Upon self-reflection, I often thought to myself are we actually getting smarter? It sounds pessimistic but let’s really analyze the question. Once again this election season, I feel the need to ponder on the question at hand. Elections these days have focused on bullying, name calling or minority bashing instead focusing on the the issue of education amongst others.
The truth of the matter is we need to improve our system of education. There is a two pronged problem to improving education in the US: first, integrating the minority (principally Blacks and Latinos) successfully into the education mainstream and increasing the technical, scientific and basic literacy of Americans on the whole.
In 2016, not much has changed according to US News &World Report, in the last 50 years, the achievement gap between whites and blacks has “barely narrowed.” The landmark education report is called a “national embarrassment.” The non-Asian minority is at a great disadvantage with the achievement gap being as low as it is.
In the area of learning technical topics, how does America do? The US ranked last in math skills tied with Italy and Spain according to the Educational Testing Service study done in 2012. In problem solving they performed at the bottom with Ireland, Poland and the Slovak Republic. The US also had lower literacy scores than their peers. US scores can be seen by clicking on the link below.
In the US basic concepts are not taught efficiently and there is too much emphasis on test taking and scoring high on tests, as a result basic concepts aren’t learnt but completely looked over. Ambition and motivation to achieve just aren’t there. All this combined with a lack of teacher education innovation seems to create a spiral for education downward.
Teacher education needs to be updated to comply with the vigorous demands of the education system today and in order to be competitive on a global perspective. There is also a failure to comprehend core concepts for succeeding in future fields whether academic or vocational. Many high school seniors are also not ready for college; students need to be better prepared for skills needed to succeed in college. These all play a huge role in how successful education systems needs to be today.