Re: Schools in the USA
 

The local High School did not have enough players to field a team last year.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Perhaps everyone had more time to focus on education? :unsure:

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Unlikely

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Schools round here are the other way around. Recently the local high school tried to get a budget passed for a big upgrade to the classrooms and a big upgrade to the football fields. Budget failed. They removed the football field upgrade from the budget increase and it passed. People want good education here.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Hello, I have just moved to the US, California and am struggling to understand their High Schools and how a UK educated teenager transfers into one.

We have enrolled our 16 year old into a well regarded public High School but ..... I don't get how and if his previous studies in the UK will be taken into account or credited ...!!!

We are waiting to meet with the counsellor and I have passed on his report cards for the last three years (as well as waiting on his GCSE results in a few days) but I worry that credit may not be given to his five years of Sciences, Maths and languages from the UK and he will have to start from zero in his required time spent accruing credits. Apparently in California in order to gain a High School Diploma you have to have studied the Sciences for two years, other subjects requirements can be 3-4 years but if UK education isn't taken into account that would mean our son would have to stay in school that amount of time to gain the credit or take extra classes for the credit every weekend and holiday. I had hoped he would be tested to ascertain his level and how much time he needs to study in order to get his HSD (he should be starting 11th Grade next week).

Any ideas or advice anyone?

Thanks,

Re: Schools in the USA
 

You're going to need not just his grades and subjects, but syllabus and details of the topics he studied. You should certainly be able to get substantial credit for his studies in the UK, but it will likely require some work on your part to obtain, present, and explain his study history.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

He won't be tested as such - they don't 'hit a level' here in the same was as the GCSE exam tests for, and actually attending and taking the class is very much built into the grading system, which is 4 years of continuous assessment with marks for participation, group work, etc. We just had the parent Open House last night for my son's new high school, and they very much stressed that if a child misses 10 or more lessons in a semester (without being hospitalised, say), they then don't get credit for that class and have to re-do it.

But don't worry, he won't have to do all 4 years of high school in two! He will definitely get his previous education taken into account; it'll just take some work to make it match against what his high school does. It should be a fairly simple matter to get a copy of the syllabus, and perhaps some sample test papers, from whichever GCSE exam boards he used; these can then be compared against what his peers here have studied, and credit given accordingly.

Single subject things like Biology and languages should be pretty easy, and they should effortlessly give you credits for things like PE and Art - that'll free up his schedule a lot. Although if he's sporty or arty, he may want to do these classes for fun, and as a good way of socialising and making new friends.

It's likely to get a bit complicated for Maths due to the way they separate it out and teach one element for the whole year, so that'll involve more line-by-line comparisons of what he's already done. Worst case, he could probably skim through online courses in Algebra 1 and Geometry pretty quickly with his prior knowledge. And he'll definitely have to do American History and whatever they call their Citizenship/ Government class.

Make sure that you're thoroughly informed on what the graduation requirements are for your son's high school: how many credits they need and in what subjects, whether there are different types of diplomas to aim for. For example, my son's school has the standard diploma for 20 credits, but you need 22 credits, including 2 years of a foreign language, to get a scholastic one (which is what the unis require). There'll be a ton of information about this on the school's website - read everything you can about credits, GPA, class ranking, whether they get ranked on all their classes or just their academic ones, etc etc etc.

Languages might be a useful thing for him to do anyway. At my son's school, taking Years 3 and 4 of foreign languages come with all sorts of bonuses if your son is planning to go to college. Year 3 is a weighted class that boosts the GPA and is a dual-enrollment class where kids gets both high school credit AND college credit that's recognised by all in-state unis; Year 4 is an AP class, where they take a national exam at the end (like an A-level) that gets them credit that's recognised throughout the US. My son has previously fluent but very rusty French from when we lived in Switzerland, so he got to skip French 1 and will instead do French 2 and 3 for his two foreign language credits, and benefit from the college credit for French 3. So even if your son has to do languages, or if he wants to, they'll place him at his correct level, and he can probably pick up some extra goodies along the way.

Hopefully you'll get a helpful and caring counsellor - they usually are - and s/he'll work with you over the next weeks and months to get it all sorted out.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

With standards based grading becoming more common, this will become rare.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Also, the state standard to obtain a high school diploma isn't necessarily the same as the minimum required for entry into the state University system. I know that this is true for the University of California system.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

We moved to California when our son was entering 11th grade. We moved from Canada and I brought his transcript from his high school with his grades. I also brought a printout from the school board's website of the description of each class. Our son attended Catholic school in Canada and the only classes the school in California would not accept was his Religion classes. They gave him credit for everything else.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Definitely.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

This. Its crazy low standards to just get the HS diploma, but those standards won't even prepare you for a community college education, let alone a university level.

Its basically a 2 tier education system in California, one for those who do well enough to possibly go to University and one for those who for whatever reason don't do well, but the state doesn't want them to drop out, so they place those students into very basic easy to pass classes just to get them the diploma.

You'd be surprised how basic some of my classes were in California high school, and even when I did end up in a university prep class, the teacher just passed me, but I did try and I did the work, so I suppose they passed me for effort, maybe that is what the E stands for...lol...(they had a grade E option back when I was in school, it was when the student tried but just didn't grasp the material and the teacher didn't want to fail the student, so the E prevented the fail and got the student credit for the class.

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Bit disappointed in my sons elementary this year, its a good school but only 2 fourth grade classes this year and not 3. So 39 students in each class :eek:

Re: Schools in the USA
 

That's insanely high! Is it with just one teacher, or does s/he have an assistant? Then the ratio wouldn't be too terrible.

My daughter's elementary runs classes around the 25-26 kids mark; I've not heard of any class bigger than 28.

My son started high school this year and his classes are usually around 28-30, I think, except his English class which had some sort of scheduling cock-up, and ended up with only 17 kids in it. I'm delighted - it'll be great for ensuring everyone takes part in the literature discussions, as he's not the keenest public speaker :)

Re: Schools in the USA
 

Sounds like the 80's and 90's, 35-45 was the norm back then in my schools.