Is the US education system improving?

Acknowledge the issue of overcrowding classrooms and the lack of funding’s to provide schools with enough support to reach every student need. Yes, we have in place the Every Student Succeeds Act, but this gets extremely difficult to do when schools suffer from not having enough certified teachers available to teach those students. Overcrowded schools become a huge problem when it comes to providing an education to all students. When you overcrowd rooms, you can’t reach every student who needs more individual support. The education system begins to be watered down, and even though the term “No Child Left Behind” is stated, what ends up happening is children start to get left behind do to major behavior or academic deficits, and when this happens schools struggle to close the gaps!

As a part of my interview series about the things that should be done to improve the US educational system I had the pleasure to interview Josh Ruse.

Josh Ruse works as a behavior consultant for multiple school districts in the central Texas area, and he also consults with teachers throughout the world via social media. For the past decade, Josh has been consulting with school districts and teachers on the use of positive behavior intervention support school-wide.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the “backstory”behind what brought you to this particular career path?

My educational career path started early on in child hood. As far back as I can remember, I always remember my mother stressing how important it was to get a good education. Growing up, I was raised by a single mother raising three boys of her own. My mother’s life was immediately shattered when I was two years old with a sudden tragic death of my father. I still remember from this day riding in the back of a truck crying with my mother knowing I would never see my father again. At the time, I didn’t know my mother did not have an education, she was a stay at home wife raising three boys during the day, while my father earned the income to support the family. When this tragic incident occurred, my mother knew she could continue down the hard road of barley getting by, or invest in herself and go to school to get an education and be able to support three growing boys. I couldn’t imagine the tough times my mother endured throughout those years she was working on getting a college degree, but growing up watching her struggle with all the hurdles she had to cross, made me a stronger person. At the time, my mother did not realize the fact she was modeling to her kids how important education was, and no matter how bad life can get, never give up on investing in your education! My mother’s hard work and willingness to push on when life gets tough molded me into the teacher I am now! That willingness to never give up, and how important it is to invest in yourself is the gift I pass down to my students. I work with the tough kids as a behavior support teacher, and these kids see tragedy every day, but no one is there to support them and help push them through the finish line to be successful. For me, I was lucky I had a mom that modeled being strong and never gave up no matter how hard life beat her down! This is exactly why I choose education! Everyday I make it a point to be that person my mother was for me, who guided me down the right path to success holding the barley lit candle knowing there was light at the end of the path, but also becoming stronger as she crossed the path of the unknown. The unknown is what brings fear into many of our students lives, and we as educators have to be the light for our students just like my mother was for me.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The most interesting thing that happened to me during my career happened recently in the past year. In the fall of 2018, I was diagnosed with loan atrial fibrillation. At the time I was diagnosed I was in the best shape of my life, everything was going good in my career. I was a behavior specialist for multiple school districts, but what I didn’t know was over the years of teaching I was not taking care of my body mentally. The 2018–2019 school year was the scariest year I had in education. That school year I was averaging one emergency room visit a month due to my heart racing out of control. One time it was so bad, they had to rush me to the Intensive care unit on a cardiac drip, because my heart was beating way to fast! Let me tell you, going to the hospital this much for a heart condition is not fun, and it makes you think long and hard about how much time you have left on this earth. Its very scary mentally. Loan Atrial Fibrillation is like a ticking time bomb and you never know when its going to happen, all you know is in the back of your mind, you know it will happen again. Atrial Fibrillation has changed my mindset up for the better. I always ask myself when faced with a tough problem, what lesson is God trying to teach me? With this lesson, I believe it was stop taking time for granted. One of my goals that I set for myself was to create a platform that I would be able to reach teachers all over the world to provide them knowledge and advice when it came to working with challenging behaviors in schools. My atrial fibrillation was a wake up call for me! Since my first atrial fibrillation attack, my episodes have not been as serious, and I have been able to control them without going to the emergency room, but this problem has been my fuel to the fire to get my messages across to teachers all over the world.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I am currently working on a podcast show that I host called Classroom Success 101. I started this podcast, because two years ago I created an Instagram account called Hardcore Behaviorist. After posting daily content teaching other educators how to manage behavior problems school-wide as well as in the classroom, I noticed my Instagram account attracting more and more followers daily. As my account got big, I decided to create a website called hardcorebehaviorst.com where I write daily blogs, and have other teachers around the world send me blogs they have written about positive interventions and advice they have used throughout the years to help their classrooms become successful. As a teacher, sometimes we can only reach a small amount of people to help, but as my social media accounts started growing I thought how can I reach people worldwide, and It finally came to me. I needed to start a podcast show to reach more people that I couldn’t do in person by being in one school district. So, the goal of my new podcast show, is to interview as much experts in the field of education, to help out educators around the world!

Can you briefly share with our readers why you are authority in the education field?

I am an authority in the education field, because I am motivated by helping teachers with problems, they encounter during their school day. A few years back, I knew the only way to make a change in the field of education was to go big! I always said to myself, yes, I can make a difference in a few teachers lives working in one school district, but I wanted more of an impact! This drove me to create Hardcore Behaviorist. Two years ago, I decide to take my influence to social media and start spreading my messages worldwide by using something very simple called the hashtag. My Instagram posts stated getting attention pretty quickly, and now I am close to having seventeen thousand followers on Instagram. My social media platforms grow daily, and this is giving me the opportunity to be an authority figure not only in my school, but world wide.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. From your point of view, how would you rate the results of the US education system?

I would rate the results of the US education system as needs improvement. The world is changing by the day, and yet the US educational system is like the American dollar it depreciates as time goes on. If you know anything about money, saving money will not benefit you in the long run, and the same goes with education. Saving the old ways of education does not benefit any American student. Its time for change, and the US education system is long past due.

Can you identify 5 areas of the US education system that are going really great?

1. Schools in America are inclusive, which means all kids going to school in America have an equal opportunity to get a free appropriate education. If your child has a disability, the US education system provides children the supports they need to be successful.
2. School is free in America. This gives all kids an opportunity to have the opportunity to receive a standard education. America coined the term “No Child Left Behind” and then in 2015 revised it to every student succeeds act. The US education system has made a commitment to every child, no matter what their social economic class says about them. We even educate students who are here illegally. The US. Education system will give their shirt off their back if a child needs it.
3. The relationships teachers build with their students. Building relationships are a key factor when it comes to the US education system. Many of our teachers are amazing mentors to their students.
4. Having an awareness of providing students with free or reduced lunches, there are not many country’s out there that can actually say not only do we give kids a free education, we also will feed them. I’m currently working at a school right now, where it is mandatory to have breakfast in the classroom where the school provides a hot free meal to all kids, just to get their days started of right!
5. We offer students the opportunity to get involved in extra curricular activity. The US education system does a really good job of making extra curricula activities available to all kids. Students can get involved in all sorts of extracurricular activities that range from sports to robotics clubs.

Can you identify the 5 key areas of the US education system that should be prioritized for improvement? Can you explain why those are so critical?

1. Acknowledge the issue of overcrowding classrooms and the lack of funding’s to provide schools with enough support to reach every student need. Yes, we have in place the Every Student Succeeds Act, but this gets extremely difficult to do when schools suffer from not having enough certified teachers available to teach those students. Overcrowded schools become a huge problem when it comes to providing an education to all students. When you overcrowd rooms, you can’t reach every student who needs more individual support. The education system begins to be watered down, and even though the term “No Child Left Behind” is stated, what ends up happening is children start to get left behind do to major behavior or academic deficits, and when this happens schools struggle to close the gaps!
2. More schools need to consider year-round schooling. Most schools provide students 3 months of vacation days every summer. In my opinion having this many day off for students who don’t have opportunities for enrichment activities throughout the summer months start suffering from academic deficits. The only reason why the traditional school year was made to give students 3 months of vacation days off was due to the fact America was an agricultural society. The times have changed since then. Technology has changed, no longer are students forced to work on the family’s farms anymore. Even if they are, farm equipment has long since upgraded to better equipment due to the rapid growth of technology. Yes, we can argue that kids need down time just to be a kid, but was this a concern for kids when the American school system was being implemented? I just think, we could make better use of those 3 vacation months, by providing kids more opportunity to enhance their learning. This may not be as much as an issue for the upper class, but the mid to lower class of the population experience major learning gaps due to lack of educational opportunities being provided to them during their time off.
3. We need to put more emphasize on early child hood and elementary schools. I believe this the most crucial time for students when it comes to academic growth. To many times we see students at the secondary level struggle with either academic deficits or behavior deficits, which tells me we are not doing a great job at closing the gaps at an early age. I have had the opportunity to work several years at these levels, and it frustrates me the most, that we don’t stack these levels with intensive interventions to help foster the academic and social growth of our students. I feel like we struggle in this area, because most of the time when we face problems in education, it revolves around money. There are so many programs that can be provided for students at this age, which would greatly benefit our students.
4. We still teach like we did 100 years ago. The modern student is completely different from the student 50 plus years ago. We live in a day of age, that students can have instant access to education with the push of a button. With the amount of technology kids have access to the classroom should look completely different from what it did 30 years ago, but it hasn’t changed much. We still rely heavily on the traditional paper pencil ways of doing things. I know the school district I work in, kids get access to more technology as they get older, but not so much in the elementary levels, which is hard to believe, because we have kids that are in pre-k who know more about operating a smart phone then most adults do!
5. We need to improve education for students with disabilities. Our number one problem is the lack of teachers certified in Special Education. Many of the duties that special education teachers have to perform are taking on titles that provides the teacher with enough work to do two to 3 different teachers jobs. There is not enough pay to support most teachers throughout the entire country, let alone special education teachers. Most teacher throughout the entire country have two to three part time jobs just to be able to pay the bills. If teachers struggle to take care of themselves due to working later hours for a part time job just to be able to pay bills, how can we expect teachers to take care of the students? Besides parents, Teachers are some of the most important role models in a child’s life. Money is always an issue when it comes to education, either the education system lacks it to provide better ways to improve the education system, or the lack it to better support teacher pay. The gold standard is kids come first, but if we have a high amount of teacher turn over, how can we expect to support our kids?

How is the US doing with regard to engaging young people in STEM? Can you suggest 3 ways to increase engagement?

Public schools, are failing to engage young students in STEM. I had the privilege to interview Daphnie Knapek one of our top science teachers in the school district, and some of the things that she mentioned that are concerning is the fact that PISA results show that we lag behind in multiple categories including science, math and reading, all necessary components for STEM. The U.S. is focused on high stakes testing to show their students are meeting very specific standards known as the Common Core State Standards or Texas Education Knowledge and Skills. Schools days are typically broken into fragmented learning where different core content and electives are separated. Other countries have benefited from interdisciplinary learning where students have the capability of learning how the world around them works and connecting all disciplines. Engagement is possible in a variety of ways but the following three ways I think could benefit the education system today with little reform: (1) teacher development and training that facilitates learning with different learning styles, (2) long-term projects that implement the use of standards required by the state, and (3) real world applications.
(1)Teacher development and training that facilitates learning with different learning styles:

With the teacher shortage slowly occurring, it is important that new and returning teachers are aware of different learning styles and grow in this category. If classes were more engaging, then students would not only respond well behaviorally, there would be more academic success in classes across the board.

(2)Long-term projects that implement the use of standards required by the state:

Currently, schools “teach” standards and are given 2 or 3 weeks for a group of standards. Districts across the country have then implemented a year at a glance that gives the suggested (insert mandatory) days for each standard. This means that we are expected to teach, then move on. This shows us students’ success in short term memory, and explains why scores are not higher in sciences and math. Long term retention is possible with larger projects that implement multiple standards and skills.

(3)Real world applications:

Students are always curious how the information they learn can affect them later in life. It is for this reason, that schools across the nation should be able to answer the why of learning. The answer should not be “just because” or else, engagement has already been lost. When we realize the importance of the knowledge, we can share it with our students. When we share it with our students, they will then understand how they may need it in their future.

Can you articulate to our readers why it’s so important to engage girls and women in STEM subjects?

In my opinion there is a big gender gap in the STEM fields due to the history of woman not being in the work field. If we look at this issue on a global scale, we can see that woman are not always equal to men. Knowing this, studies have found that middle school is when woman become disinterested in STEM fields because they don’t think they would fit in with what society states the ideal STEM student would be. The real issue is when you compare Women scores to men scores in math and science, they compare pretty similar so this shows that woman can perform STEM related jobs as good if not better than men. If we know these statistics, then the US education system needs to do a better job at providing more programs to motivate and challenge woman to get involved more with STEM related subjects. Could you imagine what our nation could do if we doubled the number of Americans working in STEM related fields? I believe increasing the number of females entering STEM related fields is crucial to the technology growth of our country!

How is the US doing with regard to engaging girls and women in STEM subjects? Can you suggest three ways we can increase this engagement?

I think the US is struggling to engage girls in STEM subjects. As I mentioned above when I stated study’s showing woman becoming disengaged in STEM related subjects in middle school, then we as the US educational system need to do a better job of introducing these subjects at a younger age. Middle school is a time where students of both genders struggle with self-esteem related problems and if we already know this to be a issue, then we need to be promoting STEM subjects early on in the elementary grades. The US educational system has to do a better job at closing the gap when it comes to girls not wanting to participate in STEM related subjects. If the United States wants women to become more engaged in STEM, then it starts with the teachers, and this requires teacher training. It just like Mrs. Knapek our science teacher stated in order to increase engagement, school must provide an equal number of males and females in clubs related to STEM, schools need to teach about women who have revolutionized STEM in some manner. This is where schools can provide guest speakers or create mentor programs that provide girls the opportunity to see more woman in STEM related fields, and lastly, setting the high expectation that women can do just as much as men.

As an education professional, where do you stand in the debate whether there should be a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) or on STEAM (STEM plus the arts like humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media)? Can you explain why you feel the way you do?

In my opinion there should be a focus on both subject areas. Not all kids will know exactly what they want to do when it comes to their post-secondary goals in life, but if the US educational system does a good job providing students equal opportunity for all kids to experience both subject areas, then I think we will have well rounded students more prepared to take on the work force. There are skills that I believe kids need from both subject areas in order to be successful in life.

If you had the power to influence or change the entire US educational infrastructure what five things would you implement to improve and reform our education system? Can you please share a story or example for each?

If I had the power to influence or change the entire US educational system, I would start with Acknowledging the issue of overcrowding classrooms and the lack of funding’s to provide schools with enough support to reach every students needs. I have been working in the educational field for twelve plus years, and every year we see a struggle to hire certain teachers to support the needs of our most struggling students. Most of the time, we enter into the school year under staffed. This is a major concern when it comes to student success, and teacher retention rates. Going into the school year under staff puts a lot of pressure on other teachers trying to fill those open teacher positions. When we have our teachers perform to many jobs on top of their main teaching position teacher burn out rates go through the roof and when teachers are over worked and stressed out, kids don’t get the help they need. The second thing I would change when it comes to the US educational system would be to address the fact that schools need to consider year-round schooling. If we had more extended time, we could provide more educational activities students can get involved in. When it comes to low socioeconomic school districts the summer time regression is a major problem for our students. Believe it or not, most students enter the beginning of the school year with academic deficits because students where not exposed to enrichment activities to strengthen their learned knowledge from the previous year. The national summer learning association states that it typically takes eight to thirteen weeks for teachers to get their students back up to speed and ready to learn the new grades material. Eight to thirteen weeks is too much time to reteach old material to our students. This time can be used to teach new material that is needed to improve our students academically. With year-round schooling, we will be able to bridge the achievement gaps. This is good news when it comes to schools with a high poverty rate, because students will benefit greatly from year-round school because it keeps students on task and leads to more meaningful instruction. The third thing I would change would be to stack our early child hood and elementary programs with intensive academic and behavior interventions, especially when it comes to low socioeconomic status schools. I believe this is a time where nurturing the growth of our young minds is crucial. The school districts I have worked at have a high number of students at the secondary level struggle with either academic deficits or behavior deficits, which goes to show we are not doing a good job at closing the achievement gaps at an early age. The fourth thing that needs to be changed is to modernize the way we educate are students. The modern student is completely different from the student 50 plus years ago. We live in a day of age, that students can have instant access to education with the push of a button. With the amount of technology kids have access to the classroom should look completely different from what it did 30 years ago, but it hasn’t changed much. We still rely heavily on the traditional paper pencil ways of doing things. This has to change, if we want our kids to compete with the global economy. Finally, the last thing I feel needs to change when it comes to the US. Educational system is to improve education for students with disabilities. Our number one problem is the lack of teachers certified in Special Education. Many of the duties that special education teachers have to perform are taking on titles that provides the teacher with enough work to do two to 3 different teachers jobs. There is not enough pay to support most teachers throughout the entire country, let alone special education teachers. Bottom line, when there is a shortage of teachers, kids suffer!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Every Child Needs Someone Who They Think Hung the Moon and Stars”

This quote says a lot to me, because in order to be successful we need someone to look up to, so we can travel down the road to success. The future of America starts with the school system. If we don’t have teachers who kids look up too, then we are doing them a disservice. The person who showed me this early on in my life was my mother.

We are blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

The President of the United States of America Donald Trump. If the US education system is going to change then it starts at the top!

Is the US #1 in education?

Is American education falling behind?

Where is the US ranked in education?

What country has the best education system?