Alex Jacobson

Scope: I will be researching education in the 21^st century United States, and more specifically the shortage of teachers compared to students, which causes disparities in educational opportunities for students and pay for teachers. DuBois stressed the importance of education leading to opportunity for the African American population, and this is no different today with the entire population, regardless of race. A study conducted in the article “Beyond Money: Public Urban Boarding Schools and the State’s Obligation to make an Adequate Education Attainable” proved that young thinkers living in poverty are as capable of achieving as are those with more income, but they are not given the same opportunities, whether it is due to the exorbitant cost of boarding schools, college or graduate schools, or school supplies. This falls partially on the government, because they are the ones making policy decisions, not the teachers, and this is similar to Marx stressing the workers not having any say in policy in a capitalist system. Teachers still suffer from low wages, which creates little incentive to be one, having a direct effect on the quality of education for the increasing number of people in schools. With the rising population of young thinkers, there must also be an increase in the quantity and quality of teachers nationwide.

 

Value: DuBois noted the importance of knowledge to deter ignorance and malice in society, and specifically that the African American population could only prosper if they were taught the liberal arts by other African Americans, because they had empathy for them and knew of their struggle. Pertaining to my research, how do we create more incentive for the demand of teachers in impoverished areas nationally? Are monetary rewards the answer or does this just add to capitalist greed and create more competition in a field that is supposed to be communal and collaborative? As Marx referenced in his manuscripts, competition and the value of money can lead to “estranged labor” and dehumanization of society. How do we get entrepreneurs to want to be teachers, instead of corporate and financial workers who control such a huge portion of our national wealth? Along with that, how can we get them to focus on educating better, not jusreceiving higher wages, and can the two go together?

 

Originality: My topic relates to a variety of historical struggles stemming from capitalism. With the government controlling educational policy, teachers continue to have low wages—although there has been marginal improvement—which they have had for centuries. This is alluded to in Modern Educational Controversies. Subsequently, with the exponential rise in population and growing percentage of the population being youth, this is leading to less opportunity for those who cannot afford higher and private educations. This is nothing new, as DuBois referenced it in The Souls of Black Folk, and the price of boarding schools, college, and graduate schools has been an issue in the United States for centuries. If the incentive to be a teacher were to increase, more people would be able to be educated in areas that did not previously have boarding schools, colleges or other schools, because of the rising supply of teachers. Additionally, the benefits of starting public boarding schools in rural neighborhoods are introduced in Shelaswau Bushnell Crier’s article “Beyond Money: Public Boarding Schools and the State’s Obligation to make an Adequate Education Attainable.” This proposal could be a potential solution to the ongoing struggle for opportunity in education, but it cannot start without more teachers.

 

Practicality: This problem can be heavily researched, and I have already checked out numerous books from the library pertaining to my topic, but there are hundreds of other sources at my disposal. The articles and studies online are interesting and abundant. In terms of primary sources, I will research sources from the perspective of students and teachers, and I also have within my documents references to speeches and policy enacted by President Obama in the realm of education. I can use these governmental documents to answer questions regarding what is being done to combat this problem, and the primary sources from teachers and students to answer questions regarding what their perspectives are to better represent the actual problem. I will be looking at the problems themselves today through data, how they are being handled, and how they can be handled in the future with possible solutions. This is an immense problem in modern America, as we should be a world leader in education, not a liability.

 

Primary Sources:

 

“Race to the Top.” The White House. 2015. 9 October 2015.

This source did not list an author, as it came from the White House’s official website. It outlined educational policies and the specifics of the “Race to the Top” initiative put in place by Obama in 2012. The initiative has dedicated over $4 billion to 19 states and is putting money and resources toward improving k-12 education quality in four areas. They provide incentives for schools and teachers to improve their classroom practices and allocations of resources, among other aspects.

 

“Transforming Teaching and Leading.” U.S. Department of Education. 9 October 2015.

Another government sponsored source, this document did not have an author acknowledged. This source outlined ways that the government is currently reforming teaching, including the online forum “Commit to Lead,” a collaborative community of educators working to share and vote on their ideas to improve quality of teaching and leadership. This platform is a good way to improve teaching, as I said in my proposal that teaching ought to be more collaborative than it has been in the past.

 

Secondary Sources:

 

Brill, Steven. Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools. New York, New

York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.

The specific section I plan to use in crafting my paper was the chapter “Rhee’s Choice: Your Union or $130,000.” This chapter explains Michelle Rhee, a government affiliate in Washington D.C. and her fight with a local teachers union about policy regarding their pay and compensation. She came to a conclusion, a proposed bill increasing teacher’s salaries based off of evaluation of performance and test score improvements, but if a teacher chose to agree to this, they would forfeit lifetime tenure and compensation. The proposal was not even put up for a vote, however, for two years. This shows the gridlock of government and disagreements that are frequent but rarely solved with the current structure in place.

 

Chen, Jingqiu. “Temptation, Monetary Intelligence (Love of Money), and Environmental

Context on Unethical Intentions and Cheating.” Journal Of Business Ethics 123,

no.2 (2014): 197-219.

I used this article to hypothesize how monetary incentives work for teachers. Would they just cheat and not actually teach their students material, but rather have them memorize in order to perform well so that they could receive higher wages? This article thoroughly annotated a study conducted in the USA and China giving students a monetary incentive to perform and whether or not they would cheat in certain environments. The results showed that both groups cheated to an extent, more of which occurred in segregated cubicles, rather than open classrooms. So, if a monetary incentive system were to be put in place, it would need close supervision and a communal attitude to be embraced by teachers and staff.

 

Crier, Shelaswau Bushnell. 2015. “Beyond Money: Public Urban Boarding Schools and

the State’s Obligation to make an Adequate Education Attainable.” Journal of Law and Education 44 (1): 23-94.

This source proposed an interested solution to some educational problems that arise from student’s environments. It stresses the need for boarding schools in urban areas to compensate for the gap of education they experience compared to suburban. Lack of education in these areas is directly related to less income and poverty, and also their often more troubling home environments can inhibit their learning.

 

Hershberg, Theodore, and Claire Robertson-Kraft. 2010. “Maximizing the Opportunity

Provided by ‘Race to the Top’.” Penn GSE Perspectives On Urban Education 7, no. 1: 128-131.

This source gave me a better keywords list, and introduced me to some of the current government measures being taken to improve our struggling economic sector. It familiarized me with Obama’s “Race to the Top” program and his “No Child Left Behind” act.

Tavel, David. Modern Educational Controversies. Lanham, MD: University Press of

America, 1984.

This book used data and statistics and an indifferent approach to addressing the “controversies” within. It stated that higher salaries now provide the opportunity to improve teaching, but do not improve it alone. Essentially, Tavel acknowledged that salaries today are higher, and that teachers unions have come into more power in the last half-century, but statistics show that because the salaries are increasing, this does not mean the quality of the teaching is. It was similar to Marx when Tavel wrote about teachers working solely for wages, and having a nearly impossible schedule. They are experiencing estranged labor in the twenty-first century.