What are the various expectations Americans hold for their schools?Since their inception, public schools have tried to meet many divergent needs. Parents, teachers, and students alike expect schools to meet academic, vocational, social, civic, and personal goals. The particulars of these goals are debated constantly, often resulting in bitter disputes. Perhaps nowhere else in our country do personal and societal values conflict so much as when communities examine their schools. People have a myriad of expectations for schools. These include, among others, protecting the national economy and defense, unifying a multicultural society, preparing students for the world of work, improving academic competence, encouraging tolerance for diversity, and providing social and economic mobility. Should schools transmit the American culture or change it?Two fundamental, often opposing, purposes of schools, are (1) to transmit society's knowledge and values, passing on the cultural baton, and (2) to reconstruct society, empowering students to engineer social change as adults--and, sometimes, as students. By choosing what to teach, and what to omit, schools continually make decisions as to what is most worth learning. Over the years, a fairly traditional, Eurocentric cultural legacy has underpinned the school's curriculum and is the focus of the current emphasis on standards and tests. The school goal of reconstructing society envisions a closer connection with the community. From service learning to eliminating economic exploitation, reconstructionists enlist teachers and students in an effort to create a more just society. What school purposes are emphasized by educational reform?While schools have often been the focal point of contention, the 1983 report A Nation at Risk triggered a renewed interest in the quality of public schooling. In response to declining test scores and poor student achievement, measured by worldwide standards, the report called for many back-to-basics measures. After A Nation at Risk, a deluge of state and foundation reports and recommendations ensued, mostly supporting tighter regulation of schools. These"top-down" reports--the"first wave"--emphasized using schools as tools to transmit rather than reconstruct the culture, and advocated a"back-to-basics" education. A second wave of reports, by Sizer, Goodlad, Boyer, and others, focused on strategies to strengthen the teaching profession and restructure education. These reports and books emerged from lengthy observations and research, and they called for empowering educators at the school level, a bottom-up change. The third wave of reform reports viewed the school as a comprehensive institution providing social, medical, and other services to children. Education would be linked to a broader array of student needs, and the child would be the focus of reform. Of all three waves, the first continues to be the strongest. The current emphasis on tests and standards continues the effort at making schools more accountable for basic skills acquisition, goals similar to those cited in A Nation at Risk. How are magnet and charter schools, open enrollment, and vouchers reshaping our concept of the neighborhood public school?Conservative economist Milton Friedman believed that competition in American schools would improve them. His idea was to apply the free-market economy to education, with the belief that only the best schools will survive the competition. Friedman's original plan included vouchers, which could be used like a ticket for parents to choose a school, rather than send children automatically to the neighborhood school. But using vouchers for private religious schools continues to raise legal challenges about the separation of church and state. Open enrollments permit students to attend any public school that has room for them, even if the school is not in their neighborhood. Magnet schools are public schools that focus on a special study area, from musical talents to gifted education. Many magnets were formed initially to promote desegregation. The charter school movement started in 1991 in Minnesota, and has grown rapidly.By taking out charters (contracts with school boards), new schools are granted a great degree of latitude in what they teach and how they teach it. Will the business community's for-profit approach to education create more efficient schools?The creation of for-profit education companies has dramatically altered the educational landscape. Companies such as Edison Schools, Advantage, Sylvan Learning, and Tesseract are being funded by private investors to educate students more effectively and efficiently than private schools, and to turn a profit in the process. With over $300 billion invested in public education, these for-profit companies, also called Educational Maintenance Organizations (EMOs), believe that there is a fortune to be made in education. While supporters believe that business efficiency will help schools run smoother, others believe that business will have a negative impact on schools, and that when profits and the needs of children are in conflict, students lose out. The charter school movement has given these entrepreneurs a vehicle for combining business and education. Is school choice a good idea?Underlying many of these plans, from charter schools to vouchers, is the idea that school choice and competition will lead the nation down the road to better schools. Supporters of choice believe that true reform can occur only at the local, school-district level. Advocates believe that choice will break the public school"monopoly" on education, and create more efficient and effective schools. Poor parents will have educational options, as rich ones now enjoy, and incompetent teachers will be removed, rather than protected by tenure. But many parents and educators have reservations about these specific options and choice plans in general. They worry about issues ranging from the loss of a teacher's academic freedom to poor business practices such as false advertising. They also lament the segregation of students into highly focused niche schools. Why are so many families choosing home schooling?While home schooling is far from a new phenomenon, the number of parents educating their children at home has grown dramatically in recent years. Many home-schooling parents do it for religious reasons, (they have been called ideologues), while others choose home schooling because they are disappointed with the nature or quality of the school program. (This group has been called pedagogues.) Home-schooled children generally outperform students in public schools. Technological advances, including the use of the Internet, have opened the possibility of converting education into a"cottage enterprise." |