Need For Change

America is NOT the best in their education

system

How can America not be the best in their education system? They are spending so much

money

- Building more schools- Raising teacher pay- Having smaller classrooms

American’s need to realize Spending more money doesn’t = success!

Over the past decade their has been more campaigns advocating the need for change in our education system, but what has happened….

Now Where do we stand globally?

American students have been places further behind compared to 21 nations

19th in Math 16th in Science Last in Physics

America was once one of the top education systems

Our teachers are not as qualified “U.S. national education policy circles is that our

country’s teaching workforce is of low quality and that raising certification standards will improve teaching quality, national achievement, and economic competitiveness.”

(Akina & Scribner, 2006)

China & Japan have better teachers “U.S. teachers have a weak grasp of basic mathematical

concepts as compared with their Chinese counterparts. Studies of Japan and the United States also have found a significant variation in national patterns of teaching, which have been styled as a “teaching gap and linked to poor student performance.”

(Stigler & Stevenson, 1991).

USA= Inequality in Education

“Inequities in access to qualified teachers are likely to play a significant role in the long-lasting achievement gap in the United States.”

(Darling-Hammond, 2006)

Achievement Gap

“In the United States, the achievement gap between high-SES and low-SES students was 109, higher than the cross-national average of 85.8.”

(TIMSS data 2003)

High Standards= Higher Performance

In the United States, 67.6% of high-SES students were taught

by teachers with full certification, mathematics or mathematics education major, and at least 3 years of teaching experience compared with 53.2% of low-SES students, showing the opportunity gap of 14.4%. This is significantly larger than the international average of 2.5%.

Most Engineering & Science degrees are distributed in Asia

How can we compete globally?

In order to strengthen our nation’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, as well as our security at home, we must be certain that teacher proficiency in mathematics, science, technology, and foreign languages is sufficient to enable America’s students to achieve at grade level and above in these subjects. (U.S. Department of Education, 2006b, p. iii

Behind in Reading & Science

Not only do U.S. students fail to achieve the same mean mathematics scores as their Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) peers, but they also lag in reading and science.

Dropout Nation “75% of U.S. 15- to19- year-olds are enrolled in full- or part-

time education, as compared with nearly 90% of Germans.” (UNICEF, 2007, p. 20).

The United States has one of the lowest rates of school retention in the developed world.

Reasons children are dropping out

When 500 dropouts, ages 16-25, were interviewed, they gave many reasons for leaving school:

47% said classes were not interesting 43% missed too many days to catch up 45% entered high school poorly prepared by their earlier

schooling 69% said they were not motivated to work hard 35% said they were failing 32% said they left to get a job 25% left to become parents 22% left to take care of a relative

Two-thirds said they would have tried harder if more was expected from them!

(Barbara Pytel ,Nov 4, 2006)

China & India are leading in High School graduates

(Andreas Schleicher and Vivien Stewart, 2008)

Education salary chart

According to the United States Census Bureau, the poverty threshold is $20,614 US for a family of four as of 2007. T

More Economic Problems If the average high school drop out salary is $19,915 and

the average poverty level is $20,614…

Our economy is going to be in more debt by providing government funding assistance.

More is not always better

U.S. mathematics teachers are assigned to teach multiple subjects and multiple grade levels more often than are Japanese mathematics teachers, who usually teach only mathematics to only one grade level (LeTendre, Baker, Akiba, Goesling, et al., 2001).

Degree In Subject Being Taught

When we look at mathematics major, only 47.3% of U.S. students are taught mathematics by teachers with a mathematics major, a significantly smaller percentage than the international mean of 70.9%.

Offer Qualified teachers more incentives

“The focus should be to attract more competent candidates for the teaching profession, retain highly qualified teachers by providing support and incentives, and ensuring students’ access to high-quality.”

(OCED,2005).