Olaleye 1

Annotated Bibliography (Rough Draft)

The Failure of American Public Education

Enny Olaleye

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

March 11, 2018

 Olaleye 2

Annotated Bibliography

Levin, Henry M. The failure of the public schools and the free market remedy. Brookings

Institution, 1968.

This source is a peer-reviewed journal that talks about the difficulties placed on parents

when trying to find a school to place their children in. In reality, some individuals have a

higher chance of getting into certain schools, whether it is based on race, socioeconomic

status, location, etc. Henry M. Levin believes that if we increase the likelihood of getting

into institutions and level the playing field, it would most likely lead to benefit everyone

involved. However, the problem does not just lie in the parents, but also in the schools.

Schools, both public and private, are expected to uphold a certain standard based on

where they are placed and how they are ranked. In a typical world, a more advantaged

child has higher odds of getting assigned to a school that highly ranked compared to a

disadvantaged child. Levin proposes that we allow schools to compete for the children,

instead of parents fighting to get their children into the best schools. If we were to allow

schools to compete, Levin believes that there would be a massive increase on the

educational impact of the child because the schools would be more focused on the needs

of the children. This is similar to how private schools are run. Since parents are paying

for their students to attend, the administration is more receptive to the parents and

children’s needs, and parents have a bigger pull as to what happens on school premises.

This article also explains how education is supposed to accomplish two goals overall;

provide and teach enough literacy to allow children to have an understanding of the

common heritage that is necessary to be functional in a stable and democratic society and

to disregard the disparities in income and opportunity (race, social class, etc.) in order to
 Olaleye 3

properly educate a child. This peer reviewed journal provided context on how the issues

with our education system not only affects the child but also affects the way we run our

society.

Henry M Levin is currently the William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and

Education at Columbia University's Teachers College. Formerly, Levin was a research

associate with the Economic Studies Division of the Brookings Institute and has

experience in writing about economic and educational matters in the Saturday Review,

the Journal of Human Resources, and other publications. The purpose of this article

was to persuade the audience that our country needs to adapt a new way on how we run

our public schools.

Overall, this article was an instructional read, particularly in its explanation of free

market and how that affects public education. In regard to my project, I plan on using

aspects of this article to explain ways we can improve our educational system. I felt as if

Henry M. Levin did an exceptional job of making a very hard topic easier to understand

for his audience. This journal successfully explains the disparities present in our

educational systems and how it will have a severe impact for students if not rectified.

Hochschild, Jennifer L. “Social Class in Public Schools.” Journal of Social Issues, Blackwell

Publishing, 18 Nov. 2003, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0022-

4537.2003.00092.x/full.

This source is a scholarly article talking about the social class structures present in public

schools. Education is an important factor in determining what type of job and income an

individual will receive in their life. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the same

type of education. This article was incredibly chart/statistics-heavy, especially when it

 Olaleye 4

came to compare the different types of social class separations (race, disability, sexual

orientation, etc.) Education in the formalized setting of classrooms and school districts is

still the process of human being teaching other human beings about the world around

them. It is hardly surprising when this article brings up how every aspect of the teacher's

and student's personality and mental make-up is a factor in the process of education. This

leads to the reason why issues such as race and class play a part in the way education is

imparted and absorbed. Race and social class also affect education in other ways. Very

often people from a racial minority group or a lower income family do not have a family

history of higher education. If the parents or grandparents have not had access to

education, the child that comes from such a family is not likely to have had anybody read

to them or even have had to opportunity to be exposed to many books. Ultimately, this

can be seen as a disadvantage when these children are placed in a class where many other

children have had tremendous exposure to the written word. An encouraging environment

and a little focused help can go a long way in helping disadvantaged students catch up

and this needs to be handled with empathy and sensitivity. While education should ideally

be untouched by race, class or gender, it is an unreal expectation. This article defined

these elements and explained how our educational process should factor these social

divisive anomalies in.

The author of this journal, Jennifer L. Hochschild, is Yale Graduate who currently teaches

African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Hochschild is the author of

various scholarly articles and the recipient of prestigious fellowship awards such as

Guggenheim Fellowship for Social Sciences and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
 Olaleye 5

The purpose of this article was to inform the audience, particularly those familiar with

educational programming and urban public school systems.

Overall, I found this journal to be very informative and interesting. In fear of making my

topic of education too broad, I am going to attempt to minimize the involvement of race

and social issues when it comes to education and focus more on the funding of our public

schools and the misuse of resources. This journal properly demonstrates ways in which

class biases are closely related to racial and ethnic inequality. It brings up what would be

necessary to reduce class disparities in American public schools.

Hood, John. “The Failure of American Public Education | John Hood.” FEE, Foundation for

Economic Education, 1 Feb. 1993, fee.org/articles/the-failure-of-american-public-

education/.

This source is an academic article from the Foundation of Economic Education that

speaks about the failure of America’s public education system and how it correlates to

student involvement. The article also discusses the possible reasons why public education

is failing today, whether it be for moral issues or lack of public education reforms. The

conservatives believe that the reason why our public schools are failing is because we

have lost our classroom discipline and moral consensus on how we should teach our

students. Free-market thinkers believe that removing the government’s policies is the key

to becoming successful in education. They believe that imposing government policy that

enforces strict rules and standardized testing will not allow a student to become

successful but will make a student resentful towards public education. The Foundation of

Economic Education suggested a plan to improve education that involves passing reform
 Olaleye 6

efforts and encouraging free-learning. This article emphasizes the importance of

education, not only for the economy, but for our country.

The author of this article, John Hood, is the former president of the John Locke

Foundation and current president of the John William Pope foundation. The former UNC

graduate has established multiple student magazine columns including the Carolina Critic

and the UNCC Critic. The purpose of this article was to persuade the audience that the

United States’ public education system is failing and provide individuals with ways we

could possibly improve it.

Overall, this source was very informative, and I found it very useful when working on my

Topic Proposal. I plan to use this article as one of my main points for my project this

semester because I strongly believe that it will help me with my research for this

assignment.

McGee, Kate. “What Really Happened At The School Where Every Graduate Got Into

College.” NPR, NPR, 28 Nov. 2017,

www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/28/564054556/what-really-happened-at-the-school-

where-every-senior-got-into-college.

This source is an auditory transcript from NPR’s popular show “All Things Considered,”

where they talked about a high school where every single graduate got accepted into

college. However, in what I assumed would be a positive review about the school with

suggestions on how we can do better, I was actually confronted with a lengthy synopsis

on the lack of structure and leniency present at Ballou High School. According to the

article, it appears that the high rates of unexcused absences and incompletion of school

work did not have an effect on the student’s ability to graduate. In order to get to the root
 Olaleye 7

of the problem, NPR interviewed multiple students, teachers and administrators to try and

see how the correlation in graduation rate and unexcused absences could possibly make

sense. The majority of the teachers who spoke decided to remain anonymous, in fear of

losing their jobs, and delivered a range of responses from “feeling pressure to pass their

students” and “not wanting to receive poor teacher evaluations.” However, they all

seemed to be in agreement on one thing; placing the blame on the administrators and

local government over the lack of student involvement and success. When NPR

interviewed the administrators, they claim that students are “expected” to show up to

class and that the reason everyone graduates is because they put forth the work and effort

to do so.

The author of this article, Kate Mcgee, is a graduate of Fordham University who now

currently works as an education reporter for the D.C area. According to her NPR

biography, she is very familiar with the Washington D.C education system and has

spoken on multiple NPR shows about it. The purpose of this article was to inform the

public about Ballou High, a school that boasts about its 100% graduation rate but hides

the fact that the majority of its students hardly show up to class.

Overall, this source was an interesting read and I found it useful for my research on the

failure of American public education. This article is a prime example on how we rank so

poorly in education, passing students for the sole purpose of looking good instead of

actually educating them. This source will appear in my project because I believe I can

use this as an example on the ways we are failing our students.