Public Schools: Yardsticks of Progress
- Parent Teacher Conferences (pt 1) |
- Parent Teacher Conferences (pt 2) |
- Homework: A Concern for the Whole Family |
- Homework Help: Monitoring Assignments |
- Homework: Guidance for Parents |
- Homework: Resolving Problems |
- Top 10 Reasons to Support Public Education |
- Violence, Greed, & Social Conscience |
- Smile for our Children & Schools |
- Congress Cutting Our Confidence |
- Public Schools: Yardsticks of Progress |
- Thanksgiving: A Time for Teaching |
- The Power of Parents |
- Character Counts |
- Were Rockin & Reading Now |
- The Legacy of Christa |
- We're In This Together |
- Lets Read: Open the Door |
- Public Schools & Democracy
It seems that nearly every day there appears another new report on the statistics of education - the hard facts about the changes in demographics, household economics and social structure that affect so many of our children. The findings are staggering. Disturbing changes in family structure, increasing levels of childhood poverty and the rising numbers of childhood victims of abuse and neglect are social statistics that have become common knowledge.
National columnists glibly quote these figures to transform this national crisis into a neat line graph or pie chart that "proves" their latest point. Many take the all-too-familiar stand of bashing public education by using these "facts."
But despite the many challenges facing our schools, education in America has made significant strides in many crucial areas. Let's take a look at some of the good news from our public schools:
- Next only to tiny Finland, the United States has the world's highest literacy rate.
- In 1993, 86 percent of 19- to 20-year-olds living in the United States had earned a high school diploma, up from 82 percent in 1972.
- Before 1940, less than half of U.S. youth graduated from high school.
- The number of public school students with IQs over 145 is 18 times greater than it was two generations ago. Today's students average about seven points higher than their parents.
- The proportion of high school graduates taking core courses recommended in the 1983 federal report "A National at Risk" (four years of English, three years of social studies, three years of science, three years of math) has increased to 47 percent from 13 percent in 1982.
- Participation in advanced placement tests has increased from 140,000 students in 1982 to 450,000 in 1993.
- Average mathematics proficiency improved between 1973 and 1992 for all age groups, with the largest improvements occurring among nine- and 13-year-olds, according to the 1994 report from the National Center for Education Statistics.
- The overall dropout rate declined from 14 percent in 1982 to 11 percent in 1993.
- The U.S. rate of college attendance is significantly greater than our economic rivals around the globe, according to a 1993 report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The percentage of Germans attending college is half that of the United States and the percentage of Japanese attending college is two-thirds that of the U.S.
These trends, identified by private and federal researchers, demonstrate emphatically that our nation's public schools are effectively teaching greater percentages of our youth than at any time in history and preparing them to make the United States a strong leader among nations in the 21st century.
Yes, there is always room for improvement. But the next time you read an article that tears down our public schools, remember that our young people are making important progress in the mastery of basic skills, staying in school and college attendance. We need to recognize what we're doing right and build on that.
