I would focus on improving education at the elemenary levels in at-risk areas. There are a lot of new to the country students and kids with rough home lives in impoverished areas that start behind the average when they begin attending school. They are never able to really catch up. That could be improved
How would you improve that?
I would put education as a higher priority on the national budget. Low income schools with students who need to catch up would benefit from more teachers and small teachers.
I think that would be a great place to start. Do you think that teaching in foreign languages in public schools could also be of benefit?
A lot of public schools at the elementary level do. Many at risk schools teach half in spanish and half in english to try and help get kids up to speed. Great suggestion
What about free after school programs that can help students who are behind catch up?
Yes. That is also a good idea. They are being offered but I would be curious to research how attendance at those programs could be increased.
I also feel like part of the problem is the way they are currently set up, there just isnt the budget or the support for them to be successful. It's part of the reason why I'm so passionate about ending up as a stay at home mom, because I really want to be in the classroom. There have been a lot of studies that show that the more parent involvement there is in the classroom, the higher the test scores end up being. This is also why a lot of low income schools struggle, because the parents are all working fulltime to support their families. They lose that involvement