Equality vs. Excellence: A Short History of Education
Summary
TLDRThis series explores the recurring debate in American education between equality and excellence. Starting from the founding of U.S. public schools, it highlights historical flashpoints, including efforts to ensure equal educational opportunities for minorities, eliminate achievement gaps, and balance school funding. The tension between raising educational standards (excellence) and providing equal access (equality) is examined through key reforms, like national standards and the Common Core. The series asks whether these two values can coexist or if they remain inherently at odds, shaping the future of American education.
Takeaways
- 📚 One major theme in American education is the tension between equality and excellence.
- ⚖️ Equality is rooted in democratic principles like equality before the law and one-person, one-vote.
- 🏫 Public education was initially designed to promote equality and democratic virtues.
- 🇺🇸 In the 20th century, equality in education became more critical in the U.S., especially compared to European countries with stronger welfare systems.
- 🎓 Efforts to improve equality in education include expanding access for minority groups, increasing high school and college enrollment, and closing the achievement gap.
- 💵 Equalizing school funding has been a key goal, ensuring that students in different districts (urban, rural, suburban) have equal educational opportunities.
- 🏆 Excellence is also a central value in education reform, focusing on raising educational standards to prepare the workforce and stimulate economic growth.
- 📊 Organizations like the National Commission on Excellence in Education have emphasized the importance of improving education, with reports like 'A Nation at Risk' warning about the consequences of mediocrity.
- 🌍 Education reform often prioritizes either equality or excellence, with some organizations like the Foundation for Excellence in Education focusing on competition and economic success.
- 🎯 The ongoing debate about national standards, such as the Common Core, reflects the desire to combine both equality (by setting the same standards for all) and excellence (by raising the bar for everyone).
Q & A
What are the two major values highlighted in the history of American education?
-The two major values are equality and excellence, which have been central to the ongoing debate and reforms in American education.
Why is equality considered a foundational value in American public education?
-Equality is considered foundational because it is linked to the democratic principles of the United States, such as equality before the law and one-person, one-vote, which aim to provide equal educational opportunities for all citizens.
How has the role of equality in education evolved in the United States?
-Equality has gained increasing importance, especially compared to European countries with strong welfare systems. In the U.S., schools have been a primary focus for creating equal opportunity, particularly through efforts like equalizing education for minority groups and expanding access to education.
What are some examples of efforts to promote equality in American education?
-Examples include efforts to improve education for African Americans, expand access to high school and college, promote preschool education, close the achievement gap, and equalize school funding across different districts.
Why is excellence also a key value in education reform?
-Excellence is emphasized because education plays a critical role in preparing the workforce and driving economic growth. The desire is to raise the educational standards with each generation to ensure that students are well-prepared for future challenges.
How did the National Commission on Excellence in Education describe the state of American education in its 1983 report 'A Nation at Risk'?
-The report warned that if a foreign power had imposed the mediocre educational performance seen in the U.S., it would have been considered an act of war. It described the situation as a form of 'unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.'
What is the central question regarding the balance between equality and excellence in education?
-The central question is whether there is a trade-off between equality and excellence, or if it's possible to achieve both at the same time within the American education system.
How do education reform organizations typically prioritize equality and excellence?
-Most organizations tend to prioritize one over the other. For example, the Foundation for Excellence in Education prioritizes improving the quality of education (excellence) while also acknowledging the importance of equality, though it focuses more on competition and economic performance.
What is the idea behind setting national education standards like Common Core?
-The idea is to combine both values—setting high standards (excellence) and ensuring that all students are capable of meeting them (equality). This approach aims to raise the bar for all students while providing equal opportunities.
Why do efforts to balance equality and excellence in education often fail?
-Efforts to balance equality and excellence often fail due to the inherent challenges in trying to raise educational standards for all students while ensuring that no one is left behind. This has been a recurring issue in American education reform.
Outlines
⚖️ The Balancing Act Between Equality and Excellence in Education
This paragraph introduces the ongoing tension between two values in American education: equality and excellence. It sets the stage for the series by tracing the roots of public education in the U.S. and its original purpose of promoting equality, grounded in democratic principles like equality before the law. However, it also hints at a potential trade-off between maintaining educational equality and pursuing excellence, a question the series will explore in depth.
📜 Historical Roots of Equality in American Education
The paragraph highlights the historical foundation of public education in the U.S., emphasizing how it was designed to promote democratic virtues like equality. As the U.S. entered the 20th century, equality became more important in education, especially in comparison to European countries with more extensive welfare systems. It points out that the U.S. has relied on schools to promote equal opportunities, a role traditionally reserved for welfare institutions in other countries.
✊ The Fight for Equal Educational Opportunities
Here, the focus shifts to the ongoing efforts to address educational inequalities in the U.S., particularly for minority groups like African Americans. The text outlines initiatives to ensure that all students, regardless of their location or background, have equal access to education. This includes efforts to close achievement gaps, equalize school funding, and provide universal access to high school, college, and preschool education.
🌟 The Push for Excellence in American Education
This paragraph discusses the growing emphasis on excellence in American education. As the U.S. economy increasingly relies on a well-prepared workforce, educational standards have been raised. Various reform movements, accreditation agencies, and reports like the 1983 'A Nation at Risk' reflect a sense of urgency around improving the quality of education to maintain the country's economic competitiveness. Excellence, it argues, is seen as equally important to equality.
🏫 The Debate Between Equality and Excellence in Education
This section introduces the tension between reform efforts that prioritize equality and those that prioritize excellence. For example, organizations like the Foundation for Excellence in Education emphasize competition and quality improvement but also acknowledge the importance of equal opportunity. The paragraph questions whether these two goals are inherently opposed and suggests this will be a key topic of exploration in the series.
🎯 National Standards: The Pursuit of Equality and Excellence
The final paragraph explores the idea of national standards, such as the Common Core, which seek to balance the goals of equality and excellence by setting high educational standards for all students. It notes that while reformers have long aimed to merge these values, attempts have often fallen short. This series aims to explain why achieving both equality and excellence in education is so challenging.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Equality
💡Excellence
💡Common schools
💡Achievement gap
💡Democratic virtue
💡National standards
💡Welfare state
💡School funding
💡A Nation at Risk
💡Educational reform
Highlights
The theme of the series is the balance between two values in American education: equality and excellence.
Public education originated as a system to preserve equality and promote democratic virtue.
In the 20th century, equality became even more important, especially compared to European countries with robust welfare systems.
The U.S. educational system has been tasked with creating equal opportunity and social equality.
Efforts to improve education for minority groups, particularly the African American community, have been central to equality reforms.
Equalizing education includes efforts to ensure every student has access to high school diplomas, college degrees, and early childhood education.
Reforms have aimed to eliminate the achievement gap and equalize school funding across different districts—urban, rural, and suburban.
Excellence in education remains a priority to ensure that education standards rise with each generation, avoiding stagnation.
Excellence has gained urgency due to the role of education in preparing the workforce and driving economic growth.
Accrediting agencies, such as the Association of American Universities and the Carnegie Foundation, have been key players in driving educational excellence.
The 1983 report 'A Nation at Risk' from the National Commission on Excellence in Education highlighted concerns about the state of American education.
Many educational reform organizations, like the Foundation for Excellence in Education, prioritize excellence but still acknowledge equality.
The push for national standards, exemplified by the Common Core, is an attempt to merge equality with excellence by setting high standards for all.
Reformers have consistently sought to combine high standards with equal opportunity, but have repeatedly failed to find a lasting solution.
The series will explore why the seemingly simple solution of balancing equality and excellence in education reform is so difficult to achieve.
Transcripts
one major theme in the history of
American education is a back and forth
between two values quality and
excellence in this series we'll go back
to the founding of the u.s. common
schools and work our way through various
flashpoints in history to try to answer
this question is there a trade-off
between equality and excellence the
value of equality is baked into a
democracy like ours in the United States
with our principles of equality before
the law and one-person one-vote
after all our Declaration of
Independence declared that all men are
created equal
public education as we've discussed in
other modules originated as a system in
many respects to preserve equality to
promote democratic virtue as we moved
into the 20th century equality in some
respect has become even more important
in comparison to European countries
which have robust welfare systems by
contrast the US has had components of
the welfare state that originated in the
New Deal and the Great Society but the
pressure has remained on schools as the
focal point to create equal opportunity
and social equality so it should be no
wonder that equality has been a major
emphasis of education reform we'll take
a look at efforts to improve conditions
for minority groups in the United States
most notably the African American push
to equalize black education we'll take a
look at efforts to expand education so
that everyone has a chance to get a high
school diploma or college degree or
preschool education and efforts to
equalize education have also included
those to eliminate the achievement gap
or to equalize school funding so that no
matter which district you live in
whether it's urban rural suburban you
have an equal opportunity chance of an
education now equality is all well and
good and we want everyone to pass their
exams but we also want those exams to
mean something so that the educational
bar is raised with each generation
rather than lowering or stagnating so
excellence has also been a leading value
in education reform given urgency by the
economic role that schools play in
preparing the workforce and stimulating
growth this strand of reform gave us
accrediting agencies the Association of
American you
versus the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of teaching and myriad
Jeremias about the failures of American
education take for instance the National
Commission on excellence of Education
which in 1983 Avis the landmark reports
a nation at risk if an unfriendly
foreign power had attempted to impose on
America the mediocre educational
performance that exists today we might
well have viewed it as an act of war as
it stands we have allowed this to happen
to ourselves we have in effect been
committing an act of unthinking
unilateral educational disarmament scary
stuff improve or die America almost
every education reform outfit
prioritizes either equality or
excellence take for instance the
foundation for excellence in education
founded by former Florida Governor Jeb
Bush
it has excellence in its name but it
pays lip service to equality to
equipping every child to achieve his or
her god-given potential
still read the organization's agenda and
it's clear that the higher priority is
using competition to improve the quality
of education in order to compete
economically against other countries the
quality and excellence need to be
opposed it's an honest question we'll
take on in this series certainly would
be ideal if we could stitch one to the
other the long-standing push for
national standards currently we see
embroiling with the common core
controversy is an attempt to have both
to set the bar high excellence and then
make everyone jump over it equality this
idea of setting high standards appeals
to reformers generation after generation
and yet time and again they fail to
achieve the seemingly simple solution
this series will help us understand why
you
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