EDF1005-Reflection #8

The state passed down several laws to change and improve education in schools. These laws were called the three waves of educational reform. The first wave reform saw schools as a national defense and economic competition. Many companies were complaining that their employees didn’t know how to read or write and do basic skills that they figured were supposed to be known. Students were scoring poorly on international state exams. They believed that if they were to establish new schools that they would perform better. Corporations were frustrated with the fact that their employees didn’t have the basic skills of reading and writing. The second wave reform started with a couple of important educators. They wanted to focus on school practices, and suggested teachers should cover fewer topics but more profoundly. They wanted to create more potential for the school principals and give them more authority to form structure as well as in the corps of the teachers with things like salary and creating more trained ones. The third wave noticed the needs of those children that needed help financially and didn’t have a family structure at home to help them continue and do well with their education future. They formed full service schools which would provide these students with transportation, health care, and different social services. School policy was replaced by children’s policy which would react to the multiple needs of children instead of just education. This wave provided a variety of community services. In my opinion the one that has been most dominant has been the first wave which is said to still be in use today. Almost the whole population knows how to read and write which is why they have their jobs. I believe it is a necessity to know these basic skills in order to stay stabilized in a company. If not, then you will be constantly transferring from job to job because you can’t deal with it. Also, students are improving in standardized testing which is the result of grading each school as an A, B, C, D or F. This is a huge part of that grade, and teachers are also preparing their students throughout the year for these types of tests. This wave is important because without a good score on most of those tests you wouldn’t be able to precede to the next grade level nor get a decent job.