Education in the United States
Практичне заняття № 2
Тема: Освіта у Великій Британії і США.
І. Читання та обговорення текстів.
Education in England
Education in the United Kingdom is divided into three stages – primary education, secondary education, then further and higher education. Full-time education is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. A very high proportion of young people continue in full-time, or part-time form of education and training, until the age of 18. Education during the primary and secondary stages is general rather than vocational.
Primary education takes place in infant schools (pupils aged from 5 to 7 years) and junior schools (from 8 to 11 years). Secondary schools are usually much larger than primary schools and most children – over 80 per cent – go to a comprehensive school at the age of 11.
At the age of 14 or 15, in the third or fourth form of secondary school, pupils begin to choose their exam subjects. At sixteen pupils take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).
The most part of students of less than 17-18-year age (93%) attend such state-funded schools as: academy schools (monitored directly by the Department for Education), community schools (formerly county schools), free schools (academically non-selective and free to attend), foundationschools(owned by the governing body or by a charitable foundation), voluntary aided schools (linked to a variety of organizations) and voluntary controlled schools (which are almost always church schools), specialist schools (with extra funding to develop one or more subjects in which the school specializes), grammar schools (which children enter if they pass the eleven plus exam). All state-funded schools are regularly inspected by the Office for Standards in Education.
And approximately 7% of school children in England attend privately run independent schools. Independent schools do not have to follow the National Curriculum, and their teachers are not required or regulated by law to have official teaching qualifications.
The 16–18 age groupsof students enter then the sixth form colleges or further education colleges.Here most of the courses are linked to some kind of practical vocational training, for example in engineering, typing, cooking or hairdressing, technical sciences, art and agriculture.
Higher education often begins with a three-year Bachelor’s degree at the universities. Postgraduate degrees include Master’s degrees, either taught or by research, and the Doctorate, a research degree that usually takes at least three years.
Today there are over fifty universities in Britain, compared with only seventeen in 1945. They fall into four broad categories: the ancient English foundations, the ancient Scottish ones, the ‘redbrick’ universities, and the ‘plate-glass’ ones. They are all private institutions, receiving direct grants from central government.
Oxford and Cambridge, founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, are easily the most famous of Britain’s universities. Today ‘Oxbridge’, as the two together are known, educate less than one tenth of Britain’s total university student population. But they continue to attract many of the best brains.
Education in the United States
Education in the United States is provided by both public and private schools, also colleges and universities.
Public school curricula, funding, teaching, employment, and other policies are set through locally elected school boards. Private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies. 88% of school-age children attend public schools, 9% attend private schools, and nearly 3% are homeschooled.
Most Americans spend many years earning an education. Education is compulsory over an age range starting 5 – 8 and ending 16 – 18, depending on the state. In most schools, education is divided into three levels: elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school. Children are usually divided by age groups into 12 grades, ranging from kindergarten the first grade for the youngest children, up to the twelfth grade as the final year of high school.
There are several levels in the US system of education. Schools range from nursery schools or kindergartens (in public schools) for young children (from 5 to 9 years) to universities for adult higher education.
Grades 7, 8, 9 usually make up junior high school. Many school systems have replaced junior high schools with middle or intermediate schools. Middle schools usually include grades 5 or 6 through 8. Some middle schools include only grades 7 and 8.
Students who have completed the first eight or nine grades enter high school. There are generally three kinds of high schools. Academic high schools prepare students for college. Technical and vocational high schools enable students to learn a trade or occupation. Comprehensive high schools offer college preparatory work as well as technical or vocational courses.
Students completing high school may choose to attend a college or university. Undergraduate degrees may be either Associate's degrees or Bachelor's degrees in four-year institutions, which may be public or private colleges or universities.
A list of such universities includes the City University of New York, City Colleges of Chicago, and San Francisco City College. Curriculum there varies widely depending on the institution. Typically, an undergraduate student will be able to select an academic "major" or concentration, which comprises the main or special subjects, and students may change their major one or more times.
Some students, typically those with a bachelor's degree, may choose to continue on to graduate or professional school. Graduate degrees may be either master's degrees (e.g., M.A. (Master of Arts), M.S. (Master of Sciences), M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), M.S.W. (Master of Social Work)) or a doctorates (e.g., Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy), J.D., (Jurisdiction Doctor/ Doctor of Law"), M.D. (Medical Doctor)).