Interesting facts about American schools

School education in the United States differs in many ways from what we are accustomed to in our homeland.

Edition “Voice of America”Gathered interesting facts about American schools.

USA - a country without September 1

In the United States, there is no, and there has never been, an analogue to the holiday of the beginning of the school year, which in the post-Soviet countries celebrate 1 September. Dates of beginning and end of schooling in the United States are determined by the authorities of individual districts - parts of the states. There is no general school education program in the USA. True, national tests exist in the country.

The oldest school in the USA is older than the state itself.

The oldest public school in the United States was opened on 23 on April 1635, the Boston Latin School. In 1776, five people from 56 who signed the United States Declaration of Independence were graduates of this school.

Despite the fact that many of the founding fathers of the United States were in favor of universal and free primary education, the first schools, not only accessible to the rich, appeared in the United States only in the middle of the 19th century. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, most schoolchildren studied for 8 years. In the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, American teens began to receive 12-year education: it was recognized that it was better to give them the opportunity to spend an extra three years at the desk than to release into the labor market, which was going through very difficult times.

Some statistics

The parent of every fourth American schoolboy was born outside the United States, that is, almost 12 of millions of American schoolchildren speak not only English at home.

About 3,1 million teachers work in American schools: on average, there are 16 students per teacher. 0,4 has a million teachers in private schools - there are 12,5 students per teacher.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 98,3 thousands of schools operate in the United States. For the most part, these are publicly financed public schools and private schools, that is, schools that are paid for by parents (there are about 30,9 thousands).

It is not the school that is chosen that is closest to housing, but the housing that is closest to the school.

Most municipal schools accept pupils exclusively at the place of residence. The quality of education in these schools can be assessed on the basis of the long-term results of the nationwide tests passed by schoolchildren. In order for a child to go to a good school (i.e., to the place where the majority of pupils pass these exams well, therefore, the quality of education is obviously higher) parents, as a rule, are required to rent or buy housing next door. It is no coincidence that the level of the local school is one of the main pricing factors in the US residential real estate market.

Charter and Magnetic Schools

In addition to municipalities, there are two more categories in the USA: “charter” (charter schools) - there are about 5,7 thousand; and magnet schools are about 4 thousands. Charter schools, as a rule, arise on the basis of public ones. They receive a license (“charter”) for the right to provide educational services and independently manage resources, and in return they guarantee a higher quality of education. The initiative to create such schools may come from the teaching staff, parents, local authorities, higher educational institutions, commercial structures, etc. Specialized or “magnetic” schools provide an opportunity for a child to receive advanced education in certain areas of knowledge, such as mathematics or art . Any child living in an educational district can get into the “magnetic” school, but for entering it is necessary to pass rather complicated exams.

Financing

Private schools are funded by fees paid by parents of students. The cost of education is quite high and is quite comparable with the cost of education at the university. The costs of parents of students of private schools are not limited to this. For example, public schools organize the delivery of children to school and home by school buses (this is extremely important, since in the USA public transport is poorly developed, and parents cannot always take their children to school and pick them up); private schools offer either to pay extra for a similar service, or lodge schoolchildren in paid hostels. The programs of these schools are markedly different, and, as a rule, for the better from the programs of public schools.

Various US budgets spend about $ 619 billion on school maintenance (data for the 2014-2015 school year).

Homeschooling

In 2012, about 1,8 million young Americans studied at home. Home education assumes that the main subjects are taught by parents or teachers invited by them who must use local programs. Such students also regularly take all the required exams.

Approximately 6,6% of American students do not receive secondary education - they drop out of school (2012 data of the year). More than 66% of school graduates go to higher education institutions (girls do it more often than young men).

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