Here are the top 10 reasons that make it difficult for US education system to live up to its optimum potential.
- The digital age needs new definition of literacy. Gone are the days when literacy referred to printing texts. Now, everything has turned digital and we need digital literacy. Apart from basic reading and writing skills, the students should be able to use digital apparatus to research for topics and make their own judgment.
- New way to evaluate. The current testing system is not accurate in determining the progress of students. The technology should help and implement a testing system that can evaluate the differences between students who take assessments.
- Poor education for boys of color. American schools always misunderstand Black and Latino boys. Their behavior, learning styles, and social skills are often considered as problems. This situation needs instant remedy.
- We continue to retain students and promote them. US education system has an astronomical rate of retaining students. The cost of retaining is $12 billion annually. Social promotion makes it hard for students to meet academic standards. We must move from the graded classroom approach to multi-age classrooms.
- Anti-intellectualism and rampant academic disengagement. Students are fond of instant gratification. Schools often lower down the academic standard to bring every student on equal level. Today’s students are not interested in pursuing academic achievement if they can’t see a direct use of it in their daily lives.
- More year round schools. Currently the schools offer holidays to students in summer, while the economic conditions justify year round schools. People think that they are hard to manage. Teachers and policymakers alike would have to agree for accommodating the switch.
- Inability to produce quality teachers. The instructions a student receive is the most important part of his education. Not all the teachers in the classroom are well trained or have experience. A strong teacher is invaluable. But we yet need to discover what makes strong educators with consistency.
- Not many efforts to foster digital equity. Technology is an inevitable part of the world and academics. Wealthier students have better access to it than impoverished ones. The result is that wealthy students get a head start and poverty-stricken students fall behind.
- Girls are not into STEM. There are so many fields where girls are underrepresented. The new boom is in STEM industry and it suffers from male-domination. Young girls have few opportunities to join. Lack of interest is not the issue but the lack of encouragement for girls to pursue a career in STEM. We need to fix this discrimination.
- Teachers don’t learn neuroscience in preparation programs.These programs emphasize majorly on education and undermine the holistic approach. They should be taught how the brain works and how learning works. Only then they would understand how to teach completely.
There are so many other problems but their impact is meager. We need to overcome these hurdles if we truly want to get outstanding results from our education system.
