From Unequal to Unwanted: Reforms Needed to Improve Public K-12 and Higher Education in America
From Unequal to Unwanted: Reforms Needed to Improve Public K-12 and Higher Education in America

Author: James "Jim" Taylor

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Published: 2018-03-13

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 145756114X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

America’s system of education desperately needs reform: the system continues to struggle with engaging and teaching children of color––even as society becomes more diverse. A longtime educator offers a candid and unabashed account of education in America during the past 130 years and what should be done in the future. Dr. James “Jim” Taylor describes the system of “separate and unequal” during the Jim Crow era of history, as seen through his eyes as a black child. That glimpse provides both a personal and professional perspective of the events that shaped the system. But even though strides have been made, many “unwanted” students continue to face discrimination in the nation’s K-12 public schools and institutions of higher education. From Unequal to Unwanted: Reforms Needed to Improve K-12 Public and Higher Education in America calls for educators and policymakers to confront real issues, offering evidence-based strategies to create real reform. Educators and policymakers must collaborate to develop the full potential of all children––not treat some as second-class citizens––if America expects to take back its place as a world leader in education.

The Imperfect Storm: Racism and a Pandemic Collide in America
The Imperfect Storm: Racism and a Pandemic Collide in America

Author: James A. Taylor

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Published: 2021-02-04

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 148089849X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On May 25, 2020, a thunderous collision between racism and COVID-19 created an “imperfect” storm that revealed centuries of imperfections that were camouflaged in America’s society. After the murder of George Floyd, virtually everyone became clear-eyed and could see the imperfections in health care, housing, employment, criminal justice, and education. These institutions continue to hinder the upward mobility of people of color. James and Wandy Taylor, the owners of Taylor & Taylor Education Consultants, explore how systemic racism in public education has prevented many black and brown children from achieving their full potential. They explore how to: • bridge the culture gap between teachers and students in culturally diverse classrooms; • prepare teachers to succeed in multicultural settings; • ascertain the differences between divergent views of education. The authors also take readers on a journey through America’s past that begins with the Jim Crow era of the late nineteenth century when America had separate and unequal societies and culminates in the present where students learn together—but from teachers that are often biased. Discover the problems students of color face on a daily basis and arm yourself with strategies to eradicate systemic racism in our schools with the insights provided in The Imperfect Storm.

U.S. Education Reform and National Security
U.S. Education Reform and National Security

Author: Joel I. Klein

Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 087609521X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States' failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country's ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role. This report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill prepared to compete with their global peers. According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment that measures the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science every three years, U.S. students rank fourteenth in reading, twenty-fifth in math, and seventeenth in science compared to students in other industrialized countries. The lack of preparedness poses threats on five national security fronts: economic growth and competitiveness, physical safety, intellectual property, U.S. global awareness, and U.S. unity and cohesion, says the report. Too many young people are not employable in an increasingly high-skilled and global economy, and too many are not qualified to join the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records, or have an inadequate level of education. The report proposes three overarching policy recommendations: implement educational expectations and assessments in subjects vital to protecting national security; make structural changes to provide students with good choices; and, launch a "national security readiness audit" to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness.

Making College Work
Making College Work

Author: Harry J. Holzer

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0815730225

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Practical solutions for improving higher education opportunities for disadvantaged students Too many disadvantaged college students in America do not complete their coursework or receive any college credential, while others earn degrees or certificates with little labor market value. Large numbers of these students also struggle to pay for college, and some incur debts that they have difficulty repaying. The authors provide a new review of the causes of these problems and offer promising policy solutions. The circumstances affecting disadvantaged students stem both from issues on the individual side, such as weak academic preparation and financial pressures, and from institutional failures. Low-income students disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and have weak performance incentives, contributing to unsatisfactory outcomes for many students. Some solutions, including better financial aid or academic supports, target individual students. Other solutions, such as stronger linkages between coursework and the labor market and more structured paths through the curriculum, are aimed at institutional reforms. All students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, also need better and varied pathways both to college and directly to the job market, beginning in high school. We can improve college outcomes, but must also acknowledge that we must make hard choices and face difficult tradeoffs in the process. While no single policy is guaranteed to greatly improve college and career outcomes, implementing a number of evidence-based policies and programs together has the potential to improve these outcomes substantially.

Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic
Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic

Author: Mark Boonshoft

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2020-06-30

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1469659549

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Following the American Revolution, it was a cliche that the new republic's future depended on widespread, informed citizenship. However, instead of immediately creating the common schools--accessible, elementary education--that seemed necessary to create such a citizenry, the Federalists in power founded one of the most ubiquitous but forgotten institutions of early American life: academies, privately run but state-chartered secondary schools that offered European-style education primarily for elites. By 1800, academies had become the most widely incorporated institutions besides churches and transportation projects in nearly every state. In this book, Mark Boonshoft shows how many Americans saw the academy as a caricature of aristocratic European education and how their political reaction against the academy led to a first era of school reform in the United States, helping transform education from a tool of elite privilege into a key component of self-government. And yet the very anti-aristocratic critique that propelled democratic education was conspicuously silent on the persistence of racial and gender inequality in public schooling. By tracing the history of academies in the revolutionary era, Boonshoft offers a new understanding of political power and the origins of public education and segregation in the United States.

Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English
Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-08-25

Total Pages: 529

ISBN-13: 0309455405

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Educating dual language learners (DLLs) and English learners (ELs) effectively is a national challenge with consequences both for individuals and for American society. Despite their linguistic, cognitive, and social potential, many ELsâ€"who account for more than 9 percent of enrollment in grades K-12 in U.S. schoolsâ€"are struggling to meet the requirements for academic success, and their prospects for success in postsecondary education and in the workforce are jeopardized as a result. Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures examines how evidence based on research relevant to the development of DLLs/ELs from birth to age 21 can inform education and health policies and related practices that can result in better educational outcomes. This report makes recommendations for policy, practice, and research and data collection focused on addressing the challenges in caring for and educating DLLs/ELs from birth to grade 12.

Rewarding Strivers
Rewarding Strivers

Author: Richard D. Kahlenberg

Publisher: Century Foundation Books (Cent

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780870785160

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

" "Rewarding Strivers" presents provocative research and analysis that provides a blueprint for the way forward."--William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions, Harvard University "The terrible 'secret' of higher education in America is that too few students from poorer families have access to it.... Kahlenberg again gathers the best thinkers on how to challenge this status quo."--Anthony Marx, President, Amherst College Today, higher education is a major force in promoting social mobility, yet colleges and universities seem more concerned with prestige than finding ways to make higher learning more accessible. Rewarding Strivers outlines two high-profile models that colleges and universities can follow in making the American Dream a realistic one for all students. Former New York Times education writer Edward B. Fiske (author of The Fiske Guide to Colleges) explores an exciting new effort to provide extra financial aid and academic support to low-income students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He finds that the "Carolina Covenant" has much to teach public and private universities across the country. In order to benefit from financial aid and support, low-income students first must be admitted to college. In a chapter that is likely to prove highly controversial, Georgetown University's Anthony Carnevale and Jeff Strohl articulate a coherent and concrete way for colleges and universities to provide a leg up to economically disadvantaged students in selective college admissions. The authors make an important contribution to the nation's raging debate over affirmative action by calling on universities to expand preferences beyond race to also include socioeconomic status, and outlining how such a program could work in practice.