Specifically in UK, an independent school charges fees rather than receiving funds from government which means that the schools don’t have to follow national curriculum However, the schools have to be registered with government and are inspected on a regular basis (Relocate Global). Similarly, American private schools registration is mandatory but accreditation is optional (Department of American Education. Accreditation authenticates a school’s credentials by making sure the school follows certain criteria (Learn.org). Since private schools can follow their own curriculum, they are significantly more expensive. Private schools in California are equivalent to the independent schools in London as they both are privately funded. Since American …show more content…
attend high school longer, the tuition is higher and can be up to $40,000. The price of British secondary education can be up to £15,500 per year or about $21,000 (BBC). As I already stated, private schools do not receive any funds from the government and therefore don’t have to follow the national curriculum, allowing the schools to participate in many interesting programs. The UK school curriculum has to follow a set of rules that include promoting the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society. It also must prepare students at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. Therefore British state/public schools are legally required to follow the statutory national curriculum. The national curriculum explains programmes of study, basis of key stages and subject content for those subjects that should be taught to all students. Also, all state schools must publish their school curriculum by subject and academic year online (Department of Education, page 4). Moreover, the national curriculum provides knowledge on how to be educated citizens and an outline of core knowledge that teachers can then change and form the information in different lessons and classes (Department of Education, page 5). In British independent schools the UK government establishes the national curriculum and although the independent schools are not obligated to follow it, the schools often do and add extra subjects (Just Landed). For example, students in most independent schools learn at a wide range of subjects, which the subject's levels advance when students get further in secondary school. Students take the basic courses such as english, fine arts, applied arts, science, foreign language, math, social studies, health, physical education and life skills. Within each course students have to opportunity to take different courses. For example for the class English, courses offered include Medieval, World, or Modern Literature. For Fine arts, drawing, painting, or pottery are available. For applied arts, photography, metal works, or auto mechanics are offered (Choices4Learning).
Also during Year 9, students are required to start choosing their specific subjects they want to study for their GCSE’s exams (BBC). The school curriculum for private US high schools are set up by the individual school charter but, generally include health and safety measures to protect students. However, private schools are allowed to participate in special programs such as the arts and athletics. Private schools usually have accommodations for students how need more academic guidance or help with study skills (Turner). The school curriculum specifically for public schools in California include the Compulsory California Law, which the school must abide to and requires each person between age of six and eighteen to attend full time day school and requires parents to send them unless legally exempt (California Department of Education). The curriculum commonly taught in private schools in America is similar the flexible UK curriculum. Students are required to take most common subjects for four years. For english class, specific subjects …show more content…
offered are literature, writing or composition, or speech. However, for math some schools require math to be only taken for three years and the specific subjects taught include algebra one and two, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics. For science, the curriculum is mostly taught by hands on activities such as labs and the subjects taught include biology, chemistry and physics. For social studies, the main classes offered include, US history, US government, economics, world history, and geography. Finally, students take a foreign language and an elective of choice (Witmer). The curriculum for both schools is pretty much the same, showing that again the British education system can meet the same standards as the American system provides for the students. Also, the British education curriculum seems to prioritize shaping the students into good human beings which is not commonly enforced in American systems. As stated before, Private schools do not have constricting rules and therefore can offer many beneficial things towards students such as small class sizes and a wide ranges of extracurriculars.
Other than the flexible curriculum, private schools differ than other schools because of the smaller class size and more one on one attention. Specifically for British school system, the academic year runs from September 1st to August 31st. The school year is divided into three terms with longer school holidays between each term. In total there are 39 weeks of schooling (Education system in England). On the contrast, the American school year is a bit shorter as students start school in late August and end in the first week of June (Guide to the Education System in the
US). The tests for each schooling system are completely different, yet both tests seem to prepare students well for a higher education after high school such as college or university. Only students with high school diplomas can enroll in college. During high school students are given grades for all their courses and at end of 12th grade, the student’s grades are averaged out to create a GPA (grade point average). The GPA big determination for acceptance in college and also students in 12th grade also take SATs or ACTs. These tests are used as second principle for college admittance. The SAT is a standardized test and claims the test determines whether you are ready for college or not. The ACT assesses high school students’ general education skills and knowledge and ability to complete college level work. However these exams are very different than final exams in other countries, for example in the UK the main test is called A levels. This test tends to be a lot more demanding (Corsi-Bunker). As mentioned before in Key Stage 4 students prepare for the GSCEs. Many secondary schools provide children with opportunity to remain at school for two more years to study for A-Levels or International Baccalaureate (IB). The GSCEs are the main school leaving qualification in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The AS and A levels are studied in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The AS levels take one year to complete and the A levels studied for two years. To study these tests students are required to have studied chosen subjects (Lorsch). Testing is an essential part of education and it supposedly assesses the student’s grasp of the material. Also, the tests decide how ready the student is ready for a higher education after college.
According to writer Vanessa St Gerard from The Education Digest, a traditional school year is defined as “large blocks of instruction with inter-spread week-long breaks, all culminating with a long summer break” (2007). This structure is most familiar to Americans today, however the new alternative schedule presents a variance in the time allocated for breaks throughout the school year. “During a modified school year, instruction periods typically are broken up into 45-or-60-day sessions with each of these being divided by breaks lasting three to four weeks” (St Gerard, 2007). In the alternative calendar, schools would still break for a summer session, but in most cases the break would consist of about five weeks rather than eight. While the calendars might differ in session times, they would both meet the federally mandated 180 days of ins...
Before the argument, some misconceptions need to be clarified: Schools with the traditional school year have nine months of
The BC Ministry of Education recently allowed for flexibility in how school districts choose to organize their school calendars. BC School Districts currently follow a traditional school year calendar with students attending school approximately 190 days, most with a two week break in winter and spring and two months off during the summer months. “This model was very practical when the school calendar was designed to accommodate children with the needs of an agricultural economy” (qtd in Webb 5), and can be “described by some as outdated and irrelevant in today’s society” (Winter 401). A balanced school year calendar, also referred to as a modified school year and year round school, would maintain the same number of instructional days, but would evenly distribute breaks throughout the year. The literature and research available on the balanced school year is mostly American, with a few Canadian sources.
Schools are split into four categories/types known as maintained schools. These schools receive funding at least partially from the government. The main differences in mainstream schools come down to the way in which the schools are managed and run. For example a foundation school has its own governing board that decides its admissions policy in agreement with the local education authority. Support services are budgeted for and bought in
Back in the olden days, schools were originally put on a schedule in which students would spend the majority of the year in school, and 2-3 months off for summer break. The purpose of this was so that children could be home for the summer to help their parents run family farms. Today, due to progressive industrialization of farming, modernized farming equipment, and decrease in family farms, the need for children to be home during the summer to help run family farms is minute if not obsolete; because of this many schools across the United States have transitioned to year-round schooling (“Summer”). Contrary to belief, year round schooling does not usually mean more school days. Currently most year-round schools adhere to the 180 day school year. Instead of the traditional lengthy summer vacation, year-round schools distribute the 180 days throughout the entire year while allowing for shorter breaks. Common scheduling for year-round schools includes cycles of 2-3 months in school followed by 2-3 week breaks (“Research Spotlight...
The traditional school calendar has been in effect for more than a century. By the middle of the nineteenth century rural areas the school year lasted for five to six months, based on the harvest schedule. In contrast, many schools in urban areas were open for eleven or twelve months. A uniform calendar was established in 1847 that is the traditional calendar of today. (Shields, 2000) There was resistance to this calendar from the beginning; people in urban areas had to go to school from much longer to receive the same education. YRE began in a premature form in 1904 in Bluffton, Indiana with a four-quarter schedule. (Speck, n.d.) YRE began to be popular in states like Texas, New Jersey, North Dakota, Nebraska, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. It ceased during WWII because national uniformity was felt to be essential to the war effort. Hayward, CA implemented at official YRE programs at Park Elementary School in 1968 to become the first YRE school after WWII. (Speck, n.d.) YRE schools began to sprout up all over the country after that. In 1969 the first multiple tract school was established in Missouri. Since the late 70’s YRE has picked up in popularity and is a continuing trend. According to the National Association for Year-Round Education, more than 2 million students attend close to 3,000 year-round schools in 41 states and 610 school districts, which is a dramatic increase compared to the early 1990’s. There have been a variety of YRE schedules and currently there is the choice of single or multi-track, options within both of those, and an extended school year.
Low-income neighborhoods in California are consistently known for falling behind in test scores, graduation rates, and most recently highlighted by the press: college enrollment. For decades a variety of solutions have been proposed to come up with a solution based off the belief that equal opportunity in this nation can only be determined by how hard an individual works towards success. Public school’s finances in California come from federal, state, and local levels. Many federal and state funds have faced budget cuts throughout the last decade, but, 57% of the funding public schools use comes from the property taxes paid by the surrounding neighborhoods. Californians are well known for their diversity, being home nearly 39 million residents,
Paul von Hippel, an author of study and research statistician in Sociology at The Ohio State University, says, “We found that students in year-round schools learn more during the summer, when others are on vacation, but they seem to learn less than other children during the rest of the year” (Grabmeier). Both schedules, year and traditional, have 180 days in their school year, the difference in scheduling is that the year-round schools have many short breaks throughout the school year, while the traditional gets a long summer break and a few breaks during the
What do you think about going to school year round with little breaks here and there, but not your traditional three month summer break? Year round schooling has been a decision argued with the government, teachers, principals and parents. Many kids and adults like to relax on their three month break. Many students are used to having two week winter break, one week spring break, and three months of summer break. Overall, one three month break would benefit than having three-week breaks broken up throughout the school year.
The California State Public Education System. “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” -Aristotle- It has been said many times that children are our future. That is a scary thought considering our lack of investment as a people in that future, for without a solid base of education now the bright future we hope for may never come to fruition.
Class Size is another issue. In private schools there’s usually smaller classes, so students are getting more attention. This makes it better for the students because if they need help, then it’s easier to get help from the teachers and to be more focused because of less noise and easier for teachers to control their classrooms.
Private schools should be abolished because education should allow for equal opportunities for all students. Education is supposed to provide better chances of success for the student. Students that attend a state funded school faces a disadvantage as soon as they graduate from secondary school and apply for college.{ talk about private school to college ration} There have been reports about college being biased in the selection process when choosing between state funded and privately funded school applicants. Many educators would agree that a privately funded education is typically more beneficial than a state funded education. “It seems silly to propose scrapping a system of education that provides positive results and successful results.” (CITE DEBATEWISE.ORG) The system should not be scrapped but instead needs to be inputted into the public school system. It should be put into the public school sector because it is not fair for a wealthier individual to able to obtain a better education just becaus...
There are many other options for education other than public schools. One of the most popular alternatives to public school is the private school followed by charter and magnet schools. These schools are better than public schools because they have a safer environment and they give the child a better education. The environment is better because of the emphasis on discipline. "Private School Review’ states that as a condition of enrollment, private schools require incoming students to show they 've read and understood the conduct code. The actual method of discipline depends on the contract terms, although many private schools impose zero-tolerance policies for such major behavioral offenses as cheating, stealing or substance abuse. Flouting
For some parents, deciding on a school for their children can be a difficult decision. Many parents do not spend much time thinking about it; they place their children into the local school designated by where they live. Others attended a private school themselves and found that it was a beneficial experience and therefore want the same for their kids. But which is better: private schools or public schools? While there are many advantages and disadvantages in each (nothing is going to be absolutely perfect), we are going to focus on the benefits of an education in the public school system, or in other words, schools funded by the government that are for anyone to attend. An accurate definition found in the Encyclopedia of American Education (1996) states: “Any elementary or secondary school under control of elected or appointed civil authority, supported entirely by public tax monies, and, with few exceptions, open to all students in a designated district, free of any tuition charges.” (780) These include elementary, secondary schools and vocational schools. Public schools are a good choice in education because they provide a wide variety of subjects to study, are diverse in their student body, available to everyone, yet can sometimes be misunderstood.
I think private school are better and have more advantages than public school. There are upsides and downsides for both schools. Private schools have newer facilities and other materials. The benefits of private school for the students are that they have smaller class sizes and better teacher ratios from the students. Private have a high standards for discipline and respect to one another. Seventy two percent of parents agreed to send their kids to private school, because it has greatly improved students’performance and brighter experience and achievements in there harder lessons (Maga 2). Students will also have more individual attention. Students are motivated by the teachers to help in their studies. Parents would also have more opportunities to get involved with their kid’s education and that is very good thing. Private have flexible teaching methods for the students to do better. There are many advantages for the students (Elizabeth 1). Let’s talk about disadvantages. Their goal is to offer better education without making a profit (Amy Witherbee 2). Private school charge tuitions and that sound n...