Educational Opportunities Flashcards
List the percent of American students who drop out of high school. Is this number increasing or decreasing?
30%, increasing over time
List the percent of American students who drop out of college. Is this number increasing or decreasing?
8%, decreasing over time
List the percent of American students who have a college degree or higher? Is this number increasing or decreasing?
27%, increasing over time
List racial/ethnic groups in order of most likely to have a HS diploma to least likely to have a HS diploma.
Asian-American, White, Hispanic, African-American, Native American
(be able to think of some explanations for this)
What are the patterns of poverty? Does this match up with patterns of HS dropout rates?
South is more likely to be poor, also more likely to have high drop out rates
(be able to think of some explanations for this)
Why is the U.S. education system referred to as the perfect storm? (from video)
- failing to educate for the job market (functional illiteracy)
- changing economy requires more education, this + immigration= more competition for low-skill jobs
- half of Black & Hispanic students are dropping out of college
What is functional literacy?
“what’s necessary to get by from day to day,” ability to do basic math and reading
Is functional illiteracy a problem in the US?
YES, half of the population is functionally illiterate
What are some solutions suggested to fix the education system?
- Family responsibility
- Change education system (increase teacher pay)
- Get kids to believe they can go to college
- English language training
- Back to basics (Reading and math)
- Nutrition
- Year-round schooling? ending tenure?
What solutions have been implemented?
Head Start 1960’s/1980’s- Johnson
focus is on school readiness and nutritional services to poor pre-school children
Bush (GW) era- 2001-No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
focus is on test scores, teacher/school accountability and penalties to low performing schools (loss of federal funding, closing down)
Race to the Top- 2009-Obama
focus is on teacher/principal prep programs, equal distribution of good teachers/principals, and collaboration between businesses, educators, and students
What are the pros and cons of NCLB?
- encourages teaching to the test, but this could be bad for students and teachers
- incentivizes scores, but this may set up poorly performing schools to fail
- could lead to fraudulent reporting of tests,
- etc..
what does education reflect about a nation?
the nation’s economy and culture
nations with with strong economies and open minded cultures tend to have better education
what are some barriers to a college degree (particularly for low-income students?)
- tuition
- low performing schools
- fewer professional networks
- unable / unprepared to keep up with school work
- lack of childcare
- lack of transportation
- degrees that require internship = can’t work while internship
why are SES more likely to have more years of education (quantity) and higher quality education (better curriculum/resources)
Main reasons: greater resources (finances, networking)
greater awareness of where to get these resources (tutoring, scholarships, financial aid)
cultural expectations (definition of success)
how does education promote stability and order? (functionalist theory)
passing of knowledge and skills
assimilation into mainstream culture (english language proficiency, better understanding of american culture)
transition from HS to work, college, vocational training ,etc..
supervision of children in productive activities
