The Program For International Student Assessment - 1193 Words

In 2009 the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) report which test the performance of 15 year olds in science, math and reading came out. In that report, the United States ranked 31st in math, 23rd in science and 17th in reading. President Obama thought that the report was a call to action. This was a Sputnik 2 situation—like Sputnik 1 in the late 1950s to early 60s, when President Kennedy galvanized the nation into action to improve its science and technology education, President Obama recognized that our education system must be improved. In 1957 the Soviet Union became the first nation to launch the world’s first satellite into orbit. Prior to the launch of Sputnik, the United States was complacent in its â€Å"number†¦show more content†¦After the industrial revolution, that began to change, workers began to move off the farms to factories. There was no demand on education—workers did not need an education to work in factories. Now in the 21st century all that has changed. We are in the age of knowledge; this is the nature of technology today. Nonetheless, our educational system is not meeting the demand for educating the nation’s children. There is great inequality and access to education. In many instances the determining factor for a decent education is: where a child lives. In the United States education is controlled and funded by the states. The States use the property taxes to fund schools, therefore in states where there is high levels of poverty, property taxes tend to be low, and consequently, school funding is low. This causes inequality of access to education. This problem of a good education persist even at tertiary levels of our education system. Many people cannot afford to go to a good college because of the exorbitant cost of attending and the levels of debt that they would incur. Many of those who do go, are left with huge debts for decades—this is unsustainable. Purpose of an Education What is the purpose of getting an education? The purpose of an education is to