Well education had really been picking up since the 1950s. However, there
was a public scare of a "learning crisis" because the open door to
free-market reforms led to competition in what the schools should buy from
private companies. Which lead to the continual revision of said standardized test
today.
This lead to standardized testing, which for good or bad lead to major
educational reforms. However, one good thing did come out of this era:
COMPUTERS and technology! Which has been, as a teacher, super helpful in
finding strategies and ideas to use in the classroom.
Another big reform to come out of this era is charter schools. Charter schools
were a big push in some ways to increase achievement scores and use curricula
that was focused more on special projects and other things not in a traditional
classroom.
One really good thing out of this era is that more and more people in
America were attending public schools. I believe this is because of the
legislation and government funding in the last era. However, I am not a big fan
of standardized testing I believe that it cheapens American education and fails
to prepare our students for real life situations where the answer to a problem
may not be a simple A, B, C, or D.
The last part of this chapter talks about how “public education” has been a
fundamental element of American society. One thing that this chapter fail to
mention is due to our “public education” we believe that other societies should
have free public education as well, even if it does not fit the other cultures
that we encounter. I think public education is something that also separates a country
from a 1st world country or a 3rd world country in our
minds. Just something to think about.
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