Education Reform

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I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive. The pieces of the educational revolution are lying around unassembled."

- John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, "No Easy Victories" (1968)

Sadly over 40 years later, the the educational revolution still hasn't taken off. The “pieces” are still lying around unassembled and the education in the schools is still tolerated. The need for change of public schools in the United States has been emerging since of the the passage of Pennsylvania's Common School Act in 1834. The Common School Act of 1834, set up a "general” system of education by common schools. People are continuously saying how children are the future and we must nurture them in order to ensure a bright future for our country. However, we are failing at a very basic level. The current education system in the United States is extremely poor. Drop-out rates for high school students continue to rise and student performance has been steadily declining. An article published in 1999 showed exactly how much of a crisis the American education system is really in. The article was written by William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, and it ranked high school seniors form 21 industrialized nations based on their performance in math, science, and advanced physics. American high school seniors ranked 19th in math, 16th in science and last in advanced physics.

Despite the push for education reform some thirty years ago, the American public education system has still not made adequate progress. The issue of education reform is a very complex issue with many di...

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...erican Education." Heartlander Magazine. 1 Oct. 1999. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. .

Liu, Goodwin. "Improving Title I Funding Equity Across States, Districts, and Schools." Iowa Law Review, 2008. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.

Reardon, Sean F. "The Widening Academic Achievement Gap between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations."Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University. Stanford University, 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. .

Whitehurst, Grover J. "Don't Forget Curriculum."- Brookings Institution. The Brookings Institution, Oct. 2009. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

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