Effects of poor education on outcomes

Negative Affects / Consequences of Receiving a Poor Education

Testing the Efficiency of Public Education against Private Institutions: How Bad is Bad Education?

Public schools are notorious for providing a poor education for many of their students. but, exactly how poor of an education are public school students receiving? This study aims at comparing public institutions with private ones in order to show the sharp contrast between the two and how this contrast is affecting high school students in a modern world. The results of a poor education include less money earned in a professional environment, less professional and academic skills, and even worse health. If researchers can pinpoint the exact facets which are in need of reform with the help of using private institutions as a comparison, public schools will then have a clear and concise direction to improve for the behalf of their students. Reformers and researchers alike need to see the extreme discrepancies between these two institutions, as well as how much these discrepancies are truly affecting the students caught in the middle.

Education plays a much larger role than most people might think in the real world. Sure, everyone knows that a better education can open more doors and opportunities for individuals, but the idea that it can improve the health of you and your children is something that most people do not associate with higher education. Receiving a poor education lowers an individual's chances of getting a higher paying job, and places them at risk for several chronic ailments that go along with stress and irresponsible short-term decisions. However, how does one judge the efficiency of one's education?

Having a high school diploma does not always mean that one has received a good education. In fact, many children who graduate from inner city public schools still are left with a poor education which damages their verbal communication skills and limits their future professional choices. Drop outs are not the only ones suffering from the inefficiencies of the public school system. Graduates themselves later find that they are unprepared for their future academic and professional endeavors despite their diploma. The failure of public schools has been a topic of much debate for the past few decades, and reforms have met limited success. However, students are still leaving school unprepared, which haunts them throughout the rest of their life, both professionally and physically.

Yet individual coming out of many American private schools seem better off in terms of the value of their education based on the higher academic standards placed on them by their private institution. These schools have much higher graduation requirements and are known to produce much more college bound graduates; also seen in many post private graduates, better paying jobs and healthier lifestyles. Researchers and parents alike see the benefits of a private education as overwhelming surpassing those of a poor public education. Therefore in order to truly test the efficiency of most public school educations, schools and students must be tested and compared to those individuals receiving their education out of a private institutional environment.

Problem

The public education system began in America in the middle of the nineteenth century. One of the most fundamental reasons this system was created, and invested in, was to help pull children out of their uneducated poverty an give them a chance in creating a better life for themselves, "In a literal sense, public education often has been about improving poor people," (Katz, 1995:104). In fact, public education did give some of the working class children something to do, which was thought to further keep them out of criminal activities. Therefore the entire premise of a public education was to improve oneself both mentally and professionally. They were meant to yank children out of the slums their parents could not, and give them opportunities previously only dreamt about by their poor working class parents.

Yet as the public school system became more and more associated with the poor throughout the nineteenth century, many citizens who depended on its purpose ended up not taking it seriously or even rejecting it completely. After the exposition of racism and mismanagement during the age of the Civil Rights Movement, public schools everywhere increased the levels of their erosion and inefficiencies, "Along with other urban institutions, public schools had lost the legitimacy that had sustained their hold on public esteem and the public purse," (Katz, 1995:133). Public schools became more of a joke than a serious educational institution. Inner city slums schools became notorious breeding grounds for crime and despicable educations. Thousands of high school kids were graduating with a meager and poor educational foundation which only led to professional failure and health risks later in life. The public educational system was failing the very people it meant to empower, commercializing a high school diploma until it meant nothing more than a piece of paper, without the scholarly merit that is so important behind it.

As the twenty-first century dawned, it became more and more apparent to researchers, parents, and teachers exactly how inefficient the current public school system was in terms of preparing a decent education which would allow students to do well in both a secondary academic setting and in the work world. One of the 1980's most notorious school districts was the Chicago district in Illinois. This district had been on the edge of bankruptcy for years after extreme financial mismanaging. In 1985, two schools within the district had a seventy percent drop out rate, (Katz, 1995). Many of those who did make it to graduation barely met the simple state standards, which ensured a life continually lived in the ghettoes surrounding their former schools rather than signs of improvement thanks to a proper education. The schools within this district were some of the worst schools in the nation according to then president Ronald Reagan after first handedly assessing the situation in 1987. Part of the reform which naturally followed such harsh external criticism was parents and teachers blaming the extreme bureaucracy of the public education system for its inefficiency. Yet, many other examples prove that the teachers are also largely responsible. Many teachers have been known to give up on students within inner city public schools based on several reasons stemming from a long line of bureaucracy and dissatisfaction with the public school system itself. As public schools became more and more of a joke, teachers unfortunately became the ones who took them with the least seriousness.

What educators are witnessing is a full cycle of economic status tied to education. Low economic status places a child in an inefficient public system, which then ensures the vicious cycle of poverty and lower class status. This cycle continues from one generation to another, due to the fact that a child's future job will be unable to get a more expensive private education for their own future children, therefore exposing them to the same decrepit education they were force fed while in public school. What researchers are seeing is that a poor education does not only come from no education at all, but from schools with little or no interest in seeing their students succeed, schools like those seen in the Oakland and Westside Chicago districts which have the some of the highest dropout rates and lowest standardized test scores in the nation.

The declining efficiency of public institutions is sharply contrasted with much higher student achievement and success seen in privately educated children. Although not all private schools prove to be model institutions which provide their students the best possible education, many of them are far above the standards seen in most inner city public schools. Therefore, there is a problem with the different types of education modern children are receiving, which lies directly in the discrepancies between public and private standards; as seen in the future development of students in the professional and health facets of their life outside of school. A direct comparison would highlight these discrepancies in a manner which would call reform to a concise movement towards a stricter set of standards and regulations as seen in private institutions, while also allowing teachers more creative freedom to adapt lessons based on individual student needs rather than strict conforming state standards, which in many occasions fails to engage students directly with course material.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to use information coming from the past graduates of private schools in order to fully understand exactly how poor some public school educations are and exactly how that poor education is affecting public school students in the long run. By comparing both health, cognitive, and professional abilities of post graduates from these two types of institutions, the true nature of a public school education can be sharply compared with the general higher standards of a private school education. This can then lead reformers to understand the nature of public school reform, and give an example for what a quality education would look like in a real life application outside of the classroom environment.

This study also aims at showing the declining attributes of those faced with the unfortunate fate of receiving a poor education. By tracking individual's professional and academic experiences after high school, results should portray a dim picture for those individuals who lack the strong foundations of a good education. Previous research has already shown the negative affects a poor education has on individual's future academic endeavors, professional achievements, as well as general physical health. By compiling these results in direct comparison with individuals from a better private school setting, these facts can be directly highlighted and also shown to the world as avoidable rather than a continuous cycle which can never be effectively broken.

Literature Review

One of the most blatant differences between public and private schools and their resulting educations are national and state standardized tests scores. In general, students with a private school education score higher than students who have taken such tests within a public school setting, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). In comparison, private school children proved more efficient at test taking in science, mathematics, and reading. These tests are indicators that children from the fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades have discrepancies in their test taking skills and abilities when it comes to receiving a public or private education. These facts are due in part to the higher standards placed on students within a private atmosphere. In fact private schools in general force their students to adhere to higher graduation requirements in comparison to those public students of the same graduating age, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). Public schools asked their students to complete an average of 2.7 years of mathematics, while private schools had a longer requirement of 3.1 years. The enforcement of foreign language courses also proves private schools to have a higher requirement, of about 1.5 years, when compared to the low half a year which is standard in most public schools across the nation. Public school students are also less likely to take Advanced Placement courses, which serve as college credit and prepare them for higher academic standards, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). This lessons their chances of succeeding well in higher education, which as discussed later, is essential for securing a better paying job and achieving a better standard of health and living.

According to a study done by the U.S. Department of Education in 2002, public schools contained around 45,366,227 students taught by only just under two million teachers, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). This is heavily contrasted by the much more even ratios of students to teachers found in private schools, which were about 5 million students to 400,000 teachers. Research has also shown the importance of smaller class sizes in regards to better student achievement and advancement, (Lee & Smith, 1997). Smaller class sizes means more student teacher interaction, more effectively fostering the necessary components of an effective educational atmosphere. These closer relationships allow teachers to have individual interactions, better suiting lessons for the individualized learning styles of their students. These smaller classes also give teachers more incentive to work closely with their students and a much larger investment in their student's success, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). However, unlike smaller private schools, public schools tend to overcrowd classrooms with much higher student to teacher ratios. This then directly leads to many students being over generalized into a larger group, loosing that essential individual attention that each child needs with his or her teacher to foster a better overall education. What results is the utter failure of many students to care or even show up based on the fact that there is no real incentive to do so, as seen in some of the worst Westside schools in inner city Chicago, (Payne, 1984). This also provides an atmosphere where teachers cannot get in depth attention to children's parents, which would also help foster a better educational environment. With more students comes less time for individual parent meetings and discussions, leaving a huge gap between the family home and the classroom. Research has shown the greater the parental involvement with their child's education, the greater than education will develop within that child.

Public school teachers have also reported to be less likely than private school teachers in terms of their influence on school policies and curriculum, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). Most public schools must adhere to state standard guidelines, and therefore offer limited creativity in the form of teaching curriculum and practice. However, most private schools offer a greater hand in picking curriculum which therefore gets the teacher more into implementing their own version of standards. What this does is help foster a more creative environment, which proves more flexible to individual student needs. Yet, in public schools, most curriculums is standard despite the various learning methods of the students, creating a recipe for boredom, both from the students as well as the teachers involved. By allowing some private school teachers to expand on these standards rather than strictly adhere to them, many schools offer a better chance for students with alternative styles of learning. In many public schools, however, these same students are met with resistance for adaptation of the lessons, resulting in an unclear experience of classroom curriculum.

The result of these crucial differences between public and private institutions proves to be less academic and professional success on behalf of public school students. An average 52% percent of privately educated students have earned a Bachelor's Degree or higher by their mid-twenties, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). This is a stark contrast to the 26% of students who were educated through a strictly public institution. These students are also much less likely to enter into a graduate program to achieve a postsecondary degree. The research is clear; private schools better prepare their students for college. A college education can increase earnings and get each individual a better job resulting in a better quality of life.

Another alarming fact about the discrepancies between private and public institutions, the lack of large populations of minority students who achieve the stronger education offered b a private institutional setting. In the 1999-2000 school year, the U.S. Department of Education found that 17% of public school students were African-American, 15% were of Hispanic origin, and 63% were Caucasian, (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). This means that public schools are generally the only route for education most inner city minorities have based on previous economic and class status which then limits exactly how much each individual can improve his or her life. Without receiving a proper education, they are placed into a vicious cycle, repeating their future generations to a fate of a poor education. This is countered with the lack of working class students in private schools outside of racial classifications, "Private schools are less likely than public schools to enroll in LEP students or students who are eligible for the National Lunch Program," (Alt, Martha Naomi & Peter, Katharin, 2002). Without the better educational advantages of a private institution, many of this nation's poor and underprivileged are bound to remain in that lower class state thanks to a poor education.

Those students who are stuck with the half-hazard education mass produced through most inner city public schools find themselves disadvantaged in several key facets which are necessary to establish oneself in a world outside of the classroom. One of the most fundamental and foundational teaching in school represents language skills and organization. Students with a poor education therefore lack in language skills, which can haunt them in both academic, real world, and professional settings. Many separate research studies have proven the importance of language within the modern world, (Payne, 1984, Seligman, Tucker, & Lambert, 1972). Most children within a positive a fruitful academic environment will gain the essential grammatical skills which will help allow for proper speech and language skills -- "essential for good jobs later in life. However, many children within poor educational environments will develop distorted language skills lacking of the basic foundations which their verbal communication should rest upon; in short "Language stigmatizes," (Payne, 1984:106). Students who fail to learn basic syntax and semantics adopt a slang version of English in place of true grammatical understandings of the English language. Seemingly insignificant improper language skills limit the future professional's breadth in job choices. Without the foundations of verbal and written communication, individuals are unable to efficiently express themselves and their ideas, leaving a distorted image of themselves in the eyes of the proper professional world.

Without a proper educational background, many adults find themselves lost in the work world. Very limited professions are open to those with a poor education. Those who do complete high school at a poor institution like an inner city public school are sometimes still left miles behind their private school counterparts, which also limit their ability to land a steady and desired job within an already declining economy. The more uneducated an individual is, the more likely the percentage is for that individual to be unemployed. In fact over 7.1% of high school drop outs are unemployed according to a survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2006. This is sharply contrasted with the 2.2% of individuals holding Bachelor's degrees being unemployed and about 1.4% of individuals holding Doctoral degrees, (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). Higher unemployment rates are also a feature of many inner cities in comparison to America's suburbs. Those who can afford housing outside the cities most likely have had a decent education which later landed them a good paying job -- "therefore less unemployment rates.

Speaking of the professional world, there are several key differences between educated and uneducated individuals within a working environment. First, notably is the level of income which most people earn based in comparison to others with different educational backgrounds. When looking through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is obvious that those with higher education levels make more money. In terms of median usual weekly earnings, individuals with Doctoral degrees earn an average of $1,421 a week, reaching an estimated $73,000 annually, (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). This one of the highest earning classes in regards to educational categories, and the amount only decreases from there. This then drops to an average of $1,370 a week with a Professional degree, $1,129 per week with a Master's, and $937 for Bachelor's degrees. When the average turns towards the educational classes most associated with inner city public schools make up the last few tiers of the scale. An Associate's degree averages to around $699 per week, which is slightly above the national average of $696, (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Individuals with a high school diploma drop to around $583 per week, and those who had faced the unfortunate fate of dropping out average around $409 dollars per week, or a little over $20,000 annually.

A lack of a good education can also have detrimental affects on the general health of individuals forced to deal with a poor academic experience. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006, one's physical health can be affected by the stresses caused by a poor education. According to research, individuals without a high school diploma have an increased risk for chronic diseases, (Hearst Communications, 2006). These ailments can include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Many individuals without high schools diplomas are more likely to die at a younger age than their more educated peers. Dr. Tony Iton of Oakland California had commenced on a research study which examined the social after effects of high school drop outs on their physical well being and health. The Oakland School District boasts a 52% drop out rate in its local high schools. By comparing the mortality rates and life expectancies in different areas of Oakland, he noticed that those living in more affluent communities had a much better education, along with better health in general, "High school graduation rates tell me so much about what is happening socially in that community, that I can tell you how soon people are going to die on average in that community based on that one variable alone," (Hearst Communications, 2006). Education provides a system and foundation for a hopeful future, one which individual's will care for themselves in order to pursue. Yet, without that good educational background "And without hope for the future, people tend to make short-term decisions. They are more likely to smoke, to drink to excess, to use recreational drugs and to engage in reckless sexual practices, because they aren't thinking about the future. Their future is today," (Hearst Communications, 2006). Not only is education an important predictor in each individual's own health, but it also a predictor of one's child's health as well. The education of the parents is crucial for the benefits associated with education to trickle down to their children, "Parents' schooling, especially mothers' schooling, is also the most important predictor of children's health," (Chou, Grossman, Joyce, & Liu, 2007). Therefore it is extremely important for mothers to have a good educational background. However, when this fails to occur, many uneducated parents fail to make larger investments in their children's future, which can cause irrational decisions and poor judgments in parenting. These findings have spurred governments around the globe to increase educational programs for would-be parents.

In response to these findings regarding the importance of education in later life, the U.S. government has begun implementing nation wide strategies to improve the education American youngsters are receiving. One of the most infamous programs is that of the No Child Left Behind program which ensures free in home tutoring to low income families with at-risk children, (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). This program, first initiated in 2001, is geared at helping boost children's grades based on individual one-on-one tutoring with a trained professional. This and other programs similar in nature to the NCLB program aim to raise state standards in public schools across the nation to help ensure a better public school education for each individual child, (Thompson & Barnes, 2007). They also place more responsibility in the hands of the parents to help broaden their child's educational opportunities with self-enrollment and parent seminars. However, many critics of the NCLB program claim that the standards set are to vague, and that tutors are not allowed to work on the child's homework with them, which would be the best use of private tutoring time. Basically, opponents of NCLB say that it doesn't help the child in his or her everyday existence in their public education, ignoring the importance of grades over state and federal standards.

Hypothesis

How do we then judge the basis of a good education? Based on national averages, private schools are known to set higher standards, therefore resulting in a more thorough education than most public schools. Therefore, private institutions can serve as a basis of comparison for exactly how good of education America's public schools are mass producing for the millions of students enrolled within public institutions. This study aims to use a comparison between predetermined private and public institutions to help answer the question of what is a good education, and how that education affects the life after high school of the students involved.

Design

Participants

Some previous studies have involved thousands of students and teachers in the effort to determine exactly how detrimental a poor education is for a child's future endeavors. However, as pointed out by Charles M. Payne in his research, this approach gives "an undeserved air of credibility," (Payne, 1984:105) which can blur the results and cloud any attempts at future research. In accordance with such suggestions, this study will focus on applying a real world spin on the forgoing research which would help emulate real life results without clouding conclusions with too many different results. Therefore, a smaller number of students picked specifically by school should be followed after their graduation from high school. Schools should be chosen by standings on a national level. Private schools chosen should represent the best standards as well as the lowest ranking standards to give an idea of what even the worst private education has against the best public schools. The same should be done for public schools, the best and worst are necessary in order to give a wider picture of the world of public education. An average of five schools per category should be included, with as many as the graduating seniors enrolled participating.