Funding in Education | "Race To the Top" By Anthony Tarin
“Education is one of the few areas of the federal budget that would not see a spending freeze,” said by President Barack Obama if he gets his way this year. Obama’s goal for school funding is to be 4.35 billion dollars for the 2011 budget year. Of the 4 billion dollars Obama plans to send 3 billion dollars to elementary and secondary education programs ranging from teacher quality to student safety. “America will not succeed in the 21st century unless we do a far better job of educating our sons and daughters… And the race starts today. I am issuing a challenge to our nation’s governors and school boards, principals and teachers, businesses and non-profits, parents and students: if you set and enforce rigorous and challenging standards and assessments; if you put outstanding teachers at the front of the classroom; if you turn around failing schools – your state can win a Race to the Top grant that will not only help students outcompete workers around the world, but let them fulfill their God-given potential.”- President Barack Obama I feel like if he gives teacher incentive to do good then our problem of teachers not being very motivated will be somewhat solved. A lot of teachers get paid to not do a very good job when they reach tenure and it is hard to get fired. Schools that have a high dropout rate will be changed to a Charter school. (Why would charter schools help make a change?). Obama thinks our school is lacking and then we aren’t getting the good jobs in the world. Also Obama feels that most of our schools aren’t doing very well in the Math and Science areas.
The other 1.35 billion dollars will be spent on Obama’s “Race to the Top”. The race to the top consists of taking statistics and test to award schools that are being successful. Also they reward teachers that are doing a good job and fire others that aren’t teaching up to par. Obama’s plan also consists of support for people who go onto colleges. Giving more Pell grants and rewarding people that go to college and owe a debt.
Most states aren’t very happy with the result of the “Race to the top” because the only states receiving funding for round 1 is Delaware and Tennessee. Most of all Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado was mostly mad because of the scoring. Ritter hoped to receive $377 million dollars for coming in 14th. Colorado remains unsure as to whether he should reapply for the second round. Colorado isn’t the only state that aren’t happy with results also Arizona, California,
Nebraska, South Carolina, and South Dakota. I believe would have told the rules clearer most states would not be angry with the results. Some states might not agree with the judges ratings with the school but I believe that Obama picked a good crew that gave their honest ratings.
The Race to the Top emphasizes the following reform areas:
• Designing and implementing rigorous standards and high-quality assessments, by encouraging states to work jointly toward a system of common academic standards that builds toward college and career readiness, and that includes improved assessments designed to measure critical knowledge and higher-order thinking skills.
• Attracting and keeping great teachers and leaders in America’s classrooms, by expanding effective support to teachers and principals; reforming and improving teacher preparation; revising teacher evaluation, compensation, and retention policies to encourage and reward effectiveness; and working to ensure that our most talented teachers are placed in the schools and subjects where they are needed the most.
• Supporting data systems that inform decisions and improve instruction, by fully implementing a statewide<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sdypSyb_gL0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>longitudinal data system, assessing and using data to drive instruction, and making data more accessible to key stakeholders.
• Using innovation and effective approaches to turn-around struggling schools, by asking states to prioritize and transform persistently low-performing schools.
• Demonstrating and sustaining education reform, by promoting collaborations between business leaders, educators, and other stakeholders to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps, and by expanding support for high-performing public charter schools, reinvigorating math and science education, and promoting other conditions favorable to innovation and reform.
In Conclusion, I believe that Obama has a good plan with the “Race to the top”. I think that everyone involved in this race will benefit and hopefully it will help our schools get back up to the top to help our economy prosper. I feel that this will benefit our nation mostly because a lot of people respond to competition and most states will want that money. Not only will the competition help the United States but also most states will be rewarded and will benefit by getting more money for their school districts.
By Jenna Hartnett
History Professor
1. What has changed in your teaching from when you first started compared to now? The questions are: What has changed in teaching from the past compared to now?
the advent of commercial for profit digital media devices affecting the student's home life . . that has crept into and effected education at all levels!
2. I have had to learn how to utilize digital media in preparing lectures and delivering information to young people.
3. This generation unlike even 10 years ago at the turn of the century . . because of their obsession with #@!%## digital media …
a. have shortened attention spans
b. are functionally illiterate . . barely able to write intelligently
4. Education at all levels is now pandering .. to young people who do NOT want to read, write . . or research in a library . . ANYTHING AT ALL <;-(
English Professor
The questions are: What has changed in teaching from the past compared to now?,
Technology has changed. I was taught how to thread a 16 MM projector to show a movie and to use other devices that were very primitive for teaching. We never had photocopiers, for instance, when I was first teaching. Students typed their papers on typewriters which was very laborious compared to using computers. The blackboard with chalk was one technique and students went to the board to write. Now I rely on computers for teaching, researching, and writing.
What has changed in your teaching from when you first started compared to now?
Students are not much different from when I first began teaching in 1970. I still care about how they learn and I still try to make the material worth learning. Even though I have incorporated modern technology in my teaching, adding online teaching, I still meet with my students in my office one-on-one and I still rely on eye contact when I am in front of the room. I rely less on lecturing because it bores students, but when I do, I ask questions and I try to be interesting. That has not changed. What has changed is that students expect the material to be easy and for the instructor to be entertaining instead of lecturing. Their attention spans are shorter than that of students years ago. Students take less notes. Because of this, I expect students to use devices to make learning the material easier, too.
History of Education | History of Education By Melissa Stimatze and Kayla Wilson
History of Public education
early history
The national system of formal education in the United States developed in the 19th century. Jefferson Was the first American Leader to suggest creating a public school system. The preliminary form of public education was started in the 1600s in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire. By the middle of the eighteenth century, private schooling has become the norm. Jefferson Believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Others that were supporters for education at this time were: Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington.
Beginning of the Public Education System
Until 1840's the education system was highly localized and available only to wealthy people. Some people opposed this idea. One of the main ones was Horace Mann and Henry Barnard. Mann publication of the Common School Journal, which took the educational issues to the public. The common school reformers argued for the case on the belief that common schooling could create good citizens, unite society, and prevent crime and poverty. As a result free public education at elementary level was open to all children by the end of the 19th century. By 1918 all states had passed laws requiring children to attend at least elementary school. The Catholics were opposed by the common schooling and created their own private schools. Their decision was supported by the Supreme Court case in 1925 Pierce V. Society of Sisters. That states could not compel children to attend public schools, and that children could attend private schools instead.
Involvement at the local and Federal Levels
Individual states- rather than the government had primary authority over public education in the U.S. After a while every stated had a department of education and enacted laws. Local districts oversee the administration of schools, with the exception of licensing requirements and general rules concerning health and safety. American schools have thus tended to reflect the educational values and financial values and financial capabilities of the communities in which they are located.
How were they founded??
*1940 local property tax's financed 68 percent of public schools expenses, which states contributed 30 percent.
1990 local districts and states contributed 47 percent and the federal government provided the remaining funds.
federal commitment to improve and finance public schools expanded enormously when Congress passed the national Defense Education Act of 1958 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Other problems were expanding educational opportunity for pool children and improving instruction in pivotal but usually neglected subjects: science, mathematics and foreign languages. Other acts were addressed to help: Vocational Education Act of 1963, Manpower Development, Training Act of 1963 and International Education Act of 1966.
Pledge of Allegiance
September 8, 1892 Boston-based youth magazine “The Youth's companion published a 22 word recitation for school children to use during planned activities the following month to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. Originally with the name “The Pledge to the Flag” now known as “The Pledge of Allegiance”.
Meaning:
promise your loyalty to the Flag itself
Promise your loyalty to your own and the other 49 states
Promise your loyalty to the government that unites us all
Time line
• In 1635 the first school that was established was the Boston Latin School. It was founded on April 23, 1635. IT was designed for the sons of a certain social classes. The purpose of the school was to prepare the boys for the entrance test for Harvard College.
• The Academy of Philadelphia was found for students to have a classical education. It opened its doors in January of 1751. Some of the teaching areas are writing, mathematics. Some of the mathematics course was merchant’s accounts, geometry, algebra, and surveying. They also teach Latin, Greek, English, French, and German. They also teach history, geography, logic, and rhetoric. Benjamin Franklin favored an education that stressed practical skills. The Academy of Philadelphia is known as the University of Pennsylvania
• July 3, 1839 women reported to Lexington, Massachusetts. With the hope to attending the first state founded school that specifically established for the public education. It was referred to as normal schools. They had to take an exam to get in the school. They had passed the exam and they were allowing in the school. The exam was to if they were satisfactorily versed in the subjects taught by the ordinary district school.
• James G. Carter is a member of the Massachusetts legislature that is called “Father of the American Normal School.” The normal school had attempted to provide the prospective teachers with the learning and using model classroom as a place to practice their new skills. He had influential the bill that pass for the First State Board of Education in the state of Massachusetts. Horace Mann was the first Secretary on June 29, 1837.
• Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was the one who founded the first kindergarten in American in 1859. She was publisher at a time when few women that were invovled with business. She had moved often, she opened the first school in Lancaster in 1820. She had open other schools in Boston 1822, Brookline 1825, and in Boston again in 1826. She was planning to open school for boys in Boston. The first formally organized American kindergarten was in Boston in 1860. She help found and becoe the first editor of the Kindergaten messenger. She died in the Jamaica plain in 1894. The Concords Peabody school is named for her.
Gender equality
Girls were not admitted in schools until many years after the establishment of schools and even then they were not taught the same subjects as boys. Title IX of the 1972 federal Education Amendments prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions that received federal aid.
African Americans
The earliest education given to them was by the missionaries to convert them to Christianity. In spite of individual efforts, the education of black remained very low until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Literacy rate was 5% in 1860s and rose to 40% by 1890 and 70% at 1910.
1950s segregation by race in public and private schools was still common in the U.S.
1954 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in brown V. Board of Education Of Topeka that racial Segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Important People
Horace Mann: public schools. Established the state board of education and departed from the senate to serve as the boards first secretary. Also, surveyed the condition of the states schools, established training institutes for teachers, increased the length of the school year to six months and gathered support for more funding for teacher salaries, books, and school construction. Crusader for universal education that embraced different social classes. Often argued for public education in economic terms, saying that it would increase the wealth of individuals, communities, the state and the country as a whole, while teaching respect for private property. Was known for the “Common Schools”
John Joseph Hughes: was a priest in Pennsylvania. Catholics were taught from the Protestant King James Bible, and many complained that their own religion was mocked. After initial failed attempts at finding a conciliatory solution to the problem, Hughes took the offensive in public speeches, sermons and writings during the 1840s demanding public funds for catholic schools.
Catherine Beecher: A rebellious nature that surfaced in her youth and continued through her adult years. Challenge accepted notions of femininity and the education of women in the nineteenth century. Aversion to social expectations for women in her well-heeled sphere expressed itself early in the founding of the Hartford Female Seminary. In her teachings and writings she extolled the power of women in the family by advising them to assume control over domestic affairs. Believed womans education should prepare them for roles of responsibility and that higher education for women should train them as teachers- a natural public extension of womens role in the family.
Booker T. Washington: Personal drive led him “up from slavery” to become the founder and first head of the Tuskegee Institute and a leading advocate for the educational and economic improvement of African Americans. Advocated vocational education for African Americans as a way to teach his community the manual skills that would help them work their way up the social ladder and improve their economic status. Enhanced public awareness of the educational needs of African Americans. Washingtons views were hotly contested by African American educator W.E.B. Dubois in one of the “great debates” of U.S. Educational history at the start of the twentieth centruy. Dubois held that what African Americans needed was “real education” that would teach African American children “to know, to think and to aspire.”
John Dewey: Educational theories broke new ground and continue to wield influence at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Drill and recitation methods of the nineteenth century, Deweys school and society espoused the notion that ideas should be grounded in experience. Experience and education, he argued that education should be based on the child's psychological and physical development as well as the world outside the schoolroom. Dewey's ideas to industrial and urban growth made his theories prominent in his lifetime, and the recurring notions of child-centered learning formed the basis of progressive education, enjoying continued popularity today.
Ellwood Cubberley: Applying industrial management theory to school leadership. Became superintendent of schools in San Diego a position that influenced his long career as professor and dean of the School of Education at Stanford University. Designed an administrative system for schools, led by a professional class of superintendents and principals. Became the standard in the first half of the twentieth century.
Also, controversial figure in the history of education. Criticized for his emphasis on efficiency and bureaucracy to solve complex educational problems.
Albert Shanker: head of the American Federation of Teachers. Widely known educational figure in the history of organized labor. 1959 he went to work for the Teachers' Guild as a labor organizer. 1964 he was elected president of the United Federation of Teachers and three years later led a strike that shocked New Yorkers unaccustomed to white-collar walkouts. Argued that social promotion offered no incentives for children to excel.
Linda Brown Thompson: Credited with single-handedly bringing down segregation in America. Fall 1950 the Browns and 12 Topeka families were asked by the NAACP to try and enroll their children in their neighborhood white schools, with the expectation that they would be rejected. NAACP then filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education in Topeka.
Chief Justice Earl Warren asserted that “segregated schools are not equal and cannot be made equal, and hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws”. This landmark ruling began our nations long journey toward school desegregation
Jose Angel Gutierrez: Many activists working to change public edcation on a local level in the 1960s and 70s. Sweeping changes including use of Spanish in the classroom, the hiring of many Spanish-speaking teachers and principals, the introduction of a new curriculum that stressed Latin history and achievements and bilingual education.
Deborah Meier: three decades working in public education as a teacher. Acclaimed leaders of the school reform movement in the U.S. For 20 yrs Meier helped revitalize public schools. She founded Central Park Elementary School a highly successful alternative school emphasizing active learning. Also opened two other Central Park Elementary schools and in collaboration with the National Coalition of Essential School, the Central Park East Secondary School.
E.D. Hirsch, Jr: Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Core Knowledge Foundation. Leading voice in what can best be described as the “back to basics” movement. “What your Kindergartener-Sixth Grader Needs to Know is a compendium of essential knowledge for schoolchildren.
Then and Now
Tests
teachers would measure student knowledge by conducting an oral stand up quiz at the end of the school day
Todays students take many tests from Kindergarten through the last year of high school
Slate and Slate Pencils
In early schools, each child owned a book sized writing slate encased in a wood frame. This was used for practicing script and it traveled to and from school with the student each day.
After the civil War, manufactured lead pencils similar to those used today were introduced.
School Lunch
Students brought their lunches to school in a sturdy metal bucket
Most students eat in a cafeteria that serves hot lunches
Pens, Ink, and Paper
The quill pen was used for important writing tasks or for written work that would be exhibited.
1870s mass produced paper was inexpensive enough to be used in the classroom. Students could write and keep longer pieces including stories, journals, and other sentimental or self-expressive writing.
Lighting
Little need for lightening. When needed used: oil lamps, candles, and kerosene lamps
Schools have electricity
Homework
Had very little homework because they had other responsibilities at home or on the farm.
Homework is considered a vital component of a comprehensive education and is expected of most students, even in the early grades.
Heating
Potbelly stove burned on: wood, coal, corncobs, straw and cow chips. Farmers would usually provide fuel for the stove.
Now- we have central heating and air conditioning
Furniture
Sat on three-legged stools or long benches behind narrow tables, often hand-made of pine or oak by the parents of the children.
1930, portable desks were common, and were used in much the same way as the old benches.
1960s small round tables were introduced to encouarge interactivity between children.
Discipline
Wooden canes, leather strap, and hickory switch were used to enforce discipline in the classroom.
Today- none of these are permitted
Blackboards
first blackboards was in Philadelphia in 1809. Early blackboards were made from pine lumber and covered with a mixture of egg white and carbon from charred potatoes
Replaced the blackboards
Books
first book in the classroom was the Bible.
First textbook was McGuffey Reader
Have library's
Fun Facts
*The Hughes Act of 1917 helped create vocational programs in high schools
*GI Bill of 1944 was the first important federal effort to provide financial aid for military veterans to attend college