Going Beyond Textbooks

Author: Sara Hilbert

This moment in time has never been more fundamental for education reform. Innovative information is opening up to parents and their communities in order to compare public school rankings and overall student performances among school districts. As these changes occur, more and more failing schools are being reformed. But at what cost should the price be on change? According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, US citizens are paying more per student for K-12 public education than nearly all other economically advanced countries. The importance of education is indisputable. Still, we doubt increased spending because we it does not significantly improve performances of students in the American public schools system. Looking into the future, combined with the current economic downfall and the increasingly fierce international competition happening around us, it has never been as important to embrace education reforms in our collaborative efforts to create a well-educated society.

There are two pending bills that have a great impact on the interest of education; the Head Start for School Readiness Act (S.556) and SPEAK – Standards to Provide Educational Achievement for Kids Act (S.224). The first, under Chief Sponsor Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), provides a plan to increase children’s knowledge in language, preliteracy, premathematics, emotional, and physical skills through Head Start programs. It also provides adequate training and programs to include children with limited English proficiency and those referred by child welfare services. The SPEAK Act, sponsored by Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), is an amendment to add science to the mandatory biennial national and state academic achievement assessments. The information included on these assessments will increase content standards in mathematics and science to reflect the knowledge students need to enter college and apply in the workforce to compete in the global economy. Whereby, recent statistics have shown that the United States education significantly lags behind their industrial peers. This is more than a need to reform, this is a call for serious analysis of stagnate results, overreliance on standardized testing, and a new combination of successful programs. It is striking to see other countries like China, South Korea, and Japan score higher in education; maybe we should start taking some lessons.

While the powerful combination of these two bills using head start programs and effective goals for assessments are strong enough to move forward, it is only the beginning to a long road ahead.