The End!

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 

- Mark Twain

Alas, it is nearly the end of our high school careers, and I have now completed my senior project in its entirety. I have completed over 65 articles of research averaging 26 pages each for a total of nearly 1700 pages. I have spent 50 hours alongside my mentor who has helped guided me on my mission to find the problems in education, and another 65 hours completing independent components - projects I have assigned myself.

The infamous senior research project has opened my eyes into the world of inequity. Education suffers from a myriad of problems, and multiple sources have pointed out potential solutions. Awaiting the technological classroom revolution, formfitting our curriculum to suit workforce needs, and giving more welfare programs to the disadvantaged have all been on our agenda - But none of that solves the problem.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the wealthiest students in America on average receive 4-6 times the individual student expenditures that disadvantaged students receive. This hugely increased amount of resources gives a large disadvantage to students who actually need the federal and state support. In this way, inequality has played a huge part in education, and has to be resolved before anything can be done with our educational system.

If we eliminate relative inequality in America, we will not only solve the crisis of our educational system, but also of our slumping economy, damaged workforce, and hurt society.

Post Spring Break!

Over the break, I have found something markedly interesting about my topic. As it turns out, education has an even larger correlation with socioeconomic status than I have previously thought.

According to Laura Post's article "Inequality in Teaching & Schooling", by Stanford University, there is almost a linear relationship between the median amount of income per household to the mean performance on standardized tests and G.P.A. In addition, high-income white students outperform all students of all other given ethnicities on all areas of achievement. The wealthiest schools on average, have individual student expenditures 4-6 times more than low income schools. One of the infographics can be found below.

Before this read, I was under the impression that income and social inequality were social constructs that were behind us in the past, but I now understand that they still pose extremely large threats within our society, and will continue to hinder our progress if we don't do something. This might also make for an interesting turn in my senior project. Hmmm...

Educational Variance - A hardship!

 "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

 - Aristotle.

The more I research into the United States' complex educational system, the more I question. The most outright current problem with it is that none of it is unified. Going over from California to Nevada may result in a change on any given test of up to 15 mean percentile points, according to the Economics of BA Ambivalence, by the University of Minnesota.

Each state - in terms of education - seems to function independently of its neighbors, with Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia having the lowest median standardized test scores, while Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland have the highest median scores.

This variance proves to be a major problem in my research because when research papers often compare the United States to other countries, it allows for the extremely low scoring states to bring down the overall average and therefore adds a large error to the results. From now on, I must keep this in mind in order to accurately compare other country's results to the United States. On the other hand, I think this educational variance is what speaks for itself in terms of the United State's overall educational performance.

Valentine's Day!

 "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

This past month has been very busy. I have recently gotten into negotiations with my mentor regarding the mentorship hour count which shall come very soon. We both reached consensus on increasing my overall count of hours by my participation in a financial research project, aimed to simulate the management of a theoretical organization.

In addition to my mentor's research project, which shall be due on the first week of May, I have been wanting to integrate my new found fascination with technology into my year long project of education. I have been formulating a second or third answer for quite a while now, and may later integrate some sort of technology into my project. After all, technology and education go hand in hand with each other as both are very rapidly expanding fields.

Post New Years.

 "The more that you read, the more that you will know. The more that you know, the more places that you will go."

- Dr.Seuss

 

This January, I had been suggested by an unknown soul to continue on my mission of education by looking at the world's leading examples, and comparing them to ourselves. My search has led me to examine the educational systems of Finland, Singapore, and China. So far, Singapore and Finland seem the most likely candidates, but Singapore has major problems with income distribution, and I would not like to further complicate my issue. Finland has its own distinctive cultural problems, but I feel it has more to offer because of its unified and exemplary education.

"Learning and Competence 2020: Strategy of the Finnish National Education Board" was a recent article I examined, and it revealed stirring revelations of Finnish success. As it turns out, the recent successes have only really taken place in the past 10-20 years, as the system was barely implemented in the 1970s as part of a cultural reform. Finland still has strong cultural stigmas within its culture that may hinder its educational system from staying the world's best in the future.

Finland owes multiple things to its success. All teachers require a Master's Degree, and the teaching profession is a very competitive, prestigious field viewed in the same way that we currently view lawyers and doctors. In addition, it seems to be fed by the demands of the job market. In other words, if the demands of the market changes, so do the curricula of the children in the Finnish system.

Overall, my holidays were fantastic. I learned a lot about foreign educational systems, and how we may be able to implement them here. Cheers!

Mentorship Update!

Over the past couple of months, I have steadily been working with my mentor, David Bower. Initially, there were some restrictions as to what I could do for the agency, seeing how financially secure everything had to be, and I was primarily restricted to 1 hour conversations about finance towards running operations. However, after several weeks of having my trust earned among administration, I was finally permitted to assist the office with clerical and secretarial work involving clients, and I had an opportunity to see how actual organizations were run.

In a word, precise. Precision is everything in an organization, especially around finances. Everyone has to be on top of every situation and every arising situation there can possibly be - Excuses are not an option. My mentor himself has a very detailed way of arranging meetings and laying out his schedule, being sure to leave room for any complications that may arrive at any given time. To clarify, it's not actually my mentor who schedules his time - It's his secretary.

I have now visited my mentor a number of times, and have earned the trust to sit in on professional presentations and assist the company similar to how an intern would. Admittedly, I sometimes have a bit of trouble comprehending some of the financial and organizational terms thrown out in the open - Mr. David is extremely, extremely knowledgeable. However, in the future, I will be able to assist my mentor in gradually bigger things, and perhaps even work with clients.

I am still figuring out how to add photographs to my experience, though. I think taking pictures of a secure financial office would be frowned upon, in the least...

The Complexities of Administration.

This month the article that had captured my attention the most was an entry entitled "Review of Weighted Student Funding" - a dense, though official report made by the National Educational Policy Center. Through it, I learned that California's current educational financial structure focuses on children in need more than the average student - namely socioeconomically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.

Though I initially found this to be quite pleasing, as I had read further into the article it was revealed that a large portion of the money designated towards these causes do not actually reach their destination, presumably because of concerns with administration. The article also demonstrates that socioeconomically disadvantaged students may not be ideal candidates for a bonus of student funding because of a plethora of external factors such as the environment, specific school, and misleading statistics that may skew their scholastic performance to be better or worse than students within other regions.

It was also revealed to me through this article that the money that has not gone to the designated areas where it was supposed to is very difficult in pinpointing who is responsible for the respective failures in performance. The educational budget system, and in fact, most government operated systems that revolve around public affairs are extremely difficult to understand in terms of implementation, much less to pinpoint when and where exact financial mishaps have occured.

All in all, it just goes to show you - Educational Administration is run by a very complex system that is simply too complex for an operation that is aimed to assist its people.

The Fins!

Over the past month and a half of research I have completed, I have been stopped by a rather odd fact. The World Education Index is compiled from the Mean Years of Schooling Index and the Expected Years of Schooling Index - Creative names, I know - which also take into account educational performance. The United States has an index of 0.968, according to the most recent data, and this ranks it at #21 in the world. Finland has an index of 0.993, ranking it at #1.

Why all the success? Well, with some research, it's actually not a surprise. In Finnish counties, teachers and other professionals in schooling are selected from the top 10% of the nation, and are required to have a Master's Degree in Education. Becoming a teacher in Finland also happens to be very well-compensated, so much so that elementary school teachers often carry the prestige of an M.D. - On the other hand, they're also required to go through the nonstop rigors of both student and faculty assessment.

Besides a well-trained and well-equipped teaching staff, Finnish schools also contain a number of elements crucial to early childhood development. Students are expected to help one another, and all of them go through the same program, due in part to the freedom districts allow teachers. Many schools are small enough so that the teachers know every student personally. After secondary school, students can either attend an upper secondary school or vocational school to learn a trade.

As it turns out, it is no surprise to why Finland is leading the race in education. Now, the question is - How do we do even better?

How to be a teacher!

Recently, I have read a quite...eye opening article, if I do say! As part of my project, I plan to analyze the current model of education, its flaws, and work my way up from there. In order to do this, I must learn current teaching methods. Oh, the irony! Learning to become a teacher! Gah!

Anyways, according to an interesting article entitled "Effective, Efficient Teaching" - published by Purdue University, mind you - the most important thing about teaching is for students not only to learn the correct content, but also - to learn how to learn! 

I have also learned from this handy little article that teachers have to be organized, analytical, and be able to set boundaries between students - In fact, that's essentially the entire point of the beginning of the year syllabus! In order for students to learn the most effectively, they also have to take tests, be given material that reinforces the knowledge of previous material, and be given short breaks. The average student has an attention span 15 to 20 minutes long.

Perhaps the most important element of effective teaching is a style of learning found prominently throughout IPoly - Hands on learning! Many studies have found that students learn most effectively when included in active learning exercises such as discussion and problem solving within small groups, as well as brainstorming.

Many teachers have also personally found that individuals will respond best when treated as individuals, and as fully responsible adults.

In short, effective teachers have a lot of responsibilities. They must be attentive towards their students, providing them not only with the needed materials to learn, but with respect, courtesy, and individual attention. Most importantly, teachers have to teach students how to learn on their own.

And this is going to bring us to the wrath and ingenuity of the Individual Component, but more on that later! For now, good teachers and staff, farewell.