Annotated Bibliography

                                              
Doss, Ann. “Education Advocate: NC On The Wrong Path.” Charlotte Observer. 21 March 2013: 2

pages. Web.

Dianne Ravitch is Education Advocate and Author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” made a speech at UNC Charlotte. Ann Doss covers the story in the charlotte observer. The speech she mad focused on “major public issues,” including the amount of new state tests and how they are going to benefit testing and technology companies and hurt students. There are 35 new tests coming to schools this spring. MecklenburgACTS and UnTest, two local activist groups run by parents are and UNCC students joined Ravitch to urge parents and members of the audience to resist this new “reliance” on testing to rate teachers. However Ravitch was able to praise the Superintendent, Heath Morrison for also taking a stand against excessive testing. She even added him to the honor roll of her blog after she read a few of his comments in a previous article in the Observer.

Doss does a good job of getting her point across, even though she is basically covering the story of Ravitch’s speech. Her thesis is “Increasing charter schools, giving public schools letter grades, abolishing teacher tenure and piling on new  tests – all moves that have been passed or proposed by state legislature,” is strong and give the audience a good outlook as to what the article is about. Doss is able to add other information to make the cover story stronger by saying the new amount of standardized tests.

This source will help me most with quotes that I can add to help make my paper stronger. Because Dianne Ravitch is so involved with education throughout the country I will be able to practice ethos by quoting her. She is a writer and author, as well as an advocate and former official in the U.S Education Department. This argument works well for the private school side of my paper because it makes public schools look bad.

·         “Its an effort to turn public Education into a profit making venture”

·         “Parents are the sleeping giant, but when the students awaken, everything changes.”

·         “There are so many terrible things happening in your state that I feel like a fireman.”

 

Kennedy, Robert. “Why Private School.” Private School Review. N.d. 20 May 2013. Web.

            Going to a private school means many extra opportunities for a child. More often than not, they will be higher academically challenged, have a smaller class size, more exposure to arts, more funds to their education, a harder push towards college, higher sense of values and the list continues to go on and on. Private schools are most known for their high tuition costs, however little to no scandal as to where that money goes. Children rarely have to come home and ask their parents to buy a book or other school supplies like the children from public schools do. Also at private schools children have a better chance to interact with their teachers more often, because of smaller class sizes. The opportunities for excelling in arts and college continue to soar in private schools. Again, because of the funding private schools are able to add music, dance, and theatre programs to their curriculum at the snap of a finger. “According to NELS, students who had attended private school in 8^th grade were twice as likely…to have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher by their mid-twenties. All in all, private school is a very attractive option for a parent deciding which school their child should attend.

            Kennedy does a very good job at explaining his argument. He pounds his audience with fact, after fact, after statistic. In his first paragraph he lays out all the problems and costs a parent has when picking a school for their child. He talks about expenses and for the rest of his essay he is able to explain why private schools are worth that scary tuition bill.

            Because I have never attended private school this gives me an inside scoop as to what goes on in private school. All the benefits help me understand why this side of my argument can be so strong. It also gives a great source of statistics for both private and public schools. I feel like after reading this article I would want my child to go to a private school if I could easily afford it. Using certain quotes from this article will make the private school argument much stronger.

·         “Private schools typically have more demanding graduation requirements than do public high schools.”

·         “In general a student given the opportunity to attend private school will most likely reach a higher level of academic achievement.”

·         “Private schools have the ability to create their own curriculum…administrators often develop programs that emphasize the arts.”

 

Mack, Julie. “Back to School: Why Public Education is Awesome.” MLive. 01 September 2012.

Web. 28 March 28, 2013.

The article first starts out telling a story about an adopted teenage boy from Central America adjusting to life in Michigan. Almost no one spoke his language. He grew into the idea of public school and actually became very enthusiastic about it. He couldn’t believe his schooling was free. Mack continues to talk about how the boy was thrilled to be so lucky. Then she twists the article and calls out all the bad press that public school gets. Then she goes on a complete rampage talking about what public schools do for our country. She describes public schools as “one of America’s gift to the world.”  Public school is the primary way to instill core values and a common culture to a nation of immigrants. Public education not only helps individuals one by one, but also communities as a whole. “A well-educated populace has more productive workers, higher incomes and less dependence on public assistance programs; it’s linked to lower crime rates, improved public health, and more stable families.”

Mack does an excellent job arguing her point. She has no problem talking about the bad press public schools get and exercising her ability of ethos by starting out a story with a young boy. She steps back and looks a public school throughout the nation instead of focusing on one, in a community. She chooses to end her article with “What a privilege. What an opportunity. What a country.” Three very strong statements that help the audience step back and realize that no matter which school they go to, there is always one available for them.

I feel like my public school argument is falling through the cracks and this cannot be a one sided paper. Especially when I personally believe that public school is just as good a private school, depending on the child. This article will help me show that public schools are extremely effective and work well for a child.

·         “One of America’s gifts to the world has been the democratizing of schools.”

·         “A well-educated populace has more productive workers, higher incomes and less dependence on public assistance programs; it’s linked to lower crime rates, improved public health, and more stable families.”

·         “It helped turned the US into the most powerful country in the world, fueling the American dream and the vision of a Land of Opportunity.”