High Schools at the Tipping Point, Assessment Example

Bob Wise, the author of the article “High Schools at the Tipping Point”, argues that the current high school educational system in the United States is a broken system. His entire goal of the article is to prove that even though advancements may occur in the field or teachers succeed in reaching out to a specific group of students, the entire system is failing our youth and crippling these children for success in the local and international workforce, as well as in college.  Over 1.2 million children drop out of high school every year and barely 30% of high school freshmen can even read at their grade level (Wise, 2008, par. 2).  Wise argues that these failing statistics are caused because the current system was based on another time in the early 20^th century.  As times have changed, very little has been done to allow the system to evolve with them and this causes for children to be left behind in the classroom and end up dropping out of high school or not receiving the tools they need to succeed.

The author suggests increasing the achievement standards to the levels of college admittance; schools should supply students with personalized education and support programs designed to meet the students’ needs; educators must be trained to use rich data and technology to improve the teaching efforts.  The author also demands that a strict federal policy is put in place to force schools to adhere to higher standards and provide the funding necessary for each school to do so.  The problem that the author fails to accurately recognize is that the economy plays a major part in the overall funding that high schools receive from the federal, state and local governments. We are currently under an economy that is struggling during a recession and budgets are being cut while funding is extremely limited.  Increased training for teachers, purchasing new advanced technology, and providing additional help for each student based on individual needs sounds like an amazing plans, but the money just is not there for such an extreme overhaul of the educational system.  Wise must take a look at the overall funding of the educational system and suggest a plan that can accomplish his goals while not requiring additional funding.  If this can be achieved, then lawmakers will most likely take his ideas very seriously and work to incorporate them into educational policy.  Until then, his ideas are just words on a page.

Bibliography

National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). Table 52. In The digest of education statistics 2006. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Wise, B (2008). High schools at the tipping point. Educational Leadership, 65(9), 8-13. Retrieved on September 29, 2009, from Web site: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may08/vol65/num08/High_Schools_at_the_Tipping_Point.aspx