House+Bill+Number+7063

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 * U.S. and the World Education Act (2008)**

General Information:
Sponsor: Loretta Sanchez (D) District 47 (CA) Bill Number: 7063 H.R. Date: September 25, 2008

Bill Summary:
This bill is designed to raise achievement in public secondary schools in international education such as World History and Cultures, International Global Studies, and foreign languages. This will be accomplished by improving teacher competency and to support programs in international education that supplement core curricula in such schools, and for other purposes. An example is creating a Model U.N. and having Geography Bees. To accomplish this, the U.S. and World Education Act calls for appropriated $200,000,000 for 2009 and similar amounts for the following years.

People Affected
This bill focuses on helping students attending public secondary school that are currently listed as "failing" schools. The rapid decline in Education in Public Schools is almost scary. These schools need more federal funding in teachers salaries and school supplies because most teachers in these schools might not be HQT's (highly qualified teachers) and also schools don't have the funding to buy certain school supplies that help students learn better. If the government can get **more** involved in our education in America, then maybe we can turn test scores around and compete with other schools across the globe instead of being at the bottom of the barrel.

History of the Issue
Recent surveys consistently demonstrate the illiteracy of young Americans in geography, economics, and world history, as well as the low priority university students flexibility to learning about other countries and cultures.

A national survey of economic literacy rates among Americans shows that the general public, consisting of high school seniors and college seniors, only answered 39% of the economic questions on the survey correctly. High School seniors answered 35% of the questions correctly, while college seniors did better answering 51% of the corrections correctly. Young Americans 18 to 24 years old scored lower than their counterparts in a nine-country survey of geographic literacy, the National Geographic Society said today. American adults ranked 6th in the study, Geography: An International Gallup Survey, conducted for the society by the Gallup Organization. The survey sought to determine how many people could find 13 selected countries, Central America and two bodies of water, the Pacific Ocean and the Persian Gulf, on an unmarked world map. The survey, commissioned by the geographic society, tested 10,820 adults in Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and West Germany How Countries Scored Of a possible score of 16 points, American adults averaged 8.6, about on a par with British adults, who scored an average of 8.5 points, the findings showed. Canadian adults scored 9.2. Americans in the 18-to-24-year group averaged 6.9 points, the lowest score of all youths tested and of all other age groups in the United States. Swedes tested the best, scoring 11.6 points, and Germans averaged second best, scoring 11.2 points. Only adults in Italy and Mexico scored lower than those in the United States.

A CNN article stated that only 1 of 7 Americans, 13%, between the ages of 18-24 could find Iraq on a map. This shocking evidence was collected from the Society Survey.

Recent studies show that some American teenagers do not currently take a foreign language or are currently flunking it. Recent studies show that students are unenthusiastic when it comes to learning to speak fluently in another language. Some public schools and secondary schools are no longer offering foreign language curricula, so some students do not get the opportunity to learn another language.

In a 2007 study, the World History section on the SAT was among the lowest averages the test. The World History grades have declined in the past few years and are continuing to drop.

Pictures
Loretta Sanchez

Bibliography:
Carleton, David. Students Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws and Education. N.p.: n.p., 2007. Web link Web link CNN. 4 Dec. 2008 . Web link Web link Flickr. 8 Dec. 2008 . Web link Web link USA Today. 3 Dec. 2008 . Williams, Mary E. Education Opposing Viewpoints. N.p.: n.p., 2000. "World History Scores." College Board. 8 Dec. 2008 .