In the past thirty years, the United States has dropped over ten spots in the education rankings amongst OECD countries (CFR). Results from recents year’s international standard examinations shows the United states ranking outside the top ten in every category. Once prominent in each of these areas, the United States now stands at twenty-first in science, seventeenth in reading, and twenty-sixth in math (The Atlantic). Furthermore this has affected students down the road. It is becoming more and more necessary to have a college degree, with those who have at least a bachelors earning on average 40% more than those who do not, but the United States now ranks nineteenth in likelihood to complete college with respect to other OECD countries, whereas it ranked first only two decades ago (CFR, Business Insider). Overall, twenty-nine percent of American men and seventeen percent of American women had less education than their parents, compared with the OECD average of nineteen percent for men and thirteen percent for women (Business Insider). The low rankings, however, are not only seen with just the students, but the teachers as well. Sixty percent of the United States’s teachers are considered unqualified for the top five ranked OECD countries in education, the United States ranks twenty-second in teacher salary, and the ranks twenty-second in student to teacher ratio (Ericdigests Cobb, The Guardian). The United States, however, ranks fifth in education spending per student (The Atlantic). The education system is mediocre in quality yet top of the line in spending, showing inefficiency and internal inequality. In comparison to the other top twenty ranked OECD countries in education, the United States shows the highest variance in test scores between students (US News). Furthermore it has been found that a ten percent increase in minority student percentages was correlated with a seventy-five dollar decrease in per student spending. The United States education system lacks equality and quality across the board and the students continue to do worse and worse in comparison to not only other countries, but the previous years of the United States. This has shown in other areas of the United States. Though the number of business majors has increased three hundred percent over the past few decades and one in five college graduates has a degree in business, the United States has fallen from first to twelfth on the economic freedom index (NPR, Heritage). The United States stands at eighth in number of researchers per one thousand people, and seventh in terms of research and development performance (Ranking America, NSF).
In Jahl Mehta’s article on Foreign Affairs dubbed “Why American Education Fails,” he makes a causal and evaluative argument as to why United States education is in his eyes unsuccessful. With the purpose of appealing mostly to educated Americans that have an interest of stake in the American education system (i.e. students, parents, teachers). Mehta uses an overwhelming amount of sources, made up mostly of statistics about United States education and existing United States policies on education, to back up his logic and serious, yet pedantic tone in order to convey the ideal that the United States education system needs to change. The most effective part is definitely his evaluation of United States education policies, where he expertly compares them with better policies used in other countries.
John Hood’s article on the Foundation for Economic Education named “The Failure of American Public Education” makes an evaluative argument dealing mostly with the policy side of education. Much like Mehta, Hood’s argument is pointed more towards the educated audience that has an interest in education. Unlike Mehta, however, Hood is less comprehensive about the failure of the education system, with a purpose more oriented toward pointing out the failure of bureaucracy in the education system. Hood cites many existing United States policies and evaluates why they are unsuccessful, using a very informative tone.
Kaitlyn Kaminski’s article on the Huffington Post called “Has the American Education System Failed Today’s Students” contrasts greatly with Hood and Medahl’s. Though her audience is the same (perhaps a bit more student oriented because she is a student), the problem she is pointing out is much different. Rather than compare the United States to other countries or point out statistics, Kaminski evaluates the style of education and how it fails to prepare students for the real world. In an almost angry tone, she conveys her ideal on how the american education system places too much importance on testing and fails to teach practical topics in practical methods.
My argument will be more similar to Hood’s and Medahl’s in that I will stick mostly to the statistical and comparison oriented argument while still supporting the style of the education system (test-taking). My argument will be evaluative and causal. Rather than looking at policies, I will be looking almost completely at educational performance, both by students and the schools who are teaching them. It will be more of an evaluation of what makes the students and schools here so different than those in other countries. That is, why students do not perform as well (differences in how they are taught, how they study, their own importance placed on education) and what it is schools are doing that may be negatively affecting students. Expect anecdotal evidence from students and teachers across the world rather than all statistics. My argument will be oriented towards an educated audience that has an interest in public education (students, parents, teachers, policymakers) and most of my appeals will be logic based backed up by credibility from both sources and myself being a current member of the education system. The argument will be in the form of a TED talk.
Works Cited
Ericdigests-http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/teacher.htm
USNews-http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/28/us-education-still-separate-and-unequal
Ranking America-https://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/category/education/page/2/
ForeignAffairs-https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2013-04-03/why-american-education-fails
Huffinton Post-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kaitlyn-kaminski/teens-voting_b_5207400.html
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