American public schools have a lot of challenges in the current economic and political environment. A lot of hand-wringing goes on about how our average students stack up against the elite students around the world and usually come off pretty badly, justifying more funding and pushing in some areas.
I'd like every kid to have a good grounding in the liberal arts and sciences and computer savvy enough to stay on top of things to be an informed, productive, and involved citizen.
As many have said already, the local nature of districts in funding and who runs things to suit local political climate make it very difficult to develop a one-size fits all curriculum and hold everyone to it.
Also as mentioned before, the amount and type of education needed to economically compete in the modern economy is far different in amount and content over the last thirty years.
HS diplomas are nowhere near enough education for somebody to be economically self-sufficient or adequate preparation for adult life.
IMO the associate's degree needs to be the minimum standard for public education.
We subsidize community colleges anyway and I think they're a great vehicle for people to obtain or upgrade their knowledge or skills but why are they separate institutions from high schools and why should people have to go through high school THEN attend community college?
You could cut out a lot of fluff in the JH/HS curriculum and allow folks to graduate at 16 with an AAS with some actual job skills or enough college credit to go to university successfully.
The big issue is that kids need to be realistically and thoroughly assessed and counseled at age 12 as to what programs exist, pick what track they're on and what it takes to compete in the various tracks.
To me, there a shit-ton of online stuff that could supplement HS curricula students can access and practice whatever is seen as lagging areas- math, reading skills, writing, the sciences, computer literacy, etc.
For that to work, every student should have a school-provided laptop and every household should have some form of web access or school libraries open til 7pm to do homework/submit assignments/etc. with teaching assistants around for tutoring.
That plan requires adequate physical plant, funding for computers, capable and well-informed guidance counselors and enough good TA's to help keep the students and classes on track which IMO is a major need for school districts.
Some are fantastic, engaged, sharp people that stay on top of employment and college admissions trends as well as what tutoring/enrichment programs can really help kids load the dice in their favor to go where they need to go to become successful.
However, they're not adequately paid or given near enough credit. Nor are there near enough of them to give individual attention to each student and continuity to spot behavior changes.
Parents have to listen and come prepared for it instead of blindly assuming Timmy or Tina is automatically going to Yale if they graduate from HS with a B+ average or top 10% rank in class.
Maybe, if it's an IB program and they have a lot of AP credits and the right ECA's and letters of recommendation from faculty/alumni/VIPs.
A guidance counselor could explain that and help the kid and the parent(s) understand what's needed and a plan to get there or alternatives.
In summary, we need to totally revamp the primary and HS curriculum to AAS standard by 16, content delivery, and teaching models to get kids what they need to academically and economically succeed.
Teachers need good pay, mentorship and support of the district to reduce extraneous burdens so they can actually teach well and develop into professional educators.
It's good that parents are involved with their kids and advocate for them when they get in trouble. However, getting their expectations in line with reality and finding ways to partner up with teachers and administration to make things better for all kids would be a massive help.
That's my two cents.
