Teaching Quality in the United States

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/08/22/teacher.quality.ap/index.html

As a student wworking towards my teaching degree, I have taken interest in the education system, as I may be a part of it one day. I was thrilled, but wary as the No Child Left Behind Act was passed. Our nation has a right to be wary, the education system in our country has fallen into a state that is absolutely disgraceful. But, the development this Act led our country to believe that the government was finally putting the topic of education into a place of importance. Since the establishment of the No Child Left Behind Act, it has remained in the headlines for its lack of practicality and funding. In recent news, the Act has once again been under fire for its demand for adequate teacher qualification. At first glance, this demand seems perfectly reasonable. This is an obvious goal that any education system should strive for. The conflict and confusion there in lies in the strategy for achieving such a goal.

How can the Federal Government's Education Department enforce such demands if each individual state is responsible for its own guidelines? Certainly, some states will flawlessly enforce guidelines that support the movement towards teacher adequacy, but what about the states who are already struggling with their public school system? Will they be capable at this time to make such changes? And even if all of the states manage to pass some sort of guideline, there are bound to be states that are more or less lax, and states that have lesser qualified teachers than others.

It is already very apparent that the education systems of many states are lacking. I have seen the econtrast for myself over my academic lifetime. From second grade through my Freshman year of highschool, I attended public schools in San Antonio and Spring Branch Texas. The public school system in both cities provided a challenging curriculum that adequately prepared me for college. The campuses were clean and well maintained, the extra curricular activities were well organized and received sufficient funding, and most, if not all of my teachers had a masters in their academic field. My family moved to Mobile, Alabama the summer before I started my sophomore year of high school. Over the summer we investigated the public schooling options. We spoke with administration, researched test scores and national ranking, and even visited a few campuses. Over all, we were incredibly disappointed. The curriculum did not compare in any way, nor did contain nearly enough of the course requirements necessary to truly be successful in college. Many of the extra curricular activities were poorly organized and poorly funded, and the campuses were in dire need of repair and updated technology. In the end, we decided that a private university was our only option if I were to continue the academic pace that I had in the past.

Because of the lack of attention and funding, the Alabama Public School System struggles to compare to that of other states. I am certain that this situation applies to many other state school systems. So, is it truly fair for the Education Department to demand satisfactory qualification of all teachers nationwide? Is it fair when many state education systems lag behind? How can fifty states all have comparable education systems when some place great importance on the subject, and some do not? I think that such a demand is unreasonable. If the Education Department wants to improve the qualification of teachers nation wide, it should take a stand and take matters out of the hands of the State Governments. To truly improve our school systems on a national level, we need to have unified goals and objectives that are well enforced. That is simply not practical if we are dealing with education on a state level. Teacher adequacy, curriculum, and funding will always be a problemif the matters are left to the states. And, our place globally, as a world power, will suffer if we continue to neglect the future thinkers of America.