Education reform initiatives and policy outcomes

Education Reform in America

Year round schooling

At the moment, American schools work on a 10-month system due to their system being based on the traditional agrarian schedule when children were needed to work in the fields during the summer. Times are, however, different now, so people are lobbying for a different schools system with a much shorter summer break. Essentially, schools will continue to operate on a 180-day schedule, but with shorter vacational breaks

Different plans have been made. One of these is the 45-15 plan where students attend school for 45 consecutive days with 15 days off, and the regular breaks of spring, winter, and summer still existent.

There are also the 60-20 and the 90-30 plans as well as organizing school years around different systems of tracking. Tracking plans include the single-track education year where all schools receive the same calendar day vacations, whereas multi-tracking differentiates its day-off system between schools where different schools have vacation occurring at different times. The advantage of the latter system is that, although complex, it saves school districts expense (Kelly (n.d.)).

Technology in education

The bjective of having computers in all schools and in all classrooms from k-12 has been a largely successful endeavor. Technology has the dual role of relieving teacher pressure and enriching student's comprehension whilst teaching them computer skills at the same time.

The report, A Nation at Risk (1983) was the impetus of education reform in the area of technology. Standardization of test preparation and merit pay programs did little to raise standards and decrease high dropout rates so systemic reform occurred which demanded clear and succinct goals and across-the-system change.

One of these Goals 2000 that were put into effect was the introduction of computers in every school and in every classroom throughout the nation. Computers allow the teachers to regularly network with other educators and also provide active collaborative learning and assessment. E-mail provides ability for 'peer review' and editing of assignments whilst word processing programs enables students to creates their own ideas and documents. More sophisticated programs encourage inquiry-based learning where students explore new fields and format solutions in all sorts of creative manners to all sorts of fields. Computer also assists the teacher in that students can work independently at certain programs whilst others receive teacher-based instruction. In many ways, therefore, technology has become part of the school-based reform. (EdWeb.com)

After school programs