Equality vs. Excellence: A Short History of Education

Summary

This 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

00:00

⚖️ 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.

Keywords

💡Equality

Equality refers to the principle that all individuals should have the same opportunities, particularly in the context of education. In the video, it emphasizes how American education strives to provide equal chances for everyone, regardless of race, economic background, or location. Public education was originally designed to promote equality and democratic virtue.

💡Excellence

Excellence refers to the drive for high standards in education and ensuring that students not only pass but excel. The video highlights the tension between ensuring everyone has equal opportunities and pushing the bar higher for academic and workforce success. The pursuit of excellence involves raising the quality of education to compete globally.

💡Common schools

Common schools were early public schools in the U.S. designed to provide a basic education for all children. These schools were a foundation for promoting equality by giving everyone access to education, regardless of their background. The video references the founding of common schools as part of the history of education reform.

💡Achievement gap

The achievement gap refers to the disparity in academic performance between different groups of students, often along lines of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. In the video, addressing the achievement gap is a key goal of equality-focused educational reforms, such as improving conditions for minority students.

💡Democratic virtue

Democratic virtue refers to the values and behaviors that promote democracy, such as equality, fairness, and participation. The video discusses how public education in the U.S. was created to instill democratic virtues by ensuring all citizens had access to education and could contribute to society.

💡National standards

National standards are uniform educational benchmarks set at the national level to ensure consistency in learning outcomes. The video mentions efforts to implement national standards, such as the Common Core, to balance excellence and equality by setting high expectations for all students across the country.

💡Welfare state

A welfare state refers to a government that provides for the welfare of its citizens through programs like healthcare, education, and social security. The video contrasts the U.S. with European countries, noting that in the absence of a robust welfare state, American schools bear much of the responsibility for creating social equality.

💡School funding

School funding refers to the financial resources allocated to schools, which often vary by district, impacting educational quality. The video highlights efforts to equalize school funding so that students in different areas—urban, suburban, or rural—have equal opportunities in education, regardless of their district's wealth.

💡A Nation at Risk

A Nation at Risk was a 1983 report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which warned of the declining state of American education. The video references this report to show how concerns about excellence in education have led to reforms aimed at improving school performance to avoid a national crisis.

💡Educational reform

Educational reform refers to the efforts to change and improve the education system. The video discusses various movements and reforms focused on either promoting equality or excellence in education, from equalizing school funding to raising academic standards through national initiatives like the Common Core.

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

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