The magnitude of the problem with education

[greybeta]

Okay, one of the questions on the Truman application is to describe the problem or needs of society you want to address when you enter public service. The problem is that I need to find reliable statistical data to define the magnitude of the problem.

So I want to address the problems we have in our education system. I'm really not sure if I want to do K-12 or college, but I do need to know where I can find the statistics. I'll be googling stuff, but I still won't be sure who I can rely on.

Could anyone point me in the direction of finding some sound statistcs to define the problem of our education system?

Comments

[stealthcomic.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on which problem you'd like to tackle. There's a host of opportunities to improve public education, but the causes are varied. Do you want to tackle the impact of poverty? Head Start issues? No Child Left Behind? Standards in general? The recruitment and retention of teachers? Coping with an ailing school infrastructure? The funding equation? The impacts of learning disabilitiesand mainstreaming special education? Second Language learners and bilingual ed?

Those are just the few potential education-related topics I can think of off of the topic of my head and they could all be considered potential problem areas within education.

If you narrow it a little, the essay will be easier to tackle.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the input. I decided just to focus on my home state to make it easy on me :).