A Discussion on Education Reform

Education is a broad definition referring to any act or experience which has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of a person. In a technical sense, education reform can be construed to mean the process by which society transmits and develops its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from generation to generation. Throughout the course of history, the meaning of education and its preferred methods have changed as a result of debates happening over what kind of content or experiences produce an educated individual or an educated society. Educational reforms can be implemented by individual educators, a school organisation or it may also happen through curriculum changes resulting from performance evaluations.

The modern notion of education reform began with the spread of compulsory education or organized schooling, which is a period of educational attendance required of everyone and is provided by the government. Education is mandatory between certain ages and/or up to a specified level. In the current world, the unprecedented growth of the economy as well as the democratization of nations have made governments realize the importance of making sure that everyone has equal access to high quality and effective education. Modern education reforms have been increasingly driven from a growing understanding of what techniques or process work in education and how best to go about successfully improving teaching methods and the ability of children to learn in schools. Below are some of the current issues tied to education reform which are still a source of debate:

• The length of the school day or school year
• Whether to engage in after-school tutoring and to what extent
• Charter schools, choice of schools, or school vouchers
• Class sizes
• Improving teacher quality
• Access to educational technology for schools
• Tracking and reducing drop-out rate
• Tracking and reducing absenteeism

Problems to be Addressed by Education Reform

        Reforming education or education reform is a plan, process, or movement that has a primary purpose of starting and carrying out positive changes in the education system within a specific location such as a country, state, province, or community. We had a research paper about the issues or concerns facing the state supported or public funded education system in the United States and one of the issues or concerns that I selected as the topic for my research paper is on the topic of reforming the public education system in the U.S.

        Since I only had a week to finish and complete my research paper, I decided that the theme of my topic should be the specific problems of the public school education system in the U.S., and the solutions that could be provided by an education reform plan. I also performed extensive research on my topic. As a senior student in a public funded secondary school, I am exposed to the problems facing our school that has also become typical for many public secondary schools in the country. Our school suffers from problems in some of the facilities, lack of qualified and good teachers, a curriculum that promotes poor academic performance, and other problems that affect the teachers, students and parents.

        I read and studied several websites of organisations that are dedicated for starting, planning and pursuing programmes in reforming the education of the public school system, and in lobbying government agencies that are involved in policies for public schools. I found out that the major public school problems that should be addressed by education reform involves curricula emphasizing academic skills while leaving out non-academic practical skills, heavy federal and state regulation that restricts local school boards and administrators in carrying out needed reform, and staunch opposition from teachers' unions and other groups with special interests in the education sector.