Disadvantages in the United States' Education System
Despite the United States being highly industrialized, there is clear evidence that the country's children are becoming more and more disadvantaged, according to some study by the Save the Child program. (Cibulka 460). The state of education in America was rated 18th out of 25 industrialized nations, down from first place 40 years ago. (Levy 234). Additionally, it now holds the 14th spot among people with degrees, down from the top spot in 1995. It is noted as being the highest in the industrialized country with the largest percentage of college dropouts. Negatively from the first research, it is evident that the workforce supplied today to the American economy is more skilled and more educated in comparison to the past group. According to the study done on the college education expansion in the United States, in 1940's, more than 70% of the men between 24 and 64 years had not finished high school. In 2000, the fraction of college dropouts among the same age group had dropped to 20%. The composition of the teams in the 1990's and those in the 20th century is different regarding ability and talent. Hence, it is difficult to compare the groups over time due to their ability to handle things and their abilities. It is evident that the rise in the state of education in a nation does not guarantee the increased capability in the contribution to the economy. It is apparent despite increased level in the students graduating; their ability is not rising at the same level (Astin 340). There have been raised questions of whether the educated cohorts receive smaller education premiums in comparison to other groups. Hence, despite the poor ranking of the United States in the educational attainment, it is also wise to consider other important factors such as their ability and talents in these groups.
Accessibility and Equitability in Education
The accessibility and equitability are the terms used in describing the education expansion. After the word war 11, there was increase in the opening of the education opportunities to a great number of American's who could not be able to attend college. The expansion can be attributed to financial aids which were provided by various programs ensuring equitability for all. As a result of the outreach programs, the underrepresented groups got access to college education. Despite the groups who are from low-income or underrepresented accessing education. Equitability has been the key issue which has not been addressed by the American government yielding to decline in the education status. According to the prestige ranking, very few students are able to access the best institutions as printed in the US new and the world reports. The research indicates that the equity of education access has declined which can be associated with the social, economic status. From various studies, it is evident that the elite institution usually command more resources pushing people to recognize them in comparison to others. There is no evidence that they offer more education experience but the fact that they confer more education and career benefits is clear while comparing to other institutions. Hence, the graduates from the prestige university are more preferable in comparison to others. Most of the prestigious universities are residential who enjoy more commuters. The principal hindrance to the under presented in access of opportunities in this institution is the system selectivity. Those considered for the university education are the best performed in secondary schools. Since the children from the less-educated and poor families may not perform well in the secondary examinations, they are less likely to get the opportunity to join the institution (Wijsman 606). Another reason is due to the financial need associated with the prestige institutions which the poor cannot afford. The institution quality is defined by its selectivity which may change from one year to the other. The Pell grant has come in to intervene in the secondary and high education institutions. The level of the pell and non-pell students attending the public universities can be said to be at the same level. On the other hand, the rate of those attending the private prestigious schools is high from the non-pell students. Hence, it is evident that there is a partial relationship between the socioeconomic status and the quality of education. But as a result, the institution attended is not the only measure which could be used to measure quality. As discussed above, the ability and talent of each individual is most essential in the job market. The more educated people are seem to have received a smaller premium reducing the college education quality as compared before. There has been a big gap of equity in the American education systems which can attribute to the socioeconomic factors. Despite so, the financial aid has been so impactful in reducing the education gap. Alternatively, education equity cannot be solely be measured by the attended institution. Talent and ability embraced by the organization should be considered before concluding on the decline on the equity. It is evident that the acquisition of education among all level has risen and their impact on the workforce but the equity gap on quality has widened. From another study done, it is evident that the school level does not matter in the school performance. The results indicated that the performance in both students from all school level seem to decline at the same rate.
Decline in Education Quality Due to Various Factors
Education performance may not necessarily decline as a result of economic status due to lack of motivation at the secondary school level. The institution performance may decline during this period which may hinder the student from joining the prestigious tertiary institution. Previously, the LPPs (leadership preparation programs) enjoyed the monopoly of preparing the school principal and the administrators which is no longer the case. There are new providers in the market who have relaxed their standards to licensing who which is at times is attributed to causing of decline in the quality of education in institutions (Juhn 306). The LPPs is set with the motive of helping the teachers in a manner that they will be adequately equipped to help the students. The institution was highly focusing on the teacher's preparedness in ensuring that they were set to impact the student's in America. Despite high investment in coming up with the LPPs, there were significant complaints on the quality of graduates from the institutions. One of the solutions to the problem was the regulation's intensification which compiled the strengthening of the state policies which will build the technical environment which focuses on the school personnel and student's performance. The second solution was deregulation which is ensuring the systems which are set in place are easily implementable. There have been a lot of policies which seek to ensure that the LPPs program works and improve the quality of a teacher's ability in providing education to the students. The focus of the training has focused on compliance to training. The quality of education may decline as a result of the weak teachers in the school institutions. A monopoly system of training the teachers or trainers is not the solution to the high-quality education level in the institution. There needs to be an established reform strategy which will drive towards the elimination of the weak programs.
Factors Contributing to the Decline in Education Quality
On a different viewpoint, the cause of the decline in the level of education is not necessarily the quality of teacher but may be due to their motivation in school, age, initial level or the school type. According to research, the boys tend to react differently with a girl in their career path. The boy's performance seems to consequently decline at the start of the school path which progresses is then followed by that of girls. That is not always the case since in most cases the performance of both seems to rise until the end of their secondary school life. The cognitive explaining factor, as well as motivation, seems to be the critical solution to the problem. They seem to increase the utility value of the school subjects. However, there is no involvement of the assessment of factors and measure their direct relationship to the performance decline.
Measuring the Decline in Education Performance
Hence, there are no enough measures of the level of performance decline in secondary, early childhood and high institutions. Comparing the quality of education in the past and now is difficult which can be attributed to the lack of measures on the talent and ability levels especially in the workforce.
Work cited
Juhn, Chinhui, Dae Il Kim, and Francis Vella. "The Expansion of College Education in the United States: Is There Evidence of Declining Cohort Quality?." Economic Inquiry 43.2 (2005): 303-315.
Wijsman, Lindy A., et al. "Declining trends in student performance in lower secondary education." European Journal of Psychology of Education 31.4 (2016): 595-612.
Cibulka, James G. "Declining support for higher-education leadership preparation programs: An analysis." Peabody Journal of Education 84.3 (2009): 453-466.
Astin, Alexander W., and Leticia Oseguera. "The declining" equity" of American higher education." The Review of Higher Education 27.3 (2004): 321-341.
Levy, Daniel C. Higher education and the state in Latin America: Private challenges to public dominance. University of Chicago Press, 1986.
