Does it offer a good education or is it just for people who can't afford a private school?
Primary & Secondary Education - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Some of the public schools are excellent (even better than some private). There are some families who could afford to send their children to private schools, but choose a public school because it offers a better education. Some public schools, however, are not so good. It really depends on where you live. Higher crime areas tend to have public schools that are suffering. . There are also some good and bad private schools too.
2 :
Public schools do offer a good education. It definitely isn't for people who can't afford private school anymore. Basically, in the U.S. you have 13 years of school. Kindergarten and then grades 1-12. Some parents elect to have their child attend preschool or prekindergarten when they're 3 or 4. Children generally enter Kindergarten when they're 5 or sometimes 6. This year the teacher assesses whether or not each child is ready to go onto real schooling which starts in grade 1. Elementary school is generally Kindergarten through grade 5. This is where you learn basic skills and basics in subjects. You learn handwriting, cursive, addtion, subtraction, multiplication, division, sometimes fractions. You have 1 teacher that teaches the primary subjects, but usually there are music teachers, gym teachers and art teachers that students usually go to once a week. Middle school is usually grade 6-8. This is basically preparation for high school. You have more than one teacher, one for each subject area. This is basically the transition period between elementary (basic) education and higher education. High school is usually from grades 9-12. During this time you learn all you really need to know to get by in life, although it is highly encouraged that students attend college. During high school students have the option of taking academic, college prep, honors or AP classes. Academic classes are basic classes for studenst that only plan to graduate from high school. College Prep classes are a little more writing intensive than academic and they are designed to prepare students for college. Honors and AP classes are harder, more challenging classes. Many regard them as college classes in high school. By taking these courses, you usually have a higher GPA. These courses are weighted to compensate students for the difficulty of them. Also, for AP classes you can receive college credit. You can elect to take the AP exam for a particular subject and if you receive a high enough grade, it counts as college credit. Another thing, Colleges would rather see a student receive a C or B in an honors or AP class then an A in academic or college prep. The public school system is regulated by the federal government, state government and then school districts. For example, the federal government imposed the No Child Left Behind Law, so the state government interpreted that law and decided what to do to enforce that law. The school districts must comply with the state. With this No Child Left Behind Law, states generally require all students in a certain grade level to take standardized tests to assess how well that school district and the individual schools are doing to make sure every child is learning or understanding. If a school has good scores on these standardized tests, they are rewarded by receiving more money from the state. Schools that don't have all of the students receiving passing grades on these tests are usually given a warning by the state. The schools that have the lowest scores and those that continue to have lower scores may be intervened by the states. These schools receive less money. Money is basically an initiative for schools. That's basically an overview of the public school system. Most public schools do offer a good education. If they don't, the state intervenes. The schools that usually do bad on the standardized tests are usually inner city schools. Students are not in a good environment....there is crime and the students would rather have street smarts than school smarts. However, these students are usually receiving a good education, they just don't care and don't try hard. I would say private schools are the equivalent to public schools that receive high scores on the standardized tests really. They aren't too different. There are some private schools that aren't great, just like there are some public schools that aren't great. Overall though, no matter where you go to school the U.S., you have an opportunity to receive a good education.
