1. EDUCATION IN AMERICA

2. AN OVERVIEW Education in America is a state responsibility
85% attend public schools
Goal: to provide quality education to more people
Private schools v. public schools

3. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM Entry level: from age 3, preschool, kindergarten
Primary school (first five years)
Middle school (6-8th grade), junior high (7-9th grade)
High school (10-12th grade)
Community College (Associate of Arts)
University (BA)
Post-graduate (MA)
PhD Doctoral programs

4. MILESTONES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Colonial period: promotion of literacy, private family based instruction, enabling people to read the Bible, Old Deluder Laws
1787: Northwest Ordinance, beginning of public education, setting aside 1% of the income of a given district for school purposes
1830s: Horace Mann, father of the American public education system
Purpose of education: promote freedom, republican citizenship, social harmony, democracy

5. MILESTONES IN THE DEVELOMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
1954: Brown v. Board of Education
1957: The launching of Sputnick-Russians take the lead in space race
1983: Nation at Risk
A report prepared by the National Commission on Excellence in Education:
A rising tide of mediocrity
Functional illiteracy
High drop out rates
Low reading, writing, and math skills

6. A NATION AT RISK Recommendations: - stronger academic curricula
-stricter academic standards
-heavier homework load, higher grading standards
-higher salaries to attract well-qualified teachers

7. NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Signed into law by G. W. Bush in 2002
Re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Increased the federal role in education
Addressed the needs of disadvantaged students
Main components: annual testing, schools had to meet adequate yearly progress indicators,
Only highly qualified teachers can teach
School districts with high concentration of poor children would get more funding

8. CHANGING EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES
1940s: Why Johnny can’t read?
Two main educational approaches: progressives and traditionalists
1940s: life adjustment education: basic principle, utility (substituting radio repair for physics, business English for literature, consumer arithmetic for algebra)
1949: how to courses, socio-personal adjustment promote conformity and are anti-intellectual

9. CHANGING EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES
1950s, 1960s: promotion of excellence
Main educational goals: identification of talent, pursuit of excellence
Social traumas and crises of the 1960s weaken this goal
Late 1960s, early 1970s: Open Education Movement: promotion of participatory democracy, nonassertive leadership,equal sharing of power between the student and the teacher
Late 1970s: the Open Education Movement is heavily criticized

10. EDUCATION FOR THE 21st CENTURY
A new macroenvironment:
Fundamental change in economy, jobs, and businesses: change from industrial to information age
Demands for new, and different skills: ICT, language proficiency
Achievement gaps as compared to the world
In problem solving US is 29th out of 40 countries on PISA tests
Main task: to promote critical thinking, cognitive skills, creativity, cross-cultural collaboration (geography, language boundaries) entrepreneurial skills, creativity

11. A LOOK AT HIGHER EDUCATION
Colonial period: Harvard College (1636)
Ivy League v. Mass education
U of or State U systems University of California Los Angeles, California State University of Los Angeles
1946 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, GI Bill
Today over 3000 colleges and universities

12. A LOOK AT HIGHER EDUCATION
1960s-1980s: major investment in education
2009: 70% of high school graduates enroll in such higher education institutions
Increasing number of minorities, low income, non-traditional students
Challenging the value of a college degree: Richard Freeman: The Overeducated American (1976)
The expansion of distance education, use of ICT

13. IMAGES OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL
1955: Blackboard Jungle-Richard Brooks
1985: The Breakfast Club-John Hughes