Final Research

Introduction

The education system of any nation is perhaps the most important sector of any government. Different nations have different educational programs depending on the needs of the nations and the legislations enacted in those countries; therefore, a country takes concerted effort to frame its educational sector in a manner that best suits the citizens of the nation. The United States has framed its education system on the basic rule that child education is free and mandatory (Knaus, 2007). To this end, the government has ensured that all public schools provide free education to all children, and thus, there is funding of schools structured right from federal funding to state and local funding. In the same respect, there is compulsory education for children in the entire nation; however, the compulsory age varies from state to state (Cohen & Spenciner, 2007). The average age for compulsory education varies from around the age of 5-8 to about 15-18 years. The education system in the United States is divided into grades ranging from 1^st grade to about 12^th grade (Owens & Sunderman, 2006). Conventionally, the structure of education is divided into three broad levels with the first level being an elementary school, which is composed of kindergarten and early levels of education. The second level is the middle school, which is commonly referred to as junior high school. The third level is referred to the high school, which may be associated with or likened to secondary schools. When comparing elementary education in the US with other countries, it is imperative to distinguish terminologies. For instance, in the US, elementary education is used to mean the initial formal education offered to children before secondary schools. In the education systems of other countries, primary education entails the elements of elementary education in the US. Under American elementary education system, the aspect of primary education involves first level, which includes kindergarten, and first to third grades. This paper reviews the education system employed in elementary schools with particular emphasis on its historical development, current legislations and professional organizations that are concerned with elementary education in the United States, and best practices related to the curriculum and instruction. Finally, the paper will review improvements, controversial issues and the major problems facing elementary education.

Historical Development of Elementary Education in the US

            Elementary schools are universally considered as the fundamental foundational institution for any structure of formal education, and trace its history back to the colonial period, wherein elementary schools were under the control of the church and provided a foundational curriculum involving reading, arithmetic, writing and religion. Elementary schools were governed mostly local trustees during the colonial period, which is still a dominant feature in the present day elementary schools. During the early national period, the US government embarked on the establishment of the American version of elementary education with the primary goal of creating the American edition of English and instilling American identity among young learners using instruction (Knaus, 2007). During 1830-40s, there was the shift from the church controlled schools towards public schools, which used mutual instruction as a common method of elementary schooling. The first half of the 19^th century saw the formation of the state elementary schools that were state-supported. Besides state-supported elementary schools, the US also established private elementary schools, which were mostly controlled by churches; at present, private elementary schools account for about 11% of pupils in the United States (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2010).

Best Practices related to Curriculum and Instruction in Elementary Education

The United States has its first level of education referred to as elementary school education. The composition of elementary school begins right from kindergarten where children begin their first classes. Early childhood education experts have argued that this perhaps the most important part of any educational system (Cohen & Spenciner, 2007). The elementary system further proceeds to include first grade all the way to eighth grade in some states. Other states have their elementary level ending at either fourth or sixth grade. At this level, the very basic education subjects are taught in order to prepare the child for expanded learning module. Additionally, students at this level are usually taught from the same class and may only change classrooms in special subjects such as music, physical education and art (Owens & Sunderman, 2006). In this respect, it is very important that the process through which elementary is crafted in a manner that future consideration are put in place.

Public elementary school system is one that is expressly provided for in the US education system. A typical class in the public elementary school must have between twenty to thirty students at any point in time. Hanushek & Lindseth (2010) explain that this number may also be composed of students with sundry learning requirements without any sort of separation at this age. Elementary schools allow student such as those gifted with cognitive or athletic skills and those with disabilities as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to be pooled in the same classroom (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2010). The IDEA is a Federal law that expressly provides guideline on defining and attending to persons with learning disabilities. Thus, different school districts have the prerogative of developing learning methods and material that will assist different children at elementary level. In addition, different school boards or local governments require that each school must have a board or a committee that identifies and addresses the issues or assisted learning at elementary school.

Just like many nations, the United States elementary schools have a limited number of subjects in elementary schools. Students in the elementary schools study basic mathematics such as algebra and simple evaluations, wherein simple mathematical evaluations of logic are impacted on the child in order to prepare the child for progressive future cognitive evaluation. The second subject that is given much priority is the English language, wherein students are taught proficiency in grammar and spelling. In addition to these, vocabulary is also taught in English lessons. Finally, students are taught fundamentals and foundational studies in other subjects such as sciences, art, music and social sciences. However, the extent to which these subjects are taught is usually defined by the curriculum adopted by the school.

The extent to which an education system is maintained and the standards of learning formulated usually depends on the curriculum set by the educational management of a country (Schiller, Ellen, & O’Reilly, 2007). The curriculum employed in several schools in the United States is determined by the school district, which is an independent unit of the state government concerned mainly with the management of the educational standards and curriculum used in public schools. The school districts have the role of determining the textbooks and guides used in elementary schools. A typical educational curriculum is based on expected standards with progressive assessments and benchmarks on the part of the student and the trainers. The curriculum also defines the duration of the elementary schools as they may vary from state to state (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2010).

The school districts, apart from determining the curriculum to be used in elementary schools, have the mandate of determining the level of training for teachers who will work at elementary schools (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2010). Teachers expected to work at elementary schools have a more significant role as than other teachers in various educational levels. This is because of the fundamental fact that, apart from cognitive training to the children, these teachers have the role of monitoring the psychological development of the children (Owens & Sunderman, 2006). With this in mind, teachers have the role of reviewing the performance of the children, not just in the understanding the subjects of the class, but also their psychological growth from one grade to another. Moreover, it is left to the teachers to try and indentify students with learning disabilities or other forms of disabilities such as those that may not appear physically. For this reason, several states require that teachers undergo bachelors training and in other cases master’s degree in early childhood development may be required.

Current Legislations Shaping Elementary Schools

There are several legislations that enacted by the United States Congress to impose certain standards on the education system in the country. For instance, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, provided for federal funding of all public schools in the country (Knaus, 2007). The Act, signed into law on 11^th of April 1965 by President L.B. Johnson was a flagship program in the famous movement ‘War on Poverty’.  The Act had the primary objective of ensuring that all public primary and secondary schools would be funded by federal coffers and at the same time ensured that a federal curriculum would not be developed (Owens & Sunderman, 2006). As a consequence, the Act ensures that all children would have mandatory and free education under the watch of teachers who have sufficient qualifications.

Perhaps, the most common and comprehensive legislation that Congress has passed is the No Child Left Blind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The Act was passed by Congress during the George Bush Administration amidst condemnation of the United States education administration system (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2010). The public was outraged by the standards of education that was imposed in public schools; thus, this legislation was aimed at improving the standards of education. In order to achieve this, the Act proposed that all state funded schools have a benchmark through which the standards of education can be measured. According to Owens & Sunderman (2006), the Act proposed that all students in public schools undertake a national exam that would used to gauge the performance all schools within the state. The results from such test would then be used to evaluate the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the schools. The AYP requires that existing fourth graders must do better in the state standardized than the fourth graders of the previous year; this will ensure that the school concentrates on improving the performance of the school each year (Schiller, Ellen, & O’Reilly, 2007).

The Act also envisaged a situation where a school is found to persistently report poor results. In such a case, where an institution is found to report poor results over a period of two years, the school district board is required to label the institution as non-performing. This will then allow the school administration to draft a two-year plan that stipulates the measures to be taken in order to improve the school average. In case an institution misses to improve its AYP scores in for a third consecutive year, the school is required to provide additional schooling hours to students who have difficulty in class. The Act provides other corrective measures for failure to improve AYP scores all the way to the fifth consecutive year. Knaus (2007) argues that the NCLB legislation has had a positive impact on the performance of several states. Because of the law, increased accountability has ensured that schools and their administration take a concerted effort in evaluating the performance of each student and attending to student who struggle through class times. Students also have the opportunity to gauge themselves and their performance both in class and outside vis-à-vis the rest of the students in the entire state. However, there are several problems that still plague the elementary school system. One of the main problems is the segregation of schools or rather now referred to as re-segregation.

Challenges and Controversial Issues Facing Elementary Education

Segregation in schools is the state where public schools are separated, in terms of student enrolment and facilities according to race. The problem was very severe in the United States leading to a landmark ruling by the country’s Supreme Court in the Brown vs. Board of Education case of 1954 (Knaus, 2007). The case declared segregation in public schools illegal. Therefore, the government embarked on an integrating program, which met fierce resistance from the public (Owens & Sunderman, 2006). Eventually, because of the many hurdles and other resistances, re-segregation has emerged recently in public schools in the United States.

Many reasons account for the recent wave re-segregation in the public schools. The first primary reason was the original lawful meaning of segregation, as defined by the Supreme Court in the 1954 Brown case. The court defined racial segregation as the separation of the races by official state action (de jure segregation). This then provided a guideline for integration program based on this definition, in the sense that, integration simply meant the eradication of state laws and government practices that enforced these laws (Schiller, Ellen, & O’Reilly, 2007). However, the eradication of state laws demanding the separation of the races did not change segregated residential patterns, nor did it prevent a range of other strategies adopted by some Southern states and school districts for shunning significant integration. This paved way for a “lawfully” acceptable form of segregation. Even to date, some neighborhoods are predominantly occupied by a specific race and this is not by design (Schiller, Ellen, & O’Reilly, 2007).

There are also several reasons as to why reintegration may have failed. According to Knaus (2007), desegregation leads to a massive increase in racial related violence in schools leading to the failure of the program. Whites were the majority in the good and well equipped public schools, and for this reason, some white students developed alpha characters. These students exhibited a very violent and repulsive behavior toward students of other races.

School integration is a very vital tool, not just in the achieving school racial balance but also in instilling respect to other social and cultural values of other races to the student and the larger society. This integration is also essential in attaining educational goals such as improved race relations and academic performance of minority children (Schiller, Ellen, & O’Reilly, 2007). From past studies, it was noted that, schools that were predominantly white were highly equipped compared to those attended by minority races, giving the minority children lower opportunity of access high education standards (Owens & Sunderman, 2006). Therefore, it is imperative that meaningful integration be adopted in the public schools for the sake of the cultures and state of education in the country. Some strategies forwarded to fight re-segregation in the public schools are diverse and most are tailored to the region or district

Conclusion

An education system is conceivably the most important unit of any government or community. The United States educational system has been undergoing consistent change since the 19^th century. However, with the digital age and the new concepts of e-commerce and innovation, education has taken center-stage in almost all economies. However, while there are persistent calls for improved technological know-how and innovation, little attention has been directed at the foundations of education, that is, elementary level. Elementary education has been chosen for review in this research because of the simple reason that it is the first encounter for structured education in the country. Experts argue that the elementary school education sets the stage for future modeling of the child as they go through the education system. The elementary level of education is the most important part of education as it shapes cognitive and psychological aspect of a developing brain. There is need to evaluate the elementary school system within the purview of common practice and the areas that need improvement.

References

Cohen, L. G., & Spenciner, L. J. (2007). Assessment of children & youth with special needs. (3rd edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Hanushek, E. A., & Lindseth, A. A. (2010). Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the funding-achievement puzzle in America’s public schools. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Knaus, C. (2007). Still Segregated Still Unequal: Analyzing the Impact of No Child Left Behind on African American Students. Retrieved July 5, 2012, from www.berkeleyrep.org: http://www.berkeleyrep.org/school/images/Knaus.pdf

Owens, A., & Sunderman, G. L. (2006). School Accountability under NCLB: Aid or Obstacle for Measuring Racial Equity? Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.

Schiller, Ellen, & O’Reilly, F. (2007). Marking the Progress of IDEA Implementation, published by the Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved July 2012, 2012, from www.nclid.unco.edu: http://nclid.unco.edu/Resources/IDEA_Progress.pdf