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Fall Before Racing to the Top!
July 24th, 2010 by admin
As education officials confirmed the obvious degradation of state education standards in the US and as more concerns are voiced regarding the government-wooed raise of academic bar, ProfEssays.com shares its own views on the problem and ways to its possible solution.
Excursus in Historia.
No one would doubt that education level and academic demands were incomparably higher about a century ago than they are now. This is not to do with the typical senile lamenting that the grass was greener and the beer was cheaper far long ago, but it’s quite the fact supported by historical data. In the last decade of 1800s, for instance, only one student in 10 attended high school (though the figure was higher in New England), so education was accessible to only the best and the brightest (and the richest to certain extent).
Yet, starting from 1920s the education standards engaged into what seems now an incessant fall. What was the main reason of it? The answer is simple: centralization. Years of centralization of authority, district consolidations, the rise of state education bureaucracies and federal intrusions into the study process have led education standards into what they are now. So, will the pretty words and money incentives of government officials really improve or only worsen the situation?
Barely two months after the governors and state school principals released their final recommendations for national education standards (dealing with English and math), 27 states have already adopted them and about a dozen more are going to do so in the next two weeks.
It was a bit of a sudden, but expected in some way. Their support has surprised many, including the author, given the long-standing tradition of states’ relative educational isolation. The tradition is apparently coming to an end, though, especially given the recent Obama’s Administration Race to the Top Program. It stipulates that states adopting the standards by Aug. 2 would win points in the competition for a share of the $3.4 billion to be awarded in September. Well, what won’t you do for money, as they say?
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