Why Change Public Schools?

I have had a relatively unique educational experience and it has helped to shape some of my ideas on how public education in the United States can be improved. I am from a small affluent town in Massachusetts and attended the public school in the town from Kindergarten through 8th grade. When I first started at the school in the mid 1990's, it was one of the best performing schools in the state. By the time I had reached the 8th grade, the school had nearly lost it's accreditation.

Because I was worried about going to a school that may not allow me to be accepted into college, I applied to a Catholic preparatory high school. I spent two years at the school before returning to the high school in my town; these two years were the most challenging and rewarding years of my academic life. I immediately noticed the contrast between public school private school educations and between religious and secular. At this school, grades were unweighted and it seemed at times that teachers attempted to make sure that no student received an A for a course. When I left the school, I was ranked second in my class of about 80 students and my GPA was a 3.65.

I arrived back at my town's high school in my junior year with a recalculated GPA of 4.1 out of 4.0. Interestingly enough, the top 20 out of 90 students had at least a 4.0 GPA. I was shocked. The classes were excruciatingly easy after my time at the prep school and my new friends scoffed at my old GPA and thought that I left because the other school had been too challenging.

What really made me begin to think about education reform was actually the process of applying to college. Students from my first high school were significantly more prepared for college; however, the school was not well known and they had seemingly low GPA's. Many students were rejected from their top choice schools. Students from my low grade public high school with high GPA's overall were admitted to more prestigious colleges. Two students from my graduating class got into Ivy League schools while none from my former high school did. I was fortunate enough to graduate as salutatorian and get into the schools to which I applied, but this experience was eye opening for me.

I am about to enter my senior year in college and I want to share my ideas about education reform. I think that it is important that students get a fair change when moving through the school system and I think that a lot can be done to improve the public system.