Educational What Article

I found the "Educational What" article to be very interesting. There was so much information that covered specific facts and percentages about the population of children in schools. The article went into great depth about how schools are divided by race, age, and gender and how those factors are, and will be changing over the next several years. One specific fact in regards to race that really caught my attention was the fact that "three million black Hispanics in the United States, mostly dark skinned spanish speakers from the Carribean, have checked black on the census form because Hispanic is not a race. This shocked me because it means that a lot of the statistics may be off for this or other reasons like this. I found the section on "Differences in World Views" to be very interesting as well. It noted the difference between race and national origin, which can really make a huge difference in a student. It gave the example that someone might be Hispanic but from California and therefore, speaks little spanish. I believe for teachers this is a very important thing to keep in mind. It's like the old saying, "don't judge a book by it's cover." In a classroom setting there are going to be all sorts of different individuals and it is important for the teacher to keep that in mind when he or she plans to teach effectively.

Profile of US public education

What are schools?
We have many different types of schools, including public, private, and charter schools. The majority of students attend public schools in the areas that they live. Nine out of ten students are educated in public schools and private schools educate 12%, so public schools are responsible for formally educating the majority of students. Our education system is based on 12 grade levels, where students must attend between 9 and 13 years, however in order to further their education at a college or university they must attend all 12. There are mandatory subjects in which students must study, including Math, English, and Science.

Who are our students?
Our students come from many races, backgrounds, and ethnicities. The percentages between them all are always changing, however by 2020 half of the nation's school age children will be children of color. More than 1/3 of public school students are from low-income families. Our students consist of those who are born in the U.S., immigrants, those with handicaps or disabilities, and those whose first language is not English.

Who are our teachers?
Our teachers are required to be well educated and have a degree in the subject area that they teach. The majority of our teachers are white females. Because of new laws that deal with education in our country, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, there are more demands placed on teachers and teacher requirements. For this reason there is a high turn-over rate in the teaching force.

Response to "Public Education Matters''

Throughout reading the “Public Education Matters” article, I came across some facts that I found to be very interesting. For starters, when I began reading the article I came across the section which gave the percentage of students enrolled in public and private schools. I realized that the article did not include children who were home schooled in these statistics. Although the statistics of children who were home schooled were noted later in the article, I felt that it would have been helpful to understand where children who were home schooled ranked next to students enrolled in private and public schools as well. Another part of the article that I found of interest was the chart in which displays some countries and whether or not they have a national curriculum and a national exam. The United States was one of the countries that did not have a national curriculum or exam. I found this surprising because I don’t understand how the No Child Left Behind Act can really be effective if the guidelines we use can change between states. Perhaps this is why, several pages later, it is noted that the government has not reported the NAEP scores in math since 200 and in reading since 2002. I personally disagree with the testing methods, however if that is what is going to determine a student’s achievement, then the tests and standards should be the same across the nation.

First day of class

I was pretty apprehensive walking into class today. Already annoyed (to say the least) that the education sequence changed, which meant I had to add a few more classes to my already never-ending list, I had premonitions that this class would just be another repeat of an earlier education course I took last semester. Although I had my doubts, the class proved to be more exciting than I anticipated. I really enjoyed how fast the time seemed to go by, and I feel as though the material will be somewhat interesting. I was surprised to see how many students were in the class and even more surprised to find out how many were juniors or older. I thought that I might be one of the older in the class but apparently the new education sequence is holding back a lot of students. I'm honestly looking forward to the class however. It seems as though Dr. Goldstein is really enthusiastic and cares about who she's teaching as well as the material that she's teaching which is not all that common in a lot of classrooms. I also really enjoyed the activity we did. I felt that it helped people to realize certain things that mgith have in common with fellow classmates. Overall, I think the class will be a good one.