What Underachieving Middle School Students Believe Motivates them to Learn

Chapter 1: The Challenge to Educate Everyone    The Problem      A National Priority      Student Achievement    The Research Question    The Study Chapter 2: A Review of Literature Chapter 3: Methods Chapter 4: The Results Chapter 5: Discussion References Appendixes Biography

The Problem American public education has taken on the enterprising task of not only educating children, but educating every child. Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, laws were passed, state by state, making education compulsory for youth (Gatto, 1996; Goodlad, 1997). By the turn of the century, all states had compulsory education laws. Schools were not new to the United States, or other countries around the world, but they were generally an institution for the financially, socially, and politically advantaged. The United States attempted what few other countries at the time tried to accomplish—to educate the entire population. Educating every child is a wonderfully ambitious task based on the assumption that a well educated citizenry is necessary both to support a functioning democracy and to compete in a global economy. But, educating every child has proven to be a challenge. Even early in the 20th century, there was concern that many students had dropped out physically or mentally (Kaminsky, 1992). In the 1915 book, All The Children of All The People, Smith’s exploration into the challenge of educating all students begins: However reluctant one may be to acknowledge the fact, it is none the less certain that the task of trying to educate everybody, which our public schools are engaged in, has proved to be far more difficult than the originators of the idea of such a possibility thought it would be when they set out upon the undertaking. (Smith, 1915, p. v) This section will explore the concept of educating all students from the perspective of being a national priority and the great concerns over student achievement.

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Mike Muir Assistant Professor of Education University of Maine at Farmington 104 Main Street Farmington, ME 04938 207.778.7179 wilder@somtel.com http://violet.umf.maine.edu/~mmuir