Reflection #8

The three waves of educational reform are very important in Americas education system today. Together these three waves build up a successful school system that ensures results from the teachers and students. The first wave, is based more on economics. It began in 1982. It began after the report “a Nation at risk” which stated that Americas education system was falling behind. There were too many illiterate adults and unsatisfactory test scores from students. They wanted higher expectations from the students in the five basic topics; English, Math, Science, Social science, and Computer science. Many companies complained about uneducated employees and the hassle of having to teach employees basics. This wave was mainly about raising standards. The nation wanted to raise test scores and the effectiveness of teachers and students. They wanted the quality of education to increase. The second wave focused more on the quality of the education. This wave was led by Theodore Sizer, John Goodlad, and Ernest Boyer. They stressed that teachers focused more on the depth of the curriculum rather than trying to cover more topics at once. They wanted to make sure that students had a full understanding of the topics in the curriculum. These educators noticed the lack of interest coming from teachers and the low academic results coming from students. They wanted to make sure that teachers grasped a more professional and higher position in their job. They wanted teachers to feel powerful and enthusiastic about their job. The greater the enthusiasm, the greater the academic results from the students. They focused making sure teachers played a big role in the decisions being made. The third wave, which happens to be my favorite, focused on seeing schools as more than just “educational facilities”. This wave was all about making students and parents feel comfortable around the school system. It created “Full Service Schools” which is basically a program that provides social services, nutrition,transportation, health care and parent education. It makes sure that students and parents are on top of the priority list. It wants schools to be a place where children and parents can visit at other times other than the time classes are being held. It conducts extracurricular activities and clubs in order to keep students busy and out of trouble. It is responsible for the needs of students. It provides health care and counseling. This wave, in my opinion was the one that stood out the most for me. It seems like a very important wave. Growing up I was always at school and so were my parents. They had great communication with all my teachers and my mom attended all of the activities at the school. I participated in clubs and took advantage of all the things my school had to offer. I believe that having all of these great benefits were essential growing up. They helped me stay focused in my education and always kept me out of trouble. For example, in order to participate in clubs, you had to have certain grades. This was definitely a motivation booster to always keep my grades up throughout school. The third wave benefits many students and parents that are struggling and are not financially stable. I think that is very important seeing as many parents get caught up in their financial situations and sometimes loose focus on their child's education.