American Education System

The final reason that helps explain why the American education system is failing students is due to the lack of structure and leadership throughout schools. “An American high school diploma means something radically different from state to state and from school to school and many kids do not find out the real street value of their education until it is too late” (Ripley, 2013, p. 5). This lack of consistency throughout schools in our country is creating a large gaps between different groups of students. The lack of leadership that our country’s schools have also is inhibiting the growth of school and their classroom instruction. Also, if our school lack leaders who are trying to improve the school, how is the education system expected to improve …show more content…
“This has left teachers buried in so many competing demands that they are left to pick and choose what to teach in isolation” (Hill & Johnston, 2016, p. 5). Programs enacted at a federal level that would help teachers across the country develop consistency would be beneficial to many students. These types of programs could easily be implemented across school if there was more research being done that is studying what works best in the classrooms. “It is estimated that whereas fields such as medicine and engineering spend 5-15% of their budgets on research and development, the U.S. education system invests less than one-quarter of one percent for those purposes. Not only does the field lack knowledge; it lacks the resources and infrastructure needed to produce it” (Mehta, 2013). If more time and money is put into conducting research on how to improve schools, programs that would allow teachers to work together to develop more consistency could be developed. These types of programs would help improve the education that students in our country are …show more content…
Though their purpose is to manage and run the school, they also need to take a much larger and important role in their schools than many principals do. If principals are in charge of the school, then they need to be active participants in finding ways to improve their schools teachers, methods of learning, and much more. They need to be leaders and not just “managers.” “A growing body of research indicates that principals play a critical role in improving student performance and leading effective schools. Most work in the field shows that principals who can help teachers improve their classroom instruction provide much more value than those who focus primarily on serving as effective building managers” (Mitchell, 2017). How do we make our country’s principals’ first priority improving classroom instruction and leading teachers? In the past few years, Illinois became the first state to require certain endorsements for principals in elementary, middle, and high schools. The state requires aspiring principals to complete a paid leadership residency for one full year. If deemed fit for the position, he or she must also participate in a three year leadership coaching program after completing the program. The goal Illinois is trying to achieve through this is to create principals who are ready and able

Show More