Reading and Writing finally get mentioned in Obama's policy
Wednesday, 03 March 2010
Although they both boast large economies, political stability and military importance, when it comes to maths and science, there is a big difference between the US and Europe.
There have been rumours before that the standard of public education in the US is slightly lower than that of Europe, but this week the Harvard educated President Barack Obama sounded serious when he said that, “the US cannot accept second best in education”. Is Mr. President concerned that High School students in the States have less knowledge and reasoning and judgement capabilities than European students of their age? Is that why he seems so committed to improving the US education system?
Well, whatever his motive, he already has a new five year rescue plan up is sleeve. Based around a budget of 900 million US dollars, it will focus on 5,000 of the US's worst schools. The former University lecturer, who spent his youth hop-scotching around various schools for family reasons, told governors in the White House recently that the US's primacy in the world was at risk in the quest to improve education quality and global competitiveness. "In this kind of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of school means not only giving up on your future, but it's also giving up on your family's future, giving up on your country's future", said Obama.
In a statement released last month, the White House vowed that the new inititiative would develop and implement new reading and maths standards that would prepare American citizens for a great education from the 'cradle to career'.
This week, the idea was brought up again when Obama addressed the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue,".
Back in 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed and it has since been revamped every five years. In the George Bush era, it became known as the No Child Left Behind Act, and saw federal money be sent to states to pay for teacher development, educational resources and the promotion of parental involvement. The Obama administration wants to rename this law and in doing so raise public schools standards, in other-words, place new education reform plans on top of the shaky foundation of Presidents Bush's No Child Left Behind programme. Whether or not this will have a domino effect is unknown. One thing that is sure however is that quick fix solutions like closing failing schools, letting staff go and reopening schools under new management is not the way to go.
Diane Ravitch, the American author is convinced that the education system should recapture the strengths of the traditional public school system, bringing about a vigorous common curriculum and renouncement of the theories, practices, policies and programmes that have constituted the US's major education reform emphases in the last few years.
