OBAMA'S EXTREME SCHOOL MAKEOVER

Obama's Extreme School Makeover 

Kim Clark

President Obama aims to fix public schools by using incentives to encourage radical changes

Racial desegregation. Mainstreaming of the handicapped. No Child Left Behind. At least three times in the past 60 years, the federal government has radically transformed public schools, with varied results. Here comes another attempt.

President Obama has launched an education initiative called Race to the Top. He has set aside at least $4.3 billion out of the $787 billion stimulus package for controversial education reforms he argues are needed to raise American students' dismal scores on international tests and improve their chances of succeeding in the global economy. "The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens," Obama says.

The Obama administration is offering potentially huge grants to states and schools that implement rigorous reforms. For students, his proposals could mean longer school days and years, dedicated to learning information required to meet national standards for each grade level. All high school seniors, for example, could be expected to solve problems such as "If there are 8 x 10 12 hydrogen molecules in a volume of 4 x 10 4 cubic centimeters, what is the average number of hydrogen molecules per cubic centimeter?" (Answer: 2 x 10 8 hydrogen molecules per cubic centimeter.)

For school districts, the plan could mean the creation of databases that enable schools to track any particular student's test scores, attendance, and other information all the way from kindergarten through adulthood. That data would be used to shape everything from teachers' lesson plans to district or state labor force policies. Districts also would have to develop new ways to recruit and retain top teachers and principals, including tying pay to student performance.

Thousands of neighborhood schools already have adopted many of these sweeping changes, even though Obama hasn't yet distributed a penny of the Race to the Top grants. Recession-socked states such as California, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Louisiana are trying to improve their chances of winning some of the money by enacting laws permitting more charter schools and making teacher merit pay an option for school districts.

Also accelerating the reforms: the way Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan, intends to hand out the funds. He plans to divvy up that $4 billion among the few states that win a competition to prove they will change their schools in ways the administration deems most likely to succeed. The states that propose the least aggressive reforms won't get any money from this fund. An additional $650 million will be awarded to a few lucky school districts and nonprofits that can convince the administration they've also found better ways to teach.

On top of that, $350 million will fund states and programs that develop common educational goals for each grade, as well as better tests to determine whether kids are meeting those standards and how well teachers are teaching.

Duncan insists that he won't bow to political pressure to make sure every state gets at least a little of the extra money and that he will fund only projects that provide evidence they will help students. But skeptics abound. Already, states with poor reform records are lobbying for exemptions. And many critics note that some of the administration's pet strategies, including merit pay, aren't backed by research.

Even those strategies that have been shown to improve learning work only if executed well. Requiring students to spend more hours in a rotten school could hurt more than help, after all. Doing more than splashy, superficial reforms often requires expensive and politically unpopular actions--flunking students who don't pass standardized tests, firing principals and teachers whose students don't perform well, and funneling extra tax dollars to low-income schools that need more help--that are difficult even in good economic times. "Clearly, [Race to the Top] is going to have a huge impact," says Robert Slavin, director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University whose Success for All teaching technique is one of the few reforms proven to raise elementary students' test scores. Whether the president's plan will work is still unclear, Slavin says.

Obama says he wants to improve four educational practices: data usage, student goals, teacher recruitment, and the approach to turning around troubled schools. A close look at each, however, reveals dramatic possibilities for good or for trouble.

Measuring Student Performance. Collecting student data and requiring evidence of results seem simple enough. Why should schools waste time and money on reforms that haven't been shown to help? Many schools already are crunching data to improve lesson plans. Every week, teachers at Graham Road Elementary School in Northern Virginia meet to plot on computers students' answers to each question on standardized quizzes given to the different classes in each grade level. There's so much detailed information that kindergarten teachers sometimes have to tape together 7 feet of paper spreadsheets for each child. Then, they arrange for tutoring for any student falling behind and draft lessons for larger groups with common problems.

Principal Molly Bensinger-Lacy says the tedious data crunching helps kids. Although more than 80 percent of her school's 400 students come from low-income minority families who don't speak English at home, more than 90 percent of the students are reading and calculating at grade level.

But gathering student data can create new problems, too. Thousands of parents in Palm Beach County, Fla., are protesting as expensive and time-wasteful their schools' new every-three-week tests designed to create data points for teachers.

The Obama administration's plan for permanent records that track a person from childhood through adulthood also raises fears of Big Brother. A recent Fordham University study of existing student databases found that many states violate federal privacy laws. For example, Fordham found that many states' student files went far beyond grades and test scores to include Social Security numbers, pregnancies, police records, and family wealth indicators.

Creating National Standards. National standards also seem sensible enough, given that the average high school senior is likely to have moved at least twice. Certainly, letting states choose their own passing grades for the No Child Left Behind initiative turned into a race to the bottom as some states apparently made their requirements easier so more students would pass.

National standards also appear to be garnering widespread support. Led by the National Governors Association, a "Common Core" of 48 states (Alaska and Texas are the holdouts) is drafting goals that every grade will be expected to meet. Setting a high bar for high school graduation helped raise Massachusetts students from slightly above average to worldbeaters, says Paul Reville, the Massachusetts secretary of education. The Bay State's fourth graders recently scored second in the world on standardized science tests, topping Russia, Taiwan, and other powerhouses.

High standards aren't a slam-dunk, however. Critics have complained that the governors' proposed standards aren't tough enough, are too tough, or are altogether wrong and should instead focus on harder-to-test but more important skills, such as critical thinking.

Even believers like Reville worry that other states and schools won't do the expensive and politically unpopular work of enforcing high standards. By publishing embarrassing early results and refusing to graduate students who didn't pass state tests, Massachusetts "showed we meant it," Reville says. Massachusetts also poured billions of extra dollars into schools serving low-income and minority students to boost them up to the standards.

Teaching Teachers. There's no doubt that the teaching profession needs dramatic reform. Although a growing number of teacher training programs are trying to attract better applicants and provide more practical skills, "many, if not most" are doing a "mediocre job," says Secretary Duncan.

Working conditions also tend to drive away the ambitious and competent. The average annual teacher pay of $52,000 is about $5,000 less than the salary earned by the average holder of a bachelor's degree. With grading, class preparation, and meetings, teachers' workdays regularly exceed 11 hours. And a combination of strict union rules and poor management has guaranteed incompetent teachers lifetime jobs, leaving little incentive for teachers to improve to earn more money. No wonder 40 percent of teachers say they are disheartened, and 16 percent of teachers leave the profession every year.

All of this hurts the students who need the most help. Research shows that disadvantaged kids typically get the worst teachers--the least trained and the rejects from good schools.

The Obama administration wants to change that by encouraging alternative training programs such as Teach for America and improving the caliber of principals, who are responsible for selecting and training teachers. The administration also plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help districts link teacher compensation to student performance.

A glimpse of that future can be seen in the Tampa area. Teachers at Hillsborough County schools who earn certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (a nonprofit that has set higher hurdles for teacher's licenses than most states) and agree to teach in high-poverty schools get a bonus of $4,500. District officials want to attract nationally certified teachers because research has shown that their students tend to do better on standardized tests.

Teachers who earn top performance evaluations and work at schools where students' scores on annual tests show good gains against their previous year's scores can collect additional bonuses of up to 20 percent. Hillsborough County won teacher union approval of the merit pay bonuses in part because the money is tied to how much students learned in the year they spent with a particular teacher. Unions have fought more common merit pay programs that simply award bonuses to teachers whose students score well on tests, arguing that those systems unfairly penalize good teachers who work with lower-income students, who tend to score lower on standardized tests.

The bonuses helped lure dozens of nationally certified teachers into long-troubled schools. And many of those schools are turning around. Sulphur Springs Elementary in the Hillsborough district, for example, worked its way up from an F under Florida's school grading system to a B.

But Sharon Stewart, a Sulphur Springs teacher who gets the national certification bonus, believes most of the other merit bonuses hurt teachers and students. The extra money she received was like icing on a cake--nice, but not essential. More important, she says, was the way the training and self-analysis required for national certification made her a better teacher. Very few teachers in her school earned any of the district's other merit pay bonuses, which are awarded to the small percentage of teachers highly ranked by principal evaluations and student test scores. Stewart points out that many teachers contribute to each child's education. "If you have teachers competing with each other, you take away collaboration," she worries.

In fact, studies of teachers, who often choose the profession for idealistic reasons, show that pay alone isn't enough to raise the quality of teaching. Rob Meyer, director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says approaches like the Teacher Advancement Program, in which master teachers help others improve lessons, have "shown a lot of promise" in elementary schools (though not in high schools) in Chicago and in Louisiana. The only problem: Real improvements take money. "People tend to skimp on what it takes for genuine reforms, and people massively skimp on professional development," Meyer says.

Back at Sulphur Springs Elementary, the nationally certified teachers know that all too well. They used to get bonuses of up to $9,000 a year, but budget cuts swallowed up half.

Fixing Failing Schools. Perhaps the most ambitious goal of the Obama administration's reforms is turning around troubled schools. It's a gargantuan task. Thousands of "dropout factories" have already undergone several failed attempts at reform. But research on Duncan's strategies of closing failed schools and opening more charter schools (publicly funded but independently run) finds that, on average, they hurt students' achievement more often than they help.

Some studies, however, have identified a handful of turnaround and charter systems, such as Success for All, Green Dot, and the Knowledge Is Power Program, that seem to be consistently helping students. One secret of their success: They ruthlessly apply many different proven strategies, such as longer school days, high standards, and even school uniforms.

On a recent morning at the KIPP King high school in San Lorenzo, Calif., sophomore Pernell Rash Jr., 16, was in AP World History, learning about Matteo Ricci, the 16th-century Chinese-speaking Jesuit missionary who helped link Asia and Europe. Rash, whose struggles in ninth grade prompted him to consider leaving the school, is now on the honor roll.

KIPP schools aren't perfect. Many of them have high dropout and transfer rates. The KIPP King school is so small and new that it doesn't have many teams or athletic facilities. Rash has to travel to a gym for basketball practice. He doesn't have much free time. His eight-hour school days begin and end with a one-hour bus ride to his Oakland home. But Rash will stick it out. A cousin who left the KIPP school for a regular high school is done with classes at 2 every day and is bored, he says. Rash has his eye on a scholarship to Syracuse.

Meanwhile, KIPP managers are eyeing Race to the Top funding to expand their current nationwide network of 82 schools to at least 110 in the next two years. KIPP's success makes Rash's father wonder why other public schools, such as the Oakland, Calif., schools he attended, have been allowing generations to fail. If his schools had had such interesting classes, held him to such high standards, and provided lots of tutoring, he might have gone to college himself. "I think my life would have been tremendously different," he muses.

Fortunately for his son, some schools, at least, are changing for the better. The challenge now is to spread those real improvements beyond a few thousand lucky students.

CONTEST by the UN

http://www.un.by/news/belarus/16c.html

WINTER SCHOOL ON FEDERALISM AND GOVERNANCE 2013

http://www.eurac.edu/en/research/institutes/sfere/Projects/WinterschoolOnFederalismAndGovernance/2013/Application.html

Application deadline - October, 26th

THE "CRISIS" OF U.S. EDUCATION

The 'crisis' of U.S. education

By Walt Gardner

Published: Monday, January 14, 2008

A new one-hour documentary, "Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination," is being screened in states with presidential primaries this winter in the hope of making educational quality in America a marquee issue.

Ordinarily, the disinformation contained in the film could be written off as just another political strategy to mold public opinion. But the stakes are too high this time to let the matter rest.

"Two Million Minutes" focuses on the lives of six talented students, two each from the United States, India and China. It purports to show how the casual attitudes of the American students, compared with those of their overseas counterparts, pose a clear and present danger to America's economic future.

Both the Indian and Chinese students go far beyond their assigned school work to advance their future career plans, while the American students are unfocused and their parents disengaged.

But no evidence is presented to support the argument about the superiority of schools in India and China. The fact is that neither country has ever taken part in the tests of international competition that are routinely cited as proof of educational quality.

Nevertheless, the documentary has been enthusiastically embraced by "Ed in '08," an organization formed by Eli Broad and Bill Gates, two of the most important philanthropists in American public education, to push education high on the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.

The trouble with this alarmist view is that it's nothing new. To understand why, it's necessary to rewind to March 24, 1958, when Life magazine devoted its cover feature to an uncannily similar story. It showed side-by-side photos of two high school juniors - a dour Alexei Kutzkov in Moscow and a beaming Stephen Lapekas in Chicago. Their opposing demeanors were meant to exemplify their respective countries' contrasting state of education.

The Russian was shown involved in complicated physics experiments and reading aloud from Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie," while the American was photographed rehearsing for the school's musical play and walking his girlfriend home after school. The contrast was supposed to explain why the United States was headed for certain economic disaster. As simplistic as it was, it turned out to be amazingly successful in creating anxiety.

But it took the publication of "A Nation At Risk" in April 1983 to ratchet up the manufactured threat. The first page of the report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education engaged in scare tactics rarely seen in a government report when it proclaimed, "If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

The report went on to warn that America's prominence in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation is being threatened by competition throughout the world. It based its bleak view largely on scores on international standardized tests.

But this test score thesis failed to pass muster when Japan's economy tanked in 1990, while the U.S. economy in 1991 entered the longest period of economic prosperity in its history. If America's mediocre public schools were the culprit, then where did all the entrepreneurial talent come from during this era? And why did the vaunted Japanese educational system play an insignificant role in stemming the country's recession?

In fact, Japan's economy to this day is still lethargic and an increasing concern, according to a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal of Jan. 7. Yet its schools continue to be considered among the best in the world, even as fewer big companies now hire workers full-time upon graduation.

Singapore's Education Minister understood the difference between test scores and future success. In an interview last year in Newsweek, he said: "We both have meritocracies. America's is a talent meritocracy; ours is an exam meritocracy. There are some parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well - like creativity, a sense of adventure, ambition. Most of all, America has a culture of learning that challenges conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority."

Despite the disconnect between educational quality and economic health, the matter curiously draws little media attention. When criticisms of American schools are made, they are played up. But when rebuttals follow, they are played down.

In the final analysis, the only thing that has significantly changed in the gloomy scenario is the actors. In 1958, the villain was Russia. In 1990, it was Japan. In 2008, it is India and China.

That's why "Two Million Minutes" has to be viewed with a healthy skepticism. Its script is certainly intriguing, but it's little more than a modified rehash of what we've seen too often before. And like its predecessors, the latest version is over the top.

Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California.

AMERICANS GET AN "F" IN RELIGION

1. Look at the title of the article. What will the story be about?

2. Here are some words that you may need while reading:

Lade (laden) - нагружать

Swear in – принимать присягу

Woeful – страшный, жалкий

Blast – порицать, осуждать

Proselytize - обращать в свою веру

Americans Get an 'F' in Religion

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY 

Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married.

Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world religions — their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir — is dangerous, he says.

His new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn't, argues that everyone needs to grasp Bible basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of other faiths.

"More and more of our national and international questions are religiously inflected," he says, citing President Bush's speeches laden with biblical references and the furor when the first Muslim member of Congress chose to be sworn in with his right hand on Thomas Jefferson's Quran.

"If you think Sunni and Shia are the same because they're both Muslim, and you've been told Islam is about peace, you won't understand what's happening in Iraq. If you get into an argument about gay rights or capital punishment and someone claims to quote the Bible or the Quran, do you know it's so?

"If you want to be involved, you need to know what they're saying. We're doomed if we don't understand what motivates the beliefs and behaviors of the rest of the world”. 

Scholars and theologians who agree with him say Americans' woeful level of religious illiteracy damages more than democracy.

"You're going to make assumptions about people out of ignorance, and they're going to make assumptions about you," says Philip Goff of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

Goff cites a widely circulated claim on the Internet that the Quran foretold American intervention in the Middle East, based on a supposed passage "that simply isn't there. It's an entire argument for war based on religious ignorance."

"We're impoverished by ignorance," says the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches. "You can't draw on the resources of faith if you only have an emotional understanding, not a sense of the texts and teachings."

But if people don't know Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities destroyed for their sinful ways, Campbell blames Sunday schools that "trivialized religious education. If we want people to have serious knowledge, we have to get serious about teaching our own faith."

Prothero's solution is to require middle-schoolers to take a course in world religions and high schoolers to take one on the Bible. Biblical knowledge also should be melded into history and literature courses where relevant. He wants all college undergrads to take at least one course in religious studies.

But it's the controversial, though constitutional, push into schools that draws the most attention.

In theory, everyone favors children knowing more. The National Education Association handbook says religious instruction "in doctrines and practices belongs at home or religious institutions," while schools should teach world religions' history, heritage, diversity and influence.

Only 8% of public high schools offer an elective Bible course, according to a study in 2005 by the Bible Literacy Project, which promotes academic Bible study in public schools. The project is supported by Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, a Washington, D.C., non-profit that promotes free speech.

The study surveyed 1,000 high schoolers and found that just 36% know Ramadan is the Islamic holy month; 17% said it was the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Goff says schools are not wholly to blame for religious illiteracy. "There are simply more groups, more players. Students didn't know Ramadan any better in 1965, but now there are as many Muslims as Jews in America. It's more important to know who's who."

Also today, "there is more emphasis on religious experience as a mark of true religion and less emphasis on doctrine and knowledge of the faith."

Still, it's the widely misunderstood 1963 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that may have been the tipping point: It removed devotional Bible reading from the schools but spelled out that it should not have been removed from literature and history.

"The decision clearly states you can't be educated without it, but it scared schools so much they dropped it all," Goff says.

The First Amendment Center also published a guide to "The Bible and the Public Schools," which praised a ninth-grade world religions course in Modesto, Calif., and cited a study finding students were able to learn about other faiths without altering their own beliefs. But it also said the class may not be easily replicated and required knowledgeable, unbiased teachers.

Leland Ryken, an English professor at evangelical Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., tested a 2006 textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, underwritten by the Bible Literacy Project. Ryken favors adding classes in the Bible and literature and social studies. But he cautions, "Religious literacy and world religions are not the same as the Bible as literature. It's a much more loaded subject, and I really question if high school students can get much knowledge beyond a sense of the importance of religion."

The Bible and Its Influence has been blasted by conservative Christians such as the Rev. John Hagee, pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Hagee calls it "a masterful work of deception, distortion and outright falsehoods" planting "concepts in the minds of children which are contrary to biblical teaching."

Hagee prefers the Bible itself as a textbook for Bible classes, used with a curriculum created by a group of conservative evangelicals.

Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, looked last year at how Texas public school districts taught Bible classes. His two studies, sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network, a civil liberties group, found only 25 of more than 1,000 districts offered such a class."And 22 of them, including several using the Greensboro group's curriculum, were clearly over the line," teaching Christianity as the norm, and the Bible as inspired by God, says Chancey. One teacher even showed students a proselytizing Power Point titled, "God's road map for your life" that was clearly unconstitutional, he says.

Classes promoting pluralism and tolerance fail on the religious literacy front because they "reduce religion to morality," Prothero says, or they promote a call for universal compassion as if it were the only value that matters."We are not all on the same one path to the same one God," he says. "Religions aren't all saying the same thing. That's presumptuous and wrong. They start with different problems, solve the problems in different ways, and they have different goals."

Answer the questions:

1. What is the problem raised in the article?

2. What are the possible solutions to this problem? How can they be implemented into life?

3. Solving the problem of religious illiteracy is a very controversial issue. Why? What are the main points of the debate?

4. What’s your opinion? Should religion be taught in schools and universities? Why? 

Mark the statements as True or False:

1.The argument described in the article concerns teaching the basics of Christian beliefs in schools.

2. The majority of schools welcome the introduction of religious studies into their curricula.

3. Some teacher abuse the possibility of teaching  religion to children.

4. Religion should be introduced in schools to raise the position of Christianity among American children.

5. The main point of religious literacy is to develop critical thinking and understanding of world events. 

Match the words to make possible collocations:

To grasp Religiously Biblical Unbiased Religious Devotional To proselytize

References Bible basics Teacher  Inflected students Illiteracy Bible reading

ANOTHER INTERESTING OPPORTUNITY

Dear Youth Workers from Belarus!

Our friends from Loesje Armenia and Loesje Finland are URGENTLY looking for participants for the Training Course “Today I am neither man or woman but a magic fish” in Dilijan, Armenia which is gonna happen on 22th-28th of October, 2012!

The travel costs are about 300 euros, 70% will be reimbursed.

Please, read the description below & contact Anna, coordinator in Armenia, via a.hairapetian4@gmail.com if interested.

The theme of the training is gender equality among youth. The objectives of the training are to question prevailing gender norms that exist in our different backgrounds, to try new understandings,
link the question to other categories of discrimination and to find ways of spreading the adequate methods to reach gender equality according to our local contexts. We will deal also with the question
of norm around gender, but also other norms, which are closely linked with gender. These other norms are class, sexuality or ethnicity. All of these other categories change the conditions for a person, not only gender. Therefore, if we want freedom and peace for all, we need to also take these other categories of oppression in consideration when we study the question of gender inequality. In this matter, we will take a closer look at the term intersectionality”, a concept used more frequently by NGO's. We aim to do this through non-formal educational methods and discussions about the situations in our countries. We expect the participants to bring back new ideas and ways to combat
gender inequality to their organizations and to mainstream it in their daily work with youth.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE US

Higher Education in the USA

'The more you learn, the more you earn", said the pop singer Cyndi Lauper as she accepted her high school diploma -- at the age of 35! Although Cyndi made it without a high school degree, most people don't. In the USA today, about 75% of jobs require some education or technical training beyond high school. The lowest wage earners in the USA are those without high school degrees; college graduates out earn those without a college education; people with master's degrees outearn those with only a bachelor's: and the highest incomes of all are earned by people with advanced professional or academic degrees. These generalizations explain why the majority of young Americans go to college. However, despite the average, more diplomas don't always mean more money. Many skilled blue–collar workers, salespeople, business executives, and entrepreneurs outearn college professors and scientific researchers. And great athletes  and entertainers outearn everyone else!

But college education is not only preparation for a career; it is also (or should be) preparation for life. In addition to courses in their major field of study, most students have time to take elective courses. They may take classes that help to understand more about human nature, government, the arts, sciences, or whatever else may interest them.

Going to college, either full-time or part-time, is becoming the automatic next step after high school. Today, more than half of American high school graduates enroll in college. But recent high school graduates no longer dominate the college campuses. Today it is quite common for adults of all ages to come back to college either for career advancement or personal growth. 

American faith in the value of education is exemplified by the rising number of Americans who have at least a bachelor's degree. About 20% of Americans are college graduates. However, among younger adults and working people, the percentage is at least 25%, much higher than in most other major nations. In the USA, a college education is not viewed as a privilege reserved for the wealthy or the academically talented. Virtually everyone who wants to attend college can do so.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

American colleges and universities vary a great deal in size. Some colleges have student bodies of just a few hundred, while some state universities serve more than 100,000 students on several different campuses. At smaller schools, students generally get to know their classmates and professors better and are less likely to feel lonely and confused. Larger schools offer a greater selection of courses and more activities to attend and participate in. When selecting a college, the student must consider which type of environment best suits his or her needs.

There are two main categories of institutions of higher learning: public and private. All schools get money from tuition and from private contributors. However, public schools are supported primarily by the state they're located in. On the other hand, private schools do not receive state funding. As a result, tuition is generally lower at public schools, especially for permanent residents of that state.

Schools can also be grouped by the types of programs and degrees they offer. The three major groups are community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities. Community colleges offer only the first two years of undergraduate studies (the freshman and sophomore years). The number of these schools has grown very rapidly in the past 40 years. In l950, there were about 600 in the USA.  Today, there are about l,300, and they serve about five million students (about 55% of all college freshmen). Most community colleges are public schools, supported by local and/or state funds. They serve two general types of students: (a) those taking the first two years of college before transferring to a four-year school for their third and fourth (junior and senior) years; and (b) those enrolled in one- or two-year job training programs. Community colleges offer technical training in many areas of study, such as health services, office skills, computer science, drafting, police work, and automotive repair.

Newcomers to the USA often ask, "Exactly what is the difference between a college and a university?" Some assume that the difference is merely one of size, but it is much more than that. A university is bigger than a college because the scope of its programs is much greater. A university offers a wider range of undergraduate  programs and also offers graduate studies. Part of the responsibility of a university is to encourage its faculty and its graduate students to do research that will advance human knowledge. Colleges, on the other hand, are primarily undergraduate schools with no commitment to train students for research.

Many excellent colleges are liberal arts schools, which means that they offer studies in the humanities, languages, mathematics, social sciences, and sciences. Liberal arts colleges generally do not offer degrees in engineering, business, journalism, education, and many other specific vocations that a student can train for at a university. However, students at a liberal art colleges (like college students elsewhere) still major in a specific area of knowledge.

Some colleges specialize in training students for one particular occupation (as agricultural colleges and teacher's colleges do). Many specialized undergraduate institutions that are not called colleges also provide higher education in one specific occupation  -  for example, conservatories for music students, seminaries for students of religion, and fine arts schools for artists. For those wishing to prepare for military careers, the United States government maintains four special academies.

At the college level, the academic year is about nine months long (usually from September until early June or from late August until May). After completing four academic years with acceptable grades in an approved course of study, the student earns a bachelor's degree. Some students complete college in less than four years by attending summer sessions. At most colleges, the academic year is divided into either two or three terms, excluding the summer session. College grades, from highest to lowest, run A, B, C, D, and F. An F is a failing grade; if a student receives an F in a particular course, he or she  does not get credit for having taken the course. College students must maintain at least a low C average in order to remain in school.

GRADUATE EDUCATION

American universities offer three main categories of graduate degrees. In most fields of specialization, a master's degree can be earned by one or two academic years of study beyond the bachelor's degree. A Ph.D. degree (Doctor of Philosophy) usually takes at least three years beyond the master's. To earn a Ph.D. in almost any field, generally the student must pass oral and written examinations in his or her speciality, produce a long research paper which makes an original contribution to his or her field of study, and pass reading examinations in one or two foreign languages. There are also graduate professional degrees in medicine, dentistry, and law, among other fields.

In recent years, the graduate student population has become much more diversified than even before. It now includes more women, foreign students, minority group members, older students, and part-time students. Also, the variety of degree programs offered has expanded greatly. Today's graduate students can choose from about l,000 types of master's degrees and about 60 types of doctorates.

LIFE ON AN AMERICAN CAMPUS

A college community is an interesting and lively place, students become involved in many different activities - extracurricular, religious, social, and athletic. Among the extracurricular activities are college newspapers, musical organizations, dramatic clubs, and political groups. Many religious groups have their own meeting places, where services and social activities can be held. Most  colleges have a student union, where students can get together for lunch, study sessions, club meetings, and socializing.

At many schools, campus life revolves around fraternities (social and, in some cases, residential clubs for men) and sororities (similar clubs for women). These organizations exist on more than 500 campuses. The best known are national groups with chapters at schools throughout the country. Their names are Greek letters, such as Alpha Delta Phi.

Athletics  is an important part of life on most campuses. Most coeducational and men's schools belong to an athletic league.  The teams within the league play against each other, aiming for the league championship. Football is the college sport which arouses the most national interest.  Games, complete with student marching bands and entertainment, are major productions. Other sports - particularly basketball, swimming, and track -- are also pursued with enthusiasm. Some schools have competitive tennis, skiing, sailing, wrestling, soccer, baseball, and golf.

Is it fun to be a college student in the United States? For most students, the college years are exciting and rewarding, but they are certainly not easy or carefree. Just about all college students face the pressure of making important career decisions and some anxiety about examinations and grades. Many students have additional problems -- too little money, not enough time for sleep, and a feeling of loneliness because they're living far from home. Still, many Americans look back on their college years as the happiest time of their lives. When students live on campus in college dormitories, they make very close friendships. Sometimes a student is fortunate enough to find a member of the school's faculty that takes a personal interest in his or her academic career. Some students, when returning to their college campus in the fall, feel that they are coming back to their second home. Many graduates feel great loyalty to their former schools and, throughout their lives, they cheer for their school's athletic teams and donate money to help the institution expand and modernize. American graduates refer to the school they attended as their alma mater (a Latin expression meaning fostering mother). This expression indicates how much the college experience means to students, and how much they feel their school contributed to their lives.

FINANCING A COLLEGE EDUCATION IN THE USA

College costs very quite a bit, depending upon the  type of school attended. For example, at many of the more expensive private schools, annual costs (including tuition, room, board, books, travel to and from home, and other expenses) may exceed $20.000. Of course, public universities are much cheaper. At these schools, tuition is significantly higher for out-of state students than it is for those whose permanent residence is within that state. Tuition at community colleges averages about half the in-state cost of public, four-year colleges and universities.

For those that cannot   afford the cost of a college education, financial aid is the answer Students in the USA receive about $20 billion per year in financial aid. In recent years, nearly 75$ of students in postsecondary programs have been receiving some form of financial aid. There are three main types of financial aid: (a) scholarships (grants), which are gifts that students do not repay; (b) loans to students and/or their parents; and (c) student employment (work/study), a part-time job which the school gives the student for the academic year. Most financial aid is need-based; that is, only students who need the money receive it. Financial assistance to outstanding students who do not need the money (commonly called merit-based aid) is limited.

The funds for all of this aid come from three main sources - the federal government, state governments, and private contributors. Every American college and university has a financial aid office to help students find out what kind of aid they might be eligible for and to assist them in completing the complicated application forms. Aliens who are permanent residents in the USA are eligible for government assistance, but foreign students (1-20 visa students) are not.

Difficulties in making ends meet create serious problems for many students. Some -- especially those with responsibilities to help support a family -- try to work full-time while carrying a full academic course load. They forget to leave themselves time to eat, sleep, and simply live. These students soon discover that they are trying to handle too much, and that an exhausted person performs poorly both on the job and in the classroom. College counsellors can help students who need to work out a plan to feed the family and attend college at the same time.

LIFELONG LEARNING

 In the USA, the education of adults goes on in many different places for many different reasons.  At least 25 million adults (about l3% of the adult population) are enrolled in classes, nearly all as part-time students. Most of these classes are not for college credit but for knowledge that the students can use on the job, for job advancement, to pursue a hobby, or for personal growth. Programs commonly called adult education or continuing education  are operated by many high schools and community colleges. In recent years, private learning centers have also opened up, offering inexpensive classes for adults in a wide variety of skills and  activities. A typical catalogue might offer classes in how to cook a Chinese dinner, invest in the stock market, improve your spelling, make friends, or even give your partner a message. Many adults enjoy taking classes where they can learn something new and also meet people who share this new interest.

Many more classes are taken at the workplace. Hospitals, businesses, and museums, for example, offer courses to help employees improve job-related skills.   Some companies, rather than operate their own classes, will offer to pay the tuition if an employee goes back to school to learn a skill that the company needs. In the USA, where technology rapidly makes some skills obsolete and new ones essential, workers at all levels realize that life-long learning is necessary. Even professional people -- doctors, teachers, accountants, dentists, and engineers - continue to study to keep up with new techniques in their fields.

Education, whether it occurs on the college campus or elsewhere, is an important element in the life of an American adult. The American dream of becoming important in one's career and financially successful is most often achieved through education.

GUIDING IDEAS

Access to Education

The American educational system is based on the idea that as many people as possible should have access to as much education as possible. This fact alone distinguishes the U.S. system from most others, since in most others the objective is as much to screen people out as it is to keep them in. The US system has no standardised examinations whose results systematically prevent students from going on to higher levels of study, as the British and many other systems do. Through secondary school and sometimes in post-secondary institutions as well, the American system tries to accommodate students even if their academic aspirations and aptitudes are not high, even if they are physically (and in some cases mentally) handicapped, and even if their native language is not English. 

The idea that as many people as possible should have as much education as possible, is, of course, an outcome of the Americans' assumptions about equality among people. These assumptions do not mean that everyone has an equal opportunity to enter Harvard, Stanford, or other highly competitive post-secondary institutions. Admission to such institutions is generally restricted to the most academically able. The less able can usually matriculate in a post-secondary institution, but one of lower quality.

Well-rounded people

The American educational system seeks to turn out "well-rounded people". Such people might have specialised knowledge in some area, but they are all expected to have a general acquaintance with many disciplines. Having passed through a system that requires them to study some mathematics, some English, some humanities, and some social science (and perhaps a foreign language), they presumably have an array of interests and can understand information from many fields of study. Thus, specialisation in the American system comes later than it does in many other systems. Students are required to take courses that they themselves might not be interested in and that might not have any apparent relationship to their career aspirations.

Although not an "ideal", there is a final sentiment that must be taken into account as one tries to understand the American educational system. That sentiment is anti-intellectualism. Most Americans  are suspicious of theorising and "intellectualizing". They want to see practical results from time and money spent. Secondary school and university graduates are expected to be well-rounded to an extent, but not to the extent that they cannot do anything "useful". Americans are unimpressed by most learning that is done just for the sake of learning. They have no general reverence for university teachers who live in an "ivory tower" that is divorced from the real world.

SOCIAL FORCES AFFECTING AMERICAN EDUCATION

A few aspects of the social context in which American education operates are worth mentioning. The first has to do with the social status or degree of respect ascribed to people who are involved in education.

American teachers (that term usually applies to people who teach in kindergarten through grade 12, the final grade in secondary school) do not enjoy high status in the society. Respondents to a recent Gallup Poll placed teachers well below physicians, clergymen, and bankers in terms of their prestige or status in the community. Judges, lawyers, and public school principals were also rated above teachers. Funeral directors and local political office-holders were seen as having nearly as much prestige or status as teachers did. Teachers are not well paid. Their working conditions are usually less comfortable than those of workers in many other areas. They are not as well respected, as are people who actually "do" something rather than "just" teach.

Nor are college and university professors generally held in the high regard they are in many other countries. There are some exceptions -- mainly those who have made particularly noteworthy contributions to science (not the humanities, usually, because the humanities are not "practical") -- but professors are often viewed as people who are teaching because they are not capable of doing anything else.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

 From what has been said above, many of the American educational system's advantages and disadvantages become clear.

The system provides formal education for a relatively large portion of the population, but the quality of that education is not  as high as it might be if the system were more selective. (Most experts agree that people who earn Ph.D. degrees in the United States are as well prepared to work in their disciplines as are people who earn Ph.D.s in other systems. Below the Ph.D. level, though, many systems offer more depth in students' chosen disciplines than the American one does.

The system's decentralisation serves to insulate educational  institutions from national political entanglements and give citizens some voice in what happens in their local schools. Schools can modify their curricula to accommodate needs and conditions that pertain only to their own areas. On the other hand, the decentralization makes it relatively easy for an out-spoken and committed minority in a given community to embroll local schools in controversy. The decentralization also makes it possible for particular schools to maintain low standards if they wish or feel compelled to do so.

"Well-rounded" people, such as those the American system hopes to produce, stand a better chance of becoming "good citizens" (as the Americans use that term) since they have a general familiarity with many topics and can keep themselves  informed about matters of public policy. On the other hand, well-rounded people might not be as well equipped to begin working in specific occupations because they have not learned as much in school about specific areas of endeavor as have students whose systems permitted earlier and more intensive specialization.

The American educational system, like any other, is integrally related to the values and assumptions of the society that surrounds it. American ideas about equality, individualism, and freedom underlie the educational system. Whatever its advantages and disadvantages, the system will retain its current general characteristics as long as the values and assumptions that predominate in the surrounding society continue to hold away.     

Reading Comprehension Check

1. Why do many Americans want to receive college or university education?

2. What institutions provide post-school education in the USA?

3. What are some differences between a) a community college and a four-year college; b) a four-year college and a university?

4. What degrees are available at liberal arts colleges?

5. Do American public colleges and universities charge tuition?

6. What activities do American students often become involved in during their undergraduate years?

7. How do you understand the task of American higher education to produce "well-rounded" people?

ASSIGNMENTS

Go through the list of American educational terms. Be able to explain the notion they describe.

full time student/work

part-time student/education

to enroll in college

campus

to live on campus

community college

four-year college

liberal arts college (school)

the freshman (year)

a fresher  n

the sophomore (year)

the junior (year)

the senior (year)

graduate student

elective course

major n., v., adj.

minor n., adj.

academic year

failing/passing grade

student union

fraternity

sorority

chapter

dormitory

the fall/spring semester

alma mater

in-state student

out-of-state student

public/private college

scholarship

loan n

adult/continuing education 

matriculate v

credit n

2. Study the word and phase list you will need to discuss the text

beyond high school

to go to college

career/job advancement

personal growth

to exemplify

to offer graduate studies/degrees

to earn a degree

to get credit

to attend summer sessions

need-based financial aid

merit-based aid

to be eligible for (aid)

alien  n

to improve job-related skills

to keep up with new techniques in one's field

access to (ex. education)

to underlie the system

to hold sway

3. Complete the sentences given below by using the essential vocabulary.

a) The main subject in which an American student specializes is called his ... ;

b) a subsidiary subject that an American student is learning is his ... ;

c) the four years of studies at American universities have their traditional names.     

    They are ... ;

d) the academic year in the USA colleges consists of two forms (semesters) which 

    are called... ;

    e) subjects that are not compulsory for study are described by Americans as ...    

        courses;

4. Here are a few words to describe the British university life. Provide the terms that render similar notions in American English

honour's subject

subsidiary subject

optional course

hall of residence

5. Fill in the blanks with prepositions

In the USA today ... 75 per cent ... jobs require some education or training ... high school. 

Today more than half ... American high school graduates enroll ... college.

All schools get money ... tuition and ... private contributors.

Community colleges offer technical training ... many areas ... study.

At many schools campus life revolves ... fraternities and sororities. These organizations exist ... more than 500 campuses. The best known are national groups ... chapters ... schools … the country.

The less able can usually matriculate ... a post-secondary institution.

6.Translate into English

Учебный год в вузах США включает осенний и весенний семестры.

Двухгодичные колледжи обеспечивают обучение по программе первого и второго курсов. Затем многие студенты переводятся в четырехгодичный колледж, чтобы закончить третий и четвертый курсы.

В государственных колледжах плата за обучение ниже, чем в частных, особенно для жителей данного штата.

Во многих университетских городках есть клубы для студентов–мужчин, а также клубы студенток. Некоторые из них имеют филиалы в нескольких университетах.

Read the text given below and get ready to speak about the problems  that American college freshmen have to cope with.

COLLEGE IS NOT HIGH SCHOOL

A college is an "academic" world, and soon makes itself felt as such. The introductory period, when the freshman learns something about the physical location of dormitory, library and classrooms, may be short or prolonged, but when classes start he recognizes that he is faced with serious business. Scheduling alone makes far-reaching new demands on the freshman. Most classes in high school meet every day. In college, as much as a week may separate the sessions of a particular course. Assignments are increased proportionately, and the student finds himself with the problem of planning to master a much larger segment of the term's work before the next lecture or discussion can tell him how profitably he has spent his time. "Budgeting time was a terrific problem", writes a boy in a large university. "I used to be an awful procrastinator, and when I thought I had several days to prepare an assignment, the temptation to leave it till the last minute was almost overwhelming."

How do the freshmen behave when asked to face the complexities of a university library? One freshman girl gave her reaction: "This was the problem -- to be able to find sources of the necessary information, and also, from the many books and chapters, to be able to draw out important and pertinent data. My high school failed in that the assignments were too definite." This comment on the length and comprehensive quality of the college assignment is typical. How to listen to a lecture or how to organize and remember material from a discussion or a laboratory experiment also present problems. A major need felt by freshmen about term examination time is "that old problem, sleep."

(from "College Freshmen Speak Out" prepared by Agatha Townsend).

Render the article in English: 

Высшее образование в США представлено в основном тремя типами учебных заведений – университетами, четырехгодичными и двухгодичными колледжами. Число университетов сравнительно невелико: всего 4% от общего количества вузов. Однако в этих крупных научных и учебных центрах сконцентрировано около 50% студентов. 40% университетов – частные. Наиболее престижными университетами считаются Стэнфордский, Гарвардский, Йельский и Принстонский. 

Наиболее распространенный тип вуза в США (57% от общего числа) – четырехгодичный колледж.  В них обучается 14% студентов. Три четверти этих учебных заведений – частные.

Двухгодичные колледжи составляют 39% от общего количества вузов США, на их долю приходится 37% студентов. Такие колледжи бывают двух видов – переходные и тупиковые. Первые обеспечивают подготовку на уровне 1–го и 2–го курсов высшей  школы и дают возможность продолжить обучение в четырехгодичных колледжах или университетах, вторые – имеют профессиональную ориентацию и предназначены для подготовки специалистов среднего звена для “местных” нужд.

В условиях большого разнообразия учебных заведений, входящих в систему высшего образования, в США не существует единых требований приема (хотя некоторые исторически сложившиеся общие положения охватывают всю систему образования в национальном масштабе). По уровню требований, предъявляемых к абитуриентам, вузы США подразделяются на 6 групп.  В первую входят 20 наиболее престижных вузов, в последнюю – в основном двухгодичные колледжи. В вузы первой группы принимаются выпускники средней школы, имеющие высокие оценки в свидетельстве об ее окончании, то есть по сути вошедшие в число 10–20% лучших учеников класса.  В каждой нижестоящей группе вузов требования к абитуриентам соответственно ниже по сравнению с более “высокой” группой. Прием в двухгодичные колледжи – открытый, здесь требуется только свидетельство об окончании средней школы.

При поступлении в вуз абитуриент должен подать заявление, представить медицинскую справку, уплатить вступительный взнос. Большое внимание уделяется собеседованию, обращается внимание на участие в работе научно–технических кружков, общественных организаций, спортивных клубов и художественной самодеятельности.  В ряде случаев играют роль рекомендации учителей школы по профилирующим предметам.

Как правило, абитуриенты, подают заявления сразу в несколько учебных заведений (но не более 4–-5). Вступительных экзаменов в американских вузах нет. Однако предварительно абитуриенту часто приходится пройти все же своего рода экзамены в форме тестов, организованные специализированными организациями, например, по месту жительства. Результаты тестирования направляются в соответствующие вузы. Сдача тестов начинается уже в 11–м классе средней школы (в США –- двенадцатилетнее среднее образование).

Документы от абитуриентов принимаются с октября по март. Для устранения возможности зачисления одного и того же студента в несколько вузов одновременно, введен единый день зачисления –- 1 мая. (Таким образом, в американские вузы абитуриент может быть зачислен, будучи еще фактически учеником средней школы). Практикуется и так называемое раннее зачисление, когда наиболее способные ученики становятся студентами еще осенью –- в начале последнего, 12–го года обучения. (В этом случае они проходят как программу средней школы, так и программу первого года обучения в вузе).

В целом же прием студентов почти за полгода до начала занятий позволяет вузу оценить будущий контингент учащихся и соответственно подготовиться к его встрече. Занятия в высшей школе США начинаются в конце августа – сентябре.

(Аргументы и Факты)

9. Questions for Discussion

 l) Should higher education be competitive to produce intellectual elite or should it  give a chance to all who want to try it?

2) Where would you prefer to receive higher education in the USA? the U.K.? Belarus?  Why?