Category: American Education System

After almost 50 years, year-round school is starting to fade away but needs to go away faster. In my opinion, we need to abolish year around school as year-round school is obviously a bad idea.

One reason why year-round school is a bad idea that needs to be abolished is the teacher problems. According to an interview I had with Mrs. Groom, my 8th grade ELA teacher, who has been a teacher for 20 years, she thinks that having a year-round break would be nice, but she also thinks that having one big break is better. She also thinks that teachers do not have enough time to spend with family after school is over. When I asked her about having to prepare for students to come back from break, she had to get to school early, maybe even come a day before, to prepare the classroom. But one more thing she has to do is prepare her mind, because when students come back from break, they aren’t good at following the rules, so if there were a whole bunch of breaks, she would have to prepare a lot of things.

The second problem associated with year-round school is wasted money. According to William White, schools will save money if year-round schooling will be eliminated. You may be asking how not doing year-round school saves money. Well, not doing year-round school saves money in multiple ways. The first way they save money is with food when the kids are constantly needing to be fed at school because they are there all year. They will have to buy more food to feed the kids. The second way year-round school costs more money is the payments. When the kids are at school all year the payments of the Internet bill and the eclectic bill are high. This is because they are always on their computers and the school has to keep air conditioning and lights on more than they have to if they do normal school. So, all the payments are higher doing year-round school than just a normal schedule.

And the third reason why year-round school is a bad idea and should be abolished is that it does not succeed with the plan to improve the achievement in the classroom. According to William White from the SIRS research program, time after time again schools have switched to year-round school hoping to improve achievement, but they seem to never get their hope fulfilled. There has been a study from 7 schools in Colorado that started year-round school to see if there was any improvement, but there wasn’t much if anything the scores got worse than they were doing a normal schedule. So, these schedules seem to not succeed with the plan to improve test scores.

Some people may say that year-round school increases test scores. But according to Jennifer Graves from the SIRS research program, they really don’t increase. If you are wondering why, it is because time in the classroom is not actually increased. An average normal school year is around 180 days. But with year-round school, the average school year is around 185 days. So, it is hard to make you learn more in 5 more days of school. Something else some people might say is that students will not have summer learning loss if schools switch to year-round learning. But research shows that students’ minds need a break to remember what they actually learned. So even with the summer break, students will have a break to remember and go over what they had just learned that school year.

In conclusion, year-round schooling should be abolished because it costs more money. The teachers need a longer break off to spend time with family. And the biggest reason why academic achievement does not improve. So, this is why year-round school needs to be abolished and is starting to fade away.

The education system is a problem that needs to be addressed because education is very important. Many jobs require certain degrees and certain knowledge to get the job. Only 36% of Americans end up graduating college, and about 6,211,000 Americans end up unemployed. This needs to be fixed.

Today’s school focuses on test taking, but in the future, most jobs will be automated, so successful people will have to be curious, innovative, and adaptable. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe the 1,500 executives who said: “Creativity is the most important leadership skill”. People won’t be hired by their knowledge or whether they memorized a fact. They’ll be hired by what they can do with their knowledge. By finding a creative solution to real-world problems, not by following instructions or directions or bubbling in multiple-choice questions.

The way school is now, many people don’t get employed or have a chance at higher education, so do we even need it? Do you own an iPhone or MacBook? They both were created by a dropout. Social media like Snapchat, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook were all created by dropouts. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, never went to school at all. It’s not only people today, many idolized people in history were dropouts. Sure, there’s Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Michael Dell, but there’s also Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Mark Twain, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. I’m not saying dropout, I’m saying what we’re learning now isn’t so important in the future. We shouldn’t be learning how to do robotic tasks because nobody can do a robot’s job better than a robot.

Students have trouble in school, and it’s not their fault. Everyone learns differently and at different paces. Everyone is interested in different things and has different strengths, needs, hopes, and dreams. Scientists will say no two brains are the same, so why are we teaching all students the same thing, in the same way? If a doctor prescribed the same medicine for every patient, the outcome would be tragic. Having everybody sit in the same room and listen to useless information that won’t help them in the future is pointless. Obviously, reading and basic math are needed, but is knowing about tectonic plates and the powerhouse of the cell more important than self-care, self-control, and emotional health?

The education system needs to change, and quickly. The longer it stays the way it is, the longer it deprives students of a greater future. Today’s school puts so much stress on students that it completely changes them. If it’s a safe place for learning, then why do students avoid eye contact with the teacher so they don’t get called on? They don’t raise their hand for fear of being wrong. Not to mention, school and its educational ways haven’t changed in over a century. To me, this raises a couple of red flags. Today’s school prepares children for working in a factory. Sit in neat, straight lines, raise your hand to speak, short time to eat, and talk to friends.

Another thing we should change in schools is all the tests we have to take. Frederick J. Kelly, the man who invented standardized tests, even said: “These tests are too crude to be used and should be abandoned”. Tests may be 70% of our grade, but there is 0% of our future. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have structure, but maybe not so strict. Take Finland for example, shorter school days, no homework, focuses on collaboration rather than competition, and its education system ranks higher than every other country in the world.

So, it is obvious that the current education system needs changes. This education should not only be about learning and grades but also about leadership and art. We should use our time wisely, but we spend six brutal hours of our lives in school, and that’s probably the worst time management ever. Students are 20% of the population, but 100% of the future. We must do everything we can to help change education for the better.

The average American nowadays will spend about 13 years of their lives in school while most have stress levels of 5.8 out of 10 scale due to school. While the average American in the 1920s spent about 8 years maybe more if they lived close to a high school but most didn’t have to stress about school – they were put straight to work. Standardized testing nowadays has greater significance than it did in the 1920s. The rise in seriousness has caused a rise in stress and mental health issues in teenagers throughout the years.

Standardized testing determines students’ intelligence, and over time it has gained greater importance. This change in standardized testing was best described by Livia Gershon, a Freelance reporter, published in JSTOR daily as well as other credible sources. In accordance with Livia Gershon “Testing found a way to identify kids who might go on to doing great things while avoiding wasting resources on so-called slow children as well as tracking students on the right career path”(Gershon, 2015). Since the 1920s so many things have changed and over the years standardized testing has well gone through its own transformation. In accordance with Livia Gershon “The weight pressure placed on those tests grew increased over the decades as the Cold War and the globalizing economy put a spotlight emphasized on schools’ production of the skilled workforce” (Gershon 2015). Therefore due to the need for educated workers, there has since been a rise in the relevance of standardized testing.

Due to the surge in importance of standardized testing over the years, there is a rise in stress levels in students. Christina Simpson, a Harvard graduate who mainly focuses on child learning development states, “The effects impact of standardized testing has on students’ physical and emotional well-being are also as well quite troubling and deserve attention”(Simpson 2016). Most people in the 1920s targeted mainly putting their kids straight to work and contributing to helping their families which caused many to view school as not essential for a good life. While nowadays students are constantly told that to succeed in life they need to go to school, Michelle Maideberg, a contributing editor of the journal of the Eastern Group psychotherapy society as well as published in various professional journals addresses in her article she states that “The most commonly re frequently reported source of stress in her surveys were in school (83 percent)accounting for 83 percent, getting into a good college or deciding what to do after high school”(Maideberg 2017). In another survey, she states that another main cause of stress in teenagers is schoolwork. We see this rise in stress due to the competitive environment in schools. Since 1946 and 1964 when there was a rise in the population and throughout the years the population continues to grow we see the school environment become more competitive due to many people wanting the same jobs which only the best can have. This puts a great amount of stress on the students.

While standardized testing does put a lot of pressure on students, teachers and parents also have a major role in causing stress. Jaime Rosenberg a Penn State graduate who wrote several articles for the newspaper states that ‘“The results suggest that cultural trends in the last 10 years may have had a larger effect on mood disorders and suicide-related outcomes among younger people compared with older people”(Rosenberg 2019). Stating how younger people are more likely to look towards suicide and harmful outcomes due to the stress they have. Chris Weller takes the view of teachers who have personally seen how the classroom has changed over the years. Weller was a senior innovation reporter who’s written for Newsweek and the Atlantic where he likes to cover basic income, education, public policy, psychology, and the future. In his article, he takes the perspective of Charlene Vermeulen and she states, “‘The fringe behaviors– mental health issues such as anger management, anxiety disorder, cutting, and depression have increased drastically’”(Weller 2017). With this, you can see how the increase in stress over several years has increasingly caused an impact on students and the way that they go through their lives affecting their mental health. This change in mental health has been caused due to the pressure students are put under by teachers and parents to get a high GPA to get into good colleges, in addition to themselves; students can cause stress themselves. In the article, altogether see the side of Hope Rigby a special education teacher who states in the article, “‘It seems to me that all of the work done around child development has been thrown out the window… and instead of considering the diverse development rates of children, we have a rigid set of structures that, if not met, meaning the students are somehow behind”(Weller 2017). Due to this standard put on students by the schools, students grow up with a mindset that college is the only route for them after high school while in earlier years, per se the 1920s, many people were able to create a stable well-lived life without a college degree and it wasn’t frowned upon during those times.

Contributing to both outside and personal stress factors we see that nowadays many people are not as open to mental health issues. Theo Bennet studied and has personal experience in mental health issues. He states that “This idea is so ingrained into our society, that convincing yourself that you are not weak that mental illness is normal that you are normal is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do. Our society is so driven around self-improvement that sometimes mental illness gets confused with mental weakness”(Bennet 2014). Nowadays people will continue to believe that mental illnesses are not important to treat. Many students throughout the United States suffer from mental illnesses and neglecting them will continue to make matters worse.

As the years have passed we have increasingly relied on standardized testing and have put this image in students’ heads that if they don’t succeed and live up to the standards that society puts on them, they are considered failures. Thomas Curran, who is a member of the Center for motivational and health behavior change in the bath and is currently an assistant professor in the department of health at the university of bath, studies the personality characteristic of perfectionism, how it develops, and its impact on mental health. He touches on this topic in his ted talk “Our dangerous Obsession with Perfectionism is getting worse,” he explains how society has increasingly changed throughout the years, we now see a rise in perfectionism and many other mental health issues. He states that “Over the last 25 years, we have seen perfectionism rise at an alarming rate… seeing more mental illness among young people than ever before”(Curran 2018). Throughout the years society has implanted a seed into young children’s minds, not just telling them what a perfect life, is but as well to set the bar high. “Young people in high school take 112 mandatory standardized tests between kindergarten and the end of 12th grade. No wonder young people report a strong need to strive, perform, and achieve at the center of modern life”(Curran 2018). This causes them to believe that their worth is determined by their GPA and ranking as well as standardized test scores.

With the way that technology, social standards, and environmental factors are changing there will be an obvious dramatic increase in mental health issues. If we continue with the way that we glorify standardized testing we will as well continue to put the toxic image that students need to be college-bound to succeed in life.

Elimination of Standardized Testing

Before standardized testing, the only way to measure students’ growth and knowledge was through oral testing. In 1915, Frederick J. Kelly published a book containing the first standardized test as well as its instructions for anyone administering the test. Now standardized tests are given to students usually starting in kinder, or even pre-kinder, all the way through the rest of their education. Initially, the goal of standardized testing was an alternative to oral testing for determining students’ preparedness for college. Now standardized tests are used in students’ everyday lives. All school year long students are taught information that they will be tested on later, or at the end of the school year. The goal of standardized testing has developed to become not the only measurement for students’ individual growth but also for teachers’ performance in the classroom and schools’ performance overall. However, the effectiveness is questionable. Nowadays it seems as if standardized tests have become schools’ main, and sometimes only, focus. Standardized tests attempt to measure how well students do in the classroom, but there are many negative things about standardized tests that make it hard to accurately measure a student’s growth. Instead of the teacher teaching for their students to gain knowledge that they will need later in life, they end up simply teaching the test, focusing only on the material given. The effect of this testing on students is not always a positive one, in the sense that standardized testing induces stress on young kids. Furthermore, and quite ironically, even the creator of standardized testing (along with other educators of the time) originally thought these tests were too cruel and should not be used in classrooms. Standardized testing is no longer as effective as it once was because it has been overused. They should be altered if not eliminated completely.

The Kansas Silent reading test was the first multiple choice exam, given in 1915 to secondary students, so educators could examine their ability to read and comprehend. The test had a set amount of time, testing the speed and accuracy of the student’s understanding. When Frederick J Kelly first invented standardized tests, after some evaluation he thought the conditions, students were put under to take these standardized tests were too harsh. They would be required to read the questions themselves and choose from a set of answers for a timed test. All students are different, and they show their capability to learn and retain information in many different ways. Standardized tests are simply too standard for them to be an accurate representation of millions of students with different learning styles. He came to the conclusion that standardized testing was “too crude to use [in classrooms] and should be abandoned” (Cohen). In fact, in a survey conducted by the national educator’s association, over seventy percent of over fifteen hundred teachers said state assessments are not “developmentally appropriate for their students”. Eighty-one percent of teachers think that their state’s one size fits all style tests are too extensive and do not accurately represent what their students have learned over the school year (Cohen). This says more than enough about standardized testing in general. It proves that so many people are against the use of it, and do not think it is in anyways helpful for students in the long run. Putting students through standardized testing is ineffective and unnecessary.

Because standardized tests do not really have much variety, teachers often become accustomed to the test. Over their years of teaching, they may end up “teaching the test”. When students are taught the test, it becomes more of a memorization of facts than it is the application of knowledge. This is not the most effective way of learning for all students. Some students may be good with memorizing important things, then applying the concept to whatever it is they are being tested on. However, other students may have to understand the concept in the first place in order to really be able to apply it to the test. When comparing the number of standardized tests taken from the equivalent of kinder to twelfth grade worldwide, it’s proven that the number of standardized tests a student takes before college does not determine how smart they are (“Do Standardized Tests”). Between Pre-k and twelfth grade, students take an average of 112 standardized tests, taking over 25.3 hours over the whole school year. In Finland, students were tested over fifty percent less than students in the US, but their math and science proficiency were significantly higher, as well as their reading comprehension. This goes to show that no matter how many standardized tests students take over the course of their k-12 education standardized testing never really helps, or hurts when it comes to overall performance.

Most importantly, there is an abundance of evidence demonstrating that standardized tests inflict negative stress on students. Because of the stress that these standardized tests cause, students’ connection to the school, in general, becomes unpleasant. Stress can be hard to identify in younger kids. For kindergarten students standardized testing is rather new and can be very confusing, not making much sense to someone so young. During a study, 22 kindergarteners were given a standardized test and a bubble sheet to fill out their answers. Not even 20 minutes into the test, students became distracted and frustrated with the test. One kid dropped their pencil over and over again so they would not have to take the test. Another kid made a pattern with their answers on the bubble sheet. Clearly, there is no way this could accurately represent anything the student had learned over the school year. This proves that even starting at a young age, a negative image of the school, in general, is put in these students’ heads. Psychologically they grow farther and farther away from liking school. Students already have so much on their plate as it is. They are constantly and persistently trying to keep grades up and submit homework every night on top of any outside-of-school activities. Standardized testing only makes all these ten times harder. In some cases, after students get their score, parents’ opinions on how they could have done better compared to their classmates adds to all the negative effects of standardized testing, so even after the test is over, students are still affected. “Standardized tests are useful only when comparing student test scores across the nation, …to evaluate different schools’ academic procedures and effectiveness. [They] should not be the only source employed when evaluating a student’s academic competency” (Roe). Standardized tests are helpful to some degree but fall short when it comes to the process of trying to evaluate a student’s academic ability. If the means and methods for standardized testing were different, or if the whole concept of standardized testing were to be eliminated completely, the stress on students would not be so detrimental. There would be no need for students, or their parents for that matter, to be compared to their peers. Students would have more time to focus on things outside of school and become more well-rounded as opposed to just being academically oriented. In a research study conducted by Texas A

Egypt is well known for their beautiful architecture and mummies locked away in their sarcophagus waiting for the chance to prowl the earth. Well, that’s what my perception of Egypt was when I was a little girl at least. Growing up in America I was drilled with the impression of Egypt being undernourished and unable to make groundbreaking discoveries. I was under the impression that Egyptians were no longer capable of being as smart as Americans were said to be. I was taught that the education system was not up to par with America and that we needed to help them. We were taught to feel bad for them and that they needed us to survive. There are always current events on new American inventions and even ideas. I bet there are many new ideas and inventions that are made in Egypt. The western world would never know about any of it though. Egypt has produced many fine scientist and performers that have benefitted America and its prosperity. The education system may be different, but it is not broken. The Egyptian culture is directed towards what drives their economy and because it is different it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Education is equal to power in most ways. The more knowledge a nation has to offer the higher regard it has. The idea of intelligence has always been held to a high standard and people who were said to be the most knowledgeable often had the most power. America is being held to a higher standard while countries like Egypt are being looked down upon. America and all of its groundbreaking discoveries were not solely done by American born citizens. Many of the wonderful things that America has accomplished and used to help their country has been assisted by Egyptian people who have had an Egyptian education. Therefore, how could the Egyptian Education system be under par. The Egyptian and American education systems are generally the same, Egypt has higher level education to offer, and Egyptian people have helped shape the United States into what it is now. The pyramids are not all what Egypt has to offer and it must be recognized for the great minds and artists they have fathered in these most recent years.

In the United States of America, the education system usually goes as follows. First, is preschool, but most Americans do not attend this level first. Next, is Elementary school (Kindergarten through 4th grade) where the alphabet is taught and simple math such as addition and subtraction. Next, is Middle school (5th grade to 8th grade) where more complex math is learned such as long division and multiplication, history, and sciences are taught as well at this stage. Lastly, is High School (9th grade through 12th grade) which is more complex math such as calculus, specific culture oriented history, foreign language, and more complex sciences such as chemistry and biology. In America, the education is not centered around anything. Students are taught information that is believed to set their students up for a higher level of education. Most of the information learned will probably never be used in a person’s daily life and the students have no choice, but to learn it. This can lead to students becoming depressed and feeling like they are not capable of being a success because what they are learning is not what interests them.

The Egyptian education in similar in some ways. Both consists of 12 years of schoolings, but instead of a 4+4+4 system it is a 6+3+3 system. The first six years are primary education, they are ranging from the ages of six to twelve. The curriculum at this stage consists of Arabic, math, agriculture, English, religious studies, music and science. Next, is preparatory school with students through the ages of twelve to fifteen. The curriculum for these three years consists of Arabic, industrial education, art, English, agriculture, mathematics, religious studies, music and social studies. The option of adding French or Spanish to one’s curriculum is also an option, but it is not required. After these nine years the student are granted a Basic Education Certificate for their work and can apply for a secondary school. There are three types of secondary one being General Secondary Education Schools. These schools help prepare students for university schooling. Another type of secondary school includes Secondary Education Schools which focus on the teachings of Islam and the Qur’an. The last type of secondary school is Technical Secondary School which is a specialty school for any of the following three streams; technical, industrial, or agriculture. (Ask-Aladdin, 2019)

Having a say in what you want to focus on and where you want your life go is something that the United States should take from Egypt. There have been too many conversations in America about children being unmotivated and depressed about school. Some people do not wish to go to college and have to be prepared for it in high school because there are no other options. A college degree is not a suitable way to measure the knowledge of another person. Yet, that is how America and many other countries have positioned their values. The failure to take in account the priorities of other country’s shows the ignorance and disregard for other people and their values. In the United States of America 66 percent of people born in the United States do not have a four year college degree and 51 percent of Americans drop out of college (Lake, 2019). About 30 percent of Egyptians go to a university and the percentage may seem low, but it is around the same average as other nations (Garge, 2018). In the United States attending a university and earning a degree is the ground stone of becoming a success. For Egyptians, this is the opposite. Agriculture is the most dominant job field. More than 30 percent of the population works in the agriculture field even after cities became more popular (Gualdoni, 2019). However, not everyone wants to be in the agriculture field though and Egypt does have qualified universities to give the opportunity to people who want to go on a different path.

Agriculture may be the most prominent field, but it not all Egypt has to offer. There is an array of opportunities for Egyptians to take. Egypt has 20 public universities and 23 private universities, six are listed in the QS World University Ranking of 2019 and 20 are listed in the QS Arab Region University Rankings in 2019 (‘Study in Egypt’, 2019). American University in Cairo is an American-accredited institution. It has 37 undergraduate courses, 44 master’s degree courses, and two PhD programs directed in liberal arts education. Benha University is a public university with 15 faculties. This includes medicine, veterinary science, agriculture, arts, and law. Mansoura University also has 15 faculties and it includes a student hospital, restaurants, dining hall, and sports complex. Kafrelsheikh University is environment friendly and has 19 faculties. Seven being health related, six being humanities related, and five related to science (‘The best universities in Egypt’, 2019). The spectrum for the Egyptians is not limited and great minds and capable people have come from this ridiculed education system.

Although, many people who begin with an Egypt education transfer to American Universities it does not make the Egyptian universities below anyone else’s. It is simply due to the fact that Egypt is not centered around some of the skills mastered in higher education. In America however, it is and therefore it is better to receive a job there than in Egypt. Also, because of the misconception that Egypt education is not up to standard having a degree at an African University would not look too appealing to whomever is looking to hire.

Americans boast about all of their accomplishments and how they are the best country in the world. They paint a picture that sheds light only on the American participants and ignores any outside contribution. For example, when someone thinks of the moon landing to Apollo 11 the first name that comes to mind is probably Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin. Without the help of Farouk El- Baz none of it would have been possible. El-Baz was responsible for finding the most suitable spots on the moon to land and for training the pilots. Before he came to America, El-Baz attended Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. There he first began to study geology, chemistry, biology, and math. At the age of 20 he received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and geology. His masters and PhD were later obtained in America and then he was granted the opportunity to work for NASA and make the moon landing possible (Soussi, 2019). Another great mind that Egypt birthed was the late Ahmed Zewail. Zewail was born in Damanhur, Egypt and he attended Alexandria University where he earned his bachelors and master’s degree in chemistry. He then came to Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania to earn his PhD. Zewail developed a laser technique that helped scientist; study an atom’s actions in chemical reactions. He had created a new field of physical chemistry that is called femtochemistry. This discovery gave him the honor of receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1999. Zewail became the first Egyptian and first Arab to win a Nobel Prize in the category of science (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019). Lastly, there is the late Sameera Moussa who is an Egyptian Woman who went to Cairo University. Here Moussa earned her bachelor’s degree in radiology and later received her PhD. Her mother died from cancer and so she had a strong motive for nuclear treatment to be affordable for everyone. Moussa had organized the Atomic Energy for Peace Conference and was offered to work in the United States (‘Sameera Moussa’, 2017).

Although, some of these influential people chose to further their studies in America, it does not diminish or take away from the education system that Egypt has. America is viewed as the best nation in the world to most and a land of opportunity. If this idea did not exist, then people would not feel inclined to leave their home countries. Egypt has a lot to offer, but the media is brainwashing even the people who love there that their country is not good enough. Imagine if Farouk El-Bez and Ahmed Zewail had stayed in Egypt and did not share their minds. Then, maybe America would not be as superior as people think that they are.

Education is a key in determining where your life will take you and it is equal to power. The misconception of Egyptian education being bad and not up to standard is not only false, but it is also belittling Egypt and everything that it has accomplished. All the way back, thousands of years ago, when the pyramids were built Egyptians showed just how much potential they had. These pyramids were meant to last a lifetime and they are. The descendants of these great minds are just as brilliant and deserve the respect of the western hemisphere.

In conclusion, Egyptian education is not the different from American education and it is just as capable. The perception of intelligence is different in the United States than what it is in Egypt. Agriculture is not a part of the American culture anymore and therefore, it is not taught in classrooms here in the United States. This misconception can lead to stereotypes and can make it difficult for Egyptian people to excel in America. Farouk El-Baz said that he knew how he was being looked at and he knew he had to be on top of everything in order to be taken seriously. He knew every day he stepped into the lab he had to be prepared to prove himself and to prove that he was just as intelligent as everyone else. Hopefully in the future we will begin to recognize that in different parts of the world the standards may be different, but it does not mean that it is inadequate.

Kyoko Mori, who was born in Japan in 1957, lived in an abused home with her father and stepmother after her mom passed away because of suicide. She later moved to the U.S. in 1977 and she went to a school in America. Japan turned out to be western undergraduates who have begun protesting in the late 1970s. She was a speaker at Harvard University and she also joined a creative writing faculty at George Mason University. She is also known for a writer of a few books that she has written over the years. Mori’s respect for writing has enabled her to deliberate the contrasts between Japanese schools and American schools.

Her main motivation is to pass on the fundamental contrasts between Japanese education and the American education system. She also looks into the differences between the rules in Japanese schools and US schools. Besides, she calls the attention to those undergraduates in America get the opportunity to attend a university or college at whatever point they are prepared to but on the other hand undergraduates in Japan who are very quickly expected to attend a college or university since it is their only chance for them to attend after that.

Mori accepts that education in America is more viable than that of Japan. Teachers in America do take time to show students how to fix their mistakes and provide for them more help than Japanese schools, but they don’t teach something the Japanese schools do. American students give up too quickly when they can’t figure anything out, and therefore they never will. Without being taught to never give up on anything, in the future they have more difficulty facing the problems and trying to fix them later on.

As she stated: “My education at a traditional Japanese grade school was nothing so glorious”. This shows that the author studied both in Japan and in America so that means that she has experienced different types of learning techniques and she has seen that they are very different from each other, that they both have their specific type of teaching or different type of education system. Another example she uses about the different educations is that she states: “Over and over again, our Japanese education offered this sort of harsh judgment combined with vague exhortation” (Mori, 2008, p.207). I agree that some countries have completely different education systems, they have different teaching styles. Experiencing this should have created her feel helpless. once I was in my earlier education, I forever sought my teacher’s approval and comments and tried my hardest to boost. I might feel annoyed not knowing what to try to do to boost my work. She was ready to persist and learn various ways of writing.

Also, in Japan, there is no other shot for an undergraduate to return to school if they wait a while after they graduate. First, as Kyoko Mori says, “being able to go back to school is a particularly American opportunity” (Mori, 2008, p.204). By this, she meant that in Japan, if a student stops learning, he cannot continue it later. In America, freshman students essentially take breaks and after that apply to college or university when they are ready. On the other hand, Mori says that in Japan students are just given one opportunity to get a degree in school and the best way to get into school is to take ‘level tests’ directly after they are done from high school.

In conclusion, students are not helped in schools in Japan like they are in America. In Japan, students don’t have second opportunities to return to school as they do in America. It is terribly true that you just will barely get a second probability in Japan and if you fail the primary time individuals would see you as a failure that makes many folks discouraged to truly strive tougher and at the tip several would quit and take a look at and notice a coffee paying job that the majority of time they don’t enjoy doing. Because of this, it is easy to agree with Kyoko Mori. I have to agree that the yank manner of teaching is healthier. In America, students are given feedback from lecturers on ways to enhance their writing. In Japan, it’s not similar which looks extremely unfair for the Japanese students UN agency are expected to try and do higher without learning, however.

Throughout generations, public schools have faced a number of issues, ranging from structural issues in schools to mental health issues within the student body. The primary issue I have chosen to address is standardized testing within public school systems. This is a crucial issue because I believe that standardized testing is not an efficient manner of determining whether a child should proceed to the next grade level. Not only do the students face pressure to do well on standardized tests, “…teachers face pressure to improve scores and…schools serving low-income students are more likely to implement a style of teaching based on drilling and memorization that leads to little learning” (Morgan 2). These exams do not show a student’s true academic capabilities due to the fact that they are under extreme pressure to perform well. Furthermore, standardized testing is extremely expensive and is not worth the money. Standardized tests became a K-12 mandatory policy when it became evident that the educational system was not meeting the needs to have a competitive workforce in the economy (Teaching To The Test).

One idea that might resolve the issue of standardized testing can be to take away the standardized tests and reallocate the funds into a better way of evaluating students’ dexterity. Schools can make testing students a regular practice in school to keep them on track for their education. Furthermore, the schools can implicate the idea of using portfolios that keep track of assignments throughout the year such as presentations, projects, and assessments and look back at the progress that the individual has made over the year. Another option that the schools can implicate is to hire assessors to evaluate the student’s and teacher’s productivity. In order for these changes to be implicated in the school district, they would need to reallocate the money used for the standardized tests to different parts of the school that would benefit the students. These new solutions would be better than what is in place right now because standardized testing creates a high level of stress for a lot of students and this new solution does not dictate whether a child passes a grade level off of one test. Another reason why taking away standardized testing is the best option is because of the amount of money that it costs schools to contract with testing companies. In order for these solutions to work the school would need to redirect the testing money toward assignments for the children throughout the year and a percentage to the teacher’s salaries.

In order for this issue to be resolved the teachers at the schools and the Texas State Legislature would need to be actively involved. The main audience is the Texas State Legislature due to the fact they are in charge of how much schools spend each year and are in approval of standardized testing. The teachers would be involved in this issue because if changes are made, their salaries would change because funds could be redirected to a certain percentage of money to their salaries. Some of the things that would stop these groups of individuals from agreeing with my proposal would be that some of them would have different opinions on this topic and think that standardized testing is beneficial to students and does not waste money. The companies that have a stake in this issue would be the provider of the standardized test so obviously they would have a negative impact if standardized tests were eliminated from schools. The most effective way to reach and propose this problem to the Texas State Legislature and teachers would be a professional letter with factual information or a video with actual students confessing how standardized testing makes them feel.

To make sure my letter is intelligent and factual, the only sources I will use in the letter would be academic journals, factual magazine articles, and possibly statements from different people that have taken standardized testing. In order to find this research, I will go through different databases and different books not limited to those options. My greatest difficulty when it comes to writing and research is not finding the exact information I want and reading all of the different articles and then still struggling to find the information I want to use in my essays. To help with the difficulty in this semester, I will attempt to search for specific topics and utilize the new databases that are provided to the student body, as well as ask friends for referrals to scholarly websites or articles that they believe were beneficial to their research.

When looking at the Chinese and American education systems you will notice many differences. Many view Chinese education as very strict and because of that it lays the foundation for success, whereas the American educational system is viewed as a way to stimulate a student’s inner creativity. In Chinese education, they focus on how students use the knowledge they learned in school, and on understanding knowledge systems and structures and how to use that knowledge. Americans are interested more in how education impacts their lives in society. American education focuses on independence and self-determination, while Chinese education focuses more on strictness to improve retention.

The academic performance of American students has not budged in over two decades, even though billions and billions of dollars have been put into the American educational system. Chinese students have consistently done better than their American peers in the following subjects reading, math, and science. The test results showed that students from four areas of China, Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang earned the highest level 4 rating for all testing areas. The American students ended up ranking 3rd in science and reading and only ranked 2nd in math.

The testing showed that over 20 percent of American 15-year-olds do not read as well as they should and are usually behind meaning if they are in 5th grade they are only reading at a 3-4th grade level. This testing also showed that American students’ performance in reading and math has not changed much since 2000. Seeing results like this has many saying that federal initiatives such as the “No Child Left Behind” and “Common Core” which the federal government and infused billions of dollars to has not improved the quality of education that american students are receiving. Many teachers believe that new technologies have lessened students’ attention spans over the past years and many say that technology may not always be our friend and can lead to distractions and deter from learning and may not be a helpful tool examples of this would be laptops in school.

Chinese school’s teaching techniques differ greatly from the U.S. teaching methods. In China, you will observe a classroom full of students obediently taking notes and you will only see them breaking their silence when prompted by the teacher to repeat what was just learned. This form of classroom teaching is something that is used all across China, from elementary-middle school to college. The Chinese believe that students learn best by memorizing information supplied through repetition and note-taking. Teachers use this approach to deliver and plan lessons to students. Using this technique takes away the need for additional learning tools and allows for little to no student engagement. The reason why the Chinese favor this teaching method can be attributed to cultural values and beliefs. A Chinese student’s entire education and career is focused on how well they do on the College Entrance Exam (gaokao). This test is considered one of the toughest exams in the world. This test determines a person’s future career paths and possible earnings. Because there is so much importance placed on this test the Chinese consider this one of the most important events of their lives.

There are also many differences between the settings in the classroom for both China and the U.S. One you will notice between American and Chinese is the classroom size. Chinese teachers typically have between 30 to 50 students, whereas you will typically see an American teacher having a classroom size of 20 students. Because the Chinese have larger classroom sizes, the teacher does not provide individual like in America. Something else that is different is when it comes to students moving from classroom to classroom and having multiple teachers throughout the day or even multiple teachers throughout their learning years. In China, a student may have the same teacher for sometimes up to three years but can also have them their entire elementary-middle school years.

In conclusion, we have learned and seen many differences in the teaching and learning sides of the American school system and the Chinese school system. In researching for this it shows how the education you receive can influence the world we live in and the way we view what is important to be successful.

I vaguely remember that before going abroad, Mr. Zhang my English teacher in China, once asked a classmate a question in a certain class of study would you go abroad if you had a chance? I boldly answered this question, I said: ‘Yes, because I want to experience different cultures and civilizations’. What a particularly simple and immature reason.

Recalling my educational experience in China, I may be the only Chinese who is bad at mathematics, so I have to admit that I am a loser in this course. Not because I didn’t work hard enough. On the contrary, I paid the same effort as most students but still got lower grades than these people, I guess I’m just not good at this. So I feel mathematics has become useless to me except for bringing me torture and anxiety. These frustrations have even obliterated my passion for learning mathematics. When I came abroad, the situation was different. American mathematics courses are very simple for me, but that doesn’t mean that I can close my eyes and still get a perfect score, especially since I didn’t know many Mathematical terms in English in my first year. However, relying on the previous foundation, I started to become a bit arrogant and felt that I could do everything. I don’t listen to the lecture and don’t like to do my homework at all. Of course, retribution soon appeared. At the end of the term, I found out that I messed up many simple questions on the exam. Holding the final math score, I questioned my math cells again in the cold wind. I told myself that I couldn’t give up so easily and I should be used to receiving setbacks and I resolutely decided to do well on the next math course. I corrected my study attitude, took notes every day finished every exercise in the book, and finally got a good score, although this math class is much more difficult than the first one.

Mathematics in the United States is not as difficult as in China, but it is enough to gauge whether you have spent your time and worked hard for it. Also, It teaches you more about the attitude than how to figure out what kind of image that function corresponds to or what kind of equation an ellipse is. It eliminates people who don’t work hard, not people who are not talented enough. Except for the math genius, I believe that most people have experienced countless sleepy nights for the numbers, piled up a stack of exercise books at their feet, and kept asking teachers questions in self-study classes. Like I said at the beginning, my grades were not good, but when I decided to put my heart into studying mathematics, I saw that time was probably the most earnest in my life, and there were no other entertainment activities except for normal social needs.

Later on, I saw people on the Internet saying how crazy the kids in the United States were that they could date each other and start a relationship, and then concluded that ‘this is youth.’ I commented under the original post ‘But they didn’t experience the kind of life that worked hard for their dreams.’ Then I found that I was wrong. They are not without experience instead, they experience it a little bit later. In high school, they also have 99.7% of students graduated with a very high GPA, and they also have a lot of extracurricular activities to find their hobbies. As a Chinese student, what did we sacrifice because of math? How many people didn’t even know what they liked in their senior year? How many people blindly follow parents’ advice when choosing a school? How many people still feel the future is blurred even after entering college? When I graduated from high school, I was confused because we were always paying attention to the results. Many relatively average people do not know what they should learn.

Under such a Chinese education system, many children have no chance to learn and practice. Naturally, they dare not think about what they can do. They spend countless hours learning mathematics, but they also waste the equivalent time doing what they are interested in and good at. We eliminated 70% of the ‘not brave, not earnest’ people with the math exam, but at the same time, we eliminated more future singers, painters, novelists, lecturers, and debaters with it. What is taught in school is the correct standard answer. Doubt or criticism is not allowed, and analysis and demonstration are not trained. Teachers don’t know this because it’s never been in books. The logical thinking ability of students in science classes often only has scientific means (techniques and skills), there is no scientific method or scientific spirit. What is the spirit of science? In my opinion, the spirit of skepticism, criticism, analysis, and positivism is the sum of these four spirits. Without this, no one can think independently and everyone loses self.

Why do I go abroad? I clearly remember that a class meeting was for students to talk about their dreams. What I said was very vulgar ‘I want to be an artist and then travel around the world with paper and brushes’. Under the Chinese education system, I only know that this is an unreachable dream. But here, this dream does not seem so far away. I have a lot of opportunities to learn and explore and that lets me know that I am approaching there step by step. Even on this path, there will be setbacks, stagnation, and failure, and I have at least seen that my dream is not so far away. Even though I did take a detour, I’ll get there in the end. At least it tells me that no matter what the reality is, you can think about it. If you dare not even think about it, it will always be a dream. We want to live in the present, but we have to look far into the future.

I do not mean to vigorously criticize China’s education and consider the current system to be nothing. For example, I still like the concept of ‘class collectives’ in Chinese education, there is a lot of time in the day with the same group of people and taking different classes in the same classroom. many classmates have become very important friends in my life. The American education system does not have such a concept instead each class has its classroom and students will be going to a different classroom during school hours. Although there are many friends, our relationship only stays with classmates.

Every country’s education system has its drawbacks. I am grateful that education in China has taught me how to learn, but I am more fortunate that education abroad has taught me how to think independently.

Politics in Education

The American Education System has always had a close relationship with politics. Over time, this relationship has become increasingly complicated as the education system relies more on a government that does not consistently fulfill its needs. In this essay, three different aspects of the education system in America will be evaluated. The Every Student Succeeds Act, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition. All three of these have been influenced by politics or influence politics. The changes made by lawmakers affecting all three of these aspects of education have shaped the current learning atmosphere that students are in today.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015. It replaced the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This law was a facelift for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESSA was signed into effect by President Obama to remedy the nation’s low high school graduation rates. The ESSA act focuses on promoting equity in the classroom, meaning that students who are disadvantaged are given not just the same opportunities as other students, but also aid to help them advance. The ESSA act also takes a hands on, community wide approach to the education system. It includes preschools for all districts, as well as interventions in the community such as promise neighborhoods. The ESSA act picks up where the NCLB act left off. The NCLB revealed that lots of the students doing poorly were from underserved communities. However, while it revealed this, not a lot was done to change it. The ESSA takes the next step in reaching out to the community. The ESSA provides a lot more autonomy to schools. They are allowed to chose their curriculum, their teacher requirements, and how they allocate funding. However, they are still required to do formal, statewide testing that reports to the National Assessment of Education Progress statistics.

However, allowing schools to have this autonomy makes some nervous. The Phi Delta Kappan report on ESSA expresses lots of concerns about maintaining equity. They question, “One has to wonder, now that ESSA has relaxed NCLB’s many federal requirements, will states take advantage of their newfound flexibility to design educational systems that better meet the needs of all children? Or, absent any real pressure from the federal government, will they make little effort to address disparities among subgroups of students?” The schools’ newfound freedom could potentially provide great aid to in-need districts, however, do they have the resources to do so? However, a different article in Phi Delta Kappan points out that ESSA has not relinquished all control. Instead, ESSA provides a “rigid flexibility” (Phi Delta Kappan), allowing schools to have flexibility while the government still has a firm hand in the system. In an article written for the Phi Delta Kappan, Andrew Saultz points out that while ESSA has prompted change, it hasn’t fixed the underlying issues. “ESSA was written to fix the problems of NCLB, but it did not fundamentally alter the relationship between local schools and centralized offices.” ESSA’s goal was to fix NCLB, but it didn’t fix the schools. That is the where the majority of the fault is.

However, as Saultz points out in his article, taking on the entire American education system is a huge ordeal. Balancing the relationship of state autonomy and government control seems to be the main functional issue with the American education system. ESSA is a step forward from NCLB and is making progress gradually. Mississippi’s graduation rate is at an all time high (MDEK12). The Office of Early Childhood Education in Mississippi went from one staff member to twenty four. While ESSA may not be a perfect solution, it is showing drastic improvement. Without a nationwide political intervention, there would have been no change or a decline in graduating students. In this instance, a political intervention is slowly but surely making a change.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationwide method of evaluating students in America’s public schools. This helps show the drastic differences in education level that occur in America’s schools. It also shows growth or change in each district’s progress over time. This program does not report on individual students, however, it does formulate statistics on specific groups of students, for example, students from urban areas. This allows the government to ensure all needs of all different types of school districts are met. In 2002, the NCLB act caused drastic change to the NAEP. The NCLB act changed the “background” or pre-cognitive questions to be less biased. Every question on the questionnaire had to be pertinent to an academic environment.

The NAEP was not created to become a new framework, it was simply created to measure students’ and districts’ progress over time. (National Assessment Governing Board) The pre-cognitive questions provide an insight to why results from schools allegedly given the same opportunity could be drastically different. However, the NAEP does not study that data—they just present it as it is, for districts and the government to decide what to do with it all. Additionally, the NAEP serves exclusively as a means to present data. It has little influence from politics and outside sources. However, it is used heavily to influence political decisions. It’s existence provides a “report card” (MDEK12) for America’s politicians to evaluate.

The Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2) is the state test program created in adjournment with the NCLB act to keep schools accountable and track student achievement. This test was first put in place in 2007(MDEK12). The MCT2 reports back to the NAEP as Mississippi’s results. It is specific exclusively to Mississippi’s public schools.

This test has had a direct impact on how teachers in Mississippi teach. (Cole) In a study conducted by John Alexander Buchanan, it is revealed that teachers placed in a high stakes testing environment are more likely to have less successful teaching style and students are more likely to be less engaged in learning. The MCT2 is a politically mandated test for districts to receive funding. (MDEK12) Additionally, teachers’ job security is directly tied to how students perform on these tests. This creates a stressful work environment. Principals have been caught helping students cheat on the tests in order to help their school get a better rating. (MDEK12) Funding and jobs are so directly linked to this test that it has created an environment where principals would rather directly inhibit a student’s educational experience by cheating on a test for them than create an environment where it is safe to fail. Linking the state’s funding and employment opportunities to state tests creates a high-risk environment for both the students and the teachers.

The MCT2 was created in adjunction with NCLB to allow politicians to have an overview of how Mississippi’s schools are performing and receive funding. However, as NCLB moved out, Mississippi’s politicians opted to keep the MCT2 as a form of evaluation. This creates a test-focused school environment that is placing more pressure on teachers to teach to the test and not to the students. When complaints arise, the solution seems to be adding more tests, or changing when they are given. Before Kindergarten, students are given tests to evaluate if they’re ready from what they’ve learned in preschool. This test obsession isn’t helping teachers or students prepare for kindergarten—it’s simply checking boxes on politician’s checklists for maintaining the school districts.

Politics and education have a complicated role. Education today relies on politics entirely to keep schools open. However, because of this, politics have taken a lot of schools’ functionality away from them. They are so focused on meeting the test requirements left behind from NCLB that there has been a drastic shift in how teaching happens and what curriculum it’s structured around. This change is slowly being remedied by the ESSA, but it can’t undo years of politics overnight. Additionally, ESSA is heavily dependent on states agreeing to the change, which many local politicians do not. Slowly, politics are adapting to aid schools, however, they are still currently test oriented instead of teacher and student oriented, which is proving to be ineffective.