What Went Wrong With America's Schools?

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with about
one-third of the real dollar expenditures of present day schools. They taught
with fewer books and less equipment, and did not have any of todays audio-visual
material and equipment. Then, between 1965 and 1980, real dollar expenditures
per student doubled as teacher to student ratio dropped by one forth. Yet, with
more money and fewer students per class, student achievement deteriorated in
every available measure. In 15 years, national SAT scores declined by 5 points
annually. That 75 point drop has put the US behind greatly, and has left todays
students with a lot of ground to make up in order to reach other countries test
score levels.
The cause of this dramatic drop can not been attributed to any one thing.
The decline was sudden, sharp, and affected every region and socioeconomic
group in the country. Because the 60's and 70's were a time of major changes,
nothing that happened in that era can be ruled out. But a few major changes
within the educational ...

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of their own funds. Those schools that received increased government funds
first were some of the first to decline. This added to the theory that a
schools performance is hindered by the bureaucratic controls over them that are
less responsive to the school's and parents' concerns. As more money was coming
from the government, the teachers and parents had less of a say in how those
funds were spent.
Recently, the educational system has shown improvement, and test scores
are improving as well, but it is still not enough to bring us up to
international levels. US students are playing catch-up with other countries.
But many schools do not have the needed financial support to ...

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