Education in American Schools
Is it a Crisis for Education in Amercian Schools?
The reading and learning situation in schools in every state across the United States is in crisis. Evidence for this crisis comes in many forms:
- 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.2
- At least 50% of the unemployed are functionally illiterate.3
- At least 20 million of the nation’s 53 million school-age children are poor readers—about two out of five children.4
- If a child is a poor reader at the end of first grade, there is an almost 90% probability that the child will be a poor reader at the end of fourth grade.5
- Three-quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school.6
- 60% of the unemployed lack the basic skills for the majority of the hundreds of thousands of vacant high tech jobs.7
- Three-quarters of the Fortune 500 companies provide remedial training for their workforce just to get adequate service from their employees.8
- Approximately 53% of undergraduates enroll in remedial courses in postsecondary education.9
- Of the 29 member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (ODEC), U.S. students are at or near the bottom in mathematics and science knowledge.10
- Only 24% of high school seniors are proficient in writing.11
- Students in the lowest 25% of achievement are twenty times more likely to drop out of high school than students in the highest 25%.12
- 41-44% of all adults at the most basic level of literacy live in poverty, compared with only 4-8% of those in the two highest proficiency levels.13
- Expectations on teachers have increased dramatically due to a trend toward mandated non-teaching, planning, and administration duties. Teachers rarely have the time or the resources required for individual, remedial attention.14
Education in American Schools – Education or Management?
Parents expect their children to be educated, not simply managed by schools, but parents and home life in today’s America also play a role in the education crisis. Students often enter school with fewer practical skills than in generations past because many of today’s households require dual incomes to survive in our current economy and to live according to today’s standards. Because both parents frequently work outside the home, today’s children lack the vital one-on-one learning time that only their parents can provide. Today, children typically spend too much time passively watching television or playing video games -- two forms of technology that working parents often rely on for their children’s entertainment.
Although what happens at home is crucial, schools still have our nation’s children at least seven hours a day, 180 days a year, which represents a tremendous opportunity to influence and impact their destiny. Successfully educating a generation of America’s kids depends, for the most part, on helping them get the most out of their time at school.
Parents send their children to school with high academic expectations, unaware that if their children falter, they are likely to be diverted from the mainstream and offered much less than strengthened skills and academic excellence.
Sadly, in addition to suffering from basic learning deficiencies, when children are frustrated and failing at school, they are harmed emotionally, psychologically, socially, and occupationally. In essence, their self-esteem takes a beating, which furthers the suffering on all levels.
America’s educational system has fallen on hard times, and all too often the victims of this learning crisis walk through the front door of our homes at the end of each school day. All too often we are left to feel that there is no hope for our children’s academic success. In fact, all too often we end up feeling hopeless.
Keep Reading!
Excerpts of the book Unlock the Enstein Inside by Dr. Ken Gibson
2 Hock, M. and Deshler, D. Don’t Forget the Adolescents. The University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. Principal Leadership. 2003.
3 McEntyre, Marilyn. Why Worry About Words? Westmont College: 2004
Stone Lectures (October 4, 2004). Theology Today ISSN 0040-5736.
4 Henry, Tamara. Lawmakers move to improve literacy. USA Today: Nation. June 20, 2001.
5 Boyer, Ernest L. Ready to learn: A mandate for the nation. Report by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 1991.
6 Shaywitz, MD, Sally, et al. Predicting Reading Performance form Neuroimaging Profiles: The Cerebral Basis of Phonological Effects in Printed Word Identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Volume 23, Number 2 (299-3 18). 1997.
7 Ohio Literacy Research Center: Adult Literacy: The Foundation for Progress-Employment, November 2005. http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/ Resc/Educ/fb2.html
8 Lartigue, Casey. Why Not Sue ‘Big Schooling?’ Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs. Volume 9, Number 12. December 2002.
9 Adolescent Literacy Policy Update. Alliance for Excellent Education. Issue Brief, June 2005. http://www.all4ed.org/publications/ ReadingNext/AdolescentLiteracyFactSheet.pdf
10 America’s Pressing Challenge: Building a Stronger Foundation. National Science Board (NSB): A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators. 06-02. January 2006.
11 U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). 1998 and 2002 Writing Assessments.
12 Carnevale, A. Help wanted...college required. Leadership 2000 Series. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. 2001.
13 Kirsch, I., Jungeblut, A., Jenkins, L., and Kolstad, A. 1992 Adult Literacy Products—Executive Summary of Adult Literacy in America: A First Look at the Results of the National Adult Literacy Survey. National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). 1992.
14 Committee to Study Teacher Workload, Planning Time, and Assessments. Joint Taskforce on Workload, Planning, and Assessments (HCEA). June 2003. http://hceanea.org/Committee_ Report_to_BOE_June_26_2003.pdf
