Introduction
K-12 education system is the building block of the total education system of any country. Secondary school and high school education are the responsibilities of states in most of the nations around the world. The United States of America is no exception. Pennsylvania is one of the states in USA that has been pioneer in many fields including education reforms. Pennsylvania has a robust education system with 501 public school districts, many publicly funded colleges and thousands of private schools and colleges (PSSD, 2010). As per the state law of Pennsylvania, school attendance for children between the age group of 8 and 17 is mandatory. The rate of residents having completed high school is around 83%-84% in Pennsylvania (PSSD, 2010). Pennsylvania’s public schools are operated under the authority of local school boards and general state assembly. There are many types of public schools in Pennsylvania including elementary, intermediate, junior high, high charter and vocational schools. Each public school is headed by a principal. The principal of the school reports to the superintendent of schools appointed by the board of school district. This essay will discuss the evolution of K-12 education system, federal and local initiatives to change the system, implication of the changes to the K-12 education and Pennsylvania student accountability testing system.
History of K-12 Education and Pennsylvania
The K-12 education system is a public education system in USA. The same name is also used for the public schooling system in Canada, United Kingdom and some part of Europe as well. It consists of 13 grades from kindergarten to 12th.
Pennsylvania has an old and rich history in the field of education. The University of Pennsylvania established in 1740 is one of the oldest universities in the United States (ASD, 2014). An informal education system started way back in 1770s. In fact, cities like Philadelphia and Pennsylvania started public schools and colleges way back in 1780s. There were no formal structure of education in place at that time, and it was mostly privately funded. The curriculum was based on the discretion of each individual school. That early system of school helped the growth rate of education immensely. The percentage of children receiving education increased from 33% to 69% between 1771 and 1804 (ASD, 2014). By the early 19th century, most of the children were receiving education from schools, and less number of children was receiving education only at home. In 1854, Lincoln University was founded, and it was the first university in the whole country to provide education and degrees to the black students (ASD, 2014). Till the end of the civil war, most of the schools remained private, and a public school system was almost non-existent.
Horace Mann was the first person to start a public schooling system in the United States in the State of Massachusetts in 1952 (ASD, 2014). Pennsylvania soon followed the same route. Pennsylvania passed the school attendance law in the latter half of the 19th century. Pennsylvania was also one of the pioneers to have passed the state law for children to receive mandatory education. The Fisher Act of England in 1918 had a big impact on shaping the K-12 education in USA. The Fisher Act helped formulate many rules of the current K-12 system. For example, the minimum age for leaving school, health inspection and rules for special children were determined by the Fisher Act. This also helped formulate the basic administrative structure of the K-12 system (Mccluskey, 2009). Many states including Pennsylvania formed education boards that made recommendations to the administrators about educational affairs.
K-12 System State, Local and Federal Interventions
Historically, K-12 system was run by states. Pennsylvania has its own department of education called Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Secretary of Education, who is appointed by the governor, is the head of that department. Under the Secretary of Education, there are several deputy secretaries of education taking care of different sections of K-12 education (Mccluskey, 2009). The State Board of Education has many responsibilities. It is responsible for the creation and change of school districts, applying for federal grants, the management of educational funds, creating and adopting master plans for higher education, and finally creating policies for the secretary of education who applies those policies to the K-12 schools across the state. Pennsylvania Department of Education has 22 members, and 10 out of these 22 members are responsible for the basic education while 10 others are responsible for higher education (PSSD, 2010). Schools are run by principals who are accountable to the local board of education of the school district. The curriculum, assessment and budget allocation of the state are fully regulated by the state education department upon discussion with the local school boards.
There has been much federal intervention in the state education affairs in the last 40-50 years. After serious criticism of the educational outcome of the K-12 system in the past, Federal government has increased funding almost three times in the last 40 years. However, Federal government has funded the state education programs only if the states are willing to adhere to some rules specified by the federal government. One of the recent rules that have come to the forefront is the “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” (Mccluskey, 2009). Pennsylvania was one of the first states to take the federal funding for NCLB in exchange for the adherence to the academic standards, student testing and related regulations. As per the Federal NCLB plan, states need to achieve adequate yearly progress (AYP) using the customized national testing plans as devised by the federal educational board. According to the federal mandate, AYP level needs to be reported at the district level, school level and graduation level. Attendance and graduation are also part of the AYP criterion (Mccluskey, 2009). If a school or a school district fails to achieve AYP, it needs to create an improvement plan and submit it to the state education board which needs to report it to the federal educational board. Also, the Disabilities Education Act of 1975 mandated for all the states to make education free of cost for all disabled children (Burke and Marshall, 2010). The act describes in great detail the kind of services a school district or a school needs to offer to the disabled children. Children with disabilities were no longer a part of the state devised curriculum. In 2000, the federal government passed a law for national K-12 educational goals called “National educational goals 2000” (Burke and Marshall, 2010). This law ensured that all the states abide by the education standards mandated by the federal education board, and failing to abide by the rules, they will lose a part of the federal grant. Title I is one of the federal educational programs that tries to ensure that states abide by the national standard of testing, teacher qualification, readings and other curricula. Title II is another federal law that forces the states to follow the federal law on recruitment of teachers and principals (Burke and Marshall, 2010).
Implication of the Changes in K-12 Education
K-12 education has seen many developments over the years. Historically, K-12 has been managed by each individual state of USA. Pennsylvania has shown considerable improvement over the years while managing the education system on its own. However, frequent federal intervention started occurring in the K-12 education system after 1960s. The Disabilities Act passed in 1975 came as a blessing to the disabled children who finally started getting a special treatment they deserved for a long time. However, the Disabilities Act expected a lot from the schools and school districts primarily run by the states. Resultantly, schools, not yet ready for change, started faltering in the task of handling the children with special needs as specified by the federal law. This created a huge legal battle between the state education board, schools and federal government (Burke and Marshall, 2010). The process created more chaos in the system than it created a good environment of education for children with disabilities. Then in recent years, the Clinton administration, Bush administration and Obama administration have tied federal aids with adherence to national testing standards and other criterion with the intention to improve the overall level of education, but no improvement has been noticed in the math aptitude as well as reading aptitude scores in the last 20 years (Burke and Marshall, 2010). It seems that excessive federal control has not been able to boost the level of education. In fact, the creativity in designing the curricula is lost as states and local districts have less influence on the educational assessment and regulations.
Pennsylvania Learning Standards and K-12 Assessment System
Pennsylvania has always been in the top ten in terms of educational ranking among the 50 states. In recent years, it has acquired a place within the top ten in reading and math aptitude scores for 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th grades (PSSA, 2010). Pennsylvania education board provides scores to the students in the following four categories; advanced, proficient, basic and below basic. It reports scores at the school level, school district level and state level for each student, student subgroups, family incomes, special needs and English learners. This report card is also provided to the teachers and parents. Pennsylvania state education department also publishes the results in the academic achievement report card website. If a school earns even 10% improvement from last year, it is given an adequate yearly progress credit (PSSA, 2010). Pennsylvania has its own statewide assessment system called the Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System (PVAAS). This assessment system is devised in such a way that it is easy to track the yearly progress of each student, the yearly progress of the school and the overall achievement growth in educational levels.
Conclusion
Pennsylvania is one of the pioneering states in USA in terms of educational reforms. From the 18th century, it has started its journey in the public schooling process. Although until the civil war the public schooling system was not established in Pennsylvania, the state laws, which created the base of mandatory education for every child, was already in place. K-12 has always been an educational program governed by the state educational board. However, from 1960s, the federal government started forcing some laws of its own on to the states. It provided federal grant if the states were following the national standards of education, assessment, testing and teacher qualification. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to implement the changes suggested by the federal government. However, more intervention from the federal government did not help. In fact, the graduation rate and aptitude scores remained flat in the last 20 years. It seems that it will be better if the federal government only provides help to the states with educational grants and leaves the administration and assessment process to the discretion of the state educational boards. This will help the revival of the K-12 education system.
References
Burke, L. and Marshall, J. (2010). Why National Standards Won’t Fix American Education: Misalignment of Power and Incentives. . Retrieved on 27th February 2014 from <http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/05/why-national-standards-won-t-fix-american-education-misalignment-of-power-and-incentives>
Mccluskey, N. (2009). K-12 Education Subsidies. Downsizing Government. CATO Institute. . Retrieved on 27th February 2014 from < http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/education/k-12-education-subsidies>
Ornstein, A. C. and Levine, D. U. (1984). An Introduction to the Foundations of Education, Third Ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
ASD (2014). The Early Years: Public Education in Pennsylvania. Allentown School District. . Retrieved on 27th February 2014 from < http://www.allentownsd.org/Page/16>
PSSA (2010). 2009-2010 PSSA and AYP Results. Pennsylvania Depart of Education. Retrieved on 27th February 2014 from <http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/school_assessments/7442/2009_-2010_pssa_and_ayp_results/770183>
