America. The land of the free and the home of the brave. 238 years ago our founding fathers fought for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Going against the mighty goliath of the British army, the odds were against them. However, through mettle and determination they gained independence and created a new nation, which would strive to provide equal opportunity to all of its citizens. Today, millions of Americans believe that anyone can make it big and all it takes is a little elbow grease, just like the colonist in 1776. Classic rags to riches stories such as that of Andrew Jackson have solidified this belief in our minds, the belief that anyone can achieve the American dream through hard work and perseverance. But by what means is a person supposed to get ahead in today’s world? The answer that comes readily to most people’s minds is education. Education, known as the great equalizer, gives all children an opportunity to climb the social ladder, doesn’t it? You may be thinking to yourself, “of course that’s right, if someone studies hard and puts their mind toward something, anything is possible”. In our lives, this is true. All of us in this classroom have been blessed with the opportunity of a top class education, and a system that if we work hard in we will reap the benefits from. We’re the lucky ones. There are millions of children in this country who are not as fortunate as we have been and who see the shortcomings of America’s educational system everyday they go to school. According to U.S. news, only a third of high school seniors are academically prepared for college coursework. The failure of our education system as a whole can be seen in the achievement gap, which shows that the average 12th grade African-American student places in only the 19th percentile for reading and math, only slightly improving since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when the average African American placed in the 13th percentile. Black children are 20 percent less likely to graduate high school when living in an impoverished neighborhood as well. The country that claims to be the land of equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, and religion is not walking the walk when it comes to education. Poverty and race both clearly impact the type of education that a child receives. In addition, the country is failing at education as a whole, which is shown in the image behind me, displaying that we have fallen behind other developed countries in math. This begs the question, what are we doing wrong, and how do we fix it? Evidence suggests that the education system is being run for the benefit of the adults rather than preparing children for the future, which must change. In order to revamp public schools, they must learn from successful charter schools and implement similar methods in their own institutions.
As we all know the primary goal of school is to prepare our children for what lies ahead. However the system as it currently stands benefits the adults more than it does the children. A prime example of this is tenure. According to The Atlantic, a teacher receives tenure after teaching 3 years. After this, firing a teacher for poor performance becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible. This rule of tenure shows how public education is more concerned with the benefits of its teachers rather than the benefits of its students. Teachers are some of the most valuable members of our societies, especially the exceptional ones. Barack Obama once said, “The single most important factor in determining achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from. It’s not who their parents are or how much money they have. It’s who their teacher is.” We have been blessed with exceptional teachers who put us into positions to succeed, but a teacher who is indifferent to the success of a student is detrimental to their development. This poor quality of education is seen most in poverty stricken areas, accounting for the achievement gap previously mentioned (National Education Association). The United States should embrace a system in which teachers who are doing an exceptional job are rewarded. Instead of this, teachers are rewarded for the amount of years they’ve been teaching, not for the quality of their job. A change to a merit based system would increase the incentive for talented teachers to stay on at public schools and not move on to private institutions.
How do we know what the results would be if we revamped our public education system? All we need to do is look at the success of several charter schools in the U.S. and model their behavior. In the documentary, “Waiting For Superman”, educators such as Geoffrey Canada are profiled, and it documents the failures of American education and how charter schools such as those created by him are getting it right. Charter schools are public schools that are given greater autonomy in their curriculum, and generally serve impoverished and minority children. In another article from the U.S. News, it states that despite being only 7 percent of public schools in the country they account for a third of the top 100 high schools in the nation. Schools such as those created by Geoffrey Canada and KIPP, which is the nation's largest charter school network, gives greater opportunity to those children that the achievement gap effects the most. In his book Work Hard Be Nice, Jay Matthews discusses the dedication and energy of the teachers at KIPP and how that is the reason these charters are succeeding in their goal of preparing children for college. This further proves that education starts with our teachers, and that if put in the right system a minority child can succeed.
Charter schools are not the perfect solution to the problem of education. Some are not as diverse as they claim, and they are also fiscally inefficient. However schools such as those created by Geoffrey Canada and the KIPP schools are proof that we can give a quality education to an African-American child living in poverty. They are proof that with energetic and dedicated teachers, performances will increase. Other public schools need to recognize the success of such schools, and try to implement a similar approach. Our government must take note of what these schools are doing right and attempt to make changes accordingly. We must reward these teachers, which will encourage them to stay on at struggling schools and help better them. This type of change will help decrease the achievement gap that our country is so heavily affected by, and finally make America the land of opportunity it has always claimed to be.
Works Cited
Mathews, Jay. Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2009. Print.
Waiting for "Superman" Dir. Philip Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Geoffrey Canada. Paramount Vintage, 2010. DVD.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. USA Ranks 27th in Math. Digital image. Students First. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2016.
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