of high school grads heading
off to college is at an all-time high so
although there is undoubtedly room for
improvement American schools may not be
as bad as we think poverty is also a
huge problem for schools and
disadvantaged districts but a
superintendent in Missouri has taken an
unconventional approach and transformed
one of the poor and lower performing
districts into one of the highest
achieving see how in this video if all
you can do is make it to school we'll
take care of the rest food clothes shoes
health care when kids knew that we cared
there was almost like this light bulb
one this willingness to try thanks for
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