Education Reform: Shaping the Future of Learning

Education reform is a multifaceted and continuous endeavor aimed at improving and adapting educational systems to meet the evolving needs of society. It encompasses a wide range of changes and enhancements targeting access, quality, and overall effectiveness of education for all learners. The Glossary of Education Reform (edglossary.org) serves as a valuable public online resource, providing definitions and descriptions of key terms, concepts, and strategies within the realm of public education reform. Strong schools, informed journalism, and an engaged electorate are crucial for a thriving democracy. Educators can leverage this glossary to foster a deeper understanding of school improvement strategies within their communities. The glossary offers over 470 terms and 130 in-depth entries on K-12 public education and education reform in the United States.

Historical Context and Motivations

The education reform movement gained traction in the early 1800s, fueled by the conviction that an educated populace is indispensable for democracy and societal advancement. This era witnessed significant social transformations, underscoring the necessity for universal public education, enhanced teaching methodologies, and the establishment of teacher training programs to ensure comprehensive education for all students.

Motivations for reform have varied throughout history, often reflecting the prevailing societal needs and values. During the Victorian era, self-improvement was a primary driver. Reformers like Horace Mann championed accessible schooling and a robust state-supported common school system. Early 20th-century reformer John Dewey advocated for a scientific, pragmatic, and democratic curriculum to improve society. Maria Montessori emphasized humanistic motivations, focusing on meeting the individual needs of the child.

Key Figures and Milestones

Horace Mann played a pivotal role in advocating for public education, championing the establishment of normal schools for teacher training and improved educational quality. His belief in education as a fundamental right led to increased funding for public schools, improved standards, and a focus on educating all children, regardless of background.

The introduction of common schools significantly impacted 19th-century society by making education accessible to children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, promoting social mobility and fostering a sense of shared citizenship. These schools became centers for civic engagement, instilling values of democracy and responsibility in students.

Core Elements of Education Reform

Education reforms encompass improvements in curriculum and efforts to create a more structured and standardized approach to teaching across states. Many reformers emphasized moral education, believing it crucial for developing responsible citizens by teaching ethics and character alongside academic subjects.

Education reform includes significant, systematic revisions made to amend the educational legislation, standards, methodology, and policy affecting a nation's public school system to reflect the needs and values of contemporary society.

Cyclical Nature of Education Reform

Ironically, one of the most enduring characteristics of American education is the attempt to change it. Educational reform has as long a history as education itself. It is impossible to find a period in the twentieth century in which education reformers, parents, and the citizenry were satisfied with the schools. While each period of reform has distinct characteristics, common elements and patterns have emerged as well.

Researchers and historians argue that one of the main reasons educational reform has become cyclical in nature is because reformers themselves lack a historical perspective. New reforms are doomed to fail, because they ignore the collective wisdom of generations past.

Another reason education reform has persisted over the years is because educators, policymakers, and parents have very different views about education-its purpose, the people it is intended to serve, and the means by which they are best served. Even changes that appear superficial-such as incorporating accountability measures or implementing a new teaching strategy-are representative of deep ideological and philosophical differences. Because different stakeholders have different ideas about the purpose of education, reform initiatives are often viewed as power struggles. Educational reform is inherently political, and as power shifts from one group to another, educational practice and theory so follows.

Read also: Reinstating Discipline in Schools

Broader Social and Political Context

Unfairly or not, schools are often viewed as a vehicle through which to cure social ills or respond to new social challenges. Throughout history, schools have been shaped to assimilate immigrants, prepare students for the workforce, redistribute wealth, and help the United States compete in a global economy. Even the very first schools were designed as much to create a sense of national unity as they were to develop the nation's intellect.

Competing interests, unwillingness to learn from the past, and larger societal changes help explain why educational reform has been a significant part of the history of education in America, but the tendency for reform initiatives to fail lends insight as well. As old reforms die out with little substantial change, new reforms are offered in their place. Various explanations have been offered for reform failure, one of the most frequent being impatience on the part of reformers and the public-or, put differently, America's need for immediate gratification. Reforms simply do not have enough time to come to fruition. Many educational reforms fail because they address social problems that do not easily lend themselves to solutions offered by the scientific process.

Schools have arguably received an unfair amount of criticism, with criticism of failed reform efforts piled on top of criticism of the schools themselves. Systemic reform is never easily achieved, and educational reform has been at least as successful as reform in other types of complex systems. Reform fails because too much is asked of schools. Our constant crises may simply indicate that we have high and perhaps unrealistic expectations about what schools can and should do. Given all that we expect, one should not be surprised by our continual frustration.

Major Periods of Education Reform in the United States

Educational historians classify reform movements in the United States differently. Some focus on reform in relation to curriculum development specifically, while others analyze reform in relation to diversity and equity. Still others focus on the role of the government in relation to reform, looking at educational change through the lens of power and control. Nevertheless, many historians agree that educational reform in the United States can be defined according to four major periods of reform.

The Common School Movement

The Common School Movement took place in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and although its impact varied somewhat from region to region, it is considered the first nationwide educational reform initiative. Prior to the Revolutionary War, colonists were participating in their own diverse educational initiatives. Even after the nation was formed, schooling varied tremendously based on community support and resources. By the early 1800s, Americans recognized the need for a more uniform educational system.

Read also: Reforming Student Loans

Although Americans were beginning to reach a consensus regarding the need for a common school, their motivations often differed. Some advocates argued that the formation of a common school was necessary to preserve the new republic. Others argued that education was necessary for responsible citizenship, particularly with respect to the vote. On the other hand, some common school advocates saw education not as protection against a tyrannical government, but as protection against the selfishness of man. They believed education would reduce crime, prevent 'anarchy of the masses' and create more peaceful communities.

The founders of the nation had lofty goals for the common school, and while the everyday American may have appreciated their vision, economic changes made the issue of public education most relevant for them. In the early nineteenth century, America became a market economy; while the changes presented great opportunity for advancement, they also presented equal opportunity for failure and loss of social, occupational, and economic status. As a result, individuals began looking to schools as an economic safety net, and a potential vehicle for upward mobility.

Early Americans may have had the motivation for universal schooling before they had the means. The reform initiative spread through informal networks, and created a surprising amount of consensus regarding issues such as curriculum, teacher competency and preparation, school architecture, and measures of achievement. Of all the major periods of reform, perhaps the Common School Movement was the most successful. By the mid to late 1800s, most children in the north were attending school, while attendance in the south lagged only slightly. The movement was also important for establishing a link between education and citizenship, and for introducing the notion of inclusive education, available to all regardless of race, gender, religion, or social class.

The Progressive Education Era

The Civil War and subsequent reconstruction spurred educational reform initiatives, but historians generally identify the early twentieth century as the next significant period of educational reform. Known as the Progressive Era, the years between 1880 and 1930 were characterized by widespread reform, not just in relation to education, but also regarding labor, safety and health, and basic citizenship. The rapid growth of cities, and the shift from an agrarian-based society to an industrial one, all contributed to dramatic changes in American society, and as a result, the call for change.

In the wake of all these changes, policymakers and educators were debating the purpose of schooling. The Committee of Ten, sponsored by the National Education Association in 1893, represented what some refer to as the humanist viewpoint. They recommended a traditional liberal curriculum - instruction in the core subjects such as classics, mathematics, science, and history-for all students, regardless of whether the student intended to pursue higher education. Others however, and most especially businessmen and the politicians who represented them, believed students should be trained for their future occupation. They advocated a differentiated curriculum and vocational education.

By the early twentieth century, the humanists were losing ground. The National Education Association again convened a committee, but this committee was charged with developing a more relevant high school curriculum. This was the first time that school curriculum became the means through which nonacademic goals were to be attained. The committee proposed a curriculum based on "The Seven Cardinal Principles," which emphasized health, family relationships, citizenship, and vocation over academic instruction.

The debate described above was playing out simultaneously in a different arena - not only in the public school classroom, but the halls of the academy as well. John Dewey, arguably the most widely recognized educational philosopher and reformer of the twentieth century, advocated what has since become known as child-centered progressivism. Dewey believed the curriculum should be directed in part by the interests of the child, education should serve the whole child (e.g., her emotional, physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual development), and that students learn by doing. He also believed education could help eradicate social and racial inequity. At the same time, however, a second strand of progressivism-administrative progressivism-was gaining popularity through the work of Edward L. Thorndike. Based largely on principles of social efficiency and scientific management of schools, administrative progressivism led to practices such as tracking, achievement testing, bureaucratization of schools, and vocational education.

Thorndike may have eventually won the war, but both 'sides' won many different battles along the way. A backlash against child-centered progressivism known as the Essentialist Movement emerged in the 1920s, calling for higher student expectations, more discipline, and more evaluation of achievement. In the 1930s, the Progressive Education Association declared victory with the publication of the Eight Year Study, proving that children educated in non-traditional environments did as well as, if not better, than their traditionally schooled counterparts on almost all academic measures. By the beginning of WWII, reformers were calling for a Life Adjustment curriculum, once again advocating a nonacademic agenda. Despite the many twists and turns of educational reform, the next significant call for change did not occur until the late 1950s and 1960s.

The Equity Reform Movement

In 1957, the Russians beat Americans into space with the launching of the space satellite Sputnik; Americans interpreted this event as a sign of the nation's declining competitive edge, and as in times past, turned to the schools for a solution. Educators and policymakers criticized progressives for making students 'soft,' and rallied for a back-to-basics movement, with an emphasis on science and math. While certainly a memorable event, Sputnik nevertheless did not spawn a lengthy reform movement. The post-Sputnik enthusiasm for academic improvement abruptly ended, replaced as the leading national topic by the 'urban crisis'. The 'urban crisis' was largely about providing equal educational opportunities for minority students, and so the reform emphasis shifted quickly from excellence to equity.

Momentum for the equity movement began to build with the 1954 Supreme Court decision, 'Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.' In this landmark decision, the Court ruled that segregated schools-also known as "separate but equal" schooling for Black and White children-were inherently discriminatory. The equity movement got another boost in 1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act; in addition to empowering minorities with voting and employment rights, the Civil Rights Act also prohibited discrimination in schools and other institutions.

Standards-Based Reform Movement

(The information about the Standards-Based Reform Movement was not provided by the user.)

Modern Trends in Education Reform

Current education trends in the United States represent multiple achievement gaps across ethnicities, income levels, and geographies. Reforms are usually proposed by thinkers who aim to redress societal ills or institute societal changes, most often through a change in the education of the members of a class of people-the preparation of a ruling class to rule or a working class to work, the social hygiene of a lower or immigrant class, the preparation of citizens in a democracy or republic, etc. States have tried to use state schools to increase state power, especially to make better soldiers and workers, and increase nationalism. Advocates of democracy suggest that improving public education leads to better government. Politically motivated educational reforms of the democratic type are recorded as far back as Plato in The Republic. Another motivation for reform is the desire to address socio-economic problems, which many people see as having significant roots in lack of education.

Digital Education

The movement to use computers more in education naturally includes many unrelated ideas, methods, and pedagogies since there are many uses for digital computers. For example, the fact that computers are naturally good at math leads to the question of the use of calculators in math education. The Internet's communication capabilities make it potentially useful for collaboration, and foreign language learning. The computer's ability to simulate physical systems makes it potentially useful in teaching science. Another viable addition to digital education has been blended learning.

Digitally "flipping" classrooms is a trend in digital education that has gained significant momentum. The use of web tools such as wikis, blogs, and social networking sites is tied to increasing overall effectiveness of digital education in schools. The media has been instrumental in pushing formal educational institutions to become savvier in their methods.

Challenges and Criticisms

The "beliefs" of school districts are optimistic that quite literally "all students will succeed", which in the context of high school graduation examination in the United States, all students in all groups, regardless of heritage or income will pass tests typically fall beyond the ability of all but the top 20 to 30 percent of students. The claims clearly renounce historical research that shows that all ethnic and income groups score differently on all standardized tests and standards based assessments and that students will achieve on a bell curve.

The learning crisis is the reality that while the majority of children around the world attend school, a large proportion of them are not learning. A World Bank study found that "53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school." While schooling has increased rapidly over the last few decades, learning has not followed suit.

tags: #education #reform #definition