Woessmann, Ludger. "The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement." Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 30, no. 3, Summer2016, pp. 3-31. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1257/jep.30.3.3. In this study, Woessmann assesses how students in other countries learn and where they are performance-wise among other countries. Woessmann states that students in higher income countries are more likely to attend private schools, and that students in lower income countries are not. The author states that competition of private schools may be enough to improve the performance of public schools and lift the achievement level system-wide. In the text, Woessmann gives a lot of statistics for education levels across many different countries. For example, more than 75% of 15-year-old students in the Netherlands attend privately operated schools, and more than 60% in Belgium and Ireland, but this share is below 10% in many other countries. The focus of this text is to inform of the differences of education systems across the world. This is relevant to my research paper because it backs the other claims of wealthy vs low income students and their opportunities surrounding public schooling and private/charter schooling. Eyles, Andrew, et al. "Academies, Charter and Free Schools: Do New School Types Deliver Better Outcomes?." Economic Policy, vol. 31, no. 87, July 2016, pp. 453-501. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com.libdb.dccc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=117500597&site=eds-live. This text shows some differences and changes that schools have made and new types of schools as well. Andrew Eyles studies the fact that some countries have added school choices to make them more or less autonomous. This was written strictly to inform the reader on how changes made to the school system and school autonomy can make a difference for students. He states that charter schools while being highly autonomous are being publicly funded and privately owned. This goes to show, again, that they are being funded just as much as, or more than, public schools, often causing public schools to suffer. Strauss, Valerie. “A Dozen Problems with Charter Schools.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 20 May 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/20/a-dozen-problems-with-charter-schools/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.48ccb640f4f9. Valerie Strauss wrote this article to pinpoint the issues with charter schools. She points out that just because charter schools add choices of schooling in the community, that doesn’t mean that they are performing to a standard that we should have for our children. Most of these charter schools, especially cyber charter schools, are under-performing by up to 20% in comparison to regular public schools. Often charter schools receive more funding than public schools, even causing some public schools to close their doors. The purpose of this article written by Strauss, is to inform people of what charter schools are about. Some of these schools and their administrators are involved in fraudulent financial activity. I, myself, went to a cyber charter school that I am just now learning was involved in fraudulent activity. This is relevant to my research paper because it hits close to home with me. I know that I was deprived of education for my junior and senior years by going to a cyber charter school, where I wasn’t held accountable and wasn’t actually taught anything. I was able to choose the classes as if they were electives, just to gain credits for graduation. If all cyber charter schools operate the same way as mine did, then I know students aren’t gaining the knowledge they need for life after high school. Chen, Michelle. “Charter Schools Are Reshaping America's Education System for the Worse.” The Nation, 11 Jan. 2018, www.thenation.com/article/charter-schools-are-reshaping-americas-education-system-for-the-worse/. In this article by Michelle Chen, she talks about how charter schools are not benefitting anyone or anything by existing. Charter schools often boast of diversity, but turn out to be anything but diverse, thus creating more segregation in the charter school systems. In Arizona, it is mostly white and Asian students who attend charter schools, leaving out the majority of the Latino based communities. These schools focus on the students who are already doing well overall and do not give much help to lower-scoring students, who may eventually drop out because they realize they are not meeting school standards. Chen’s approach when writing this article is to let us know of racial and social class inequality in charter schools. She also let us know that there are school receiving funding from taxpayers that don’t have anything to spend the money on. Cyber schools do not need buildings to teach students in, yet they are receiving the same amount of money as other charters while our public schools suffer to afford much for its students. This is all relevant to my research paper because it talks about the unequal learning opportunities for students in urban areas, or where wealthier families can afford to send their kids somewhere for higher learning. Charter schools are receiving too much money and not having a rule standard to follow because many of them operate so differently. Moore, Michael. Hulu, 23 Dec. 2015, www.hulu.com/search?q=Where to Invade Next. In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore visits several European countries, plus Tunisia, to find out how they deal with common political issues. He acknowledges that things are much different and possibly even better than they are here in America. As he visits the different countries, along with different political issues, he vows to “adopt” certain practices to bring back to America. He proposes that these countries are living the “American Dream” better than Americans are. This is mostly interesting because a lot of these ideas are ones that were developed here in America, and it seems that we have forgotten about them over many years. Michael Moore visits women’s rights, prison systems, the war on drugs, education, healthcare and much more in this documentary. These are some of the most important topics that we cannot seem to get right in America and it is interesting to see how other countries work through the issues. Moore traveled to these countries to inform and persuade Americans that life can be better here if we can just follow some ideas and guidelines of these other countries. The film contains some hard to swallow truths about America and Americans that we may not have known otherwise. Moore believes that it is important that we are informed on these subjects so that we can adopt some of the same ideologies. In the film, Moore visits Finland, where they do not have charter schools or tuition paid schools. This ensures that children are taught equally despite social status and that too much money isn’t going into places that education isn’t top priority. Toppo, Greg. “Charter Schools' 'Thorny' Problem: Few Students Go on to Earn College Degrees.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 14 Mar. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/14/charter-schools-college-degrees/99125468/. In “Charter Schools ‘Thorny’ problem: Few Students Go On to Earn College Degrees”, we learn that charter school students are less likely to complete college than students who attend public schools. Having more K-12 choices will not increase the chances of these students attending or finishing college. Students end up dropping out for different reasons which include stress over high-level academics, poorly matched schools, and even higher earning families often can’t afford tuition and other school costs. Toppo is trying to prove a point that just because there are more options available as far as k-12, that doesn’t mean that students are going to be any more successful in pursuing college degrees. His goal is to inform us of staggering statistics based around charter schools and how the are failing to prepare their students for college life. This is relevant to my research paper because if there isn’t anything that charter schools can do to guarantee the success of their students, then why have them? If America can come up with one school system and one better way of learning and teaching, then students have an equal chance and a fair fight at attending and finishing college.
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In this blog post, I will provide my opinions on how a few things should change in America. I watched Where to Invade Next, a documentary from Michael Moore, and wrote a summary based on what I saw. There are so many topics and political issues to choose from, but for this, I have chosen 3.
Topic: Universal healthcare coverage in America Research Question: Should America provide free healthcare coverage to its citizens? Argument: America should provide free universal healthcare for citizens simply because everyone needs it. Not all employers provide this to their employees and it is crucial that they should. People that don’t get this often overwork themselves, and in turn, get sick and now can’t make it into work. When people don’t work, they often don’t make money. It is unlikely that an employer provides sick time when they don’t provide health benefits. People need to see doctors in order to get any and all medical help they need, and so many people unfortunately go without. An employee with health coverage is more likely to get medical attention they need when they are ill. Health coverage often takes care of rehabilitation employees may need when they are recovering from drug use, which Portugal is proof that drug use is lessened in this case. This would also benefit employers, because the better people feel, they will come to work and get their jobs done. Topic: Extended vacation and maternity leave Research Question: Should America provide mandatory paid vacation and maternity leave to full time employees? Argument: America should provide mandatory vacation and maternity leave. The vacation is important because a person will suffer from the stress of being over-worked and feeling as though they are not appreciated or rewarded. Italy provides 8+ weeks of paid vacation time because they believe in relaxing and enjoying life. They find that Italians actually enjoy their jobs more and are more successful at them when they are being rewarded. Italians also live an average of 4 years longer than Americans and get sick less often because their lives have less stress. Italy provides 5 paid months of maternity leave, as well, which is an important time in the lives of new mothers and babies. This gives an appropriate amount of time for mothers to bond with and care for their families. In fact, there are only two countries that do not provide paid maternity leave, America and Papua New Guinea, as they are too poor to do so. Topic: Free college education Research Question: Should America provide free college education to its citizens? Argument: America should provide free college education to anyone looking for higher education. In most cases, people looking for higher education means there are people looking to do the more important jobs of the world. Teachers, doctors, veterinarians, etc. are all people that we need, a well as people looking to go to trade schools. Slovenia has free college for its citizens and will actually allow people to move there and still not pay anything for school. Most American schools are so expensive that a lot of people do not actually finish due to the discouragement from the increase in debt. In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore visits several European countries, plus Tunisia, to find out how they deal with common political issues. He acknowledges that things are much different and possibly even better than they are here in America. As he visits the different countries, along with different political issues, he vows to “adopt” certain practices to bring back to America. He proposes that these countries are living the “American Dream” better than Americans are. This is mostly interesting because a lot of these ideas are ones that were developed here in America, and it seems that we have forgotten about them over many years. Michael Moore visits women’s rights, prison systems, the war on drugs, education, healthcare and much more in this documentary. These are some of the most important topics that we cannot seem to get right in America and it is interesting to see how other countries work through the issues. Americans are entitled people, and most of us don’t even realize how incorrectly we are living. We are taught that America is the greatest “free” country on the planet, not knowing what a prison we have created for ourselves. Michael more establishes ethos, or credibility, by giving facts to the people watching his documentary. He doesn’t choose to sugarcoat the fact that America needs change. He acknowledges, instead of arguing, that other countries are doing great things for their people. Things like universal healthcare, extended vacation time and maternity leave from employers. These are things that Americans can only dream about. Michael uses logo, or logic, again, by using facts. The fact that Italians live an average of 4 years longer than Americans, makes sense considering that they are less stressed. Norwegian children are smarter, because they are less stressed about school and not as bogged down by everyday hard work that American kids are bothered with daily. French children eat healthier because school officials care more about what they put into children’s bodies. These are things that we can do for the children of America because we owe it to them. Michael Moore easily appeals to the audience, pathos, due to the fact that these issues are personal. Even if we are Americans that wholeheartedly love our country, we know that things need to be better for us and for the future. There isn’t any person who watched that film that can say at least one of the many topics discussed didn’t apply to them. The purpose of Michael Moore’s documentary, I think, was to inform Americans. To let us all know we can have so much better if we work for it as one. I think he wants to bring us to a place that we were ultimately meant to be in. His point is that America already has the capability to care about its people, we just needed to be reminded. |
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