What Went Wrong With America's Schools?

5 Pages 1326 Words

Education is the key to any countries economic success. For a country
to be economically sound, the business and industry within that country must be
financially prosperous. In todays high tech world economy, businesses and
industries need well educated employees to prosper. Therefore, the
deterioration of a countries educational system should be considered a major
economic problem. Between 1965 and 1980, the performance of American students
dramatically declined, the educational system fell backwards, and it is
affecting todays schools, as well as the future of the US's work force.
During that 15 year period, US students' test scores severely dropped in
comparison to other industrial countries. After 1980, the dropping scores
leveled off, and recently, they have begun in increase. But American students
must play catch-up with the rest of the world, and todays public school system
is not prepared to facilitate the major leap forward that our educational system
needs.
Before 1965, America's public school system was producing better
educated students with less money and fewer supplies than today. Each class was
approximately 40% larger than today's classes, and they functioned with about
one-third of the real dollar expenditures of present day schools. They taught
with fewer books and less equipment, and did not have any of todays audio-visual
material and equipment. Then, between 1965 and 1980, real dollar expenditures
per student doubled as teacher to student ratio dropped by one forth. Yet, with
more money and fewer students per class, student achievement deteriorated in
every available measure. In 15 years, national SAT scores declined by 5 points
annually. That 75 point drop has put the US behind greatly, and has left todays
students with a lot of ground to make up in order to reach other countries test
score levels.
The cause of this dramatic drop can not been attributed to any one thing.
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