Failing School Systems: Are Students to Blame?

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The United States educational system is failing. This topic is in the news repeatedly. Failing schools are a problem that must fixed. However, it cannot be fixed until we figure out its real cause. Many people put the blame on the government, school officials, and teachers. Critics such as Geoffrey Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, say that the problem lies within the public schools. He states, “Public schools are bad, privately managed charter schools are good” (Ravitch 1). This may be a true statement but there must also be an underlying cause for low school performance. Nobody ever thinks the students may have something to do with this problem. The students are the ones who are taking the tests, paying attention in class and completing the homework. Nevertheless, from another view it may not always be the child’s fault. Maybe other factors contribute to this. Some students want to succeed but they do not always have the necessary resources to do so. These reasons are student’s determination, financial limitations, family support, insufficient housing, and poor nutrition.

Some students do want to succeed in life however successful needs to be defined in order to figure out criteria for success. According to Merriam-Webster, success is an “a degree of succeeding” and “a favorable or desired outcome”. In other words, success is having a series of goals set in order to achieve a bigger goal or accomplishment. When someone tries to obtain success, students need the necessary resources and support from those around them. Dan Goldhaber, an economist from the University of Washington, school achievement is caused by problems that don’t have anything to do with school (Ravitch 2). There are students who can succeed i...

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...ld’s Day: 2006 (Selected Indicators of Child Wellbeing). Current Population Reports, P70-118. U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC

"Education." Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010.Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Kettering Foundation. Too Many Children Left Behind: How Can We Close the Achievement

Gap? Ed. Carolyn Farrow-Garland and Ilse Tebbetts. Dayton, Ohio: Kettering Foundation,

2007. Print.

"Poverty." Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010.Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Ravitch, Diane. "The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books." Home | The New York Review of Books. 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

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