Group items tagged

"Japanese students spend 240 days a year at school, 60 days more then their American counterparts" This article shows the differences between Japanese and American schools. It provides many examples of how Japanese schools are more standardized than American ones thus having more people with the same knowledge.

"Mr. Stanton created a fund-raising campaign for Mott Hall Bridges on a crowdfunding site, Indiegogo Life, with the aim of raising $100,000. Within days, it had raised enough to pay for 10 years of trips to Harvard, and the money was still pouring in." This article explains a positive contribution to the haves and have nots of education and income. It explains how less fortunate school with low income family's that filter into this school did a fundraiser that generated so much money for future graduates.

"The divide between the 'haves and the 'have-nots' has never been greater. And every day brings a reminder of the rich making and spending huge sums of money while the poor struggle to support their basic needs."

The divide between the 'haves and the 'have-nots' has never been greater. And every day brings a reminder of the rich making and spending huge sums of money while the poor struggle to support their basic needs.

"The 1940s to the late 1970s, while by no means a golden age (as evidenced, for example, by the perpetuation of gender, ethnic, and racial discrimination in the job market), was a period in which workers from the lowest-paid wage earner to the highest-paid CEO experienced similar growth in incomes. This was a period in which "a rising tide" really did lift all boats. This underscores that there is nothing inevitable about top incomes growing faster than other incomes, as has occurred since the late 1970s. The unequal income growth since the late 1970s has brought the top 1 percent income share in the United States to near its 1928 peak." This article explains the ever increasing income inequality in modern day society. It verbally and non-verbally describes how the income of the top 1% of America is rapidly occupying a greater percentage of the income of all the populaces of the United States of America and that the income share of top one percent is nearing the peak it reached in 1928.

"Retired Master Cpl. Paul Franklin, who lost both legs in in Afghanistan, says every year he has to prove to Veterans Affairs that he still has no legs and needs a wheelchair. Now, he's waging a fight against the department on behalf of all veterans." I think that there are many people who somewhat over exaggerate their disabilities and other symptoms just like the judge in the "Unfit for Work" article, because here you have a judge who doesn't complain about her blood pressure and diabetes, unlike the whiney man in court, who makes the biggest fuss about having the same exact symptoms. Then there are those people who make a fuss about their symptoms because they really do have a severe disability. Paul Franklin, who is a veteran from Afghanistan, lost both of his legs in combat. Now you have Paul who is back in the United States of America, trying to convince the government that he lost both of his legs and that probably needs a disability check, due to his severe injury. I think that the topic for disabled people in present day and ancient times wouldn't compare. I say this, because in ancient Rome, if a child was born with a disability, they often put it down, because they probably didn't know how to handle it, or if they did, they might've not hand the time and money to take care of it forever. If we were to do something like this today, it would be out of nature and against are morals, because we have the technology, knowledge, and resources to fix most disabilities, or rather put that disabled person in a better position. Therefore, our actions seen in the United States hardly compare to what they did back in ancient Rome.

"an educational system that provides such privilege to some students, while willfully and purposefully denying it to others." This article is about how a teacher has seen how some of her more privileged students succeed while the poorer ones don't have the opportunity to do anything great because of money problems.

"Oxfam releases study finding that world's richest 1 percent are set to control more than half of all global wealth by 2016, marking watershed in rise of income inequality; report, which comes days before annual World Economic Forum meeting, indicates that divide is starker than at any point in recent history. " This article shows that the gap between the classes, and ultimately income, is growing incredibly fast. This shows that something needs to be done to at least slow this down. I don't think that we should eliminate the classes, just decrease the gap.

"We can build on children's strengths, supporting them and challenging them to excel. The good news is that closing the opportunity gap doesn't require a magical quick fix; the bad news is that to do it we need to stop grasping at those magical quick fixes. Instead, we must turn to evidence-based, best practices."

"In particular, we have failed to build capacity or increase opportunities to learn.   Our intense focus on achievement gaps needs to be combined with an equally intense focus on opportunity gaps. The status quo of test-based accountability reform needs to give way to new, evidence-based approaches dedicated to building the capacity to accomplish accountability goals." I believe that there is no opportunity gap in Henrico because of the fact that we have so many options for high school specialty centers, extracurricular activities and clubs, sports, etc. These things give us a good amount of opportunity in order to "close" the gap and give us a well rounded education that can sustain us for a lifetime.

"Much has happened in the last 30 years. But let's fast forward, past the 1989 Charlottesville Education Summit and past President Clinton's "Goals 2000" legislation in 1994. Let's jump right to the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001. That law, along with the current administration's Race to the Top policies, has placed American school reform on a stark path best defined as "test-based accountability reform" - just as was called for 30 years ago in A Nation at Risk."

This article is about the opportunity gap in American schools. Mainly, it states that children raised in low income households or people of color (mainly black or hispanic children) have less of an opportunity to go to a good school. Their research states that high-poverty districts in New York have "significantly fewer high-quality teachers" as well as black and hispanic students are four times less likely to be enrolled in a good school.