Summer Economics/ CS 2006

National Public Primary Education:History
In the United States, public school education is primarily the responsibility of each individual state. The state delegates the task of day-to-day operations to school districts at the local level.¹ In addition, the state establishes colleges, develops criteria, and determines requirements for enrollment and graduation.² Basically, the national public school education system is powered by the states.
This educational system can be traced all the way back to the foundation of the country. After the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson proposed that Americans give a high priority to a "crusade against ignorance".³ Jefferson was also the first to propose a system of free schools for all persons that would be publicly supported by taxes, which basically means that he was the first to propose a school system.³ Then in 1785, the Land Ordinance of 1785 came about. This established a mechanism for funding public education in the United States. Then after a somewhat long recession of education, the Department of Education was founded in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching that would help the states establish effective school systems.² The foundation of the Department of Education was the start of what would eventually become modern education. However, even though the Department of Education was founded in 1867, the first public school was actually founded in 1821 in Boston.[4]
The 19th century turned out to be a rather big century for education. The two major changes that came about were kindergarten and teacher training programs. In 1839, Horace Mann began the nation's first teacher-training school in Massachusetts.[4] This was obviously to ensure that teachers would be qualified to teach the youth, foreshadowing what would become a big part of modern education (the qualification of teachers in the classroom) And in 1873, the nation's first kindergarten opened in St. Louis, paving the way for the future.[4] In addition to kindergarten and teacher-training, some minor changes also came about around this time. For example, the Morrill Act of 1890, withheld grants from states that deny admission to schools based on race.[4]
The 20th century was also a big one for education. For example, World War II led to an expansion of federal support for education. The Lahman Act of 1941 and the Impact Aid laws of 1950, eased the burden on communities affected by the presence of military by making payments to school districts, which in turn, would enhance the districts.² In addition, the GI Bill sent many World War II veterans to college, highlighting the importance of higher education.¹ The Cold War also helped to bring about huge change in education. Because the United States was competing with the Soviet Union at this time, the government wanted to make sure that the most qualified people would be there to help the United States. Therefore, the government gave loans to college students and helped to improve science and mathematics.² Needless to say, the Cold War played a big role in the escalation of education.
It was something different, however, that changed the face of education forever: the civil rights movement. In 1954, the famous Brown vs Board of Education case led to the desegregation of schools, which was huge.¹ The desegregation of schools meant that African Americans no longer had to go segregated schools, which were often times, not as good as White schools. Furthermore, it helped ensure that everyone got an equal education. In addition to the case, the passing of laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Ammendments of 1972 further helped to ensure that everyone got equal education. [4]
The most recent act toward education was the No Child Left Behind Act, which wants to establish high standards and accountability for the learning of all children regardless of their background or ability.[5] This is a very large act, which discusses many different ways to enhance the learning of children.
The issue of public primary education in the United States has been a big one. It has gotten to its current situation through years of evolution. The modern education system shows many similarities to the system that was founded back in the 19th century. But many things have been learned over the years to bring educaiton to where it is today. Much emphasis has been put on education mainly because people realize that it is the youth which is the major factor. Educating the youth for the future is the major factor that contributes to the support of the educational system.
¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_education
²http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html
³http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761571494
[4]http://familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-4485,00.html
[5]http://www.nea.org/esea/index.html
By Cody Noyama

Current Situation of Public Primary Schooling in America
The current situation surrounding adequate education in public schools in America is shocking. The future is not looking bright for public education as schools around the nation face quality teacher shortages, controversial standardized testing and regulations, and lack of funding.
The Bush administration has tried to bridge the learning gap by implementing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) but has only seemed to cause anger among teachers, and disappointment in parents. Several teacher's unions like the American Federation of Teachers have fought against NCLB since the beginning, saying it has standards that are sometimes unobtainable in the classroom. NCLB has also caused rifts between parents and teachers in schools where students are underperforming. Parents especially in urban based schools where scores are dismal often blame the teachers for not preparing their students well. Teachers counter back however with the argument that its actually the student's home environment that has more of an impact on the child's development, scores, and education. ¹
The goal of NCLB is to basically ensure schools are proficient according to state created standards, and experience yearly growth. Schools who do not meet regulations for two consecutive years will be titled "in need of improvement" and must lose that title the following year or possibly face reconstruction including the firing of current staff, creation of a new curriculum, or an increase in day length. These new standards put an overwhelming amount of pressure on schools, teachers, and faculty to bring their students up to par. ¹
The NCLB also specifies schools must only have "highly qualified teachers". Teachers basically must have at least a bachelor's degree and pass tests that demonstrate their abilities in the subject they will teach. These regulations have also caused some distress to teachers specializing in special ed and teach in rural areas and must teach several subjects and grades at a time.
Some feel the government's attempt at intervening on the educational level by implicating tests to measure students proficiency is biased towards certain races. Here is an example of a question from the practice test:
"Most young tennis stars learn the game from coaches at private clubs. In this sentence, a club is probably a ...
F baseball bat
G tennis racquet
H tennis court
J country club" ²

The author of the article featuring this sample question Greg Palast, argued that students in rural and urban neighborhoods wouldn’t know the answer to this question if they’ve never been to a country club which would be more familiar to caucasians. Palast also said these tests labeled the students who didn’t receive proficeint scores as failures and only caused them to be embarassed if held back due to low scoring.
Overall the NCLB has a good and bad side on every issue. For instance, Good: it increases the quality of education by raising the standards in public schools. Bad: schools, states, and teachers get punished for poor results causing them to set the bar low and selectively choose only the brightest students to take proficiency tests. Either way, the government's intervention implementing the NCLB has caused a lot of controversy in the public school system.
Public schools across America are also facing a critical teacher shortage. Many teachers feel strained when working with students that are unmotivated or if they don’t have the correct materials to teach. They also feel pressure from the standardized proficiency testing to get high scores, and if their students don’t, they face the possibility of being released from their job or more government intervention in their curriculum. Not to mention, although the teacher’s salary is increasing, it still begins at extremely low levels; the average teacher’s salary begins in the thirty thousands. This combination of low salaries, lack of supplies and facilities, student discipline issues, and inadequate support from adminstrators and parents contribute to the growing teacher shortage in the public school system. &sup4
A reason for low teacher salaries and poor facilities and supplies is due to lack of federal funding. The Washington Post released an article describing the budget plan Mr. Bush announced for America’s 2.77 trillion dollar budget. Not surprising, the Departemtn of Defense received a huge sum of $440 billion to help with army expansion and other fight on terrorist productions, but the NCLB got only $200 million set aside for it. &sup5 Democrats say that amount is insufficient to keep the program rolling in states. There also was no increase in funding for Title 1 which helps gives funding for poverty aid in schools.
Statistics have shown that African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians are a lot more likely to attend high-poverty public schools than White or Asian/Pacific Islanders are. ³ Even so, if the degrading conditions in public schools don't step up everyone in America will be affected. Just like in the local spectrum, all students in the public school system are being hurt by poor education quality, but in the long run, if the newest generations aren't given strong educational foundation and basic skills, when America is handed over to them for leadership, all generations future, present, and past will feel the impact of a poor education.

¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act
²http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=476&row=1
³http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2006/section1/indicator06.asp
&sup4http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind04/c1/c1s6.htm
&sup5http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/budget07/agencies.html
By Melissa Wong

What should be done for Public Primary Education
From birth to age five, this is the most important time for a child’s learning period. Without the proper education from qualified teachers and adequate facilities, a child’s education could seriously be corrupted. Education in the primary stages is very important for a child because it is during these times that children retain most of their knowledge. A child will learn how to play with other children nicely, or gain the basic reading skills for future purposes. However, it seems as though our country is not doing enough for these children, as our public primary education system seems to be declining, even though measures are being taken to prevent this from happening.
If our country had unlimited funds and could do whatever they could to help with public primary education, the number one request would be to find highly qualified teachers. According to the “No Child Left Behind Act”, from 05’-06’, teachers must be educated in public education and “‘highly qualified’ in each subject he or she teaches.” Other requirements include completion of two years of college, received an associate’s degree, or “passed an evaluation to demonstrate knowledge and teaching ability.” [1]
Without adequate teachers, children will not receive the full education they deserve and will be behind other students who have received it. Government should create programs to further educate future teachers and make sure that they understand the importance of their influence on these children. Potential teachers should become teacher assistances for a year to make sure they know the importance of teaching primary students. Teachers are the foundation for students; children look up to teachers as role models, and if they aren’t playing up to their potential, then the student will also not reach their potential.
Another issue primary education should resolve is adequate facilities. Nationally, facilities have always differed for states because public and private education will always be different. Government should make sure public education is close or up to par with private institutions; this way all children are getting equal education. It is unfair to deprive a child of adequate facilities, especially when primary education is especially important to a person.
Education in general is supposed to help children achieve literacy, numbers, as well as a general concept of history, science, etc. [2] However, it would almost be impossible to a child to learn if they don’t even understand the language in which it is taught. Students with English as a Second Language have a hard time understanding because they are unfamiliar to our language. Therefore, it should be proposed that government supply schools with special ESL teachers or create classes for ESL students to be in. That way they learn English on the side as well as understand the lessons taught in class.
According to a 2000 survey conducted by the National Institute for Literacy, 10% of the 28.4 million foreign-born people were under the age of 18. 12.5% of the foreign-born people are ages 5-17, and of that group 13.6% spoke little or none of English. The Asian statistics ages 5-17 are about the same as the Spanish ones.
Another survey in 2000 stated that Limited English Proficient Students made up 7.8% of the total public school enrollment in 98’-99’. Of these 7.8%, 78% were Spanish speakers, 2.7% Vietnamese, and the rest are either some kind of Asian or European language. Many people after the age of 18 have taken the ESL course; however, the primary years are the most beneficial to a person in the future. This is why ESL programs generated for younger children are essential for a child’s education. Without learning the primary language spoken in America, how do we expect these children to succeed in life, or get the skilled jobs they deserve? [3]
Finally, the government should issue yearly or half a year tests to see where the child stands. With the No Child Left Behind Act, students in grades 3-8 are required to take annual reading and math tests. And by 07’-08’ they will start to issue tests on science. [4] However, these tests are sometimes unfair to children who are ESL or even children in poverty stricken areas. These NCLB tests don’t fully measure a child’s learning curve; therefore, statistics are usually incorrect and don’t take into consideration those issues. Government should issue tests in different languages or even have translators help with testing. It may sound tedious and may give a disadvantage to children who can understand English because of this special attention, but these children are probably very intelligent and need to be given the attention necessary for their education.
Resources:
[1] http://nieer.org/resources/research/EffectsPreK.pdf
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_education
[3] http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/esl.html
[4] http://nieer.org/resources/research/EffectsPreK.pdf
By Ellise Uyema

What should we do for National Public Primary Education
Universal public primary education would be a good start to realistic goals in America. If we had universal education in America, we could make sure that all students are receiving the quality education they deserve, despite class issues. With the No Child Left Behind Act, universal education can be possible in the near future. It is said that children who have done some form of public primary education have shown positive effects in the higher grades. [1]
However, with the NCLB act, it doesn’t benefit the students who don’t speak or understand English. Especially in areas such as California and Florida, many native-Spanish speaking people send their children to public schools. However, these schools don’t benefit the students because they are put into a frightening situation where English is totally new to them. Without some knowledge of English prior to entering the school, these students are immediately disadvantaged. And with the NCLB act, their tests are administered in English, so the statistics are actually flawed.
In order to help out ESL children, government should put special educators, or even translators in the classrooms to help assist these children. That way, their education can be correctly measured with the English-speaking students. Also, instead of the NCLB test given only in English every year, they should create tests for multi-languages so that everyone is on the same playing field. [2]
Another idea would be to put future primary educators through a special training, dealing with not just the academic side, but also child psychology, because it is important for adults to know just how a child’s brain functions. By taking these courses, teachers will have some kind of common ground with their students so that they can hopefully educate their students better.
Finally, teachers should be required to issue a progress report to the parents every quarter or so, to make sure that the parents are involved in their child’s education. Parents are a big part of a child’s education process because they are the supporters, and children rely on a parent’s approval for many things, including education. With these report cards, parents can assess it, and if their child is having problems, they can find ways to help the situation and hopefully improve their child’s skills.

[1] nieer.org/resources/research/EffectsPreK.pdf
[2] http://www.nea.org/esea/eseatesting.html

By Uihan Kim