«The Condition of Secondary Education» - Great Essay Sample

Without any doubt, throughout the 21^st century society has faced a serious problem in thefield of secondary education that can relentlessly confront humanity, and influence the existence of the future development. Current statistics indicate that in the USA the students’ knowledge level is considerably poor and dropout rates are on the significant higher level, comparing to European schools. For instance, the OECD data have determined that American enrollment rate of 16 – 17 years olds is significantly decreasing, however, in Australia, Germany, France, it is 10% higher or even more. Moreover, the most disappointing results of the impure quality of American secondary schools were presented by the assessment of TIMSS of secondary school students. According to the statistics, in the field of mathematics American students are on the 19^th level among 21 nations; this rate is lower only in Cyprus and South Africa (Bishop, Bishop & Mane, 2001).

What are the proximate causes of degradation of US secondary schools? Firstly, it is the quality of teacher; most of the teachers are not the experts of their profession. Moreover, teachers annually show low passing scores in the National Teachers Examination test. Secondly, it is the teacher compensation that is considerably low, comparing to Germany, Japan, Great Britain and Switzerland. For instance, in Europe and East Asia the teachers get more then 10% of GDP per capita, comparing to the USA. Thirdly, it is time devoted to instruction which is highly shortened. Finally, US secondary students do not learn the second language. Even in lower secondary schools in the United Kingdom, all students have to learn at least one foreign language.

All in all, the US government should take the immediate measures in order to improve the situation with secondary education. A good idea is to work on secondary education reform that should include the teachers’ wage increase, the improvements of knowledge of the subject that the teachers lecture, the increase of studying hours, and the quality of teaching.