2 pages writing about some questions and sources searching

Week 11 work – Christian

My question: How does the secondary education system in America compare to the rest of the world?

Evaluating

1. Title: Learning from World-Class schools. Publication: Educational Leadership, November 2008. Author(s): Andreas Schleicher; Vivien Stewart.

Summary: This source uses the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to analyze where the United States stands in the rankings compared to the other 29 participating member countries. The OECD is regarded as one of the most highly regarded international benchmark comparison tools for secondary education. This evaluation is bad news for the United States. We are falling behind. The US was once the world leader in high school graduation rates and has fallen to 10 as of 2006. Why? Not because our rate has gotten worse, it just hasn’t gotten any better while the rest of the world has continued to grow. We are also getting passed in the college graduation rate. In 1995 the US ranked second in this comparison and as of 2006 dropped to 13 out of 24 countries with comparable data. According to the Progamme for International Student Assessment (PISA) the US is ranked 21/30 in Science, 25/30 in Math, and 15/29 in reading.

Response: There is not really a lot to agree or disagree with here, the proof is in the facts. This showed me exactly what I was afraid of when I originally posed this question. The US is regarded as the most expensive secondary education system in the world and it can barely break into the teens in terms of performance projection? That is simply poor. Based on this article the issue is not that American education is bad by any means, it was once the standard. But now that other countries have developed their secondary education systems as well they have adapted and grown while the US has remained stagnant. In a sense, the student has surpassed the teacher. As our economy continues to grow and demand more college graduates we are going to find business’s searching in other countries to fly in employees if we do not begin improving.

2. Title: Is the U.S. Falling Behind in Higher Education? Publication: NEA Today, September 2011. Author: Mary Ellen Flannery.

Summary: This article reaffirms the notion that the U.S. has become stagnant in its college participation rates while countries such as Korea or Russia are growing exponentially. The growing concern is that employers are going to need to start importing college grads from other countries to fill jobs here. Georgetown University recently published a report indicating we would need 22 million new works with college degrees to keep up with the demand in America and projected we would likely fall short of that by 3 million graduates; who will fill those jobs? A

once rarity to have a degree in Korea has taken the global lead in participation rates. The U.S. is the most expensive secondary education system in the world. Tuition costs are on the rise and the growth of the for-profit sector is doing nothing but perpetuating the issue. “In Canada, we laugh when we hear that the college football coach earns more than the entire philosophy department”. Funding cuts are projected to continue to rise and in turn will continue to increase tuition going forward.

Response: It looks to me like a large part of the issue in America is cost. Our participation rates are not increasing as rapidly as other countries likely due to the inability for students to afford tuition. While other countries like Canada are doing everything they can to make college more available to the lower income population the U.S. is proving to make it more difficult with inflated costs. The government is cutting funding to our financial institutions which causes them to raise tuition to keep operating. Why? Because then the government can loan out more money to the students and make more money off of the interest. The statistics presented in this article have the future of American education looking grim if the big guns in offices do not start making some changes soon.

3. Title: College Access and Affordability: USA vs the World. Publication: Value Colleges, 2015. Author: Not provided

Summary: 2/3 of American college students graduate with college debt that now totals more than 1.2 trillion dollars. Recent reforms have shown to slow the growth of college costs but they continue to outpace American citizens ability to afford it. Our debt continues to rise while in Germany their higher education system is entirely public funded and costs students nothing in tuition and fees. There are more than 40 countries worldwide that offer free higher education. Although they also have loan debt from lending to students to pay for rent, food, and other living expenses their debt is much lower than ours. In 2014 a study from Wells Fargo revealed that 4 in 10 millennials are overwhelmed by student loan debt.

Response: This article gave some me insight on how some of the other countries operated financially. It has hard to tell what works BEST for everyone but what it does affirm is there is more than one way of doing things. While the U.S. has continued to struggle with debt, participation rates, and graduation rates it is obvious there are significant changes that could be made to change these things for the better. It appears the United States has developed a one track mind towards education whereas the rest of the world has started to evaluate from different angles.

4. NA

5. What have you learned about your topic after reading these sources?

After evaluating these sources it looks like there is substantial room for improvement within America’s higher education system. It would be one thing if we were a firm top five across the board with higher costs but to be falling in the median with substantially higher costs and rising debt it just does not seem to make sense to keep doing what isn’t working.

In what specific ways could these sources help you answer your question?

These sources gave me exactly what I wanted. I was concerned about cost, operating protocols, and where we rank worldwide. I will be able to use all of this information to paint a good picture of how America compares to the rest of the world.

Of all the sources you read this week which ones do you think you’ll use in your paper? Why?

I will use all of them. Source one gives me some info on referencing ranks and source three gives me some info on the financial aspect of things. By having both ends of the spectrum, I can fill in the in between with info from the second source. This could change, though, as I outline my paper and begin writing.