Current Educational Practices: Nationally

Providing high-quality education to each and every child in the United States is undoubtedly one the biggest challenges our country has endeavored. (cite Gutierrez) Yet, it is unsurprising to learn to that the institution of education, while committed to this lofty goal, is fraught with a myriad of problems, issues and obstacles, each of which finds both support and opposition at every turn. Lee Iacocca eloquently stated, "In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have." (cite) However, with each passing decade, it appears that this 'honor and responsibility' of teaching is dwindling away.

This paper will begin by identifying and analyzing current educational practices under four separate, but often overlapping, domains: A national standpoint; the California State perspective; the Corona Norco Unified School District's approach; and Centennial High School's perspective. Next, by examining the philosophical history that has impacted educational practices over the past century, this paper will trace how those philosophies have affected the development of the author's personal philosophy of education. Finally, this paper will examine the challenges of implementing the author's philosophy in a culturally ethnically and economically diverse district.

Current Educational Practices: Nationally

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is without a doubt one of the most sweeping nationalizations of school reform in this nation's history. (cite Gutierrez) Signed into law at the beginning of 2002, the law requires states to create an accountability system of assessments and graduation rates, and have schools raise achievement levels of specific groups of students as measured by the school's adequate yearly progress (AYP). Further, NCLB requires that all teachers be "highly qualified" by meeting the states licensure and certification requirements. (cite bookrags) Looking ahead, the law requires that by 2007/2008 states must measure student progress in science, in addition to mathematics and language, and by 2013/2014, states just demonstrate that all students are meeting the federally required goals for grade level achievement. While the impact of NCLB is being felt in schools and districts across the nation, there is an impending sense of doom as 2013/2014 draws closer. Trends that are dramatically different than those formed in the past have emerged, forcing teachers, schools and districts to scramble into compliance. Accountability lies no longer with the student, or the family, but rather with the classroom teacher. It is the teacher's job to ensure students are 'proficient',