U.S. Educational Problems
U.S. School started with private schools for the well-to-do in the 1600's. With the industrial revolution public schools were started in the late1800’s. We forget that 95% of people lived on farms - agrarian society without telephones or cars.
Our methods were selected before cars and telephones when a teacher talking directly to student was the only choice. This is still the same method used today. School ended in early afternoon and did not run in the summer because children were needed to work on the farms. The family farm was the large majority of businesses and children were the primary labor force. Schools were designed these key economic factors. 120 years later, the education system has not changed even though only 2% of Americans live on farms today. Our lives and economies have changed but our educational systems have not!
Curriculum was also selected at an educational conference at Harvard University in the 1890's. All 50 states still follow this basic curriculum today. Business, engineering, science and math were all intentionally short changed at the time. Why? Because American family farms were the world leaders in the use of advanced technology, engineering and science - even genetics. Leading technologies were tractors (no cars yet), harvesting machines, and breeding animals and cross pollinating plants. Even the use of fertilizers was advanced chemistry for the time.
Schools were set up as corporations with school choice and competitive funding. This system worked, and in-spite of little change in methods and curriculum, the US system was still number 1 or 2 until about 1970.
In the 1970, certain special interests intentionally broke the system. The U.S.educational system started failing and the economy started to decline. We are suffering these effect today with the current recession being but one symptom.
Key Problems:
- Center for Public Education - Nearly 30% of 1st YR college students must take remedial classes
- American ranks 28th out of 40 in math
- NPR - 65% of schools with drug problems
- High performing schools cost $13,000 to $22,000 tuition per year
- Hoover’s Digest - in current AP courses only 15% are mastering the material (Private schools are passing at 95% so the public schools that claim to have "AP" are..... well the kids are passing at less than a 10% rate - again claiming to succeed while failing - WORSE THE PARENTS DO NOT KNOW!
Selected articles and key points:
- Dallas Morning News Neighbors Go section 5/3/08 & Allen American 4/24/08 and other newspaper front-page articles – Yorktown is a quality school program with a difference.
- New York Times - 4/25/08 - “A Nation at a loss” – America is falling behind.
- Washington Post - 4/12/08 - “VA College Applicants Face Extra Hurdle” – college is hyper competitive and top graduates of public schools may not get into 2nd tier colleges.
- Dallas Morning News - 4/7/08 - “81% of U of Texas system reserved for 10% rule” – Texas high school students have trouble getting into the Texas state system.
- 69% of traditional spending in K-12 schools goes to overhead, not a learning purpose like a teacher’s salary, books, and curriculum or lesson development.
- National Public Radio – 65% of schools have drug problems, including upscale suburban.
- U.S. Department of Education states that private schools have grown to 12% of K-12 students – parents who know education put their children into private schools.
- Wall Street Journal - 11/30/07 - “How to Get Into Harvard” - private school students get into elite schools, even “top” public school kids rarely make it anymore.
- Wall Street Journal - 2/29/08 - “What makes Finnish kids so smart?” The world’s leading education system does things like Yorktown Education, unlike the US system.