Advocates of school reform attempts that focus on creating and enforcing new standards often stress the need for these new standards because of the current standards existing in high schools nationwide and the glaring flaws they have. In a journal article by Linda Darling-Hammond, it states that our current schooling systems were designed not to educate all students well but to pass a great amount of students who can efficiently exist in society. She then states that in order to effectively change our educational systems we must enforce higher standards of learning that will show students new forms of success (Darling-Hammond, p. 1). In addition to our current failing standards, the educational process has become impersonal for students and does not take in to consideration different personalities and interests all students have. What I have discovered through our class readings and additional research is that these failing standards and impersonal school structures are even more evident in urban and inner-city schools. In these schools, students are being taught test materials rigorously in hopes that they will achieve higher test scores, which will ultimately qualify the school for more federal funding. The problem is that majority of students are reading several grades below their grade level and they do not have adequate Math, English, and Science skills needed to pass standardized tests that gauge the performance and success of schools. In order to change this problem and increase the reading levels of students we must lengthen both the school year and day to allow more time for students to learn and improve.
In addition to changing the traditional school day and year, I also propose we enforce a challenging curriculum in schools nationwide. Currently, students are taking courses that do not challenge them to try, or work harder to achieve success. Students are enrolling in courses that are designed for students to pass and proceed regardless of their knowledge in this course. In order to prepare students for further educational opportunities, such as college, we must enforce a challenging curriculum that enables students to think more critically and work harder to achieve a better understanding of their course material and more importantly pass their courses with the highest grades possible. In a journal article released on February 11th, 1997, students at a New York high school were asked what they wanted to change in their classrooms. Students stated that they wanted their schools to have, “much tougher academic standards and higher expectations” (Public, p.1). Students later added that they believed with harder classes students would pay more attention and learn more with higher standards (p.1).For high school students to ask for tougher academic standards in 1997 and not see any dramatic change is baffling. Students are asking for a more rigorous curriculum and tougher courses and believe that they will learn more with them. This is why we must provide challenging classes for students to take nationwide.
In addition to that, we must also make both college level courses and advanced placement (AP) courses available and viable options for students to take. With these classes, students will be challenged by the level of work, but can show their readiness for college level work through their grades in these courses.
With both a more challenging curriculum and a new school day and year we can begin to educate students at a level never seen before, ultimately aiding them to succeed in school and continue their education in college.
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I love your idea of changing the standards that currently exist in our high schools today. Your notion that the educational process has become impersonal is dead on. It is in fact true and sad that the current standards were created with the concept of quantity over quality in mind, which is a shame. I also agree with you point that the urban schools are failing more right now than the suburban schools.
ReplyDeleteI think your ideas are great and I like the concept you are going for with your reform plan. However, I do not agree with you that year-round schooling should be implemented. I think that there are only bad things to come if year-round school was implemented. Not only would students not be happy with year-round schooling, but I also teachers would get burnt out and overwhelmed. I like your idea of expanding the school day, but I propose not every day or every week. Maybe something like two or three days a week, of one week with extended hours and the next week traditional hours, switching between the two.
I think that your idea about AP classes is good, and maybe even students should be encouraged to take one or more AP classes to challenge themselves. The requirement of taking one or more AP classes would ensure that students have begun the process of academically getting themselves ready for college. This would assure that when they got to college they were not academically so overwhelmed.
Chris, your reform plan hit the nail on the head for many issues we've discussed throughout the course of the class. It is quite obvious that the school systems have become impersonal as you've pointed out. I like how you pointed out that teachers are only teaching materials that are going to be found on tests, and how this is frustrating the students. Would your reform idea move away from standardized testing or not?
ReplyDeleteYour idea on a year-round schooling is interesting however, I don't completely agree with implementing it. Yes it would be beneficial for the students who need to get caught up in certain subjects, but why should we put students who are on track through this? I think it would be hard to keep both teachers and students motivated, and could end up making things worse than they already are.
I completely agree with your idea on offering AP courses available for students to take. This would definitely prepare students for college. Would these classes be available to each student? Or would the students have to excel in other courses to be able to sign up for the AP courses?
Overall I really like the reform idea you offered, and saw many positives to take away from it. There are a few areas that could use some clarification, but overall excellent job!
I agree that a more challenging curriculum must be established in order for schools to improve. We learned from our visit to North Lawndale College Prep High School that having a college prep based curriculum is beneficial. This is because students have something to strive for. By asking students to think critically rather than merely seeking retention the curriculum is finally tapping into a vital component of education.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have mixed feelings in regard to the extended school year. An extension of the school year may exacerbate the problem rather than improve it. Student responses from Our Schools Sucks centered largely around the inability of teachers to motivate students and limited physical resources. In this regard further exposure to unqualified teachers may make students resent school even more. In addition the extended three months will place a further burden on the already limited physical resources in low-income schools.