THE SOUTHWESTERN PROGRAM – PREPARATION FOR SUMMER

Understanding The US
Educational System

 Levels of schooling

 SAT versus ACT

 AP Tests

 Grading Scale

 Sports

 Usual timetable

 Math

MARIE SEDLAKOVA

FULL THROTTLE

TOP GEAR

2010

The American educational system1

Levels of schooling

• pre-school (nursery school) – ages 3-5

• kindergarten - ages 5-6

• elementary school - 1st grade thru 6th grade - ages 6-11

• middle school ("junior high school") 7th-9th grades - ages 12-15

• high school - 10th - 12th grades - ages 16-18

• college - 2 or 4 year post-secondary ("undergraduate") schooling - associate's degree

or bachelor's degree

Graduate School

• Master's Degree - one to two years of post-graduate specialized programs including

business, journalism, sciences, humanities, mathematics

• Professional Degree - post-graduate doctoral degree obtained through a highly

specialized course of study such as law (J.D.), medicine (M.D.), psychology (Ph.D.),
business administration (M.B.A.), and engineering (M.Eng.)

Types of elementary and secondary schools

• Public school - free, funded by public tax dollars

• Private school - more expensive and exclusive than a public school - offers smaller
classes and often more specialized programs

• Parochial school - a private religious school that incorporates religious training and/or
rituals into education (i.e. Catholic schools, Jewish yeshiva)

• Charter schools - small schools subsidized by public tax dollars but offering a much
more intimate learning environment that emphasizes quality

Level/ Grade Typical age (at end of the school year)

Preschool

Various optional programs, such as Head Under 6

1
http://www.vidaamericana.com/english/education.html, [5-17-2010]

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Start

Pre-Kindergarten 4–5

Kindergarten 5–6

Elementary School

1st Grade 6–7

2nd Grade 7–8

3rd Grade 8–9

4th Grade 9–10

5th Grade 10–11

Middle School

6th Grade 11–12

7th Grade 12–13

8th Grade 13–14

High school

9th Grade (Freshman) 14–15

10th Grade (Sophomore) 15–16

11th Grade (Junior) 16–17

12th Grade (Senior) 17–18

Post-secondary education

Tertiary education (College or University) Ages vary

Vocational education Ages vary

Graduate education, Adult education

SAT versus ACT

SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test)2

• a standardized test for college admissions in the United States

2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT, [5-17-2010]
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 • owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a non-profit organization
in the United States

• takes three hours and forty-five minutes and costs $45

• the exam consists of three parts:
1. Critical Reading
2. Mathematics
3. Writing
• the scores from each section can range from 200 to 800, so the best possible total score
is 2400; the average score for each section is roughly 500, so the average total score is
about 1500
• some test-preparation programs have been shown to help students improve test scores,
but others may have little effect

• used on the East and West coasts

ACT (American College Testing)3

• a college entrance exam, competitor to the SAT (the biggest rival)

• divided into four multiple choice subject tests

1. English
2. Mathematics
3. Reading
4. Science reasoning
+ the optional Writing section
• subject test scores range from 1 to 36

• the ACT assessment costs $32, the ACT assessment plus writing costs $47
• used in the Midwestern and Southern United States

AP Tests

AP (Advanced Placement)Tests4

• taken by high school students (during the 11th or 12th grade) who are planning
to attend colleges and universities

• each test lasts three hours

3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(test), [5-17-2010]
4
http://professorlamp.com/ed/TEA/AP.html, [5-30-2010]
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• AP tests are scored on a 5–4–3–2–1 numeric scale (5 being the best, 1 being the worst)

• many colleges and universities consider a score of 4 or 5 to be equivalent

to an introductory course in that subject and often allow a student with these scores to
 skip that course

 receive credits for it without having to take the course or pay for it.

Grading scale5

In schools in the United States children are continually assessed throughout the school year by
their teachers, and report cards are issued to parents at varying intervals. Generally the scores
for individual assignments and tests are recorded for each student in a grade book, along with
the maximum number of points for each assignment.
At any time, the total number of points for a student when divided by the total number of
possible points produces a percent grade, which can be translated to a letter grade.
Letter grades are often but not always used on report cards at the end of a marking period,
although the current grade may be available at other times (particularly when an electronic
grade book connected to an online service is in use). Although grading scales usually differ
from school to school, the most common grade scale is letter grades - "A" through "F"-
derived from a scale of 0–100 or a percentile.

Example Grading Scale

A B C D E, F, I, N, or U

100-90 89-80 79-70 69-60 Below 60 Percent

Sports

A major characteristic of American schools is the high priority given to sports, clubs and
activities by the community, the parents, the schools and the students themselves.
Extracurricular activities are educational activities not falling within the scope of the regular
curriculum but under the supervision of the school.
The most common sports are:

• soccer

• basketball

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States, [5-30-2010]
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 • athletic teams

• swimming

• golf

• baseball

• softball

• cross country

• wrestling

• cheerleaders
• marching bands

What are high school sports like in the USA? 6

Timetable

In the USA the whole school is typically run on a system of units, where each subject has the
same number of lessons per cycle and subjects are placed into 'lines'. This also makes
timetabling easy. Other schools use block scheduling.7
Block: This term is ambiguous, but in this article it refers to a set of lessons of different
courses that must be placed concurrently.
Student body: A set of students who are timetabled together, for example the 8A roll-call
group.
Band (or Cluster): A set of classes involving the same student body, which are therefore
horizontally linked, meaning they must be on separate periods

6
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AshbREzmlTV65j7Rqnx8oS8jzKIX;_ylv=3?
qid=20090403205732AAEN9Xz, [5-30-2010]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_timetable, [5-31-2010]
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Year group or Year level: A set of students at the same stage of their schooling, for example
Year 6.
Elective Line: A block of many classes of many subjects such that each student may choose
one subject from the line.

What subjects do you have in High School in the USA?8

What is a typical high school timetable like?9

Math

Elementary school: basic arithmetic and sometimes rudimentary algebra

Secondary school: algebra, geometry, algebra II, and/or precalculus/trigonometry

What you need to succeed on college entrance exams and in college math classes?10

• Algebra

• Geometry

• Algebra II

• Trigonometry, calculus, and/or statistics

8
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvFcB18aHbxxP7npzO43b1DFxQt.;_ylv=3
?qid=20081101124942AAS8aVC, [5-31-2010]
9
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090809100223AAt2owO, [5-31-2010]
10
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/high-school/33.html
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