US EDUCATION


I


n December 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which pledged to offer the same


standard of education to every child in the US “regardless of race, income, background, the zip code, or where they live”. The act replaced the No Child Left Behind


Act of 2002. Among other things, it aimed to rationalise the number of standardised tests in US schools.


Common Core standardised tests Standardised testing in schools has become a controversial issue in the US, with a recent study from the Council of the Great City Schools suggesting that students would sit around 112 standardised tests between kindergarten and 12th grade. While these tests can help to measure


pupil progress and assess the performance of individual schools, parents and education commentators agree that the system has become unwieldy. Although the American education system


is unlike that of many other countries in that education remains primarily the responsibility of state and local government, the US federal government has made attempts to standardise the curriculum across schools through the introduction of the Common Core. According to the Common Core State


Standards Initiative, the Common Core is a set of “high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/ literacy” and outlines what a student should know, and be able to do, at the end of each grade. The standards were created to “ensure that


all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life”. Forty-two states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) have voluntarily adopted, and are committed to following, the Common Core. However, the introduction of the Common


Core tests to measure pupils’ performance against these academic standards, layered on top of existing state-run academic tests, college entrance tests, and Advanced Placement tests, has caused confusion and accusations of duplication of assessment. Even President Obama has been forced to


accept that the pressure of over-assessment in schools has become unbearable. “I hear from parents who, rightly,


worry about too much testing,” he said in a statement, “and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning, both for them and for the students. I want to fix that.”


K-12 education system What is the K-12 system, and how are pupils assessed along the way? Unlike other countries’ end-of-


school examination systems, such as the A Level in the UK, the French Baccalauréat, or the globally recognised International Baccalaureate Diploma, US students leave school with a collection of assessments that demonstrate their readiness for either college or work. The K-12 system stands for ‘from


kindergarten to 12th grade’. This equates roughly to a school starting age of around five through to Grade 12 at around the age of 18. The system is broken down into three stages: elementary school (Grades K–5), middle school (Grades 6–8) and high school (Grades 9–12). Every state has ultimate control over the


curriculum that is taught in its schools and the requirements that students must meet, although more schools within participating states will be fully adopting the Common Core. Testing takes place throughout the year to


ensure that pupils are on track. As mentioned earlier, however, with the layering of tests issued by mandates from Congress, the US Department of Education, and state and local governments, the system is becoming confusing and unwieldy. The Every Student Succeeds Act is an


attempt to bring back some element of control with the recommendation for having fewer tests, of higher quality. States are required to test students in reading and maths in Grades 3 to 8, and then once during their high-school years. Although some schools issue a high-


school diploma on satisfactory completion of Grade 12, this is not a standardised qualification and the requirements are set by individual states. At the end of high school, pupils are also provided with a Grade Point Average (GPA), which can help to determine their next step either into a work or college.


SATs and ACTs However, colleges and universities in the US are likely to require more information about prospective students than the GPA and a high-school diploma can offer. This is why many students opt to take either the SAT (formerly known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test) or the ACT (the American College Test), both of which are nationally recognised tests taken at high-school level. “Nearly all highly ranked US universities


require applicants to submit scores from one of the US admission tests – either the SAT


or the ACT,” says Jon Tabbert, head of US admissions at Dukes Education consultancy and Jon Tabbert Associates. “A strong test score is crucial to a


successful application, and because these exams differ greatly from those on traditional UK or international syllabi, they can be an extremely challenging element of the admissions process.” “We provide expert guidance and support


at every stage of preparation, whether families are choosing between the SAT and the ACT, preparing for a specific subject test, or customising a structured tuition plan to optimise a student’s scores. When we advise our clients, we suggest that they take a look at both the SAT and ACT, to see if one test better suits their own educational preparation.” The SAT is owned, published and


administered by the College Board, a not- for-profit education organisation in the United States. There have been recent major revisions to the SAT test, which, the board claims, have been driven by the need to assess more closely the subjects that students learn in high school and the ones they will learn at college, rather than the previously isolated concepts created for an individual set of assessments. Another big change brought in with the


redesigned SAT is the way in which students can prepare for the test. Enlisting the help of the Khan Academy, the hugely successful and free online learning platform for school-age children, the College Board has developed interactive practice tools to create a tailored online learning experience to help students prepare for the test. The College Board and Khan Academy


have seen more than 1.4 million unique users take up the Official SAT Practice online programme, which went live in 2015. “We are very much committed to tearing down the inequities of high-priced


relocateglobal.com | 31


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68