In a group of 5 or 6, study the following texts, and then provide an OUTLINE for each text.

McDonald’s or IBM?

Education policies have been changing in the United States in response to an increasingly competitive global
marketplace. In the state of North Carolina, educational reform has led to harsh new policies which have had harmful
effects on many students.
North Carolina recently implemented a new policy asking eight graders to choose one of four high school
“pathways.” The courses they take in one of the pathways will prepare them either to attend a four-year college or
university, to enter a community or technical college, or directly to enter the job market upon graduation. The fourth
is a program for disabled students. Once students select their pathways, they must fulfill their particular requirements
to receive a high school diploma. A parent’s signature is required on the selection form.
The pathway programs and similar policies are the latest in a series of events in a reform movement begun
two decades ago when a national commission concluded that education in the United States was in crisis. The
commission declared that there was “a rising tide of mediocrity” in public education that threatened the future of the
nation. It also suggested that business-minded experts who understood the demands of the competitive marketplace
could make useful recommendations to improve education. North Carolina’s pathway program was created by the
state’s Education Standard and Accountability Commission, which is largely composed of corporate leaders. The
problem with the pathway programs and others like it is that it focuses on creating employees, not on educating
human beings.
A major problem with the pathway programs is the age at which students are required to make decision
about their future. For most students, eight grade is an awkward and uncertain time of physical and emotional
change. Few eight-grade students are mature enough to recognize their individual talents or plan their futures. “I
cannot see how this will not be a disaster” says DR. Charles Payne, a professor of African-American Studies and History
at Duke University who studies urban educational policy. “You’re asking kids in eight grade to make a decision that’s
going to greatly impact the reminder of their lives,” he adds, one they “cannot possibly understand the consequences
of.” Given that college students change majors several times before graduating and that adults change occupations
almost as frequently, isn’t it too much to ask adolescents to make a life-defining decision at the age of thirteen or
fourteen?
Also of concern is the effect on kids who have aspirations to attend a four-year college but who are not in
good academic standing in middle school. Mary Phillips High School in Raleigh, N.C., specializes in teaching kids with
family or emotional problems who didn’t perform well in elementary or middle school. “It’s going to have a big impact
on our kids, “says Loretta Peacock, a guidance counselor at Phillips. The students at Phillips are usually behind in
credits when they arrive, making it unlikely that they will be able to complete the requirements of the university
preparation course of study in four years. “I’m hoping that guidance counselors will steer kids towards college,” says
Rukiya Dillahunt, an assistant principal at Phillips High, but she fears that many won’t.
DR. June Atkinson, Director of Instructional Services for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,
who was instrumental in writing the new policy, also says guidance counselors should encourage students to take the
most challenging courses they can, and then, if necessary, switch to a less demanding course of study later. However,
it is not easy to transfer from one pathway to another. For example, a student who fails to meet the requirements of
the university preparatory pathway and transfers to the two-year college course of study will have to make up four
credits in a career/technical field that the university prep pathway does not include.
Many people feel that minority populations will be hit especially hard by the new policy. “African-American
and Latino kids are commonly tracked into lower level math classes,” says Daniella Cook, who analyzes education
policy for the Common Sense Foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. The former teacher says this is because minority
students’ schools often have fewer resources, and less qualified teachers, and these students face language barriers
and
Cook is concerned that the new policy “will lock out a whole generation of Black and Latino kids from four-
year colleges.” Ms. Peacock predicts that the new policy will cause more minority students to drop out of high school
in a state where the dropout rate for minority students is already high. Idola Scimeca, the mother of a 16-year-old
junior at Durham’s Jordan High, wonders about the implicit message of the pathway programs. She feels that these
measures are being used to marginalize minority students. She says, “It’s like they’re categorizing these kids by eight
grade and telling some “you’re going to work at IBM, and you’re going to work at McDonald’s.”

OUTLINE:
Topic: negative effects of new education policies (eg nc)
Mi: there are negative effects of new education policies
SDs:
1. Too young to make decisions in their future carrier
2. Problems of academic performence in earlir level of summary
3. Problems with transfering to other pathways
4. Problems with minority students
Conclusion: the new education policies do not succed.
Summary:
the new education policies is giving bad impacts to students. There are 4 “pathways” offered by
this policies to 8 grades for them to choose. Those 4 pathways are the courses they take in will
prepare them either to attend a four-year college or university, to enter a community or technical
college, or directly to enter the job market upon graduation. The fourth is a program for disabled
students. This program lead to bad impact. First, they still too young to make decisions in their
future carrier, second they will have problems of academic performence in earlir level of
summary, third, they will face problems with transfering to other pathways, and the last one is
problems with minority students.

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