A Nation at Risk
This country is definitely in a tough spot when it come to education. We used to be one of the world leaders in education, but now our students test scores are middle of the pack at best. A big point brought up though is that in the years since 1983 America has put a lot more focus on education and what the problem is. Luckily now we area actively pursuing solutions to our mediocre test scores. Unfortunately, our test scores have gotten slightly worse since 1983.
Another alarming factor is the amount of kids who do not achieve a high school diploma. A crazy statistic from the article was that as of 2008 minority students only had about a 50% chance of graduating, with Native Americans below 50%.
A very positive fact is that our teachers are becoming more and more qualified due to an emphasis on teacher quality. A system that I really like is the performance based salary that some schools have adopted where teachers get paid different amounts depending on how well they are doing their jobs.
I think a big factor in this whole problem though is the problem of poverty and of parents who may not care about their childs education. I think the culture has changed when it comes to parents expectations of their kids in school. I think back in the days of America being on top in the education world parents were a lot stricter with making sure their kids worked hard in school. Of course, the poverty levels do not help either because we all know that if a students needs aren't met, he/she is not going to perform well in school.
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