The average annual expenditure per student in the public school system in constant 2001–02 dollars more than doubled between 1970 and 2002, from $3,849 per pupil in 1969–70 to $8,048 per pupil during the 2001–02 school year. (See Figure 6.1.) Each year, when the federal budget is determined in Washington, D.C., the battle over the education budget is fierce. Public school offi…
Many people believe that problems like large class sizes, poor teacher training, and lack of computers and supplies in many public schools are unsolvable within the current public school system. One solution proposed in the early 1990s was the school voucher system: the government would provide a certain amount of money each year to parents in the form of a voucher to enroll their children at the …
Preprimary, elementary, and secondary school enrollments reflect the number of births over a specified period. Because of the baby boom following World War II, school enrollment grew rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s when those children reached school age. Elementary enrollment reached a then-record high in 1969, as did high school enrollment in 1971. In the late 1960s the birth rate began to dec…
The educational attainment of the U.S. population has risen steadily since the 1940s. In 2003 84.6% of adults TABLE 6.3 older than twenty-five had graduated from high school—the highest number ever. More than one in four (27.2%) had earned a bachelor's degree or more. (See Figure 6.4.) The level of educational attainment has traditionally been higher for men than for women. In 2…
Enrollment in public schools far surpasses enrollment in private schools. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) projects that total elementary and secondary school enrollment will continue to rise, reaching 55.9 million in 2012. (See Figure 6.2.) During this same period total private school enrollment is expected to rise from 6.2 million in 2001 to 6.6 million in 2013. NCES statistic…
In 2000 all U.S. states required students to attend school through at least age sixteen. (See Table 6.6.) Most industrialized Western nations require children to attend school for about ten years. According to the Digest of Education Statistics 2001, the countries requiring the most years of schooling were the Netherlands (ages five through eighteen), Germany and Belgium (both ages six through eig…
"Status" dropouts are sixteen- to twenty-four-year-olds who have not finished high school and are not enrolled in school. The U.S. Department of Education reports that status dropout rates decreased from 1960 (27.2%) through 2002 (10.7%). In 2001 10.7% of sixteen- to twenty-four-year-olds had dropped out of high school. The Hispanic status dropout rate was considerably higher, at 27%…
Because of concern that American youth were falling behind young people in other industrialized countries in educational achievement, the National Education Goals Panel was created in 1989 to oversee the progress of six national goals adopted by the states in a 1990 meeting of governors. The panel set these goals to be achieved by 2000: FIGURE 6.5 Expressing the nation's continued conc…
With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in early 2002, sweeping changes were made to the laws defining and regulating the federal government's role in kindergarten through grade twelve education. The law is based on four basic education reform principles. The four principles, as described on the government's No Child Left Behind Web site (http://www.NoChildLeftBehind.…
In 1976 the U.S. Congress passed the Education of the Handicapped Act (PL 94–142, superseded by PL 98–199), which required schools to develop programs for disabled children. Formerly, parents of many disabled students had few options other than institutionalization or nursing care. The Education of the Handicapped Act required that disabled children be put in the "least restri…
Homelessness harms children in many ways, including hindering their ability to attend and succeed in school. Homeless children have difficulty with transportation to school, maintaining necessary documents, and attaining privacy needed for homework, sleep, and interaction with parents in a shelter. Experts report that homeless children—compared with children who are poor but housed—m…
A number of parents, unhappy with public schools, teach their children at home. In 1990 the Home School Legal Defense Association (which provides legal assistance to home-school families) estimated that about TABLE 6.8 474,000 children were being taught at home. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 850,000, or 1.7% of school-age children, were bei…
April 20, 1999, marks the date of the worst school shooting in U.S. history. Two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, shot and killed thirteen fellow students and teachers before turning their guns on themselves. Parents worried about how safe their schools really were, and schools have implemented a number of safety measures to deal with violence and crime at school. Accordin…
Most students who wish to enter colleges and universities in the United States must take either the SAT (once known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test, now simply the SAT I) or the American College Test (ACT) as part of their admission requirements. The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement test, measuring proficiency in reading, math, English, and science, while …
Formal schooling beyond high school increasingly is being viewed as a necessity, not only to a young person's development but also to his or her economic success. President Bill Clinton, in his 1997 State of the Union address, spoke of the goal of making two years of college education "standard" for all American young people, much like high school had been considered in the pa…
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