AmerLisa

What is your criteria for "fairly unintelligent people"?

Wintersong

Sorry if I've got this wrong - what I know about the system comes from spending a week going round schools in South Carolina (apparently one of the worst states for education, so that speaks volumes ) but we were told that the students progress to the next grade based on work throughout the year and final exams which are set and marked by the individual class teacher, so basically it's up to that teacher what grade the student is given.

AmerLisa

Hmmm.....well depends on what grade you're talking about. High school and some middle school/junior high schools do mid-term exams and final exams (at the end of each semester and typically there are two in a school year) The final exam is whatever the child has learned through that particular semester. Not the whole year, which I believe is typical of GCSEs. Primary school children are not given final exams.

Wintersong

This was high school. When (if!) the student graduates high school, I assume that they have to take external exams?

NC Penguin

Where do you live in the US?


NC Penguin

NC Penguin

When discussing the British versus US education system, we have to compare like with like. e.g. UK state schools versus US public schools, UK public or private schools versus US private schools. Hard to compare education at university level because the UK is predominantly state with a few private whereas there so many private and religion affiliated universities in the US.



NC Penguin

Wintersong

I've just assumed for the sake of argument that we're comparing comprehensive schools with their equivalent.

I think it's pretty difficult to compare though, because of the huge variation between states over here.

Bob

scary thing is, where MIL teaches, there's a couple pupils that are getting kicked out at the end of the year whether they graduate or not as there turning 21

Bob

private uni's in blighty are well expensive, bucks wanted £20K a year when I went sniffing around, and that was a few years ago...

NC Penguin

Not only does the size of the US make comparisons tricky but in the US, those with wealth/more money automatically can make greater choices about the type and quality of their child's education. More so than parents in the UK I'd say.

For example, I've seen adverts in magazines for children between 12-18 to go to "military academies". Don't think there's even an equivalent in the UK.



NC Penguin

robousy

IMO the British education system is reflective of the nation as a whole - decadent. I have learnt more about British history from Americans than I ever learnt in school or discussed with friends. It is only now that I am appreciating the colossal role Britain has played in shaping the world and the sheer power and incalculable capability of her military when she was at her prime. I was taught nothing of this in school and as such had no cultural identity of source of pride.

The only positive aspect of the British system is the 'A-level'. A well thought out and highly challenging qualification. The university level education is abysmal. I took my physics degree at Leicester which is rated highly nationally for physics. I performed similarly to my peers in terms of grades.
After coming to the USA to pursue a PhD in the subject I found myself vastly behind in both mathematics and physics in comparison to American students. As such my PhD has been a constant 'catch up' game. I attribute this entirely to my poor British education. Other international students educated in the British system are similarly disadvantaged.

The whole system needs a vast overhaul.

jjmb

To graduate High school all you need to do is collect the requiste number of credits your state insists on. In Texas you also have to pass an exit exam which is given to you in the 11th grade. I suspect in this is part of the 'no child left behind' program, so presume most states also do this.

To get into college students should also do the AP exams which if your child is applying the UK for university is treated as an 'A" level, apparently. If your child does the AP exam and passes with a certain grade, it will be counted as a college credit, which is great because that saves you money....(good one, Elisabeth) plus they get an monetary award of about $50. AP exams as far as I am aware are of a national standard.

There is also the SAT, a national external exam. This is an all emcompassing exam which is held on nearly a monthly basis from October to June. It is a long long exam. Alan did it last spring and with the new written essay part, it was 4.5 hours. You can do it as many times as you like, in other words until you get the grade you want or need to be excepted in the university you want.

Entry to university depends on your SAT score + grade average+class position.

Prior to the SAT is the PSAT which if you take in your junior year and you get a high score, will get you the scholarships you are after.

As Texas ranks about 48 or 47th in the education chain, I could imagine that a good number of states are better than parts of the UK

My daughter who is in her final year at Texas State University, compared her work with a friend who is doing the same basic degree in Scotland. She found she was about the same level if not ahead of her friend.

Bob

I think it depends massively on what your studying rather than on the whole because when we had exchange students over from San Fran, a lot of them were completely clueless and were well behind in level of skills needed on the course...and a lot of that money spent at uni in the first two years is liberal arts shite which is just an extention on what you do at highschool over what you'd learn at uni...so it ain't all great, just different.

TouristTrap

Florida.

Consistently last to close-to-last most years in the national average.

I'm not impressed with the education here frankly. GCSE's encompass 2 to 3 years of work.

If you don't graduate in the US, you just go out and study for your GED's for a few weeks and bingo, you've got your high school diploma.

I've helped out freshmen and sophomore friends who started at their local colleges, just for the sake of helping them, and am appalled at the fact that the material that they are given to study in math for example, is the same maths that I studied in the first form. A psychology paper consists of two small paragraphs, and they get A's for it.

They were both studying nursing. One at the local community college, the other at a state university in California.

My neighbor, a mature student, got a degree in deaf studies. She used to ask me to read her papers before submission, and I couldn't believe these merited A's in a senior year course. Not that she was stupid, she was very very intelligent, but it suprised me as the level of proficiency was not there. She graduated near the top of her class and got a scholarship to one of the country's top colleges in her field.

I don't know if it is our colleges down here, specifically or what, but they're nothing that a bright third former couldn't handle from my experience.

Now, when it comes to Master's and PhD's, you're talking a different kettle of fish. The US institutions are brilliant. But not in the undergraduate, IMO.

AdobePinon

Education in the UK is clearly going to crap. Since when did 41% of kids score a grade A at A level math? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/h...athematics.stm) I doubt the kids are any smarter now than when I went through the system.

As for schools here, there are huge differences between school systems. For example, where I live the public high school drop-out rate is typically from 9 to 16% depending on year. Where I work, 0.2%. That by itself tells you quite a bit about the difference in quality.