Problems in the United States Educational System

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Problems in the United States Educational System

By: medvedov

E-mail: vmedvedovsky@hotmail.com

Today, the way the educational system works in the U.S. concerns a large number of people in this country. "Only 25% of adults have a great deal of confidence in the people running education, according to the General Social Survey, down from 49% in 1974" (Russel 4). A lot of discussions have been held to find the best ways to improve teaching methods. At the same time, people recognize that a very valuable solution to increase the level of education in the United States is to look at some problems that cause difficulties and hamper the enhancement of the quality of education. The first step is to define these problems. As in every country, the U.S. wants to develop its national standards in education and wants them to be high. This has always been a government function. Being democratic, the government is trying to fit the qualities of democracy into the way to set these standards. Of course, this is not an easy task since this country has a very diverse population. To please everybody has always been an almost impossible task. Despite this impossibility, national standards have already been set. "If a visitor from another nation was dropped into an American public school classroom without knowing the state or the region, he or she would be likely to see the same lesson taught in the same way to children of the same age" (Ravitch 9). Everything seems right except the fact that the abilities of children are different. Not everybody is able to study at a college; not everybody wants to continue being educated. It is obvious that every country wants to produce as many educated people as possible. But, at the same time, every country needs workers because, regardless of the fast development of technology, there is still a great necessity for human labor. To satisfy all the necessities of the country, the government should provide different kinds of education. This does not mean that we need to eliminate all of the standards; they could be set in each field of education. Although standards are set, there is still a very big difference in teaching methods in different schools. Perhaps, the most serious problem starts in high schools: some schools provide a higher level of education than others. Students from most city schools graduate with the confidence in their knowledge; their level of education is high enough to attend a university. On the other hand, students from small towns, suburbs, and villages do not have the opportunity to get that kind of education because schools in small areas of the United States can not provide the same level of education as schools in large cities. The democratic idea of everybody having an equal education is breached. The "high school" problem further extends to most of the nation's colleges and universities. Students that come to colleges do not have the same level of knowledge. This could be proved by the results of the ACT (American College Test). According to the information provided by the ACT, Inc., out of all the students who took the test in 1997 (959,301), almost the same number of students scored 27 (36,566) as those who scored 14 (36,100). To solve this problem the general education program was brought into the college curriculum. It provides every college student with basic knowledge and, at the same time, balances the general level of education. It seems to be a perfect way to solve the problem of inequality in the educational system. This would be acceptable if it did not impede the system itself. A lot of students that have already gotten enough general education are held back because they are required to take the courses they already had. Most of them think that it is a waste of time and money. The other significant problem is the dropout level in the U.S. colleges. "In states with high postsecondary matriculation rates, the college dropout rates can run as high as two thirds...about one half of those who try the baccalaureate college game will fail" (Gray 530). This means that around 50% of those who attempt to go to college do not get their degrees, thus wasting their time and money. Personal and family problems are the most general reasons for students to drop out. Yet, there are a lot of students who once were convinced by their parents and teachers to continue education, but now realized that they can live without it and that there are ways to make good money having no college education. These students' attitudes toward the higher education influence the decline of national standards in education. For better understanding, it would be appropriate to draw a parallel between the educational systems in Russia and the United States. In Russia, people that do not want to continue their education in college are not required to finish high school. Thus, the last two years in high school provide those students who are willing to go to college with the necessary amount of general education, so that, after graduating from high school, they are well prepared to start working on their college degrees. But there is still one concern: Russian high school students are overloaded. In the United States, high school students do not have such intense studies and as much homework as students in Russia. They have a lot of free time; that may be one reason American teen-agers experiment with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and sex at earlier age than Russian teen-agers, and that hampers them to perform well in school. The other reason for poor performance in school could be the recent decrease of adult supervision in both countries. Today, parents, working more than in any other years, rely on their school communities and pay less attention to their children's studies. "It [was] an axiom of ... education that parents are partners in their children's education" (Berkowitz 47), but

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