The Need for Federal Government Involvement in Education Reform
For centuries, generations of families have congregated in the same community or
in the same general region of the country. Children grew up expecting to earn a
living much like their fathers and mothers or other adults in their community.
Any advanced skills they required beyond the three R's (Readin', Ritin' and
Rithmatik) were determined by the local community and incorporated into the
curriculum of the local schools. These advanced skills were taught to the up-
and-coming generation so they could become a vital part of their community. The
last several decades has greatly expanded the bounds of the "community" to
almost anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world for that matter.
Advances in transportation and communication has made the world a much smaller
place then the world we knew as children. The skills our children need to
realize parents' perpetual dream of "their children having a better life" are no
longer limited to those seen in the local area. It is becoming more and more
apparent that the education system of yesterday cannot adequately prepare
students for life and work in the 21st Century. These concerns have prompted
people across the country to take a hard look at our education system and to
organize their efforts to chance the education system as we know it.
There are two major movements in recent years whose focus is to enhance the
education of future generations. The "Standards" movement focuses on
educational content and raising the standards of traditional teaching and
measurement means and methods. The "Outcome Based Education" (OBE) movement is
exploring new ways of designing education and changing the way we measure the
effectiveness of education by focusing on results or outcomes.
In September 1989, President Bush and the nation's governors called an
Education Summit in Charlottesvi...