American Educational Standards

For being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, US students are lagging behind academically compared to many other countries. American students are particularly failing to succeed in math and science. As the first country to put a man on the moon, it seems astonishing that our students can be so fair behind countries like Singapore, Finland, Germany, Taiwan, China, Italy to name a few. Not only are American children failing to meet age-level academic standards, many American children are failing to meet proficiency levels.

Measuring academic success is difficult to define. While some students may excel in language skills, creative writing, etc. their math skills may not match up to their other achievements. Yet it is unfair to say that the student is lagging or unintelligent. Everyone learns differently, tests differently, and comprehends information differently. Therefore it is difficult, if not impossible to set an across the board standards for academics for American children. It would be unfair to many children as “unsuccessful” if they are struggling in one subject but succeeding elsewhere.

Even though it may be impossible to measure academic performance of American children, it appears that our schools need to raise the bar or adjust their current teaching methods. As one of the world’s richest countries it is simply unacceptable that a significant minority of 15-year old's fail to achieve proficient levels in elementary math, reading or writing. The failures of our rising generations will determine our future success in global economies, business, engineering and science advances. It will even decrease our world power. These children will one day be our future leaders, soldiers, and workforce and by failing to educate them properly we are failing ourselves.

I understand that education extends far beyond the classroom, and that a cultural change is most likely needed to turn around the American education system. Yet big changes are needed in the classroom as well to rapidly increase our academic standings. While these changes may be challenging to implement and measure, basic proficiency including elementary math and reading should be met to move on to the following grade. Many schools find it easier to push students through their school systems than to find the time and resources to adequately address the failures of many American children. Per capita the US regularly spends the highest per student and we still failed to perform academically to countries like South Korea and Japan who spent significantly less per student.

We need to investigate our failures and expenditures per student to pinpoint our inefficiencies and wasteful spending. With the amount of money we spend per student it is unacceptable that we are not one of the highest achieving countries in math, reading and science. We must set higher academic standards, even though it may be quite difficult, to create a better future for our rising generations. 

References: 

http://www.facethefactsusa.org/facts/money-cant-buy-genius

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/why-students-do-better-overseas.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-students-lag-around-average-on-international-science-math-and-reading-test/2013/12/02/2e510f26-5b92-11e3-a49b-90a0e156254b_story.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2013/01/07/new-education-standards-will-fail-your-kids-and-americas-future-if-we-dont-act-now/