Education reform

Once upon a time…in a land far, far away, education reform began

Sheelagh Lucas SPED 232

Let us begin in an era of great reform… the Civil Rights Era

"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available on equal terms."- Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

A Historic Moment in History….

Brown v. Board of Education was actually a consolidation of cases from five jurisdictions:Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas) Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina) Bulah v. Gebhart and Belton v. Gebhart (Delaware) Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia) Bolling v. Sharpe (District of Columbia) The cases were combined because they all sought desegregation of schools as the remedy for grossly inadequate conditions in segregated black schools.The Supreme Court's Brown decision was particularly important because it was not based on the gross inequalities in facilities and other tangible factors that characterized previous desegregation cases. In Brown, the Court dealt directly with segregation and ruled that even if tangible factors like facilities, teachers and supplies were equal, separation itself was inherently unequal and a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. With Brown, the Court effectively overturned the infamous 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson which had permitted racial segregation under the guise of "separate but equal."

http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/

A landmark change in how education reform began….

Brown versus the Board of Education changed the landscape of education reform forever in this country. We no longer looked at schools with students…we looked at students in the schools.

As individuals, student’s rights became part of the education landscape

Student’s rights became a priority in the classroom… a view never before upheld in

public education.

Laws upholding the rights of the individual and their rights in school became the trend in schools. Parents and children were granted rights and fought for more than they had ever in the past.

The Freedom of Speech!

John and Mary Beth Tinker of Des Moines, Iowa, wore black armbands to their public school as a symbol of protest against American involvement in the Vietnam War. When school authorities asked that the Tinkers remove their armbands, they refused and were subsequently suspended. The Supreme Court decided that the Tinkers had the right to wear the armbands, with Justice Abe Fortas stating that no one expects students to “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Tinker vs. Des Moines

Reform in Education-Laws to protect the student as an individual

Segregation was banned

Prayer in school was banned

Compulsory Bussing to end segregation began

Special Education Reform

In the 1960s, advocates sought a Federal role in providing leadership and funding for efforts to provide a free appropriate public education, or FAPE, to children with disabilities. Congress took a step toward this in 1966 when it established the Bureau for Education of the Handicapped under Title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act (ESEA). Subsequently, a number of initiatives earmarked small amounts of Federal funds for serving children with disabilities

“That we have compromised this commitment is, upon reflection, hardly surprising, given the multitude of often conflicting demands we have placed on our Nation's schools and colleges. They are routinely called on to provide solutions to personal, social, and political problems that the home and other institutions either will not or cannot resolve. We must understand that these demands on our schools and colleges often exact an educational cost as well as a financial one.”

A NATION AT RISK, President Ronald Regan’s 1983 Education Reform Plan

Then the focus shifted… our Individual Student’s Rights Must NOT be Compromised by substandard Schools

The commission found few signs of encouragement about the American education system. Test scores were rapidly declining, low teaching salaries and poor teacher training programs were leading to a high turnover rate among educators, and other industrialized countries were threatening to outpace America’s technological superiority. The report provided mounds of statistical evidence —23 million American adults were functionally illiterate; the average achievement for high school students on standardized tests was lower than before the launch of Sputnik in 1957; and only one-fifth of 17-year old students had the ability to write a persuasive essay. Almost immediately, A Nation at Risk garnered massive media attention

What did it all mean? We were mobilized into action! School Reform was the headline in communities across the

nation. But despite this, major changes were not yet adopted.

Despite the initial fervor around A Nation at Risk, the report didn’t lead to many far-reaching changes. Many of the problems identified in 1983 remain unaddressed, and stagnant student achievement continues to challenge educators and administrators

All states have adopted academic standards, and forty-five states including the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Agency have all embraced the Common Core State Standards to ensure that students have the necessary knowledge and skills for success in college and careers.

Now we are ready to make changes!1990s & 2000s

In the 1990s, schools began adopting common standards

Teachers began having more rigorous training and expectations for education

Standardized testing became stronger and more common

Parents began to have a stronger voice in education

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed “The Goals 2000: Educate American Act” into law. Seen as the predecessor to the No Child Left Behind Act, this law created clear expectations for the future.

By the Year 2000...•All children in America will start school ready to learn. •The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent. •All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, the arts, history, and geography, and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our nation's modern economy. •United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. •Every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. •Every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning. •The nation's teaching force will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all American students for the next century. •Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children.

The Goals for Success were Lofty Ones….

But the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001, voided the Goals 2000 bill.

The Four Principles of No Child Left Behind

•Stronger accountability for results; •increased flexibility and local control; •Expanded options for parents• an emphasis on teaching qualifications and methods. Of these four, accountability for results is the principle that has the potential to greatly improve the educational results for children with LD

Critics have struggled with the No Child Left Behind Act. They claim it is over-reaching and impossible to achieve. It places emphasis back on the tests, and away from the individual.

Schools must follow mandates or they risk funding cuts

Smaller budgets create more difficult learning environments, so schools have begun “Teaching to the Test” in an effort to raise testing scores

Parents and teachers complain of lack of flexibility, autonomy, and ability to teach in their classrooms.

Meanwhile in Special Education

Although provisions have been added or amended in order to expand the provision of services to younger groups of children with disabilities, or to improve the quality of the services provided under the law, the four purposes of IDEA have remained essentially the same: to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their particular needs; to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents or guardians are protected; to assist States and localities to provide for the education of all children with disabilities; and to assess and ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities

Special Education has continued to expand their laws to include issues and problems that may have excluded children with disabilities

Laws continue to strengthen to protect the individual student and their disabilities.

Differentiation in the classroom is hard to come by… children with disabilities are receiving more individualized education than ever before

Laws that protect children with disabilities help create an atmosphere of support and educational aid in the classroom.

In crowded classes of 30+ students, individual attention is hard to come by. Special Education helps those students.

A More Comprehensive List of Education Laws & Reforms are available at http://

www2.ed.gov/policy/landing.jhtml?src=pn

New Problems Arise… Overcrowding & Student/Teacher Responsibility for

Achievement Are an On-Going Issue

Among them is a movement that Standardized Testing is not the Best Measure of Student Knowledge and Success

Students learn in different ways. The are able to express themselves in different ways… a one size fits all education is not what is best for everyone. Parents are finding themselves in a strange situation. Traditional school no longer fitting them due to the standardized tests that should dhow exactly how much a student is learning.

To top it off… Funding is down and expectations are UP! A difficult and sometimes impossible situation

 Most states have largely stagnant or declining funding levels, and vast disparities among states remain. In fourteen states, funding levels in 2011 were below 2007 levels, even without adjusting for inflation. There is over a $10,000 gap between the highest funded state (Wyoming) and the lowest (Idaho).

Most states experienced a decrease in overall revenue resulting in a declining financial base from which to fund schools; most states also further reduced effort by lowering the share of economic productivity dedicated to education

Time for something new! Parents are opting OUT of public school for non-traditional routes.

Homeschooling is becoming a popular option for parents. The National Center for Education Statistics shows this is a growing trend.

This report was first conducted in 1999, when the NCES found that approximately 850,000 students were homeschooled. In 2003, NCES found that this number had grown to 1.1 million. And in 2007, NCES found that 1.5 million students were homeschooled.

The new report concludes that approximately 1,770,000 students are homeschooled in the United States—3.4% of the school-age population.

Other Options…

Charter SchoolsPrivate SchoolsOpting into other school districts.

And a more recent Development…Digital Education!

Online Education is a growing trend. Groups like K-12 Grow, The Connections Academy, and Khan Academy are bringing technology and learning together. Parents are making the choice to go with free, online schooling, sometimes over public schooling.

There are drawbacks, similar to homeschooling there are certain aspects traditionally associated with education that are missing. Social development, individual problem solving, social skill building, physical education, arts exploration that are missing

http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/cases/tinker_v_des_moines#Tab=Overview http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/faq/spedhist.htmlhttp://neatoday.org/2013/04/25/a-nation-at-risk-turns-30-where-did-it-take-us/ http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2013/201309030.asphttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/05/americas-school-funding-problems-state-by-state/ References