Living in the United States, we experience freedoms such as free public education, that many other countries may never experience. Even though the United States is an influential leader in the world, its education rankings on a global scale are immensely mediocre. America is ranked 38th in mathematics and 24th in science in the world rankings, which is not what other global leaders would expect from such an innovative country (Desilver). To improve the global rankings of the United States’ education system, local governments need to re-evaluate teacher performance in the classrooms, student motivations, and the system in place for all public schools. To do this, teachers have to be better qualified with improved teaching methods, students have to acknowledge their individual responsibility for their own learning, and the education system needs to implement more productive policies for the overall benefit of our nation.  

In order to improve education in America, we have to offer better training for the teachers, genuine support from administrators and policy makers, make the profession more financially appealing and encourage teachers to build relationships with their students to increase student motivation and performance.  Teachers are at the forefront of this need for change because they are the ones that are teaching the children of tomorrow. Bill Gates, spoke about the need to increase teacher criticism in order to make it easier and provide specific reasons and ways to go about making themselves more effective teachers in his 2013 Ted Talk. He goes on to say, “The system we have today is not fair to them. It is not fair to students, and it is putting America's global leadership at risk. So today I want to talk about how we can help all teachers get the tools for improvement they want and deserve,” (Gates). Prior to this, he explains how more than 98% of teachers just received the word “Satisfactory” as a way to denote their teaching abilities. He goes into describing Shanghai’s teaching programs and how they continuously search for ways to make teachers more compatible with students by offering more specific criticisms (Gates). Gates goes on to say, “If today's average teacher could become as good as those teachers, our students would be blowing away the rest of the world. So we need a system that helps all our teachers be as good as the best,” (Gates). Bill Gates sponsored a program with over 3,000 teachers involved.  The program filmed the educators, offered constructive criticism, and the results provided powerful feedback for authentic teacher reflection.  He says we need to diagnose the problem and also give them the tools they need to improve upon their weaknesses. This is something our local governments can assist with improving by training, coaching, critiquing, and providing specific areas that need improvement to our teachers.

Teachers in the United States are paid much less compared to other first world countries with impeccable education programs. In an article published by the Huffington Post in 2011, Jack Jennings states that America is ranked 22nd out of 27 countries in relation to the average salaries of teachers (Jenning). Money is not the sole cause of why teachers are not doing their jobs, but it does potentially stop many people from pursuing a profession in teaching because they fear the current economy and job market will inhibit how effectively they can live and support a family. The lack of a competitive salary often deters many promising students in higher education from pursuing a career in education.  This leads to what Owen Phillips calls the revolving door of teaching, which means teachers enter the teaching world and it is nothing like they expected forcing them to leave for personal or financial reasons (Phillips). Owen Phillips has a masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and he stresses how many of the studying teachers will not make it in the profession. He then states, “Over the next five years, though, nearly half of those teachers will transfer to a new school or leave the profession altogether — only to be replaced with similarly fresh-faced teachers,” (Phillips). This inhibits the ability of young teachers to become older and experienced teachers, who would in turn help the struggling education system in the United States. The result of this is each state education program pays millions of dollars to replace the teachers that are leaving, which causes money to be wasted when we could utilize that money and focus it on keeping teachers in their positions.

There are many teachers that go above and beyond in the classroom to ensure that every kid in that school looks forward to that class, no matter the subject. The U.S. needs to support and encourage every teacher to strive for this type of excellence.  Student attitude is directly influenced by teacher attitude.  Students are very intuitive and know which teachers truly enjoy their job and teach with passion for education and student success.  A recent article written by Sarah Barnes, describes 19 different teachers that strive to be one of a kind teachers for their kids. She starts the article by stating the following which sets a tone for the rest of the article, 

“Teachers can play powerful roles in a young person’s life. Aside from their parents, educators are the ones that are with a budding academics day in and day out. They impart more than just knowledge, though. Impactful teachers offer wisdom and help a child learn to navigate through the world. Taking this role seriously, many educators go above and beyond to engage and inspire their students in everyday life,”

(Barnes). Lawmakers and lobbyists often forget how much time teachers spend with their kids and the significant influence teachers have with them.  The teachers seasoned with experience in getting positive results from their students should be placed in positions to mentor new teachers to the profession.  This mentoring program combined with increased financial compensation, and continued teacher evaluation and training would ideally decrease teacher turnover and improve student success.   

There are differing opinions as to what effect increasing minimum wage may have on our education rankings.  Off the website ProCon: The Leading Source for Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues, the Pro argument contends that raising the minimum wage would increase school attendance and decrease high school dropouts.  The article says, “Teens who live in poverty are twice as likely to miss three or more days of school per month compared to those who do not; thus raising the minimum wage and lifting families out of poverty would mean children would miss fewer school days. The study found that "recent experimental studies show that increasing income can improve school performance," (ProCon).

The argument against increasing minimum wage counters the above claims.  Mark J. Perry, PhD, of the American Enterprise Institute states that, "The attraction to higher wages from minimum wage legislation reduces high school completion rates for some students with limited skills, who are then disadvantaged with lower wages and career opportunities over the long-run if they never finish high school," (ProCon).

To increase the rankings of students in the United States, minimum wage does not need to increase.  The lack of motivation needs to be addressed as well as solutions to help our children want to improve. In an article published by Business Insider, Reihan Salam agrees that we need to support struggling teenagers, former offenders, immigrants, etc. on getting on their feet and making money. However, to make the minimum wage the fifteen dollars that are being demanded would hinder people from bridging the gap between a McDonald’s and an entry level employment. We do not want to trap millions of people to work for a job that may not show their true potential just because they are guaranteed a nice pay check compared to what they would be getting if the minimum wage did not rise (Salam). If we increase minimum wage it would decrease students interest in trying to get better by going to college when they are not guaranteed a job that pays well. It also allows people to feel empowered by the $15 wage allowance that they can take care of their families in this way thus passing it on to their children. The minimum wage needs to stay the same because it could hinder education rankings of the U.S. to get better due to students only achieving the bare level of skills required. 

Programs and legislation have been put in place over the years to allow parents to trust the state in their child’s education. In a bill drafted by the Florida senate it enables parents to request their child to be moved to another classroom, school choice, to defer pre-kindergarten, and many more specifics within the bill. This bill provides comfort to parents in the state of Florida that the have some say in their child’s education (The Florida Senate). More states in the United States should draft bills similar to this allowing parents to have a choice where their child attends school. If the child and parent are happy with where he/she is in school, their academic motivation will increase. Student motivation has also declined because they are not being encouraged to follow their dreams. We are constantly told as children that if we are smart we will become a doctor or a lawyer. In Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World, he discusses the school CHAD that was opened in 1999, centered around a design curriculum. The kids that attend CHAD have a fire to go to school every day to learn their core academics, but also spend time learning about art. In Philadelphia, where the school is located, public schools have a daily attendance rate of about 65% while CHAD has a 95%.  The school is a sort of haven for kids that have artistic minds that would usually feel like the odd ball in any other setting (Pink). We need to take each strength of kids today and use it to harness what they are good at, so that they can feel good about what they are doing. Kids who do not feel like they will make an impact by learning history or biology, but love design should not be put down for being different but praised for their abilities. When more schools in the United States offer programs that harness every ability that a child may have, children will feel like they have a purpose and want to learn. If we do this their motivation will rise, thus helping increase the global rankings by not trying to put each kid into a specific mold.

The newly elected Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, has been arguably one of the most challenged cabinet positions in years. DeVos is in charge of advising the president in terms of policy and programs related to the education of the United States. Her appointment as Secretary of Education is highly controversial because she has no experience in the classroom, as a teacher, or an administrator, so people wonder how she is fit to make decisions when she has no experience in education besides being a student. Although The Washington Post is widely considered a left leaning newspaper, the paper summarizes what DeVos has done in Michigan over the last few years. They criticize her push for the privatization of schools and many people think that public education will take the toll from Devos’ time as the secretary. Valerie Strauss, the author of the piece, publishes another article within hers. The article is written by Stephen Henderson, a reporter in Detroit that has been following DeVos work for years and projects what effect she will have on a national scale. Henderson accuses her of only being a one-sided lobbyist for pro-charter schools and he fears that she will propel charter schools forward,  even though they are failing in Michigan she is undaunted by the lack of success (Strauss). Due to the anticipated controversy DeVos will bring, the future of education may suffer in her inexperienced hands, causing the rankings to decline even further. 

With a perception of an incompetent Secretary of Education, educational programs that are not showing progress, among other issues are the big flaws regarding the United States education system that play a part in the mediocre global rankings. Education is not an issue that has slipped through the cracks of the U.S. government, they have just gone about it all the wrong ways and have people in power that are not using their resources effectively.

Over the last few decades, politicians have been trying to figure out a way to become more effective in the world with our education system. Common core was introduced into legislation in 2009 as a way to have a national standard for what students in the United States should be learning. However common core is not mandated by the federal government, states have the choice of whether or not to adopt the program. Common core is not implemented in South Carolina as it is in other states in America, however, my mom is an eighth grade science teacher and believes that common core should be in effect in our state. She believes that she needs to have a ‘playbook’ of material to teach, but it should not be so packed that teachers do not have room to be creative. She feels as though common core would benefit students in America – especially lower socioeconomic school districts with limited resources.  Many critics state that Common Core takes control away from states and local school districts but if the best educators in the country are writing the standards it seems everyone would benefit, especially families that move from one state to another.  Whether it’s Common Core or a new program a national set of standards would put all students on a level playing field and ideally improve our global education standings.

America has to be doing something right if they are one of the most powerful nations in the world, leading in technology innovation, military, etc. In a Huffington Post article, Bernard Starr delves into how so many of the headlines say that America is failing in the education department or that our students are not as smart as other countries. He then picks out a few articles that show the United States is not as far off as everyone continues to think. Wondering why, “So many Chinese students choose American universities,’ or, “How are we the top innovative country in the world?” (Starr). He poses a question along the lines of: Is the United States in education turmoil or are we flourishing with new cutting edge thoughts? Many people believe that the United States may be far down on the rankings but that it still does not matter because we contribute so much to the world. Karlyn Adams writes a paper sponsored by the National Center on Education and the Economy, about how U.S. education actually promotes creativity. She goes into this by stating, 

“Innumerous programs, courses, workshops and techniques have been developed to promote creativity and to enhance the cognitive functions that supposedly support it. Some of these programs can be explicitly labeled as creative studies while others promote creativity as a byproduct of other efforts or processes. To give a sense of the wealth of creative training opportunities available, McDonough and McDonough found that out of 1,504 colleges reviewed, 76.5% of them offered creativity courses,” (Adams).

She stressed in her paper about the amount of creativity is being sponsored by the U.S. government which goes hand in hand with what Starr was saying in his article about the United States not being behind in education or innovation.

Clearly the wheels haven’t completely fallen off the wagon of the United States Department of Education but the global rankings definitely point out a need for a fresh new outlook. Perhaps Secretary DeVos’ controversial ideas will stimulate a national discussion that will lead to actual reform that is workable and attainable for teachers on the frontlines, in the classroom.  While Common Core may not be the solution teachers need training and support while being held accountable for their performance as well as that of their students.  Accountability is also critical at the student level.  The government doesn’t need to enable young people to settle for minimum wage but challenge them to strive for better education, employment opportunities, and overall pursuit of happiness.  The task to all stakeholders is daunting but as the future of our country there is none more important.
