The documentary relates to the United States in the way of that the public school system is broken. Government and political officials have repeatedly promised to correct the public school system and have failed to deliver. Programs such as the no child left behind act and standardized tests have been created to correct this system. But these programs and tests actually hurt this system since they are based on a narrow curriculum not measuring an individual student 's skills and talents. Other issues which are mentioned in the documentary and affect our country are teachers unions and tenure. Teachers unions refuse to reward good teachers who actually aid our nation 's students so they are able to succeed. The tenure system legislated by the American Association of University Professors in 1900, keeps teachers who hinder the education and performance of students from being fired. Which leaves students to fail and these teachers with no repercussions. Such as in New York, between 2006 and 2011 only 32 out of 132,000 teachers were fired for any reason. …show more content…
This data along with data from other cities such as Chicago where only 0.1% of teachers between 2005 and 2008 were dismissed for performance-related circumstances, proves that in the united stated the public school system is broken and in need of help as stated in “Waiting for
A deciding factor in my decision to sign a contract with Chesapeake Public School’s was their compensation package. Chesapeake offered $5,000 more annually for employment and their health insurance offerings exceeded that of the local school district. Competitively, Greensboro City Schools struggles, relatively speaking, to draw highly qualified candidates during a time when there was a shortage of qualified teaching candidates being produced in universities. While I am
This brings up plenty of problems, especially when there is only one opinion going into making crucial decisions. One of the decisions the government decided to make is to not pay outrageous salaries anymore (O’Connor). The problem with this is that teachers make nothing near outrageous salaries. By cutting salaries of teachers and people above them, there will be less incentive to work. Not only do they not get paid nearly enough for what they do, but they have to buy their own classroom supplies as well.
In Chris Sweda’s article,”As CPS schools empty: Mayor Emanuel, don’t let this crisis go to waste”, he informs the audience how CPS schools are actually still in debt. Sweda validates how elementary schools are closing left and right in the chicago areas and that's including the school system being still in debt with teachers pensions. Mayor Rahm Emanuel doesn't want to mislead teachers, union leaders, and parents on the perception of how he believes educations is the most important key factor of keeping CPS schools running. Mayor Emanuel believes in downsizing classrooms to decrease the money of these half vacant CPS and move the students to better safer schools. It does not make sense in the eye of the Mayor to keep these low populated
Steven Singer attempts to contradict the narrative presented by many right wing politicians that claim the American school system is failing in his article, “U.S. Public Schools Are Not Failing. They’re Among The Best In The World” (Huffington Post February 13 2017). In this piece Singer works to argue the claims that have been made against the US public school system; he defends the system by listing the various positives in the system, and exercises pathos by shining light on how America guarantees the right of education to all students regardless of social class or race; Singer uses this point throughout the article by justifying the fact that our test scores are not up to par with other countries by reiterating the fact that because we
Did you know that the United States ranks 17th in education performance? That is a huge drop from 1980 when the United States was ranked 1st. Clearly, our education system has gone in a downward spiral and is struggling to keep up with other countries. The documentary, “Waiting for Superman” by David Guggenheim, and the article, “Idiot Nation” by Michael Moore, discuss the weaknesses in our education system. Although both authors offer compelling arguments, “Waiting for Superman” contained a better argument because of its abundance of rhetorical strategies, whereas “Idiot Nation” contained some logical fallacies.
He even cites a study that says that if a student has superb teacher for even one year, they will most likely attend college and make more money than their peers. He is concerned for the students and principals that will be forced to but up with
A decline in literacy, an inability to recruit qualified college graduates for teaching positions, unequal access to educational resources, stagnant compensation for teachers, and many more issues all play a part in the decline of public education (Edsall 1). However, one of the biggest and worsening problems within the education system is the sharp decline of qualified people to fill teaching positions. Researchers have found that there are at least 36,000 vacant teaching positions and at least 163,000 teaching positions that are being filled by underqualified teachers (Edsall 2). Schools are continuing to adopt harder academic standards, and the teachers are left scrambling to try and make their own curriculum with little to no helpful resources on hand (Will 1). One of the biggest reasons why there are fewer and fewer teachers in the education field is the lack of adequate pay for their important jobs and responsibilities (Toch 2).
Teacher pay needs to be increased. Programs need like the North Carolina Teaching Fellow Scholarship Program need to be increased especially if there are over two thousand applicants for five hundred scholarships that shows people are
Similarities and Differences between the Films An apparent similarity in both Won’t Back Down and Children in America’s Schools is that they both focus on disadvantaged schools. The failing schools in both films can be described with some of the same characteristics, such as overcrowded classrooms, unmotivated teachers, insufficient funding, and lack of school resources. Children in America’s Schools begins by showing several schools in impoverished districts that are certainly not suitable learning environments for children. These schools have molded walls, collapsed ceilings, and torn textbooks compared to the wealthier schools districts that possess advanced facilities such as computer labs, Olympic sized pools, robotic labs and advance courses.
In his short story, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie narrates his journey of how he learned to read. He shows readers how he overcame his struggle of becoming literate and how he refused to follow the typical lifestyle of an Indian boy. Alexie’s great passion for reading lead him to stand up against American prejudices, becoming an inspiration to many Indians who struggled to read and who were expected to be stupid. Many of his fellow classmates who expected Alexie to fail with them were monosyllabic in the classroom, but once they got home, they were lively and great storytellers. Alexie, however, refused to be stupid in public because he knew that he was capable of achieving success and was not going to accept
By the author using factual sources, he made it so people view him as a credible source and will agree with his opinion. Richwine first discussed the topic of finding qualified teacher and how hard the process is getting and that raising the salary was not be able to resolve the problem, “Even without the tenure obstacle, putting the best teachers in the classroom is a more challenging problem than many reformers will admit. One of the most common reformist prescriptions is raising teacher pay to attract stronger applicants. The logic seems simple, even obvious. But raising teacher pay will not work.”
On November 9, Mead School District held the fifth school board meeting of this academic year. Running the meeting was Superintendent Tom Rockefeller, President Board Director Ron Farley, Vice President Board Director Denny Denholm, and Board Directors, Maureen O’Connor, Robert Olson, and Carmen Green. All of the directors were recently re-elected, excluding Maureen O’Connor who isn’t up for re-election until next year. Due to this, there was an almost celebratory feel to the meeting, with many of the Directors, especially Vice-President Denholm, making jokes and being conversational with the small audience. At the meeting, I was the only person attending that was not giving a presentation to the board.
This fact supports the my earlier statements regarding the availability of high quality teachers. Not only that but, the fact that in order for students to receive the best possible education, the teachers are the either the root of the problem or the solution: “North Carolina ranks 34th in academic and work environment quality” (Bernardo). Higher teacher pay means a higher teacher population which, in turn, increases the availability of teachers with better qualifications. This is outlined in the many plans proposed on how to govern teacher pay and its increases: “Knowledge and skills based pay-Teachers earn permanent increased for acquiring new skills and applying those skills”
Imagine a school where ______% of the students transfer out and school morale is down the drain. Looking in classrooms you would see disengaged students and tired teachers. This is every teacher’s, administration’s. and community’s nightmare, and was the reality for Elizabeth Forward School District. With prominent truancy and disengagement issues, teachers had obvious trouble reaching students, many feared that their students wouldn’t graduate.
Summary & Reaction to “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” Born in 1966, Sherman Alexie was raised by a lower class family, who had little to no money. Alexie was inspired to write “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” after teaching himself to read by using pictures from a Superman comic book. Alexie uses strong emotion throughout this slight essay to engage the reader. Alexie starts off his slight essay by going into background information about his childhood, family financial status, and his first discovery of learning how to read.